Racialism, Eugenics, and d&d

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MartinHarper
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Racialism, Eugenics, and d&d

Post by MartinHarper »

The 13 Wise Buttlords wrote:I intentionally Godwinized to point out how we should be fucking thankful that social darwinism and racialism have no basis in reality whatsoever. Otherwise it justifies their actions and makes us all sad pandas.

So it's alarming to see this pop up so often in heroic fiction. D&D attempts to make up for it by telling you 'so bugbears fight better than humans. Then gain some levels you punk-ass bitch and show them who's boss', but for the Mega Happy Ending we should just do away with this idiotic trope entirely.
Yeay for Godwin. You'll need to find someone else to discuss social darwinism and racialism with, though.

From a biological standpoint, species don't tend to survive very long if they are out-competed by another species. So the fact that both bugbears and humans still exist, and have existed for ages, implies that both are successful in their own way. So, whatever combat bonuses bugbears have, humans must have something else that compensates.

From a literary standpoint, I agree that fantasy races have been a stand-in for different nationalities and ethnicities. Another parallel is to different species of animals. Gnolls are more vicious than Kobolds because hyenas are more vicious than puppies.

I'm not clear why the Mega Happy Ending would be to have all these races somehow go away. Firstly, I don't see how this would be achieved without genocide. Secondly, I don't see that the loss of useful biodiversity would be in the interests of sentient creatures in the setting. This is all dependent on the campaign and setting, of course.
The 13 Wise Buttlords
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Post by The 13 Wise Buttlords »

From a biological standpoint, species don't tend to survive very long if they are out-competed by another species. So the fact that both bugbears and humans still exist, and have existed for ages, implies that both are successful in their own way. So, whatever combat bonuses bugbears have, humans must have something else that compensates.
It's noticable racial inequality but isn't damning. There have been societies that have just been militarily/political inferior out there before. The problem is that there are races out there where not only there are races that are flat-out superior in every way to the ones on the bottom tier, but they also want to grind you into the dirt. Instead of thinking of the difference between Carthage and Rome, think of the difference between Carthage and Khmer Rouge. That's D&D.

The fact that the sahugin haven't conquered the planet is a major plot hole, Tome of War aside.
I'm not clear why the Mega Happy Ending would be to have all these races somehow go away. Firstly, I don't see how this would be achieved without genocide. Secondly, I don't see that the loss of useful biodiversity would be in the interests of sentient creatures in the setting. This is all dependent on the campaign and setting, of course.
I'm not saying that all of the races should go away, I'm saying that the Mega Happy Ending would involve them being changed in a way that wouldn't either doom them or the people around them into this screwy murder cycle.

This means that mind flayers no longer need to eat brains, derro are no longer perpetually insane, the myconids can't put people into a drug-fueled stunlock, undead don't automatically become evil (or their creation becomes impossible), and so on.
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Crissa
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Post by Crissa »

Plot hole?

Bugbears live in forests. They don't build things. Sure, they're more able to live where people don't. They kick ass when in combat in forest. But they don't live on plains, they don't use advanced farming, etc, etc. They're basically an animal you can sometimes talk to.

Even in the 'real world' there are remote places or even nearby places where people live very primitively.

-Crissa
RandomCasualty2
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Post by RandomCasualty2 »

There's a lot of other factors that determine who wins beyond just if one individual of a race happens to be better than another.

Numbers and organization is a big one. Bugbears and many other chaotic races tend to live in isolated settlements and just can't organize themselves together effectively to work as a unit. This means that they lack numbers and thus can't attack a well defended human city at all. And of course, lack of centralized leadership means that they fight amongst themselves for dominance constantly, and may well not get involved with humans so long as they stay out of their habitat. Constant infighting also keeps their numbers down and so they don't happen to expand much.
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