Thread by @ArcanistPress

A note on #racism in #DnD:

#Race in #DnD5e is essentialist. That’s what’s wrong with it. That means it ascribes things like ability, alignment, language, & skills to race, when those are clearly cultural/learned.

CHANGING THE NAME TO “SPECIES” DOESN’T FIX IT.

1/?

Now is biological essentialism always bad? No! If you play Pugmire, your PC just is a doggie by birth and that’s the point.

Indeed, it’s not by itself racist or bad to play D&D as written. You aren’t a bad person and those who created it aren’t either. But!!

2/?

But the problem is that racial essentialism UNDERLIES RACISM IN THE REAL WORLD. And lots of folks who have experienced real racism recognize that and it makes the game no fun for them.

Real world racists ascribe goodness or evil, innate smarts or violence, to whole races. 3/?

So why should you rethink race in #DnD? Because leaving it as is reminds a lot of us of real world racism and makes it hard to enjoy the game. It’s that simple.

Including racial essentialism in a game is a bit like including sexual violence as a core character mechanic. 4/?

Including essentialism has the effect of ruining some of our fun because it reproduces a real world system of oppression & violence. You know how some white folks scream “Get politics out of my game”? Yeah, maybe we don’t want real world stuff LIKE RACISM in our game EITHER. 5/?

And forcing people who have to deal with that crap daily to have to live with it in their fantasy escapes is not cool.

So I prefer not to reproduce real world racism and real world racist ideology (essentialism) in my games. It isn’t fun for me or many others.

6/7

Am I saying racism should never appear in games? NO that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying it shouldn’t be in THE CORE RULES. Let people OPT IN to that. Don’t force them to have to opt out.

If your table wants to explore racism or use the core rules as written, go ahead. 7/8

But GMs ought to check with their players before dropping it on them. Because some of us play games in part to escape that, not revisit it. Same goes for any other real world stuff. Keep politics out of games? Ok if we can include racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism...8/8

And that’s why I created Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e. So folks who don’t want to deal with that in their games don’t have to. If that doesn’t describe you, fine; then maybe you’ll like playing the characters it makes possible just because they’re cooler!

Yikes by “Ok if we can include racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism...” I mean:

“Ok if we can include these prejudices in the list of ‘political’ things we are keeping out of our game.”

That’s the kind of political content I want to exclude from my games!

Since a kind soul asked, here's a link to the product I'm talking about. It has a FREE 30 page preview, so take a look at make up your own mind. Thanks for reading.

drivethrurpg.com/product/314622…

And if you want to read a great analysis of the title, you should definitely check out Charlie Hall's fantastic @Polygon piece here:
polygon.com/reviews/2020/7…