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D&D Looks To Cut Down On Racial Differences Going Forward
Races and classes have been the central aspects of character creation since the beginning of Dungeons & Dragons – well, not quite the beginning, since Elf used to be a class in original D&D. However, based on a twitter thread by D&D's Jeremy Crawford, it looks like Wizards of the Coast will be moving toward less drastic racial mechanics, especially in regard to races traditionally considered "monster races."
Crawford pointed out the differences between the orcs found in Volo's Guide to Monsters and those found in the Exandria and Eberron settings, saying that the latter reflects the direction that the D&D team is headed in regard to monsters. The Exandria and Eberron orcs lack the -2 penalty to Intelligence and the required evil alignment. This reflects the fact that in these settings orcs are mostly considered another type of people – with all the varieties in personality and temperament that come with that – rather than fodder for player characters to fight.
[...] It is worth noting that this comes on the heels of a Twitter discussion on the racist history of orcs, initially spawned by a screenshot of the description of orcs in Volo's Guide to Monsters. Tolkien initially portrayed orcs as caricatures of Mongolians, and orcs have been racial stereotypes of other races over and over (see World of Warcraft or Bright). Dungeons & Dragons is not immune to this – even outside of the orc issue, races like the Vistani appear as Romani stereotypes.
Diversity and Dungeons & Dragons
Throughout the 50-year history of D&D, some of the peoples in the game—orcs and drow being two of the prime examples—have been characterized as monstrous and evil, using descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated. That's just not right, and it's not something we believe in. Despite our conscious efforts to the contrary, we have allowed some of those old descriptions to reappear in the game. We recognize that to live our values, we have to do an even better job in handling these issues. If we make mistakes, our priority is to make things right.
See also: Dungeons & Dragons Designers Clarify How Gnolls Differ From Other D&D Creatures
Related: Gender and Appearance Stereotypes Travel to World of Warcraft
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Sunday June 21 2020, @03:25AM
You're missing something. D&D is still played the same way. Yes, MMOs exist, but they're not D&D.
"The Dungeon Master created the world, and they did it according to templates. Meaning, they stuck to the theme of the world. Of course the orcs where evil. It went without question, that Mindflayers were epic level assholes. The greatest distinction was you weren't playing as NPCs, and you couldn't play as the orc."
Well, not with original boxed set you couldn't, that's true. But that was a totally different game too. You got experience points from accomplishing your missions, not from engaging in combat; which was extremely risky and usually resulted in permanent loss of your character.
It was also extremely limited and left a lot that the DM had to fill in. House rules and interpretations exploded, long before AD&D was released, and explicitly sanctioned many of these. And even without explicit sanction, the DM and the players can do whatever they want.
So your template may be the same as that of another campaign. Orcs don't always have to be evil, D&D orcs don't really resemble Tolkiens anyway. "Official" rules from decades ago allowed for half-orc and half-ogre PCs, and house rules would often go further if you had a good story. I had a half-ogre mage for awhile and she was just an awesome character, everyone loved her.
Well, everyone except the NPCs. Villagers with pitchforks got angry a few times, until she had an enormous burka made for adventuring, which mostly solved the problem.
"When you're moving around in this imaginary world, the only "people" that can be offended are at the table with you."
But nowadays people that don't play and haven't even got the books can just look them up online and find something to be offended about.
"With MMO's it has changed so much. Everybody can be everything or anything they want somewhere. Instead of the orc acting within its original parameters, it can be an actual player. You're not playing with imagination as much as you are socializing with other people in a virtual setting. It's less role playing, and more real world bullshit."
Again, MMOs aren't D&D. They very rarely seem to have any element of roleplay at all. That's why I don't play them, and I don't think their market and the market for D&D have much overlap. They're totally different games, from the ground up, despite any surface similarities.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?