Why Race in Dungeons and Dragons is Now Called Species
A look into the history of D&D and its creator
When creating a new character, a common question you would ask yourself is which race and class should I play? Do I want to be a Dragonborn Sorcerer, or should I be a Half-Orc Barbarian? Each race comes with its own perks, so choosing a Half-Orc, who gets a bonus to their Strength modifier, is a great option when picking a melee fighter. Dragonborn only gets a +1 to their Charisma modifier, but you like the race, and some benefit is better than none, so you pick it anyway.
From 2014 until now, this is how everyone in the D&D community spoke and thought about the characters they created. In fact, when you look back at Dungeons and Dragon’s 50 year history, you’ll see that this line of thinking goes all the way back to the first player’s handbook released in 1978! If you dive even deeper, you may find some things that has not aged well…
If you’re reading this, you may already have an idea on why labeling it as Race may come with some controversy or eyebrow raising. When you look back at the history of D&D, and its founder Gary Gygax, some of the top results are posts that bring to light his sexist and misogynistic takes.
Dungeons and Dragons has been around for 50 years and it hasn’t come without its controversies. With the new edition of D&D being released, it looks to fix those corrections and put the world’s most popular TTRPG on a path of growth and change. At least, that’s what we’re hoping for.
Gary Gygax, founder and creator of Dungeons and Dragons, was not a great person. In a blog post (TW: Terms of sexual assault and misogyny are used in the blog post) written by Benn Riggs, a D&D historian and author of Slaying the Dragon, a book that goes into the not-so-known details of the history of D&D, he finds a quote by Gary Gygax himself stating,
Damn right I am a sexist. It doesn’t matter to me if women get paid as much as men… They can jolly well stay away from wargaming in droves for all I care.
Big yikes indeed, and if you are to read the rest of the blog post you’ll find more evidence of Gygax’s sexist and misogynistic takes when discussing about tabletop, wargaming, and Dungeons and Dragons.
For a game we love so much, how does one continue to support it when its very roots, its foundation, is riddled with a life outlook that’s so inherently wrong?
And that’s where we get to the main theme of this and get to our first change that aims to address the abhorrent takes of D&D’s creator. The change from Race to Species, and removing the bonuses that certain races had.
You heard right. Certain races had certain bonuses and some were better at doing certain things than the other races.
If you were to play a Half-Orc in the previous edition, you would inherently be stronger, tougher, and more intimidating than the other Races. From one lens, that may not seem like such a big deal, but from the lens of its creator, one begins to question the motivation for having certain races be better in some aspects than other races.
DnDBeyond, the most popular online resource for everything D&D, posted a statement in 2022 addressing the term and their plan to shy away from it, stating:
Having an open conversation around the term "race" is both important and challenging… We welcome your constructive feedback on this evolution and the many more evolutions to D&D that make this game exciting, open, and accessible to everyone.
Which, sure… it at least addresses an issue that people are talking about, but how much are they willing to listen? We’ll have to wait and see.
Going into 2025, we are seeing Dungeons and Dragons in every sort of medium out there. Live play shows like Critical Role and Dimension20 are making their way to the mainstream audience, and the 2023 film, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, serves as a faithful homage to the wild antics that the game brings to its players.
Will informing the new player base on the history of D&D scare people away? I don’t think so. We are entering a world where accountability is needed now more than ever, and I like to think that we are able to accept that people and ideals can change over time. That is, as long as they’re putting in the honest effort.
Dungeons and Dragons has had a dark past, and with the passing of Gary Gygax in 2008, we can only hope that the trajectory of D&D is now in the hands of people who are willing to listen, learn, and change. With the changing of Race to Species, we’re off to a good start, but we’ll see if they keep to their word.
Will they?
Based on my Insight check, it’s hard to say…