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Race and D&D
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This is an article on race and D&D. I am mainly posting it to get people's impressions on what is being said. It is a long article.
I haven't read the last part yet.
raceindnd.wordpress.com/
Here is my view on what I've read:
This dude’s on crack.
He’s totally projecting his own fears and concerns.
I’ve played since 1981. I played 1st edition through 3.5. I have played Asian characters. I’ve played several black characters.
This guy totally dismisses a major game product dedicated to an Arabian campaign as “less said the better” It was an award winning product and much loved. The Oriental Adventures book was a serious look at playing in an Asian setting and had hard core fans which even spawned a new game called Legend of the Five Rings.
He is wrong about Elves. There are Wood Elves who definitely are not white nor are they evil. Some Dwarven races are brown or gray complexion.
The reason most evil races are not white is that they are representative of medieval fantastical creatures. Kobolds are Orange…how the F#&# does that even fit with his rant? Beholders are magical floating eyeball creatures…again far too alien to compare to human race issues. This guy would die in about ten seconds in my campaign. He says “any adventurer knows if you see an Orc you kill it” In my campaign Trolls were a race of good, neutral and evil people with their own culture very different from the Norse who lived nearby. They had been violated by broken Norse treaties. The campaign centered around repairing the relations between the two races. In one setting, the players were transformed into Orcs and had to learn Orc culture to survive and become human again. During that campaign they discovered there were many different kinds of Orcs, some who lived by a code of honor.
Gary Gygax intentionally left racial issues for humans out of the mix so people could run any sort of human they wanted. I’ve seen white players choose every racial mix imaginable and treat those characters with integrity and love. D&D is a game of endless possibilities. It is only limited by the imagination. Clearly this guy is missing some of those components.
Posted at 8:31AM, 20 November 2008 PDT
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The Drow were one of this guys major premises for dark-skinned races depicted as evil. I guess he forgot about Drizzit. Anyway, I ran a Norse campaign and tried to stick with ideals that were closer to the real mythology. I had Dok Alfar (Dark Elves) who were not so much evil as they rebels who refused to submit to the mainstream culture of the Alfar. They were also not dark skinned. Here is a nice article on the mythology of the Norse Alfar:
www.hauntediceland.com/black-elves-dark-elves-light-elves...
Posted 8 months ago.
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You know, I had NEVER thought about this topic. Pretty much all of my characters have been white... because, well, I am white. I have played a few that were of different ethnicity, because of their background, but for the most part, I play what I know.
Exclusion is not explicitly racist. Depicting races in hurtful manners, is. Is it worse to leave out a specific ethnic group that you know little to nothing about, or try to write information about them, and possibly offend people?
Posted 7 months ago.
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I agree with you Ryfter. It is often a good idea not to roleplay ethnicities we are unfamiliar with and possibly offend someone. I think the important thing in a roleplaying environment is that every player feels safe and loved no matter gender, race, or religion. It's fun to explore unknown races in D&D but we must be careful that whatever stereotypes are created are fair and balanced across all races in our game worlds.
In my game worlds knowing who is good and evil is always difficult and I would never make it so easy on my players as to allow them to think that all Orcs are evil or all Elves are good. The truth always lies somewhere in the middle and becomes blurrier the longer you play in my campaign. I think my players like it that way.
Posted 7 months ago.
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You can take this discussion one step further and bring up the sticky wicket of players who play outside of their own gender. Now I have no problem with playing cross-gender any more than I would have problems with a character stepping out of their own ethnicity..so long as it is done with tact and in good taste. I have a white friend who once played a dark-skinned dwarf, and yet did not go the Samuel Jackson (or worse yet, Gary Coleman) route with the character.
BUT we've all seen guys play girls and place too much emphasis on making the character either a preening git, a drama-queen, or making uncalled-for advances at the other male characters in order to make the male players feel uncomfortable.
I mean...does anybody really need that sort of thing on game night?
Posted 6 months ago.
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To add to that, I have a couple of friends who play a pair of gay dwarves. Very stereotypical, very suggestive gay dwarves (the PCs are brothers, iirc, not lovers). And while gaming with them can be a lot fun in small doses, with the right crowd, it can also get ...annoying at times.
Posted 6 months ago.
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spikepage,
I can't tell you how many times I saw male players poorly play female characters when I was younger. It was really annoying to DM. In my most recent norse campaign I did see a male player run a female character extremely well. Unfortunately, that is the exception not the rule.
I do believe there are some players who are seeking attention who intentionally play their character in the most annoying manner possible to "hog" game time. The DM can control those situations by making sure that all players get equal time even the more reserved and shy players. As players it's important to be able to judge when a funny character trait or running gag has gotten old. I've almost permanently banned the gnome illusionist from my campaigns because they seem to attract players who are only interested in playing gags on other players.
Posted 6 months ago.
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I have several male friends who play female characters - most of them very well. I've found that the ones who play female characters the best are the ones who don't play big-breasted amazonian Sheena Queen of the Jungle/Buffy knockoffs. In fact, I think the best male-playing-female example I've seen is my friend's wizened old-lady cleric who just goes by the name of "Grandmother" (and $deity forbid if you ever call her, as one of my characters is wont to do, "Grandma" or "Grannie").
On the flip side, I've played a male character twice - both pregenerated characters that I had no say in creating. In both cases I found it incredibly difficult to "get in character".
Posted 6 months ago.
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In my gaming group, we have a few guys that play female characters at times. They are generally understated.
Honestly, sex, doesn't have a LOT to do with my campaigns. It adds some flavor to the character, is all.
I thought it was funny, Loremistress singling out the "Sheena Queen of the Jungle"... since I know my ex-wife almost always played that role... and another friend, also a woman, generally played that role, too. :-) Though, maybe not exactly the big breasted part... but the rest was right on. :-)
Posted 6 months ago.
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This is an interesting subject.
I play a Dwarf (straight, male) in a forgotton realms campaign and the DM will play racial tension between Dwarves and Elves and between some Humans and the other Humanoids. I like it as it reflects the kinds of attitudes that you would (unfortunately) see in the real world. My Dwarf and an Elf in the party are always trying to score points off one another - but when it comes to the crunch we back each other up.
I also run a 3e campaign in Greyhawk. Greyhawk has deliberate human racial tensions built in to it. The Suel believe that they are the superior species and everybody else should be subservient to them. That is without mentioning the tensions that exist between the Flan (indiginous population) and the other incomming races - Oeridian and Baklunish and Renhee. I will play on these racial prejudices - especially in the less cosmoploitan areas - as I think it adds to the game. The same applies to Half-Orcs and Half-Ogres - you can play one, but you better be prepared to be on the receiving end of some major bigotry.
All that said - it must be remembered that the colour of your skin and the type of culture you come from does not automatically predispose you to be an arsehole or inherently evil. Those are individual choices open to all races and creeds.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Well said Andrewmorton2008!
and...I always had fondness for Oerth. As an old school gamer Greyhawk was all I knew at first. I am sure that Greyhawk has influenced my homebrewed campaigns since I too work hard to create complex social structures.
Posted 6 months ago.
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