Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday June 20 2020, @09:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the orc-lives-matter dept.

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


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Lagg on Sunday June 21 2020, @09:00PM (1 child)

    by Lagg (105) on Sunday June 21 2020, @09:00PM (#1010794) Homepage Journal

    Firstly I love the talk of the deeper lore and world and a few posts in this thread were pretty fun to read especially when I see people's opinions on Tolkien's inspirations. He strikes me as someone that tried very hard to not model anything overtly on the real world when it made sense, and that's my assumption of his work always. But I find the ideas interesting. Same with the drizzt/D&D lore posts. Prior to this pointless antagonism what parts I did know of the basic LOTR world (one day I'm going to get fully into the silmarillion I swear) struck me as him just pulling things he finds interesting and flavorful to populate his universe and exercise his nerdy tendencies on - you know like authors and artist are wont to do. Like... You might as well say Frank Herbert is racist cause of the names and religions in Dune at this rate. I can kind of see why people think the haradrim and those other far-flung races of men are "bad" because they're the antagonists. But I mean... We established previously that the primordial embodiment of vicious willful self-destruction conquered them. Which might have been better than the alternative in the poo-sandwich they were in.

    Secondly, I have angerthas moria (except I overcorrected myself and used the erebor 's'/< rune after rechecking wikipedia + third party cheat sheets and confusing myself, but otherwise moria, and the s rune is basically interchangeable anyway) on my arms which was part of a project I've been wanting to get done since I was a kid. A few months ago I discovered this advisory on one of those ADL-affiliate sites that has a library full of pages upon pages of "hate symbols". Among them the Coors logo and "nordic runes". I didn't know wtf these were until I discovered that advisory. So you know, potential documentary-topic I could have running in the background promptly ruined. I guess other nordic stuff like Thor's blond-generic-hunk ass and very-nordic shit like the hammer aren't racist tho.

    I haven't had anyone in real life actually call my runes nordic, or say anything mean to me about it. Being latino and also having tengwar might be relevant. But it's now one of those things that are in the back of my mind now every time I look at them. Then all this... Bizarre shit about Tolkien's alleged racism started up. And I must say this is stupid and weird to me. He may have been a naive catholic in a lot of ways but this is the guy that told a nazi publisher off in one of the best examples of gentlemanly fuck-you letters of all time. I'm not even going to waste time with all this crap about orcs and dwarves because the logic at play with all this is deeply confusing. Trying to tackle it just does disservice to the man that for me is the epitome of the storytelling grandpa.

    So now all that stupid baggage is attached to stuff I found cool and grew up loving. I grew up in the southwest with plenty of stupid fucking rednecks, and though they did say some pretty stupid things the worst I ever saw related to D&D is the usual christian-satan stuff. Which made the games of Magic and D&D I've played be counted in spans of low single digits every year. But even then none of them were this dumb to cross wires in such a fashion. I don't even know what to call this besides crossed wires. Like someone else mentioned here I think this crap is some bizarre reflection of the satanic panic. Right down to knee-jerk fear of arcane runes and tabletop nerds & their DM books.

    I really don't even get the point with all 3 of these things I just mentioned, collectively or on their own. I can't even reckon any agenda it serves unless I start entertaining vast conspiracies that one look at real life will tell you no one - especially those in upper echelon "leadership" - have the competence to do. Or force of will. The satanic panic had some degree of identifiable agenda because it was rooted in Christian fervor and insanity, it fed into a feedback loop that they already were prone to. But this is allegedly in the name of progressiveness.

    So... What the fuck is the ecosystem going on here. Or are we just going to deteriorate to aimless insanity on all fronts. I mean I'm fine with it at this point but it'll be nice to have a definitive "On this day of MM/DD/2020, we finally went full retard" that I can carve into a headstone somewhere. In cirth. Then cry on it.

    I wish they were "Our enemies" as it were so I can then draw my axe stoically and roll initiative to take down the bitches on the other side of the door. But man that is just giving them too much credit and lending too much narrative to the world. They're scared children reacting to basic stimuli and trained responses. It keeps going until it starts cascading into nonsensical. How do you call scared children shitting themselves because they ran out of ideas for games to play with their toys "our enemies"? That's the depressing part about all this honestly. I hear the cascade is extending out into other nerd stuff too. My condolences to those affected. Use it as an opportunity to spur new dialog and art.

    --
    http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @09:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2020, @09:42PM (#1011254)

    I hear the cascade is extending out into other nerd stuff too.

    It's all over the place and has been going on for years. Anything related to entertainment is extremely susceptible. Just know that you're not alone. It's impossible to sneak in these changes anymore because the intrusion is well recognized and immediately called out.