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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 8024540" data-attributes="member: 7023840">Well, I don't agree with that for one major reason.Science Fiction and Fantasy are genres that have define tropes. Within them is the concept of different tropes, notably, that there are other races/species/lifeforms/creatures that are defined both in terms of humanity, and also by exaggerated aspects of humanity. This is easiest when you think of SciFi; canonically, you have the generic Star Trek Humanoid; an alien that looks remarkably similar to us (with maybe some more stuff on their forehead), living on a single planet that has a monolithic culture, and is defined by some traits that are an exaggeration of a human trait or two. That's pretty much the same thing you have with all the base fantasy humanoids. They can be mostly of one alignment, with some exaggerated traits, and they help define us tell our stories of what it means to be human by being exaggerations or caricatures of certain aspects of humanity. So what did Drow bring? An unknowable, evil, counterpart to the typical elves; an implacable, violent, enemy to shock and terrorize the PCs. A subversion of everything that most players were comfortable with (tra la la good elves in the forest).Of course, when you think about this, or at least when I do, some of the issues with both Fantasy and even Sci Fi becomes apparent; one issue with racism is that it often employs stereotypes, exaggerations, and caricatures, and presents a diverse group as a monolithic whole (an "other."). So it can become easy to see how the use of a SciFi/Fantasy trope might quickly delve into a raical/racist trope.</blockquote>

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