Question for the masses. I'm trying to be more diverse in my DMing. I want to represent more ethnic groups in my world building and have more diversified NPCs. I myself am not very diverse. Im a straight white male. But I care about representing other groups in my DMing. How do I represent diversity appropriately? And how do I do it in a way that doesn't step into cultural appropriation? Is it offensive to play characters that I do not represent in my sexuality or ethnic background?
A DM is more or less required to play characters that aren't like themselves. Ethnic background isn't usually an issue since the setting is generally a completely different world. As for sexuality, I generally suggest not having your characters have a sexual preference until it is relevant, (unless your players are the type where you're sure it's going to matter) and then having it be whatever makes the most interesting story.
"It's called acting." Or in this case, roleplaying. Pretending to be something you aren't is exactly what we do. It's no more offensive for you to have gay NPCs than it would be for you to write a novel with a gay character.
But here's a question: why? Why are you worried about inclusive representation and cultural appropriation in a work that is designed to be consumed by 3-8 people, tops? I mean, if one of your players is black, it might be nice to include them. But why bother? It would be different if your work had racist caricatures as characters, which seems unlikely to be the case given what you've already said.
You can't own culture or its portrayal. To suggest an exclusive and immutably culture is to promote xenophobia. You are a person, so you are entitled to your own interpretations and depictions of other people's culture-- especially in a fantasy world. If you are so worried that portraying diversity would be offensive because the inauthenticity of your portrayal, then might I suggest only populating your world with straight white dudes?
And for the record: no individual person is diverse. You can't have a diversity and a sample of one. Even if that individual is a mixed-race transgendered person: standing by themselves in a field, they represent a monolithic ethnic and social structure. Groups can have diversity and that is represented by having a variety of differences between its members. However, each member cannot be diverse.
You make a good point. And to answer your question, I care about diversity in my game because I want to change the way the game is viewed: a game for the middle aged straight white man in a basement. And i also want to grow as a person. I want to challenge my own perceptions and biases. And in this day and age, my audience is no longer just 6-8 people. This forum is proof of that. Im talking to you, another human being outside of my basement, about D&D. Not to mention that I will run countless games with many players in my campaign setting for the rest of my life. Today we have more people who play D&D than ever before thanks to things like critical role and other game streams. So I personally want to bring my game out of the stereotype.
But you do make a good point that answered my question perfectly, so thank you. I suppose that is the nature of acting and no one owns humanity. I guess I just want to make sure that in my acting I am respectful and sometimes it can be difficult to know what is appropriate. Because while no one owns humanity, there are some people who live a very different life from the one I live.
It will come up in my campaign setting though. I'm intentionally exploring ethnicity and I guess my question is me trying to find out how I can respectfully go about it.
I think it's a tightrope, to be honest, and there's a spike trap beneath it. I've been mulling over the same thing myself.
I would suggest using description only - describe a character's dark skin or a male character's husband kissing him quickly on the cheek before leaving for work- but steer away from trying to roleplay diversity. NPCs shouldn't be talking *too* much, and this means exaggerating the particular characteristic you want to get across, like cowardice, snootiness, etc... If diversity becomes the primary trait you want to communicate, it will quickly become ebonics fueled RPG blackface, or the flaming-queen stereotypical gay personality, or an indian-analog saying 'deary, deary me' while wobbling his head.
I'd rather have players afterwards saying "he said that guy was gay, but didn't sound gay to me!" than "wow, that camp accent was seriously disrespectful, he's living in the 80s." For that matter, if I don't think I can pull it off respectfully at all, I'd rather my games be seen as lacking diversity than being full of woeful stereotypes.
I would just mention it here and there. When giving exposition talk about the various languages people are speaking or have written on signage as they walk the streets. Have the Inn serve ethnic foods, and describe how this version is just a bit different from the last town because the lamb is basted in yogurt before grilling. Make certain to include a male, female and non-binary individuals in your world, same thing with sexuality. I do not think you have to minimize the assumption of a cis-gendered heteronormative world* as much as recognize that spectrums exist with enough evidence to support diversity without it being "look at my gay person! or see how my halflings have a Moroccan flair?"
*Do not flame me! Do not make ASSUMPTIONS about my viewpoints! Our own world, the Earth we all exist on, is DOMINATED by cis-gendered heteronormative societies.
I would just mention it here and there. When giving exposition talk about the various languages people are speaking or have written on signage as they walk the streets. Have the Inn serve ethnic foods, and describe how this version is just a bit different from the last town because the lamb is basted in yogurt before grilling. Make certain to include a male, female and non-binary individuals in your world, same thing with sexuality. I do not think you have to minimize the assumption of a cis-gendered heteronormative world* as much as recognize that spectrums exist with enough evidence to support diversity without it being "look at my gay person! or see how my halflings have a Moroccan flair?"
*Do not flame me! Do not make ASSUMPTIONS about my viewpoints! Our own world, the Earth we all exist on, is DOMINATED by cis-gendered heteronormative societies.
Yeah. I think, as this is my assumption as someone with a background in studying liberalism (ie. enlightenment philosophy), but I think almost going out of your way to portray someone as gay or as Morrocan (to use your examples) undermines a genuine portrayal of them as people. Sure, an ideologue (e.g. a nationalist) might make aspects like that a core part of their identity, but I think for most people, being a human being is a more central part of who they are and other traits are just whatthey are. Who a person is would, in my mind be things central to a person's being: what they like, what they don't like, how they behave. Whereas what a person is would include race and class and often superficial tags that we overlay onto a person to give a functional idea of how we interact with them. From experience, it's very frustrating when people treat you differently based on nouns that you've collected rather than on what you do.
As someone who has lived on several different continents, let me just say that people aren't that different. We may do things differently based on culture, but why people behave in Vietnam the way they do isn't so different from people in Canada or Germany. Just the way they go about doing the things we all do. I think if you authentically want to represent people who are "different" to yourself, then just ... give them different traditions and habits. If it seems a little like a stereotype, that's okay: making Canadians say sorry a lot is a stereotype but it's also true, but it's not because Canadians are so apologetic. We just mean something different when we apologise than a culture who seldom apologises. Where this stops being useful is when we don't understand when to break the stereotype. Stereotypes are useful because culture is basically a collection of canned behaviours and values. We often use them, not only our own but others' when in their country, because to do so facilitates social interaction and shows respect for their way of life. But choosing to break norms is to communicate too. It's a statement of identity to say "no" to belonging to a culture.
Question for the masses. I'm trying to be more diverse in my DMing. I want to represent more ethnic groups in my world building and have more diversified NPCs. I myself am not very diverse. Im a straight white male. But I care about representing other groups in my DMing. How do I represent diversity appropriately? And how do I do it in a way that doesn't step into cultural appropriation? Is it offensive to play characters that I do not represent in my sexuality or ethnic background?
First of all thank you. I think what you're trying to do is admirable. You have an artistic platform and you're trying to not only entertain with it, but do some good as well by portraying a world that represents a greater diversity of people. Representation matters to people who are used to being the minority. As an example, when my DM casually made an NPC couple in our game two men married to each other and raising a child, I felt very seen and appreciated as a person being someone in a same sex marriage myself. Even something as trivial as the fact that all the characters in Monster Hunter World are left handed tickled me as a left handed person. So yes, I encourage you to make your world represent something different from the 'defaults' of our world.
What if the majority of your world is brown skinned? What if they are left handed? Bisexual? What if the gender roles are flipped or mixed up; women are culturally considered aggressive, emotional, and physically stronger while men are considered logical, physically dexterous, and nurturing?
The trick is to not be trying too hard. Just make whatever your changes are a casual part of your world, mentioned in passing like 'duh, of course that's the way things are.' You could also try making different regions in your world have different defaults.
Question for the masses. I'm trying to be more diverse in my DMing. I want to represent more ethnic groups in my world building and have more diversified NPCs. I myself am not very diverse. Im a straight white male. But I care about representing other groups in my DMing. How do I represent diversity appropriately? And how do I do it in a way that doesn't step into cultural appropriation? Is it offensive to play characters that I do not represent in my sexuality or ethnic background?
If you let those things get to you, you'll have a real hard time Roleplaying NPC's for the party, just play them, If you want characters to feel alive and be part of the world, interpret them like they would be in the real world...
Its not because D&D is primarly a Medevil fantasy setting that suddenly everyone talks like Yee Old English gentleman " Well Dear sir i see Ye are a scoundrel and i stab at Thee", watch games of thrones or Spartacus or something, people talked normaly.
Now since you are interpreting someone, it is actually good to exagerate or exarcerbate some traits he might have, but it does not need to be a caricature, you need to find the right amount of "exageration" so to avoid that two characters sounds the same, i mean unless you're a voice actor or really good at making impressions/accents, but thats not the case for everyone, so you have to work with what you have.
Also about all that diversity and sexuality talk..., just don't do it, the worst thing is that for some reason people feel like YOU NEED to tell or show that the NPC is gay or otherwise, while outside really important plot points, no one is gonna care...
Who gives a **** that the blacksmith is gay?, does he do swords and sell them?, well thats all the PC's will want to know.
If you go like "OH BY THE WAY HE'S GAY!!!!" the only response players will have is "...and?, what as that to do with anything?..."
DMing is a lot like written a play, if you mention or show something, it should have an incidence later on, or else there's no point in doing it, its like Checkov's Rifle, you can off course have fun quirps that helps flesh out things.
But always ask yourself, will it have a purpose in the plot?, will it have an influence on how the PC's see's the world?.
If your asnwer is no, then don't bother, my point is that EXPRESSLY showing off and driving that the NPC is gay or something is like having a NPC bragging that he's banging the Tavern Maid , the PC's might be happy for him, but no one cares...
And since when is it a bad thing to be White and straight by the way?...
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"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
The straightforward way to add diversity into your game is just... add it, and no need to change anything else.
In-game, have your cities and towns always have a mix of D&D races (elves, dwarves, humans, etc.). When describing humanoids in-game, make sure you use a variety of skin colors and cultural backgrounds. Occasionally have an NPC refer to their husband or wife, which would occasionally out them as straight or gay. You can roll for these things you're having trouble picking which NPC. Add in the occasional NPC whose gender is not known to the players and refer to them by they/them pronouns.
You don't need to make any of this central to the story or particularly relevant, just keep it as flavor, same as when you describe the color of an NPC's house or the size of the bellows at the blacksmith's or the personality of the shopkeeper the PCs are just going to use as a healing potion dispenser.
This will work pretty well. You'll have a setting that's diverse by default and you can tell whatever stories you want in it, following all the standard D&D tropes.
If you want to go further, you can do things like base your campaign around subverting the D&D trope that there are "evil" races - subverting that is common enough that it itself is a trope now - or making diversity or gender/sexuality a central theme in your campaign... I can't really help you there, that takes more knowledge.
But the level 1 approach of "just make the setting diverse and change nothing else" is pretty easy.
I think if this is something that you're interested in you should look to critical role/Matt as a great example of a world in which the DM has incorporated diversity without making characters feel like they're caricatures, and without explicitly needing to call attention to it. some examples (and minor Critical Role spoilers):
- Dairon uses They/Them pronouns. It was as simple as Matt describing them as androgynous in his initial description and using They/Them pronouns whenever he describes what Dairon does/says. Dairon also happens to be one bad mother****er, and their cold, calculating, stern personality and their skills as a monk and spy are the most important thing about their character.
- Allura and Kima are in a relationship. It was first established to the party that they care about one another, embracing when they were reunited, and showing them being caring and tender with one another as they became regular NPCs who were often in scenes together. Matt just described them interacting with one another the way anyone in a couple might do. Allura also happens to be one of the most powerful mages in the world with a kind heart and soft way of speaking, and Kima is a badass paladin with an impulsive streak and a foul mouth.
- Gilmore is queer. He flirts with Vax and isn't shy about hiding his crush. This is the type of NPC interaction that you'd have to be most careful about not trading in stereotypes, but just be cognizant of that. Gilmore is masculine, confident, and flirts with Vax the way any confident person would flirt with someone they were interested in. He's forward, but not sexually inappropriate.
The long and short of it can be summed up as "make your NPCs fully realized people, so that their identity isn't the thing that defines them, it's just one thing about them."
You might also start thinking about more ways in which you can challenge the kinds of default assumptions of our world. The beauty of creating our own fantasy worlds is that we can fill them with whatever cultural norms we want. As Ophidimancer said above:
What if the majority of your world is brown skinned? What if they are left handed? Bisexual? What if the gender roles are flipped or mixed up; women are culturally considered aggressive, emotional, and physically stronger while men are considered logical, physically dexterous, and nurturing?
Just keep a critical eye on our own culture and the ways in which it isn't inclusive, and think about ways you can challenge those norms in your own writing. Create characters who are defined by more than just their racial/gender identities so that when you step into their heads as your NPCs, you're playing them as fully realized people with goals, skills, and unique personalities.
Additionally, to push back on this nugget from Chaosrex above:
Who gives a **** that the blacksmith is gay?, does he do swords and sell them?, well thats all the PC's will want to know.
If you go like "OH BY THE WAY HE'S GAY!!!!" the only response players will have is "...and?, what as that to do with anything?..."
He's right that shoehorning an "OH BY THE WAY HE'S GAY!" into the RP would be weird and forced. But consider this: Maybe your PCs want a new sword and also want their armor repaired, and the blacksmith only specializes in weapons but his husband is a good armorer. He could respond with a simple "oh you should talk to my husband, he's better with armor. Hang on a sec...ARMOND! COME TALK TO THESE FOLKS!" Boom, you've just added some diversity into your world that doesn't require you to RP stereotypes, enriches your world's detail, and doesn't make the blacksmith's sexuality the main thing about him. For me, small details like this can transform an NPC interaction from a pre-programmed sequence in which you put in money and get a sword into a conversation with a real person who lives in this world you've built.
I guess it all depends on the kind of world you want to create and the level of immersion that your players are looking for. That said, players who would get annoyed at the kind of example I just gave aren't the kind of players I want at my table, and judging by the question you're asking and the sensitivity you're approaching it with, I'm guessing they're not the kind of players that will be at yours.
He's right that shoehorning an "OH BY THE WAY HE'S GAY!" into the RP would be weird and forced. But consider this: Maybe your PCs want a new sword and also want their armor repaired, and the blacksmith only specializes in weapons but his husband is a good armorer. He could respond with a simple "oh you should talk to my husband, he's better with armor. Hang on a sec...ARMOND! COME TALK TO THESE FOLKS!" Boom, you've just added some diversity into your world that doesn't require you to RP stereotypes, enriches your world's detail, and doesn't make the blacksmith's sexuality the main thing about him. For me, small details like this can transform an NPC interaction from a pre-programmed sequence in which you put in money and get a sword into a conversation with a real person who lives in this world you've built.
I guess it all depends on the kind of world you want to create and the level of immersion that your players are looking for. That said, players who would get annoyed at the kind of example I just gave aren't the kind of players I want at my table, and judging by the question you're asking and the sensitivity you're approaching it with, I'm guessing they're not the kind of players that will be at yours.
This, that was my point, it either is something that can be usefull, if it isn't, then it isn't.
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"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
IMO, If something is truly integrated, without prejudice, into a society or a setting, it's something that's invisible, or unremarked upon, until and unless it's relevant - and should be numerically represented in the setting/society accurately.
An example that comes to mind for me is right-vs-left-handed. Usually - no one cares. It isn't relevant, for the most part doesn't have much impact on my reaction/interaction with someone. I have to go to some pretty odd fringe scenario thought experiments for that to be relevant, personally.
On the flip side, I think accurately representing the frequency of something in the culture, is also important. If I deliberately described absolutely everyone in the culture as being right handed, that's not a diverse presentation, and I really should have a reason why there are no lefties.
I really like IBernstein's example of the Blacksmith & the Armorer. It's not relevant to the story, but it is presented, but never remarked on, nor is there a big lantern hanging on the point say "hey everyone! They're a gay couple!". If all Blacksmiths were gay, and had Armorer husbands, I'd feel the GM was hammering on the point over-much and would feel like there was some kind of social agenda going on with the GM, which I wouldn't be thrilled about.
Likewise I liked the presentation of the Watchmaster Bryce in the second campaign of Critical Role . Their non-binary gender presentation isn't relevant, and isn't remarked upon, but it's not hidden.
Not harping on or over-emphasizing non-relevant but non-hidden cultural elements or subgroups is not hard to do with a bit of thought and practice. Not hiding, or glossing over, those aspects when they are relevant isn't hard either.
Figuring out a fair and realistic frequency of presentation - that's something that I struggle with.
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Thats a good point. Its like how captain marvel is advocating something good but because she shoves it down our throats it's hard to not hate her. Usually it's best to be subtle. I like that point of view thanks.
Chaosrex: I think i get what you mean. I have a group who does care if the blacksmith is gay. Not because the blacksmith cant be straight but because they like seeing diversity every now and then. But I get what you mean. No one likes it when you scream politics at them out of nowhere.
Another question; do you typically point out when a character is white? More likely, you'd probably say something more like "you meet a young elven man" without such descriptors that many of us are conditioned to think of as "default" such as being white or cis. If you point that out to your players, they may go forward with a more realistic picture in their mind's eye of the kind of people you're meeting in the world, even if they're just random shopkeepers and the like without you having to really plan it *every* time.
However, that's mostly just splitting hairs, and the best way to include diversity in your game is to include characters who are nonwhite, non-cis, or LGBTQ.
But always ask yourself, will it have a purpose in the plot?, will it have an influence on how the PC's see's the world?.
If your asnwer is no, then don't bother, my point is that EXPRESSLY showing off and driving that the NPC is gay or something is like having a NPC bragging that he's banging the Tavern Maid , the PC's might be ...
Here I do have to disagree. You don't have to have a "reason" to include diversity. You can include it solely for the "reason" that people like representation, it presents a world more like our own and is therefore more immersive, or characters just come to you a certain way when you're writing them. The "reason" is presenting a more in-depth world to your players, which they'll usually appreciate if you do it well.
It will come up in my campaign setting though. I'm intentionally exploring ethnicity and I guess my question is me trying to find out how I can respectfully go about it.
Ok, one more and I'm done, if I weren't on my phone this world be easier to do in one post:
One last thing to think about is that, unless your game takes on Earth, cultures are not (and shouldn't) match up exactly with their earth counterparts. Concepts we have in our world would likely have different meanings associated with them. Like blackness for example. A black character in DnD has a different history than a black prison on earth, since blackness as a cultural identity stems from the descendants of slaves who had their cultures stripped from them, whereas in a fantasy setting that didn't have slavery as we knew it, characters with black skin may think little of it since they identify more with the region or nation they live in or come from, seeing themselves as distinct from people with similar skin color but different cultures.
This leaves the main danger for being disrespectful in your representation is if you pull in too much earth stuff in your portrayal, which could lead to an incorporation of stereotypes or appropriation.
Question for the masses. I'm trying to be more diverse in my DMing. I want to represent more ethnic groups in my world building and have more diversified NPCs. I myself am not very diverse. Im a straight white male. But I care about representing other groups in my DMing. How do I represent diversity appropriately? And how do I do it in a way that doesn't step into cultural appropriation? Is it offensive to play characters that I do not represent in my sexuality or ethnic background?
A DM is more or less required to play characters that aren't like themselves. Ethnic background isn't usually an issue since the setting is generally a completely different world. As for sexuality, I generally suggest not having your characters have a sexual preference until it is relevant, (unless your players are the type where you're sure it's going to matter) and then having it be whatever makes the most interesting story.
"It's called acting." Or in this case, roleplaying. Pretending to be something you aren't is exactly what we do. It's no more offensive for you to have gay NPCs than it would be for you to write a novel with a gay character.
But here's a question: why? Why are you worried about inclusive representation and cultural appropriation in a work that is designed to be consumed by 3-8 people, tops? I mean, if one of your players is black, it might be nice to include them. But why bother? It would be different if your work had racist caricatures as characters, which seems unlikely to be the case given what you've already said.
You can't own culture or its portrayal. To suggest an exclusive and immutably culture is to promote xenophobia. You are a person, so you are entitled to your own interpretations and depictions of other people's culture-- especially in a fantasy world. If you are so worried that portraying diversity would be offensive because the inauthenticity of your portrayal, then might I suggest only populating your world with straight white dudes?
And for the record: no individual person is diverse. You can't have a diversity and a sample of one. Even if that individual is a mixed-race transgendered person: standing by themselves in a field, they represent a monolithic ethnic and social structure. Groups can have diversity and that is represented by having a variety of differences between its members. However, each member cannot be diverse.
You make a good point. And to answer your question, I care about diversity in my game because I want to change the way the game is viewed: a game for the middle aged straight white man in a basement. And i also want to grow as a person. I want to challenge my own perceptions and biases. And in this day and age, my audience is no longer just 6-8 people. This forum is proof of that. Im talking to you, another human being outside of my basement, about D&D. Not to mention that I will run countless games with many players in my campaign setting for the rest of my life. Today we have more people who play D&D than ever before thanks to things like critical role and other game streams. So I personally want to bring my game out of the stereotype.
But you do make a good point that answered my question perfectly, so thank you. I suppose that is the nature of acting and no one owns humanity. I guess I just want to make sure that in my acting I am respectful and sometimes it can be difficult to know what is appropriate. Because while no one owns humanity, there are some people who live a very different life from the one I live.
It will come up in my campaign setting though. I'm intentionally exploring ethnicity and I guess my question is me trying to find out how I can respectfully go about it.
I think it's a tightrope, to be honest, and there's a spike trap beneath it. I've been mulling over the same thing myself.
I would suggest using description only - describe a character's dark skin or a male character's husband kissing him quickly on the cheek before leaving for work- but steer away from trying to roleplay diversity. NPCs shouldn't be talking *too* much, and this means exaggerating the particular characteristic you want to get across, like cowardice, snootiness, etc... If diversity becomes the primary trait you want to communicate, it will quickly become ebonics fueled RPG blackface, or the flaming-queen stereotypical gay personality, or an indian-analog saying 'deary, deary me' while wobbling his head.
I'd rather have players afterwards saying "he said that guy was gay, but didn't sound gay to me!" than "wow, that camp accent was seriously disrespectful, he's living in the 80s." For that matter, if I don't think I can pull it off respectfully at all, I'd rather my games be seen as lacking diversity than being full of woeful stereotypes.
I would just mention it here and there. When giving exposition talk about the various languages people are speaking or have written on signage as they walk the streets. Have the Inn serve ethnic foods, and describe how this version is just a bit different from the last town because the lamb is basted in yogurt before grilling. Make certain to include a male, female and non-binary individuals in your world, same thing with sexuality. I do not think you have to minimize the assumption of a cis-gendered heteronormative world* as much as recognize that spectrums exist with enough evidence to support diversity without it being "look at my gay person! or see how my halflings have a Moroccan flair?"
*Do not flame me! Do not make ASSUMPTIONS about my viewpoints! Our own world, the Earth we all exist on, is DOMINATED by cis-gendered heteronormative societies.
Yeah. I think, as this is my assumption as someone with a background in studying liberalism (ie. enlightenment philosophy), but I think almost going out of your way to portray someone as gay or as Morrocan (to use your examples) undermines a genuine portrayal of them as people. Sure, an ideologue (e.g. a nationalist) might make aspects like that a core part of their identity, but I think for most people, being a human being is a more central part of who they are and other traits are just what they are. Who a person is would, in my mind be things central to a person's being: what they like, what they don't like, how they behave. Whereas what a person is would include race and class and often superficial tags that we overlay onto a person to give a functional idea of how we interact with them. From experience, it's very frustrating when people treat you differently based on nouns that you've collected rather than on what you do.
As someone who has lived on several different continents, let me just say that people aren't that different. We may do things differently based on culture, but why people behave in Vietnam the way they do isn't so different from people in Canada or Germany. Just the way they go about doing the things we all do. I think if you authentically want to represent people who are "different" to yourself, then just ... give them different traditions and habits. If it seems a little like a stereotype, that's okay: making Canadians say sorry a lot is a stereotype but it's also true, but it's not because Canadians are so apologetic. We just mean something different when we apologise than a culture who seldom apologises. Where this stops being useful is when we don't understand when to break the stereotype. Stereotypes are useful because culture is basically a collection of canned behaviours and values. We often use them, not only our own but others' when in their country, because to do so facilitates social interaction and shows respect for their way of life. But choosing to break norms is to communicate too. It's a statement of identity to say "no" to belonging to a culture.
First of all thank you. I think what you're trying to do is admirable. You have an artistic platform and you're trying to not only entertain with it, but do some good as well by portraying a world that represents a greater diversity of people. Representation matters to people who are used to being the minority. As an example, when my DM casually made an NPC couple in our game two men married to each other and raising a child, I felt very seen and appreciated as a person being someone in a same sex marriage myself. Even something as trivial as the fact that all the characters in Monster Hunter World are left handed tickled me as a left handed person. So yes, I encourage you to make your world represent something different from the 'defaults' of our world.
What if the majority of your world is brown skinned? What if they are left handed? Bisexual? What if the gender roles are flipped or mixed up; women are culturally considered aggressive, emotional, and physically stronger while men are considered logical, physically dexterous, and nurturing?
The trick is to not be trying too hard. Just make whatever your changes are a casual part of your world, mentioned in passing like 'duh, of course that's the way things are.' You could also try making different regions in your world have different defaults.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
If you let those things get to you, you'll have a real hard time Roleplaying NPC's for the party, just play them, If you want characters to feel alive and be part of the world, interpret them like they would be in the real world...
Its not because D&D is primarly a Medevil fantasy setting that suddenly everyone talks like Yee Old English gentleman " Well Dear sir i see Ye are a scoundrel and i stab at Thee", watch games of thrones or Spartacus or something, people talked normaly.
Now since you are interpreting someone, it is actually good to exagerate or exarcerbate some traits he might have, but it does not need to be a caricature, you need to find the right amount of "exageration" so to avoid that two characters sounds the same, i mean unless you're a voice actor or really good at making impressions/accents, but thats not the case for everyone, so you have to work with what you have.
Also about all that diversity and sexuality talk..., just don't do it, the worst thing is that for some reason people feel like YOU NEED to tell or show that the NPC is gay or otherwise, while outside really important plot points, no one is gonna care...
Who gives a **** that the blacksmith is gay?, does he do swords and sell them?, well thats all the PC's will want to know.
If you go like "OH BY THE WAY HE'S GAY!!!!" the only response players will have is "...and?, what as that to do with anything?..."
DMing is a lot like written a play, if you mention or show something, it should have an incidence later on, or else there's no point in doing it, its like Checkov's Rifle, you can off course have fun quirps that helps flesh out things.
But always ask yourself, will it have a purpose in the plot?, will it have an influence on how the PC's see's the world?.
If your asnwer is no, then don't bother, my point is that EXPRESSLY showing off and driving that the NPC is gay or something is like having a NPC bragging that he's banging the Tavern Maid , the PC's might be happy for him, but no one cares...
And since when is it a bad thing to be White and straight by the way?...
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Kain de Frostberg- Dark Knight - (Vengeance Pal3/ Hexblade 9), Port Mourn
Kain de Draakberg-Dark Knight lvl8-Avergreen(DitA)
The straightforward way to add diversity into your game is just... add it, and no need to change anything else.
In-game, have your cities and towns always have a mix of D&D races (elves, dwarves, humans, etc.). When describing humanoids in-game, make sure you use a variety of skin colors and cultural backgrounds. Occasionally have an NPC refer to their husband or wife, which would occasionally out them as straight or gay. You can roll for these things you're having trouble picking which NPC. Add in the occasional NPC whose gender is not known to the players and refer to them by they/them pronouns.
You don't need to make any of this central to the story or particularly relevant, just keep it as flavor, same as when you describe the color of an NPC's house or the size of the bellows at the blacksmith's or the personality of the shopkeeper the PCs are just going to use as a healing potion dispenser.
This will work pretty well. You'll have a setting that's diverse by default and you can tell whatever stories you want in it, following all the standard D&D tropes.
If you want to go further, you can do things like base your campaign around subverting the D&D trope that there are "evil" races - subverting that is common enough that it itself is a trope now - or making diversity or gender/sexuality a central theme in your campaign... I can't really help you there, that takes more knowledge.
But the level 1 approach of "just make the setting diverse and change nothing else" is pretty easy.
I think if this is something that you're interested in you should look to critical role/Matt as a great example of a world in which the DM has incorporated diversity without making characters feel like they're caricatures, and without explicitly needing to call attention to it. some examples (and minor Critical Role spoilers):
- Dairon uses They/Them pronouns. It was as simple as Matt describing them as androgynous in his initial description and using They/Them pronouns whenever he describes what Dairon does/says. Dairon also happens to be one bad mother****er, and their cold, calculating, stern personality and their skills as a monk and spy are the most important thing about their character.
- Allura and Kima are in a relationship. It was first established to the party that they care about one another, embracing when they were reunited, and showing them being caring and tender with one another as they became regular NPCs who were often in scenes together. Matt just described them interacting with one another the way anyone in a couple might do. Allura also happens to be one of the most powerful mages in the world with a kind heart and soft way of speaking, and Kima is a badass paladin with an impulsive streak and a foul mouth.
- Gilmore is queer. He flirts with Vax and isn't shy about hiding his crush. This is the type of NPC interaction that you'd have to be most careful about not trading in stereotypes, but just be cognizant of that. Gilmore is masculine, confident, and flirts with Vax the way any confident person would flirt with someone they were interested in. He's forward, but not sexually inappropriate.
The long and short of it can be summed up as "make your NPCs fully realized people, so that their identity isn't the thing that defines them, it's just one thing about them."
You might also start thinking about more ways in which you can challenge the kinds of default assumptions of our world. The beauty of creating our own fantasy worlds is that we can fill them with whatever cultural norms we want. As Ophidimancer said above:
Just keep a critical eye on our own culture and the ways in which it isn't inclusive, and think about ways you can challenge those norms in your own writing. Create characters who are defined by more than just their racial/gender identities so that when you step into their heads as your NPCs, you're playing them as fully realized people with goals, skills, and unique personalities.
Additionally, to push back on this nugget from Chaosrex above:
He's right that shoehorning an "OH BY THE WAY HE'S GAY!" into the RP would be weird and forced. But consider this: Maybe your PCs want a new sword and also want their armor repaired, and the blacksmith only specializes in weapons but his husband is a good armorer. He could respond with a simple "oh you should talk to my husband, he's better with armor. Hang on a sec...ARMOND! COME TALK TO THESE FOLKS!" Boom, you've just added some diversity into your world that doesn't require you to RP stereotypes, enriches your world's detail, and doesn't make the blacksmith's sexuality the main thing about him. For me, small details like this can transform an NPC interaction from a pre-programmed sequence in which you put in money and get a sword into a conversation with a real person who lives in this world you've built.
I guess it all depends on the kind of world you want to create and the level of immersion that your players are looking for. That said, players who would get annoyed at the kind of example I just gave aren't the kind of players I want at my table, and judging by the question you're asking and the sensitivity you're approaching it with, I'm guessing they're not the kind of players that will be at yours.
"To die would be an awfully big adventure"
This, that was my point, it either is something that can be usefull, if it isn't, then it isn't.
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Kain de Frostberg- Dark Knight - (Vengeance Pal3/ Hexblade 9), Port Mourn
Kain de Draakberg-Dark Knight lvl8-Avergreen(DitA)
IMO, If something is truly integrated, without prejudice, into a society or a setting, it's something that's invisible, or unremarked upon, until and unless it's relevant - and should be numerically represented in the setting/society accurately.
An example that comes to mind for me is right-vs-left-handed. Usually - no one cares. It isn't relevant, for the most part doesn't have much impact on my reaction/interaction with someone. I have to go to some pretty odd fringe scenario thought experiments for that to be relevant, personally.
On the flip side, I think accurately representing the frequency of something in the culture, is also important. If I deliberately described absolutely everyone in the culture as being right handed, that's not a diverse presentation, and I really should have a reason why there are no lefties.
I really like IBernstein's example of the Blacksmith & the Armorer. It's not relevant to the story, but it is presented, but never remarked on, nor is there a big lantern hanging on the point say "hey everyone! They're a gay couple!". If all Blacksmiths were gay, and had Armorer husbands, I'd feel the GM was hammering on the point over-much and would feel like there was some kind of social agenda going on with the GM, which I wouldn't be thrilled about.
Likewise I liked the presentation of the Watchmaster Bryce in the second campaign of Critical Role . Their non-binary gender presentation isn't relevant, and isn't remarked upon, but it's not hidden.
Not harping on or over-emphasizing non-relevant but non-hidden cultural elements or subgroups is not hard to do with a bit of thought and practice. Not hiding, or glossing over, those aspects when they are relevant isn't hard either.
Figuring out a fair and realistic frequency of presentation - that's something that I struggle with.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
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Thats a good point. Its like how captain marvel is advocating something good but because she shoves it down our throats it's hard to not hate her. Usually it's best to be subtle. I like that point of view thanks.
Chaosrex: I think i get what you mean. I have a group who does care if the blacksmith is gay. Not because the blacksmith cant be straight but because they like seeing diversity every now and then. But I get what you mean. No one likes it when you scream politics at them out of nowhere.
Another question; do you typically point out when a character is white? More likely, you'd probably say something more like "you meet a young elven man" without such descriptors that many of us are conditioned to think of as "default" such as being white or cis. If you point that out to your players, they may go forward with a more realistic picture in their mind's eye of the kind of people you're meeting in the world, even if they're just random shopkeepers and the like without you having to really plan it *every* time.
However, that's mostly just splitting hairs, and the best way to include diversity in your game is to include characters who are nonwhite, non-cis, or LGBTQ.
Here I do have to disagree. You don't have to have a "reason" to include diversity. You can include it solely for the "reason" that people like representation, it presents a world more like our own and is therefore more immersive, or characters just come to you a certain way when you're writing them. The "reason" is presenting a more in-depth world to your players, which they'll usually appreciate if you do it well.
Ok, one more and I'm done, if I weren't on my phone this world be easier to do in one post:
One last thing to think about is that, unless your game takes on Earth, cultures are not (and shouldn't) match up exactly with their earth counterparts. Concepts we have in our world would likely have different meanings associated with them. Like blackness for example. A black character in DnD has a different history than a black prison on earth, since blackness as a cultural identity stems from the descendants of slaves who had their cultures stripped from them, whereas in a fantasy setting that didn't have slavery as we knew it, characters with black skin may think little of it since they identify more with the region or nation they live in or come from, seeing themselves as distinct from people with similar skin color but different cultures.
This leaves the main danger for being disrespectful in your representation is if you pull in too much earth stuff in your portrayal, which could lead to an incorporation of stereotypes or appropriation.
Unless it's integral to the plot, diversifying NPC's isn't necessary.
But If you really feel that you need to, use it sparingly, or it will seem forced or artificial.