Race does not exist: not even in 2025 Dungeons & Dragons

To be more inclusive, elves and dwarves are no longer different races. They are now different species.

As we all know, race does not exist. It’s just a social construct. Hence, from the New York Times:

Dungeons & Dragons Rolls the Dice With New Rules About Identity

The role-playing game replaced “race” with “species” and divorced several character traits from biological identity. Some longtime players are upset (as is Elon Musk).

By Marc Tracy, Dec. 30, 2024

While solving quests in Dungeons & Dragons, the gamers who role-play as elves, orcs and halflings rely on the abilities and personalities of their custom-made characters, whose innate charisma and strength are as crucial to success as the rolls of 20-sided dice.

That is why the game’s first significant rule changes in a decade, which became official this fall as it celebrated its 50th anniversary, reverberated through the Dungeons & Dragons community and beyond. …

“Races” are now “species.”

Some character traits have been divorced from biological identity; a mountain dwarf is no longer inherently brawny and durable, a high elf no longer intelligent and dexterous by definition. And Wizards of the Coast, the Dungeons & Dragons publisher owned by Hasbro, has endorsed a trend throughout role-playing games in which players are empowered to halt the proceedings if they ever feel uncomfortable.

Oh, boy … sounds like fun.

“What they’re trying to do here is put up a signal flare, to not only current players but potential future players, that this game is a safe, inclusive, thoughtful and sensitive approach to fantasy storytelling,” said Ryan Lessard, a writer and frequent Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master. …

Paywall point:

Isn’t declaring elves and dwarves to be different species instead of different races less inclusive?

I mean, if, say, the Census’s “Race Question:”

was renamed the Census’s “Species Question,” so that blacks and whites are now officially classified as different species, would that really seem more safe, inclusive, thoughtful and sensitive?

After all, species doesn’t sound terribly fluid and nonbinary, does it?

I’m sort of surprised the Dungeons & Dragons dudes didn’t take a leaf from the Gender Studies ladies and rename the category not from Race to Species, but instead from Race to Preference or Pronoun.

But, then, the Dungeons & Dragons community probably doesn’t know many women, feminist, trad, or whatever.

In addition to its species, each character in Dungeons & Dragons is assigned a class such as bard, druid, rogue or wizard.

I bet nobody ever gets a class like “peasant” or “serf.”

While race is just a social construct, class is 100% natural and utterly clear-cut. Or something.

… A bard typically has a leg up when it comes to charisma, one of the game’s core ability scores. When his party finds itself negotiating with a roving gang of mercenaries, the bonus points he can add to the roll of a 20-sided die — thanks to his gift of gab — can win the mercenaries’ allegiance. …

Players who are frustrated by the recent revisions argue that the innate characteristics of a species gave the game part of its allure.

“All the species are becoming humans with decorations,” lamented Devin Cutler, a self-described “grognard,” or veteran gamer, who plays alongside Lessard at the Boards & Brews bar in Manchester, N.H. …

Cutler acknowledged that the game’s orcs — the malevolent, dark-skinned creatures developed by J.R.R. Tolkien — have been associated with negative racial tropes in the real world.

Don’t orcs invade from the east rather than the south? During the current war, Ukrainians constantly call Russians orcs.

But he said their innate traits, however fictional, have accrued authentic meaning over the decades. …

Wizards of the Coast was catching up to its competitors, said Ebert, who has freelanced for Pathfinder, the role-playing game by the company Paizo that has spoken of “ancestry” and “heritage” instead of “race” for several years.

And ancestry is different from race … how?

As early as 2020, the independent Arcanist Press published “Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e,” a proposal to use those words instead of “race” in Dungeons & Dragons.

If an idea comes from the year 2020, it’s gotta be a great one, right?