Another Race, D&D and Pontiac Corvair discussion.

[roseembolism]

This Power Point presentation on "Race in D&D" really doesn't present any notions that haven't been brought up before countless times by trolls on websites like rpg.net and rec.games.frp.dnd. However, the discussion on race in fantasy that it spawned on the Atlantic Magazine website is actually quite interesting and wide ranging, including the perspectives from people of color who are fans of fantasy and science fiction, and how they dealt with a field where the characters for the longest time were almost all white males (exceptions noted by Andre Norton and Ursula K. Leguin). The metafilter discussion, while not as intelligent, has some incredibly good points as well., including a good critique by klangklangston.

Incidentally, my comments are here and here, and deal with the reactionary nature of most fantasy, and also a particular failure of suspension of disbelief when dealing with fantasy kingdoms.  Both of these are elements that lead to my current world-building exercise.

From all this, the one bit of excellent advice, one I'm going to remember for my world building efforts is that race should not overshadow culture.  that's going to be important, because Under the Green Moon will have a number of mixed cultures.  There will be culture clashes and mixtures that will only partially deal with race.  I want to avoid the "all dwarves are Scottish" syndrome.

Comments

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

I always thought dwarves ought to be Germanic, myself. Although now for some reason I'm picturing a Spaniard dwarf with foppish inlaid armor and the most ridiculous moustaches. He says they help him sense the edges of the tunnels in the dark...

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Eric and I constantly threaten each other with running Dwarves From Da Bronx.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Orcs naturally, are all from Boston. In fact, they all sound like William F. Buckley, Jr.. Elves by contrast, all sound like Hugh Laurie as the Prince of Whales in Blackadder Third. This probably explains why they are a declining race.

[mithriltabby]

Race is genetic; culture is memetic. You could have all kinds of fun with cultural memes overriding traditional racial cultures...

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Of course. Given that I have at least one largish empire in UTGM, I can have non-Daemons in the Empire taking on Daemon customs to fit in, and Daemons out in the hinterlands "going native".