johncarneyauA follow-up 🧵 in response to comments on my earlier one about being careful to call out #BioEssentalism and other problems when recommending alternative #TTRPG’s to people who might be considering switching from #DND5E.
One commenter pointed out that the dwarf-is-a-class rule in OG D&D was often not used. I don’t have receipts for that myself, but it is a good point. You don’t have to use these bio-essentialist rules. How that works on any given table might vary. Some might go with “humans only”, others might house-rule around it. I should have pointed this out in the original thread.
Another commenter helpfully pointed out that there are published “hacks,” or variant rules for #DungeonWorld that address this problem—see #UnlimitedDungeons https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1L5E7LSqEmo5mA5LX2g4pfmjC_4vYKpyn . Perhaps there’s something similar for #DungeonCrawlClassics.
Looking at the #UnlimitedDungeons variant rules, it feels similar to the excellent #AncestryAndCulture framework for #5E, which could probably be adapted to #DCC. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/314622/Ancestry--Culture-An-Alternative-to-Race-in-5e
Another commenter pointed out that #BioEssentialism in the form of racial alignment is way more problematic than elf-is-a-class, and it might seem so at first glance, but I disagree. Note that I didn’t mention this in the original thread because I’m not sure how the different systems stack up with respect to racial alignment.
In any case, what we’re talking about is the idea that certain humanoids—orcs, say—are racially evil and therefore it’s ok to straight up kill them with no other motivation. Surely this is way, way worse than “elves are in tune with nature” or “dwarves are good with axes,” right?
Well no. “Elves are in tune with nature” is Orientalism, and “dwarves are good with axes” is Model Minority thinking. They are “positive” racial stereotypes, but they are still racial stereotypes and are still harmful and still perpetuate systemic racism. Worse, they are insidious because such beliefs are rarely examined or challenged.
Accepting these insidious forms of “positive” #BioEssentialism in our #TTRPG systems is implicitly endorsing and perpetuating their expression in the real world.
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