Identity Politics and Dungeons&Dragons
For those of us who have been rolling dice since the days when THAC0 was a thing, the changes in D&D 5.5 feel like a strange shift in priorities. Wizards of the Coast has replaced the term “race” with “species,” revamped ability scores to be completely customizable, and pushed for more real-world representation within the game’s lore. The stated goal is to be more inclusive, to give players more freedom in character creation, and to remove “problematic” elements. But let’s be honest—D&D has always been inclusive. The idea that the game was somehow restricting people from telling the stories they wanted is revisionist nonsense. When we talk about orcs, elves, gnomes, and dwarves, we’re not talking about human ethnicities—we’re talking about wildly different fantasy beings with distinct physiologies, cultures, and in many cases, entire cosmological origins. Comparing a towering, brutish orc to a nimble, crafty gnome isn’t about skin color; it’s about fundamentally different speci...