D&D 5E (+)What Ubiquitous DnD Tropes Get It Totally Wrong?

[Charlaquin]

How about:

Drow being dark-skinned. A subterranean species would be pale-skinned.

They are pale-skinned in my world.

"Races" rather than "Species."

Races is definitely an inaccurate term for the various types of humanoid, but I’m not sure “species” is accurate either. In most D&D worlds, the various humanoids were directly created by their respective patron deities, rather than evolving from a common ancestor by way of natural and sexual selection. Additionally, some humanoids seem to be able to breed true with other humanoids, which would make them subgroups of the same species at most in a real-world taxonomic model. Personally, I call them “peoples.”

 

[Charlaquin]

Well, they are dark-skinned because they were cursed by a god.

Which is pretty gross, if you think about it.

 

[Tonguez]

Big well kept Sewers that people can walk around in

 

[Umbran]

Which is pretty gross, if you think about it.

I prefer (correctly or not) to think that it was completely thoughtless. Not great, but at least a bit less gross.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I prefer (correctly or not) to think that it was completely thoughtless. Not great, but at least a bit less gross.

Why not just let them be dark skinned because Llolth and her children happened to be that way, and they are either descended from her, or blessed by her, or whatever? A white god making the bad guy elves dark skinned is just...unavoidably gross.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Actually, I seem to recall Mr. Gygax saying that they (drow) got their coloring because they are the negative picture of a wood elf. Wood elf = Dark Hair, Light Skin. Drow = Light Hair, Dark Skin.

I don't think he was thinking anything other than that at the time. It wasn't an overt sorta thing. But then I've never been a fan of Drow so...

 

[Lanefan]

Trope got wrong: that with the magic and learning and information exchange generally available in a typical D&D setting, civilization in general hasn't advanced immensely from how those settings are usually portrayed.

Take something as simple as sailboats. The late-1800s tea clippers (e.g. Cutty Sark) are generally considered to be the peak evolution of the multi-masted sailing ship and thus of the Age of Sail, while the early 1800s is generally considered to be the era of peak evolution of the wooden-hulled sailing warship (e.g. Victory) before engines and iron got involved.

Most D&D settings and cultures are assumed to have existed way longer than it'd take for ships to evolve to these points, though warships would doubtless have evolved differently without cannons. So why is it that something like a clipper ship is always seen as a too-modern anachronism in a D&D game?

More importantly, why would any intelligent seafaring culture use anything else except the best, provided they had the materials to build it? Put another way, isn't it logical to expect that, absent any hindrances, things would tend to rise toward the greatest common denominator?

These same principles could be applied to almost any aspect of pre-electric or even pre-industrial culture and science. Papermaking. Bookbinding. Art. Most of the sciences. Astronomy. Paper money. Agriculture. Etc. almost ad infinitum.

 

[Shiroiken]

Books are rather common in the Forgotten Realms, Eberron I'm not to sure about. I don't think its too unreasonable to think that wizards, priests and monks would create and collect books considering how long the history of the setting is. I always likened Candelkeep to the Library of Alexandria.

As I said, I think that books and literacy in the Realms are quite common (and Candlekeep being the Library of Alexandria is a great connection!), as Ed did a really good job of defining out his setting, including the printing press. However, I think a lot of D&D tropes (especially literacy) draw too much from the Renaissance than from the Medieval Period most associate with D&D.

 

[Lanefan]

As I said, I think that books and literacy in the Realms are quite common (and Candlekeep being the Library of Alexandria is a great connection!), as Ed did a really good job of defining out his setting, including the printing press. However, I think a lot of D&D tropes (especially literacy) draw too much from the Renaissance than from the Medieval Period most associate with D&D.

Even in the Renaissance literacy among the common folk was infrequent.

That said, see my previous post re advancing civilizations: the Renaissance or even later should in many ways be the baseline, rathern than Medieval.

The one thing that might get in the way regarding widespread literacy is whether one sees the printing press as being too high-tech for one's setting, as I do.

 

[Charlaquin]

I prefer (correctly or not) to think that it was completely thoughtless. Not great, but at least a bit less gross.

Oh, I’m sure it was. I would be very surprised to learn it was done out of active malice, rather than simple thoughtlessness. Still has icky implications I would rather just sidestep, so my Drow are pale.