Deconstructing Dungeons and Dragons 50-Year Evolution of Race (p. 1)
Part 1 of 3 by AffectorOfChange
Over its 50-year history, Dungeons & Dragons has both mirrored, and at times challenged, the real world’s attitudes towards race and identity. Focusing on the evolution of character creation and its mechanics around race reveals some interesting shifts and patterns that both align with and challenge the foundational tenets of white supremacy.
When a player decides that they would like to make a new character in D&D, a critical decision often involves choosing that character’s Race. This decision, as well as choices such as which Class to play, will impact what that player’s character can do. This decision also informs them about who that character is so that the player can engage in immersive roleplay.
Let’s take a walk through the 50-year history of D&D and deconstruct how the choice of Race in character creation has evolved and its impacts on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in this series.
Part 1 of this series takes a look at the Foundational Years of D&D’s history, reviewing materials that were foundational to this tabletop hobby, starting with Chainmail in 1971 up to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition in 1989. Analysis will be presented on how these foundational years appear to reinforce a racial hierarchy and collude with biological determinism.
In Part 2, we will take a look at some of the more modern D&D mechanics from third (2000), fourth (2008), and fifth (2014) editions, analyzing the incremental shift towards diversity.
In Part 3, we will focus on the most up to date mechanics that have been released since D&D 5e came out in 2014, including the new revised Player’s Handbook that was released in 2024, discussing the growth and change, while also providing feedback opinions on future implementation of mechanics that may increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in Dungeons & Dragons.
Foundational Years (1971-1989): Racial Hierarchies and Biological Determinism
Chainmail (1971) -> OD&D (1974) -> AD&D 1e (1978) -> AD&D 2e (1989)
Chainmail (1971)
Chainmail is a medieval miniatures war game created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. It served as the prequel to what became later Dungeons & Dragons and contained a Fantasy Supplement embedded in the rules.
Borrowing from the inspirations of J. R. R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard, fantasy creatures such as Hobbits, Elves, Goblins, Dwarves, and Orcs were introduced into this miniatures wargame. Armies can even be built with Dragons!
The term Race is not used in Chainmail. Instead, different types of units are outlined in the “Fantastic Characteristics” section. Some of the unit types are identified as “Classes,” such as Heroes and Wizards, while other units are the more stereotypical Monsters found in later editions of D&D, such as Wraiths or Giants.
Each unit type has specific advantages and disadvantages, its own point value, and “morale” values to keep troops motivated between rounds of combat. For example, Wizards can use fire magic, Sprites can fly, and Orcs can see in the dark. Certain unit types can inflict fear or boost morale, and the type of unit impacts that unit’s Speed.
While there is no line drawn between “good” and “evil” in Chainmail, units / fantastic creatures are laid out on a spectrum of Alignment between Law, Neutral, and Chaos.
Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
Original Dungeons & Dragons was published by Tactical Studios Rules (TSR) in 1974. The three books by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in the Original D&D game expanded the fantasy supplement of Chainmail into its own full tabletop miniatures game.
In Original D&D the term Race is not present. Players are presented three main Classes to choose from: Fighting-Men, Magic-Users, or Clerics.
Fighting-Men can be Human, Elves, Dwarves, or Halflings. Magic-Users include only Humans or Elves. While Clerics are limited to Humans only. The rules state that “all non-human players are restricted in some aspects and gifted in others.”
Only Human characters can fully level in their Classes. The tradeoff of playing an Elf instead, for example, is they are able to see hidden doors or to swap between Fighting and Magic Classes between adventures. Halflings and Dwarves possess magical resistance.
The rules also leave it up to the “campaign referee” to let a player choose whatever other fantasy creature that they may like to play, as long as they start small and work their way up. Ability Scores and Language are not impacted by this choice in Original D&D.
Just like in Chainmail, creating a character also requires choosing an Alignment on the spectrum of Law to Chaos, with the choice of Neutrality between. Humans can choose any alignment, while Elves and Dwarves can only be Lawful or Neutral. The rules also dictate that Monsters such as Orcs, Goblins, or Kobolds are categorized into Chaos.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1978)
Gary Gygax compiled the rules of his game in 1978, with his company TSR publishing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition). In this ruleset, Gygax migrated away from a “campaign referee” to instead elevating a dedicated Dungeon Master (DM) in charge of facilitating sessions of D&D.
This edition introduces the term Race as an important choice for Player Characters (PCs). These rules outline “Human” “Semi-Human,” and “Non-Human” characters. Advanced D&D 1e permits players to create characters that are Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half-Elves, Halflings, Half-Orcs, or Humans. The choice of a character’s Race has a significant impact on that character’s abilities, skills, and how they are roleplayed.
In D&D, Ability Scores impact how well characters can do various actions. In Advanced D&D 1e, these scores range from 3 to 18. Here are the six important Abilities used throughout every edition of D&D with an example of how it is applied:
Strength - how hard you can punch a Nazi
Dexterity - how easily you can dodge a Nazi
Constitution - stomaching listening to a Nazi
Intelligence - knowing about the history of Nazis
Wisdom - your ability to sus out dog whistles with Nazis
Charisma - your ability to convince a Nazi to just stop with the bullshit
When making a character in Advanced D&D 1e, players will roll for their Ability Scores and they will then be assigned. D&D characters are typically exceptional in a few of their Abilities, usually those that are most relevant to their Class. Choosing a Race that is “Semi-Human” or “Non-Human” results in both a Penalty and Bonus on these base Ability Scores.
This edition of D&D also outlines limitations for a maximum Strength if a player’s character is female, with male characters not being subjected to this restriction. There are other minimum and maximum Ability Scores that correspond to a player’s Race if they are other than Human such as Half-Orc characters not being permitted to have Intelligence higher than a 17 or Gnome characters having at least a 7 Intelligence.
Choice of Class is dependent on the choice of Race. Class options in Advanced D&D 1e include: Clerics and Druids; Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers; Magic-users and Illusionists; Thieves and Assassins; and Monks.
Humans can play any of the Classes available with other variants being limited. For example, Dwarves cannot take the Magic-User class. Elves cannot play Clerics, Druids, or Monks. Races other than Humans also have level limits, capping their highest level they can achieve, while Humans remain unlimited. When I was reading these rules myself, I had to ask myself - how are Humans more Magical than Elves?
The Advanced D&D 1e Player’s Handbook begins providing players lore for each Race, rather than just stating mechanics.
“Orcs are fecund and create many cross-breeds, most of the offspring of such being typically orcish. However, some one-tenth of orc-human mongrels ore sufficiently non-orcish to pass for human” Advanced D&D 1e, PHB, p. 17
There is a table that I found to be strange that denotes “racial preferences,” on a spectrum of Preferred, Goodwill, Tolerance, Neutrality, Antipathy, and Hatred between the various Races in Advanced D&D.
Alignment received an update from the previous works, now adding a second continuum between Good and Evil, along with Lawful and Chaotic, giving players 9 Alignments to choose from. Many Classes in Advanced D&D will determine a character’s alignment, such as Druids being Neutral, Paladins being Lawful Good, and Assassins being Evil. There are no specific details on each Race’s alignment.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989)
Advanced D&D 1e had a great run for the decade, going through several revisions, with many adventures being published, such as “Vault of the Drow.”
Satanic panic in the 1980s threatened D&D and its enjoyers. In 1989, David “Zeb” Cook released Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd edition). Certain elements like demons and devils were scrubbed from the source material and replaced with new names.
Ability Scores are relatively unchanged, continuing to have maximum and minimum Racial constraints (although Sex no longer impacts abilities).
Humans continue to be elevated as superior over the others races in being able to play any Class and having no level limitations. The term “Demihuman” is woven into the narrative of this edition, as well as the term “Non-Human.”
Half-Orcs were deleted from the choices of Race in the AD&D 2e Player’s Handbook, relocated to the Monster Manual of this edition.
The second edition Player’s Handbook (PHB) provides lore for each of the Race options in the book, including a statement that the information presented for each Race is a broad statement and players are not bound to those generalities.
Fantasy Races continue to have various advantages and disadvantages in contrast to their Human counterparts, while playing a Human imposes little disadvantage.
Age is introduced in this edition of D&D with specific mechanics. Players are presented with a choice to either choose their character's age, or use the charts to randomly determine their character’s starting age. Life expectancy is specified uniquely for each individual Race. The Dungeon Master is also instructed to secretly figure out when a Player Character (PC) will surely die of old age.
Humans have the shortest lifespan, around 90 years, while Dwarves and Elves have the longest, living to around 250 and 350 years respectfully. Page 24 of the AD&D 2e PHB states that “upon attaining this age, an elf does not die. Rather he feels compelled to migrate to some mysterious, other land, departing the world of men.”
Aging now also impacts Ability Scores. Once a PC reaches Middle Age, they lose 1 Strength and 1 Constitution, while also gaining 1 Intelligence and 1 Wisdom. Similar effects occur when a character reaches Old Age, or 2/3 their Race’s base maximum, and again when they are Venerable, or at the base maximum for their Race. Fun fact, getting hasted adds a year to a character’s life in AD&D 2e so use this spell with caution.
The table on “racial preferences” was removed from this edition in contrast to AD&D 1e. However, lore entries for each Race do discuss their “preferences” when dealing with characters of other Races. The Human entry discusses that: “Humans are also more social and tolerant than most other races, accepting the company of elves, dwarves, and the like with noticeably less complaint” (Advanced D&D 2e, PHB, p. 23).
Classes to choose from in AD&D 2e include Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Mage, Illusionist, Cleric, Druid, Thief, and Bard. Racial requirements that must be met for characters to specialize in specific schools of magic. Elves cannot specialize in Invocation, for example. Gnomes can only specialize in Illusion Magic and Dwarves are not permitted to even use magic in this edition. Humans can specialize in all of them. Races no longer have level limitations for classes.
Alignment continues to have the 9 choices in this edition, Good - Evil, Lawful - Chaos. AD&D 2e does not state the typical Alignment of Races. The Player’s Handbook does make mention of how Alignment in some cases may be limited, such as in the case of Paladins or the ethos of a Cleric.
Foundational D&D Mechanics Reinforce a Racial Hierarchy and Collude with Biological Determinism
During its foundational years, largely informed and molded by its creator Gary Gygax, Dungeons & Dragons’ roots are deeply embedded in reinforcing the theory of biological determinism and racial hierarchy.
Biological Determinism, also known as Racial Essentialism, is the belief that Race is a fixed and biological category of humans that is tied to innate traits such as intelligence, ability, or physical appearance. These claims are backed up by pseudo science and have helped to justify oppression since at least the Colonial-era of human history. In D&D, it is written that every “Race” possesses inborn traits/powers/or feats. The trope of all Elves being wise or Gnomes having magic resistance are a couple of examples.
When players elect to create a Human character in these early editions of D&D, they are not faced with the limitations that are put upon characters of other “races.” Characters like Elves and Dwarves are granted certain powers that are unique, but the advantages and disadvantages do not pan out to be equitable in contrast to creating a Human character. Just as people whose skin is white are structurally elevated over other people in the real world, Human characters in D&D are also elevated as being superior over others.
Language used to describe certain races in D&D is disparaging and colluded with the paradigm that Humans are the superior choice. The Advanced D&D 1e PHB by Gary Gygax states: “Orcs are fecund and create many cross-breeds, most of the offspring of such being typically orcish. However, some one-tenth of orc-human mongrels are sufficiently non-orcish to pass for human,” followed by the statement: “it is assumed that player characters which are of half-orc race are within the superior 10%.”
In another example, the 1978 Monster Manual for Advanced D&D 1e is where we find a mention of the Drow, a famous Dark-Elf variant. Gygax writes: “Drow: The “Black Elves,” or drow, are only legend. They purportedly dwell deep beneath the surface in a strange subterranean realm. The drow are said to be as dark as faeries are bright and as evil as the latter are good. Tales picture them as weak fighters but strong magic-users.” Advanced D&D 1e, MM, p. 39
Humans continue to be elevated as superior over other Races in Advanced D&D 2e as demonstrated by being able to play any class, having no level limitations, and having no penalties for ability scores. However, there is evidence of a growing focus on diversity and inclusion in D&D such as any Race being able to max out levels in their Classes.
The Player’s Handbook (PHB) for Advanced D&D 2e states that “a human PC can have whatever racial characteristics the DM allows.” This appears to be signaling acknowledgement of diversity amongst Human-kind in D&D. There is also the guideline encouraging players to deviate from generalities in character creation. I take this to be a statement of intent to be more inclusive, as well as an effort to shift away from stereotypes and tropes.
Although the beginnings of D&D are enshrouded and coded with biological determinism and white supremacy, it appears that as time went on, the rules became more aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In Part 2 of this series on racial coding throughout the 50-year history of D&D, we will take a look at the rules of third, fourth, and fifth editions of D&D, demonstrating the incremental shift towards more diversity.
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