D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Lineages & New Race/Culture Distinction

The latest Unearthed Arcana contains the Dhampir, Reborn, and Hexblood races. The Dhampir is a half-vampire; the Hexblood is a character which has made a pact with a hag; and the Reborn is somebody brought back to life.

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Perhaps the bigger news is this declaration on how race is to be handled in future D&D books as it joins other games by stating that:

"...the race options in this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical realities of being a player character who’s a member of a particular lineage. Such traits include things like darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic shared by a lineage."

 

[Scribe]

This was of course not Tolkien's intention. his orcs were made not born and never really allowed a culture by their creators. However later creators, including D&D retrofitted pulp adventure tropes including the idea of 'tribal subhumans' and 'savage raiders' onto them, creating the problem we have today of orcs being thinly veiled othering that you get to racism to death without guilt.

No, I'm sorry, its going to take way more than that to get me to accept this argument. There is nothing 'thinly veiled' as nothing is being alluded to at all.

We suddenly cannot have a species that is different culturally? Even having one faction or race see another as uncivilized is unacceptable? A culture of raiders is simply not done, its not proper?

Huge nope on that from me.

 

[Dire Bare]

Heh, trying to argue that Burroughs's John Carter of Barsoom stories aren't built on racist tropes . . . . naïve at best. I love the Barsoom stories, but they don't hold up well regarding realistic and anti-racist portrayals of different peoples. At all.

What should we do about it? Not read them? Should publishers put a warning label on them? What if we want to adapt them into movie or role-playing game? We have the same issues we have with D&D.

I would prefer than any modern reprints of the Barsoom stories open with a discussion of these stories, how they are important and influential sci-fi stories, but also seriously flawed and built with the racist tropes popular at the time. Doesn't make E.R. Burroughs a bad person, or the reader a bad person for enjoying the stories. But not something we should ignore or perpetuate either.

In a new adaptation, I would try to do the same thing many of us are trying to do with D&D . . . . adapt the source material to mitigate, or even remove if possible, the racist tropes without also completely destroying the stories. Is that even possible? It's not easy, for sure. But worth trying.

The Disney movie "John Carter" didn't do well at the box office, but was a decent adaptation of the stories. It mostly side-stepped the racial issues rather than change or confront them, which disappointed me. Lost opportunity. I picked up the Barsoom RPG by Modiphius, but haven't had the chance to really dig into it yet. Jury's out on this one for me.

I would love to see a Barsoon adaptation that reimagined John Carter and the various Martian peoples he meets and jettison the racial stereotyping. I think it could be done, and even explore racial issues through fiction not unlike Star Trek attempts to do.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We have to rememer for that time some stereotipes from old fiction hadn't got yet the tag of "politically incorrect" in the same way nobody worries too much about the Red Paladins from Netflix's "Cursed", the church from "the dark matter", Gilean republic from "the tale of the maid" or the reverend Striker from X-Men comics "God loves, mane kills". Maybe these last titles in a future will need a disclamer like the one for "Gone with the Wind". Today lots of old far-west movies with redskins native Northamericans as antagonists wouldn't be wellcome by the current audences.

Today Disney's action-live movie "Our Dinosaur is missing" would be politically incorrect. I watched it when I was a kid, I enjoyed it, and I think I am a person who respect a lot Chinese culture, but not all Chineses (Zhao Gao was a b.... and Hong Xiquang was crazy as a goat).

I trust nobody who tries to fix all with new rules and laws because he doesn't trust the free citizen doing the right if you explain the reasons. If you only forbid then the sin is only hidden, but if you teach the true ethical values as the respect of the human dignity then the new generations will do the right even when they are forced to the opposite, and later this wil teach their own children those moral values.

Being pollitically correct and reporting hate and intolerance is uselles if you don't defend the respect of the human dignity, because you are only replacing a poison with other. Do you remember in the movie saga "the planet of the apes" when in the past these were the slaves and the humans the oppresers? Or in Marvel comics "House of M" where the mutants weren't the pursued but the rulers.

 

[ART!]

That said, I'm guessing that there are many, many other cultures still getting the short of the stick who feel the same way about this language as the african american community does. And native americans reading this? Yeah, we used the same language to describe them.

Semi-related, but I heard or read something a few years back that really burned into my mental retina: all Native Americans live in a post-apocalyptic world.

Anyway, it's important to recognize that not all racism is active or conscious. Try as I might, I'm sure I'm still guilty of stuff no one has pointed out yet.

 

[Vaalingrade]

We suddenly cannot have a species that is different culturally? Even having one faction or race see another as uncivilized is unacceptable? A culture of raiders is simply not done, its not proper?

Dude. Listen to yourself.

It's not that they are different culturally, it's that they ae cultural analogs to tribespeople. Specifically, those made up as an excuse to murder them and take their stuff. Orcs are savage tribals who cannot be reasoned with except by the point of the sword--which is exactly what colonizers said about the natives of the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, and even modern day in the Middle East only they say 'nuke' instead of 'sword'.

That is the problem. They represent and give legitimacy to some of the most monstrous acts in human history.

Maybe that doesn't resonate with you, in which case, fine. But some of us have that as part of our history and heritage. Some of us have that as part of our personal history. Part of us have that as our today.

 

[Scribe]

It's not that they are different culturally, it's that they ae cultural analogs to tribespeople. Specifically, those made up as an excuse to murder them and take their stuff. Orcs are savage tribals who cannot be reasoned with except by the point of the sword--which is exactly what colonizers said about the natives of the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, and even modern day in the Middle East only they say 'nuke' instead of 'sword'.

No they are not.

I'm Canadian. I grew up beside First Nation reserves. I grew up learning about First Nation's cultures. We shared classes.

You are taking the worst possible view, and saying thats the view still held, and that its somehow Orcs = Natives.

Its just flat out wrong.

 

[Vaalingrade]

You know what?

Good for you.

 

[Remathilis]

Dude. Listen to yourself.

It's not that they are different culturally, it's that they ae cultural analogs to tribespeople. Specifically, those made up as an excuse to murder them and take their stuff. Orcs are savage tribals who cannot be reasoned with except by the point of the sword--which is exactly what colonizers said about the natives of the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, and even modern day in the Middle East only they say 'nuke' instead of 'sword'.

That is the problem. They represent and give legitimacy to some of the most monstrous acts in human history.

Maybe that doesn't resonate with you, in which case, fine. But some of us have that as part of our history and heritage. Some of us have that as part of our personal history. Part of us have that as our today.

It might be worth a moment to consider that as an RPG, the very essence of the game is to kill things and take thier stuff rather than negotiate peace treatise and cultural exchange with them. Maybe the whole premise of the game is inherently flawed and should be jettisoned?

 

[Scribe]

It might be worth a moment to consider that as an RPG, the very essence of the game is to kill things and take thier stuff rather than negotiate peace treatise and cultural exchange with them. Maybe the whole premise of the game is inherently flawed and should be jettisoned?

Exactly.

So either RPG's, and Fantasy in general, is fundamentally flawed as a concept, or we accept that these are part's of the narrative that makes the world (fantasy world) what it is.

I dont know about you guys, but I dont step out my door thinking 'is there a band of orcs about to jump me if I go for a hike in the forest.'

Because you know, Orcs are not real.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Because you know, Orcs are not real.

Yeah, so you're clearly doing this on purpose.

Ugh.