Character race
Character race is a descriptor used to describe the various sapient species and beings that make up the setting in modern fantasy and science fiction.
[2] J. R. R. Tolkien popularized the usage of the term in this context in his legendarium (particularly The Lord of the Rings), and the use of races in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games further spread the name.
[12] In the heroic fantasy games, in addition to humans, races are often humanoid and fey creatures of myth; such as elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, immaterial being (spirits, ghosts), etc.
[citation needed] In science-fiction games, especially space opera and cyberpunk, the races are humans, extraterrestrials, mutants, cyborgs, transhumans, robots, and artificial intelligences (AI).
The book Fundamentals of Game Design (2013) states: "in RPGs, race refers to groups of real and fantasy humanoids such as humans, dwarves, elves, giants, and so on.
Thus, the race is one of these bricks, as it provides a set of predefined parameters (diegetic paradigms) and of characteristics—in the broad sense: physical characteristics, cultural background, moral values and social relationships.
[citation needed] Academic Kimberly Young highlighted the virtual societies of role-playing video games where character design choices can immerse players.
In a sense, the races in RPGs embody outmoded racial thought of the 19th century and earlier that assumes 'race' as a biologically or even cosmically determined unity of physiological species, ethnic culture, and geographic place".
[19] Linda Codega, for Gizmodo in 2022, commented that "there are some critical points of game design that would help remove inherent bioessentialism and move away from racial coding; the removal of prescriptive skill packages, the decoupling of traits from race, the elimination of bloodlines and blood quantum mechanics, better mixed-race mechanics, and elimination of racialized language".
[citation needed] The first fantasy game that breaks with the D&D conventions is RuneQuest:[7] the "elves" (Aldryami) are vegetal beings, it is possible to play a duck [sic], but the game also takes into account the cult (pantheon and system of beliefs such as animism) and the cultural background of the character's people: primitive, barbarian, nomadic or civilized.
[29] CBR highlighted that these new terms "invoke a sense of history and cultural importance that accompanies many player's choices behind their character design" and "help offer explanations for why those predispositions exist that do not imply disturbing real-world parallels, simultaneously offering more freedom in the variations from that norm players will necessarily make in creating their own characters".
[29] In 2022, the Dungeons & Dragons One D&D playtest also changed the terminology from "race" to "species", as the game moves away from racial stereotypes associated with older fantasy settings.
TSR Hobbies assumed anyone buying D&D knew what Hobbits are, there was no real description and the only reason they seemed to have been included was to reinforce the game's connection with Tolkien's stories.The player thus has to pick from their own knowledge of other works, particularly in what is now called the "geek culture"; according to Isabelle Périer, PhD in comparative literature:[34] [this intertextuality] is a concision tool—it allows to quickly get into the middle of the action—and an opening towards variations—you can then play with the stereotypes.In 1989, Jean-Luc Bizien [fr] creates Hurlements [fr][i] in which players characters are "errants", "wanderers", i.e. were-animals that form a caravan.
Other games were then published where the race of the player characters is itself the main topic of the adventures,[citation needed] such as Vampire: The Masquerade (1991)[36] and Nephilim (1992).
[...] While RPG player demographics appear to move towards an equitable, post-racialized, post-gendered vision of 21st century pluralist societies, the fictional worlds of RPGs are still often highly stratified".
