‘Problematic’ fantasy race lore purged from D&D
https://www.rt.com/pop-culture/543490-d ... e-removed/
‘Problematic’ fantasy race lore purged from Dungeons & Dragons
A plethora of descriptions regarding various races in the Dungeons & Dragons universe have been scrapped from the guidebooks in an effort to make the tabletop RPG more “welcoming and inclusive.”
The push for representation and inclusivity in Western culture has not ignored the tabletop gaming scene, where publishers of some of the most-played games have been updating their releases to appeal to progressive social justice activists.
In a recent blog post, Jeremy Crawford, the principal rule designer for the legendary RPG Dungeons & Dragons, revealed that there had been a mass removal of “problematic lore” from several D&D books throughout the year, and these changes will be reflected in both the newly printed editions and the online PDF versions.
The designer himself did not go into detail about what exactly had been removed and why, however, and his post only mentioned the sections where the changes had been made, such as ‘Roleplaying a Beholder’, ‘Roleplaying a Kobold’, and ‘Roleplaying as an Orc’.
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Some astonishing revelations today. Beholders, Kobolds and Orcs are real. They have avid D&D communities and have for too long taken offence at their depictions in D&D.
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For example, one of the removed paragraphs provided an explanation of Orcs' societal hierarchies, which included subjugation and enslavement.
“With their culturally ingrained tendency to bow before superior strength, orcs can be subjugated by a powerful and charismatic individual. Evil human spellcasters and rulers in particular have a penchant for enslaving or deceiving orcs into service. A leader backed by a great military force could swoop down upon a tribe, kill its leaders, and cow the rest of the orcs into submission.”
Other now-purged ‘problematic’ elements included negative qualities inherent to the monster races, like the Orcs’ bloodlust or the Beholders’ ‘Beholder supremacy’ mindset. Similar changes have affected other species like Giants, Gnolls, Kobolds and Yuan Ti.
In before "How dare you Mikah, my wife's an orc!"
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Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory, Farewell!
I still have my 1st edition AD&D books and adventure modules. I think the issue stems from the fact that the 'darker' humanoids (i.e., drow, ogre, orc, et cetera) were almost always depicted as evil monsters fit only for slaughter, while the 'lighter' humanoids (i.e., dwarf, elf, gnome, et cetera) were the heroes who had the privilege of killing monsters and taking their loot.

