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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 5922477" data-attributes="member: 18182">I don't entirely agree with you.  Giving monsters more personality, making them more well-rounded characters, isn't necessarily taking elements of the game from racist to non-racist.  There is overlap, but it isn't the same thing.Having creatures of supernatural evil, such as demons, devils . . . even orcs if they are "fluffed" right . . . isn't the same thing as embedded racism as in the origin story of the drow.  The drow being black-skinned because they are evil, or being evil because they are black-skinned, is embedded racism in the game.  An orc that is evil because it is not a natural creature, but rather a corruption of a natural creature created by a wizard or other evil supernatural force, as orcs are depicted in the Lord of the Rings films, isn't necessarily.  Now, if orcs are natural creatures and are just as inherently evil as the black-skinned drow, simply because they are savage orcs, that too can be seen as embedded racism.  Part of the problem is that D&D, and the surrounding fantasy literature, isn't consistent in how some fantasy creatures such as orcs are portrayed.  Heck, even truly supernaturally evil creatures aren't consistently portrayed.  I just read a Realms novel (Brimstone Angels) where one of the protagonists is a cambion who, while evil, is a very human evil.Also, even supernatural evils can be tainted with racism if you dig deep enough . . . many of the devils and demons of D&D lore are borrowed direct from real world mythology, and were often somebody's GOD before the Christian church made them into devils (not knocking Christians, it's just historical fact is all).  Granted, this happened so long ago there aren't many around to get all offended by that, but myth is rife with racism, as can be literature, and D&D pulls from that, of course.The best we can do, as fans, and also the game designers, is to be aware and to make changes when racist undertones to the game are uncovered, while trying to respect the game's lore itself.  Not an easy task, and I won't be criticizing WotC if they don't fix everything in the game I find racist (although, of course, they should! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />).  The cool thing about D&D, is that I can do that in my home games if it isn't taken care of for me.PS - Also, while certainly some D&D fans are all about more "murder weapons" to kill "HP bags", not all D&D fans are like that.  And I don't really have a problem with the "video game" (or "arcade game") approach, and I can't agree with your negative view and charged words.  It's pretty much saying those who disagree play badwrongfun D&D.</blockquote>

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