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QuoteRacism in Dungeons and Dragon

Because of current events, the topic of racism is all I have been thinking about lately. D&D is my favourite pastime and something I love to debate and discuss and play. I have no qualifications to lean on, I am not a person of colour, if this post makes you uncomfortable I encourage you to sit in the feeling for a moment. This post does not say you are a racist for playing Dungeons and Dragons, this post does not say you have committed a moral sin by enjoying D&D. This post is about some of the uncomfortable history, tropes, and conventions of D&D and how it relates to racism.

Influence

Gary Gygax and the other creators of D&D were influenced by pulp fantasy and science fiction of Lovecraft, Howard and Weird Tales. The xenophobia and racism in those stories is well documented and obvious. We can see that influence in the way D&D encourages the dichotomy between civilization and wilderness. Between savage races and civilized races. If you were a POC (person of colour) at the gaming table, would any of these tropes remind you of other stories throughout history? Would it make you feel uncomfortable?

Conventions and Tropes

Think of how we describe our characters and what we say and don't say. We usually don't say, "I am a white elf wearing leather armour." Characters are often assumed to be white, a black npc or character has to explicitly call out their skin colour. The setting is assumed to be medieval western Europe, and cultures influenced by Asian or African cultures come from far away, thy are exotic and different and need to justify why they have made the long trek to the starting point of the campaign. Of course, there are always exception to this, but the majority of the official content makes this assumption.

The uncomfortable use of the word race.

The second thing you do in D&D is pick you race. In D&D "race" means a very different thing than it does in the real world. In D&D, "race" describes a biological, genetically distinct species. In real life we use race to describe different cultures of people. There is ample evidence of white culture manufacturing biological differences to justify slavery, apartheid, and discrimination. We really should say in D&D to pick your species, but the convention has remained.

When you talk about "Race" in D&D remember that that it can be a loaded word. In the monster manual, the Orc race is described as "savage humanoids with stooped postures, piggish faces, and prominent teeth that resemble tusks." In the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien describes the race of men of Far Harad as "black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues." The descriptions and language we use can do real harm, and it can prevent people from feeling included, wanted and welcomed at the table.

There is more that could be said, but I'm not an expert and don't want to speak for others that have felt discrimination at the D&D table. The party I play with are all white and so there is no one to call us out for our behaviour unless we do it ourselves. I know as the DM I have said things that would cause eye-rolling at best and pain and hurt at worst; never because I meant it, but because of my ignorance and privilege. For me dungeons and dragons is an escape from the pain and horrors of the real world, I would want it to be that for everyone.

So much flagellation for something that makes little sense.

QuoteRacism in Dungeons and Dragon

Because of current events, the topic of racism is all I have been thinking about lately. D&D is my favourite pastime and something I love to debate and discuss and play. I have no qualifications to lean on, I am not a person of colour, if this post makes you uncomfortable I encourage you to sit in the feeling for a moment. This post does not say you are a racist for playing Dungeons and Dragons, this post does not say you have committed a moral sin by enjoying D&D. This post is about some of the uncomfortable history, tropes, and conventions of D&D and how it relates to racism.

Well, it's awful nice of them to give us an indulgence for enjoying a game of D&D, isn't it? How generous of them. They're already starting off on the wrong foot here.

QuoteInfluence

Gary Gygax and the other creators of D&D were influenced by pulp fantasy and science fiction of Lovecraft, Howard and Weird Tales. The xenophobia and racism in those stories is well documented and obvious. We can see that influence in the way D&D encourages the dichotomy between civilization and wilderness. Between savage races and civilized races. If you were a POC (person of colour) at the gaming table, would any of these tropes remind you of other stories throughout history? Would it make you feel uncomfortable?

Classy, attacking dead men who can't fight back. And while there was fantastic racism in the Conan series, I'd hardly say it was close to 'modern' racism. Lovecraft was more overtly racist, but there's issues with picking on him since his behavior may have been the result of mental illness.

QuoteConventions and Tropes

Think of how we describe our characters and what we say and don't say. We usually don't say, "I am a white elf wearing leather armour." Characters are often assumed to be white, a black npc or character has to explicitly call out their skin colour. The setting is assumed to be medieval western Europe, and cultures influenced by Asian or African cultures come from far away, thy are exotic and different and need to justify why they have made the long trek to the starting point of the campaign. Of course, there are always exception to this, but the majority of the official content makes this assumption.

Is this because of racism or because most D&D games start in a pseudo-Western Europe setting? I bet the writer was one of those guys that bitched about how there weren't any blackies in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Dork.

That being said, if you're describing your character you should describe the skin color, as it helps flesh out characters. Are you a pasty-faced fellow who spent all day indoors with his books, or are you heavily tanned from working in the herbal garden of your arcane instructor? Maybe you're dark skinned from the blood of Osirion in your veins, with red hair, suggesting a link to the royal line (if distant)?

QuoteThe uncomfortable use of the word race.

The second thing you do in D&D is pick you race. In D&D "race" means a very different thing than it does in the real world. In D&D, "race" describes a biological, genetically distinct species. In real life we use race to describe different cultures of people. There is ample evidence of white culture manufacturing biological differences to justify slavery, apartheid, and discrimination. We really should say in D&D to pick your species, but the convention has remained.

When you talk about "Race" in D&D remember that that it can be a loaded word. In the monster manual, the Orc race is described as "savage humanoids with stooped postures, piggish faces, and prominent teeth that resemble tusks." In the Lord of the Rings, Tolkien describes the race of men of Far Harad as "black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues." The descriptions and language we use can do real harm, and it can prevent people from feeling included, wanted and welcomed at the table.

Whaaaaaat. I can't even think of any situation where someone objected to the term 'race'. Although this explains PF2's use of 'ancestry'.

This is retarded. I'm gonna go play some Savage Worlds now. Thnxbye.

Reddit...might as well just say Fuckwit.

Here's my honest opinion: WHO GIVES A FUCK

YAWN!  Is it last week again?  With COVID - 19 and 'racism' in D&D it's hard to tell these days.

Just more white middle class guilt...

Orcs, elves, dwarves, and all that shit  will be classed as race in my games. They have nothing to do with reality. It's a game FFS people.

Quote from: Ghostmaker;1133254Whaaaaaat. I can't even think of any situation where someone objected to the term 'race'. Although this explains PF2's use of 'ancestry'.

It has always bugged me a little, just for being the wrong word for what it described. But 'species' doesn't feel right for most fantasy games either, too modern scientific.
'people' or 'faction' sit a bit better with me.

"I'm not an expert. I'm just a guilty middle class white guy that plays only with other guilty middle class white guys projecting my ideological nonsense onto people, but of "color" (unlike those default, normal people who have no color), or POC (you know, like that BLACK thing people beat around in hockey)."

^That guy summarized.

Gotta love people who always feel the need to specify that a certain group of people they love to speak in behalf of specifically have "color" while complaining about how racist is that you supposedly only specify your character's color when they're not "white" (which is bullshit, cuz I always specify whether my "white" characters are pale, rosy skinned, deeply tanned, etc.).

On second thought let us not go to Reddit, for like TBP & Camelot, tis but a silly place...

Let me go check my old D&D books, to make sure they haven't been "whitewashed" yet....

Nope, all is well.

Just another white middle-class guy who hopes by flagellating himself he'll get hundreds/thousands of updoots and a dopamine hit. Nothing more, nothing less, but at least it's at 0 Updoots.

The way I internally understand "race" comes more from fantasy games then the real world. So in my head humans are all the same race with trivial differences and actual different races are things like elves and dwarves, sapient creatures with drastically different biology and probably made by different gods.

Things like D&D can redefine what different "races" are for people and chip away at racism in the real world by just being popular and redefining the word. I do not think that is a bad thing.

On the flip-side, calling races things like Ancestry or culture imply that actual racial differences are equivalent to the differences between Elves, Orcs, and Humans which is racist as all hell.

Such a tired retread of past manifestos.  Some people just seen determined to have their little moment of epiphany, despite how many search returns this topic would have provided them.

It wasn't an issue in RPG systems before people started making it one.  I cannot for the life of me remember a time that anyone was turned away from a table, other than a reputation as a sh*t disturber.
 Until people gave a reason not to be at the table, all were welcome as the hobby was heavy on the outcast and nerd factor so we were happy to have new players.

People reading way, way too much into things and deriving some pretty outlandish interpretations of RPG written work, just so they can shoehorn it into their ideology.

Falling over themselves to apologize on behalf of everyone for imagined affronts is just silly and frankly embarrassing.  Really wish people wouldn't keep creating these hills to die on as it's messing up the landscape of an open playing field for all:  as it always was.

Edit:  I also feel that many have not really read Gygax's work otherwise they would have seen that he wrote very much in support of welcoming all to the hobby.  People just like to cherrypick their thing and go wild with it.

See signature.

I love how in the RPGnet version of this post they slander me as a "quasi-white supremacist" and in the same page bemoan the fact that "wizards has never hired Latinos" (they misspell it the anglicized "latinx", of course), not recognizing that I was a Latino hire.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1133320I love how in the RPGnet version of this post they slander me as a "quasi-white supremacist" and in the same page bemoan the fact that "wizards has never hired Latinos" (they misspell it the anglicized "latinx", of course), not recognizing that I was a Latino hire.

Unless you wear a sombrero and pick watermelons, you don't count as a REAL latino!