It's not unreasonable for the area the PCs are in to be overwhelming one racial group, and thus you only need to mention race for people not from that area. If they go to a different area, the dominant racial group might change, with a side effect of the PCs suddenly standing out like sore thumbs. The big trap to avoid is when the 'advanced' parts of the world are the same as the areas where white folk dwell, and the 'primitive' areas are where brown/black/etc people dwell.
The podcast Three Black Halflings has great episodes on this. I highly recommend checking it out. The three hosts are charming, insightful and pretty damn funny.
There is a far wider issue then diversifying humanoid NPC’s this is relatively easy to do, when I am populating my world I have a mix of races, cultures and religions but I will also create a mix of sexualities.
But this is not the main issue, the main issue is the racial appropriation given to certain races. Orcs are always violent and of lower intelligence, dwarfs are always stubborn, elves are up themselves. There is a great article here.
Personally in my campaign I try and upend that narrative, orcs have a complicated and intricate society and are generally peace loving, yea there are some who go against that, just as there are humans who do.
In terms of humanoid physiology remember that the color of someone’s skin is in a large part an evolutionary step to help protect from the elements, namely the darker someone’s skin the odds are they have come from a hot sunny place and evolution has triggered the generation of additional pigmentation to protect from the sun. As climate gets colder so the skin gets fairer and fairer.
Having said that in a land where magical catastrophes can happen I have had a largely darker skinned culture live in a snowbound Icey wilderness, the changes brought about by magic far faster then evolution could keep up with.
I would say that to truly incorporate diversity, as several others have mentioned, it should simply be part of the descriptions of the NPC's as the party encounters them. Examples:
The shopkeeper comes out, a very short, rotund little fellow, dark skinned with tight curly hair. He beams a wide smile to the group and greets them. {addition: during the discussions, an equally short male emerges from the back, his long, blonde hair almost blending with his slightly tinted face. "I'm running over to Ibell's, hun, do we need anything for supper tonight?" Gives the shopkeep a peck on the cheek before setting out}
A tall, imposing Dragonborn walks into the tavern, glancing about. She smiles as her eyes come to rest on a slender Teifling seated near your table. She approaches the table and the pair share an uncomfortably long kiss before sitting down again. With a gesture, she summons a waiter, who soon thereafter delivers a carafe if wine to the ladies' table.
Have mixed couples abound, if you really want to showcase it. male-male, female-female, mixed races (ie: the Dragonborn/Tiefling couple above) and so on. Simply make the NPC's who are dealing with each other or coupled in the areas the party visits varied, with NO impact, everyone simply ignores the differences would likely be best IMO. Making the differences VERY stark and completely accepted (a Dwarf/Gnome couple perhaps) by everyone around would give the feeling of equality and diversity. I truly believe it should be a lot simpler than a lot of folks want it to be. Simply making sure you have a number of different races/colors/ethnicities around should give a feeling of inclusion for all the races and such for your players.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
One of my players came up to me saying that they didn't like how there weren't any gay characters in my campaign. Umm... Excuse me? I haven't heard you ask any of the characters if they're gay or not? How do you know that every single character you've met is straight?! It was such an odd and unnecessary complaint...
One of my players came up to me saying that they didn't like how there weren't any gay characters in my campaign. Umm... Excuse me? I haven't heard you ask any of the characters if they're gay or not? How do you know that every single character you've met is straight?! It was such an odd and unnecessary complaint...
The question is whether you've represented the sexuality of any of your npcs. If you've introduced the wives/husbands of straight NPCs, sign posting the fact that they are straight, then it's fair for the PC to ask to up the inclusivity a little. It shouldn't be that straight relationships are obvious, but gay relationships are assumed. That's just another way to force gay people into the background.
If NPC personal relationships are deemed strictly irrelevant and unimportant to the game, then I'd say it's reasonable to say so. Point out to the player that they've seen neither straight nor non-straight relationships in your world, but they absolutely both exist, and that some NPCs they encountered may well be gay. Point out that it's unrealistic that an NPC would announce their sexuality to strangers at first meeting, and it's almost impossible roleplay a character as obviously gay without resorting to inaccurate stereotypes. Of course, only take that tack if it's true and you're going to be consistent thereafter, otherwise it's just a bullshit excuse for heteronormativity. If you do start introducing relationships, pepper in non-straight ones. It will mean a lot to your player and it's very little work on your part.
If you are willing to represent diversity, but unsure how to do it without offending, there's a ton of guidance on this thread. Mostly it boils down to "don't make any bigger a deal of it than you would a straight relationship." Ask the player if they'd be willing to help you, but do not rely on them alone and do not make it a prerequisite. You've not said whether that player is themself gay, but the legwork of acceptance should not fall on them.
Addressing diversity is a great thing, and I do it in my games. But just as in real life, players only discover the sexuality of an NPC if they meet them in appropriate circumstances. That goes for gay and straight NPCs alike.
I have actually run a campaign where one particular nation's government deemed all mix race relationships and children illegal. So Half Elves, Half Orcs, any combination of any 2 races was illegal by citizens, and any travellers or outsiders where treated as sub class. The party had a couple of half elves in the party, that part of the campaign they got involved with a resistance movement and then helped bring the government down, but the views of individuals living in the nation took alot longer to change.
I try to have some diversity in my games while still having it make sense. For example, most people with darker skin live in the south, since that's closer to the equator, and where most sunlight falls. However, there are also plenty of darker-skinned people in the north, whether they moved upwards for work, to be with family, or because a demonic invasion destroyed most of the south. Quite a few important NPCs (and one PC) are darker-skinned, and nobody really comments on it. It's just a fact of the world.
I also try to have people who are gay, and I don't really make a big deal of it. For example, the male leader of the New Dawn (read: group patron) had a romantic relationship with the male BBEG. It's not a big thing. They just happen to like people of the same gender.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
I try to have some diversity in my games while still having it make sense. For example, most people with darker skin live in the south, since that's closer to the equator, and where most sunlight falls. However, there are also plenty of darker-skinned people in the north, whether they moved upwards for work, to be with family, or because a demonic invasion destroyed most of the south. Quite a few important NPCs (and one PC) are darker-skinned, and nobody really comments on it. It's just a fact of the world.
I also try to have people who are gay, and I don't really make a big deal of it. For example, the male leader of the New Dawn (read: group patron) had a romantic relationship with the male BBEG. It's not a big thing. They just happen to like people of the same gender.
I, too, like the idea of the relationships being a simple side note, the husband giving his husband a quick peck on the cheek as he leaves for work, the Lady of the manner asking her wife to grab potatoes on the way home tonight. Toss it in, as any other interaction and carry on.
So far as including equality between male and female characters, I honestly have NEVER given it a thought. I come up with the NPC, develop who they are and set them into my campaign. Looking over my recent notes, a LOT of the powerful folks in my campaign turned out to be female. Not by design or anything, just that the NPC I was making came across as a woman in my mind. I guess that's why I don't tend to run into too many issues with it, as I don't even really consider if a male or female would be more apt to be in a position of power. In my world, people don't have time to waste on bickering which sex is superior, everyone is judged on their merit and ability. In regards to race, Orcs and Goblins have been the main foes thus far, yet in the Keep where my party has been getting their orders, the cook is an Orc. I just kind of throw whatever race pops into my head as the NPC, rarely giving any real consideration to balancing things. As a result, it happens pretty naturally.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
So far as including equality between male and female characters, I honestly have NEVER given it a thought. I come up with the NPC, develop who they are and set them into my campaign.
Except in very specific circumstances (the Emperor of Rome, the BBEG, one character's g/f and mother from his background, specified by the player, etc.), I almost always roll 1d6 for NPCs, 1-3 = male, 4-6 = female.
I also have a race (or species I guess) chart, and I randomly roll for that too, based on what region they are in. I also randomly roll up personalities and such. So... if it turned out that, say, my campaign seemed to have a lot of grumpy male dwarves, that'd be on the d100s, not on me... ;)
*peeks in* Hm. My elven courts are openly LGBTQ- especially the leader of the Court of Spring, a bigendered wood elf moon druid that changes their physical make up using Alter Self with frequency. They're married to the high elf wild sorcerer from the Court of Summer, who does favor wearing a female form but, well, wild magic. The two are, ahem, adventurous.
I have four fey courts, which are a combination of the four seasons, the four times of day, and the four directions (ala asian directional gods) - Spring/Dawn/East, Summer/Noon/South, Autumn/Dusk/West, Winter/Night/North. This creates a kind of potentially-offensive blend of european and asian thematics, but that's true of my human nations too - they're dominated by a struggle between Church (clerics and paladins) and Sects (monk monasteries) factions that hold influence over the nobility and royalty. Basically, I kind of took western fantasy and Chinese xianxia and wiggled them together.
Tieflings, dragonborn, giants and genasi have been merged into a single elemental-based culture, which, yes, still has the whole 1001 Arabian Nights vibe.
This is how I've gone about doing diversity in my setting. Probably offensive somewhere, but I'm an american white girl that wants to represent more than Europe that's not willing to pay for a multicultural professional to look everything over.
One of my characters is playing a Satyr Escort, that instantly forced me to consider is sex work legal in my world, how are prostitutes viewed, if there are female escorts there must also be male. How will this satyr be viewed by other members of her own society when they find out what she does. For me Diversity isn't just about the obvious prejudices, but is about taing all those aspects of race in the real world, and then imagining it spun out over a society that is made up of dozens and dozens of different types of intelligent creature. It is about looking at not just my material plane but the othe rplanes my players may visit, how are different types of creatures treated in the 9 hells, or in the Fey Wild.
*peeks in* Hm. My elven courts are openly LGBTQ- especially the leader of the Court of Spring, a bigendered wood elf moon druid that changes their physical make up using Alter Self with frequency. They're married to the high elf wild sorcerer from the Court of Summer, who does favor wearing a female form but, well, wild magic. The two are, ahem, adventurous.
Personally I have seen so many elven societies run like this over the years I tend to keep mine nowdays very stoic and single minded. High born Elves, of all the races are the most likely to be racist, Half Elves are looked down on as being less even then humans, Drow are considered inferior and lesser even then Half Elves (Drow in my world are not inherently followers of Loth and are threrefore not inherently evil). But within my Draconic society there is also a very clear racial element, metallic's look down on chromatics, to the point that very few chromatics have no positions of power or authority in Dragon born government. Dragon born without tails are then considered the lesser of there own type. Metallic Dragon born who have not left the Draconic isles generally look down on the other humanoid races as being far beneath them. Chromatics are more likely to be accepting and understanding. But again this is a generalisation and there are plenty of examples of this not being the case.
Tieflings are the most accepting of all races in general, being used to being the outsider and being shunned or looked at with suspicion they are accepting of all people.
In terms of gender and relationships, without thought my world is just open, there is no general issues in any of my of LGBTQ relationships or lifestyles. I imagine there are pockets of people who have opinions, either based on religion or fear, but they are the minority and my players have not come across them yet.
I try to have some diversity in my games while still having it make sense. For example, most people with darker skin live in the south, since that's closer to the equator, and where most sunlight falls. However, there are also plenty of darker-skinned people in the north, whether they moved upwards for work, to be with family, or because a demonic invasion destroyed most of the south. Quite a few important NPCs (and one PC) are darker-skinned, and nobody really comments on it. It's just a fact of the world.
I also try to have people who are gay, and I don't really make a big deal of it. For example, the male leader of the New Dawn (read: group patron) had a romantic relationship with the male BBEG. It's not a big thing. They just happen to like people of the same gender.
I really like the way you handle things.
same !!
personally, I deal with diversity as just a normality. It's not emphasized, its just there because it's normal to be there. Color of skin and accent reflects the region the character is from. There's more variation in different locations (ex, an elven city that doesnt accept outsiders and resides in a sunny area will probably result in most of the city being darker than other places) and it all depends on weather and climate really. Of course people will move and mingle from their original cities and human melting pot cities will be more diverse than isolated dwarven compounds, but I try to keep it equal and not really shoved in people's faces. Too much diversity can be just as detrimental honestly, because it just ends up looking like you're pandering.
For LGBTQ, I actually tend to add a lot of that to my world. Even though I'm garbage at writing romance, I will include elements into the campaign that make sense (ex: my big bad was ace because she finds romance boring in comparison to causing chaos). It's not like it's a big deal, it's just the way it is. Fun fact for people in tales of adventurers tavern pbp, atemos is pan.
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— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
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It's not unreasonable for the area the PCs are in to be overwhelming one racial group, and thus you only need to mention race for people not from that area. If they go to a different area, the dominant racial group might change, with a side effect of the PCs suddenly standing out like sore thumbs. The big trap to avoid is when the 'advanced' parts of the world are the same as the areas where white folk dwell, and the 'primitive' areas are where brown/black/etc people dwell.
The podcast Three Black Halflings has great episodes on this. I highly recommend checking it out. The three hosts are charming, insightful and pretty damn funny.
There is a far wider issue then diversifying humanoid NPC’s this is relatively easy to do, when I am populating my world I have a mix of races, cultures and religions but I will also create a mix of sexualities.
But this is not the main issue, the main issue is the racial appropriation given to certain races. Orcs are always violent and of lower intelligence, dwarfs are always stubborn, elves are up themselves. There is a great article here.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/dandd-must-grapple-with-the-racism-in-fantasy/amp
Personally in my campaign I try and upend that narrative, orcs have a complicated and intricate society and are generally peace loving, yea there are some who go against that, just as there are humans who do.
In terms of humanoid physiology remember that the color of someone’s skin is in a large part an evolutionary step to help protect from the elements, namely the darker someone’s skin the odds are they have come from a hot sunny place and evolution has triggered the generation of additional pigmentation to protect from the sun. As climate gets colder so the skin gets fairer and fairer.
Having said that in a land where magical catastrophes can happen I have had a largely darker skinned culture live in a snowbound Icey wilderness, the changes brought about by magic far faster then evolution could keep up with.
I would say that to truly incorporate diversity, as several others have mentioned, it should simply be part of the descriptions of the NPC's as the party encounters them. Examples:
The shopkeeper comes out, a very short, rotund little fellow, dark skinned with tight curly hair. He beams a wide smile to the group and greets them.
{addition: during the discussions, an equally short male emerges from the back, his long, blonde hair almost blending with his slightly tinted face. "I'm running over to Ibell's, hun, do we need anything for supper tonight?" Gives the shopkeep a peck on the cheek before setting out}
A tall, imposing Dragonborn walks into the tavern, glancing about. She smiles as her eyes come to rest on a slender Teifling seated near your table. She approaches the table and the pair share an uncomfortably long kiss before sitting down again. With a gesture, she summons a waiter, who soon thereafter delivers a carafe if wine to the ladies' table.
Have mixed couples abound, if you really want to showcase it. male-male, female-female, mixed races (ie: the Dragonborn/Tiefling couple above) and so on. Simply make the NPC's who are dealing with each other or coupled in the areas the party visits varied, with NO impact, everyone simply ignores the differences would likely be best IMO. Making the differences VERY stark and completely accepted (a Dwarf/Gnome couple perhaps) by everyone around would give the feeling of equality and diversity. I truly believe it should be a lot simpler than a lot of folks want it to be. Simply making sure you have a number of different races/colors/ethnicities around should give a feeling of inclusion for all the races and such for your players.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
One of my players came up to me saying that they didn't like how there weren't any gay characters in my campaign.
Umm... Excuse me? I haven't heard you ask any of the characters if they're gay or not? How do you know that every single character you've met is straight?! It was such an odd and unnecessary complaint...
The question is whether you've represented the sexuality of any of your npcs. If you've introduced the wives/husbands of straight NPCs, sign posting the fact that they are straight, then it's fair for the PC to ask to up the inclusivity a little. It shouldn't be that straight relationships are obvious, but gay relationships are assumed. That's just another way to force gay people into the background.
If NPC personal relationships are deemed strictly irrelevant and unimportant to the game, then I'd say it's reasonable to say so. Point out to the player that they've seen neither straight nor non-straight relationships in your world, but they absolutely both exist, and that some NPCs they encountered may well be gay. Point out that it's unrealistic that an NPC would announce their sexuality to strangers at first meeting, and it's almost impossible roleplay a character as obviously gay without resorting to inaccurate stereotypes. Of course, only take that tack if it's true and you're going to be consistent thereafter, otherwise it's just a bullshit excuse for heteronormativity. If you do start introducing relationships, pepper in non-straight ones. It will mean a lot to your player and it's very little work on your part.
If you are willing to represent diversity, but unsure how to do it without offending, there's a ton of guidance on this thread. Mostly it boils down to "don't make any bigger a deal of it than you would a straight relationship." Ask the player if they'd be willing to help you, but do not rely on them alone and do not make it a prerequisite. You've not said whether that player is themself gay, but the legwork of acceptance should not fall on them.
Addressing diversity is a great thing, and I do it in my games. But just as in real life, players only discover the sexuality of an NPC if they meet them in appropriate circumstances. That goes for gay and straight NPCs alike.
I have actually run a campaign where one particular nation's government deemed all mix race relationships and children illegal. So Half Elves, Half Orcs, any combination of any 2 races was illegal by citizens, and any travellers or outsiders where treated as sub class. The party had a couple of half elves in the party, that part of the campaign they got involved with a resistance movement and then helped bring the government down, but the views of individuals living in the nation took alot longer to change.
I try to have some diversity in my games while still having it make sense. For example, most people with darker skin live in the south, since that's closer to the equator, and where most sunlight falls. However, there are also plenty of darker-skinned people in the north, whether they moved upwards for work, to be with family, or because a demonic invasion destroyed most of the south. Quite a few important NPCs (and one PC) are darker-skinned, and nobody really comments on it. It's just a fact of the world.
I also try to have people who are gay, and I don't really make a big deal of it. For example, the male leader of the New Dawn (read: group patron) had a romantic relationship with the male BBEG. It's not a big thing. They just happen to like people of the same gender.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
I really like the way you handle things.
I, too, like the idea of the relationships being a simple side note, the husband giving his husband a quick peck on the cheek as he leaves for work, the Lady of the manner asking her wife to grab potatoes on the way home tonight. Toss it in, as any other interaction and carry on.
So far as including equality between male and female characters, I honestly have NEVER given it a thought. I come up with the NPC, develop who they are and set them into my campaign. Looking over my recent notes, a LOT of the powerful folks in my campaign turned out to be female. Not by design or anything, just that the NPC I was making came across as a woman in my mind. I guess that's why I don't tend to run into too many issues with it, as I don't even really consider if a male or female would be more apt to be in a position of power. In my world, people don't have time to waste on bickering which sex is superior, everyone is judged on their merit and ability. In regards to race, Orcs and Goblins have been the main foes thus far, yet in the Keep where my party has been getting their orders, the cook is an Orc. I just kind of throw whatever race pops into my head as the NPC, rarely giving any real consideration to balancing things. As a result, it happens pretty naturally.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Except in very specific circumstances (the Emperor of Rome, the BBEG, one character's g/f and mother from his background, specified by the player, etc.), I almost always roll 1d6 for NPCs, 1-3 = male, 4-6 = female.
I also have a race (or species I guess) chart, and I randomly roll for that too, based on what region they are in. I also randomly roll up personalities and such. So... if it turned out that, say, my campaign seemed to have a lot of grumpy male dwarves, that'd be on the d100s, not on me... ;)
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
*peeks in* Hm. My elven courts are openly LGBTQ- especially the leader of the Court of Spring, a bigendered wood elf moon druid that changes their physical make up using Alter Self with frequency. They're married to the high elf wild sorcerer from the Court of Summer, who does favor wearing a female form but, well, wild magic. The two are, ahem, adventurous.
I have four fey courts, which are a combination of the four seasons, the four times of day, and the four directions (ala asian directional gods) - Spring/Dawn/East, Summer/Noon/South, Autumn/Dusk/West, Winter/Night/North. This creates a kind of potentially-offensive blend of european and asian thematics, but that's true of my human nations too - they're dominated by a struggle between Church (clerics and paladins) and Sects (monk monasteries) factions that hold influence over the nobility and royalty. Basically, I kind of took western fantasy and Chinese xianxia and wiggled them together.
Tieflings, dragonborn, giants and genasi have been merged into a single elemental-based culture, which, yes, still has the whole 1001 Arabian Nights vibe.
This is how I've gone about doing diversity in my setting. Probably offensive somewhere, but I'm an american white girl that wants to represent more than Europe that's not willing to pay for a multicultural professional to look everything over.
One of my characters is playing a Satyr Escort, that instantly forced me to consider is sex work legal in my world, how are prostitutes viewed, if there are female escorts there must also be male. How will this satyr be viewed by other members of her own society when they find out what she does. For me Diversity isn't just about the obvious prejudices, but is about taing all those aspects of race in the real world, and then imagining it spun out over a society that is made up of dozens and dozens of different types of intelligent creature. It is about looking at not just my material plane but the othe rplanes my players may visit, how are different types of creatures treated in the 9 hells, or in the Fey Wild.
Personally I have seen so many elven societies run like this over the years I tend to keep mine nowdays very stoic and single minded. High born Elves, of all the races are the most likely to be racist, Half Elves are looked down on as being less even then humans, Drow are considered inferior and lesser even then Half Elves (Drow in my world are not inherently followers of Loth and are threrefore not inherently evil). But within my Draconic society there is also a very clear racial element, metallic's look down on chromatics, to the point that very few chromatics have no positions of power or authority in Dragon born government. Dragon born without tails are then considered the lesser of there own type. Metallic Dragon born who have not left the Draconic isles generally look down on the other humanoid races as being far beneath them. Chromatics are more likely to be accepting and understanding. But again this is a generalisation and there are plenty of examples of this not being the case.
Tieflings are the most accepting of all races in general, being used to being the outsider and being shunned or looked at with suspicion they are accepting of all people.
In terms of gender and relationships, without thought my world is just open, there is no general issues in any of my of LGBTQ relationships or lifestyles. I imagine there are pockets of people who have opinions, either based on religion or fear, but they are the minority and my players have not come across them yet.
same !!
personally, I deal with diversity as just a normality. It's not emphasized, its just there because it's normal to be there. Color of skin and accent reflects the region the character is from. There's more variation in different locations (ex, an elven city that doesnt accept outsiders and resides in a sunny area will probably result in most of the city being darker than other places) and it all depends on weather and climate really. Of course people will move and mingle from their original cities and human melting pot cities will be more diverse than isolated dwarven compounds, but I try to keep it equal and not really shoved in people's faces. Too much diversity can be just as detrimental honestly, because it just ends up looking like you're pandering.
For LGBTQ, I actually tend to add a lot of that to my world. Even though I'm garbage at writing romance, I will include elements into the campaign that make sense (ex: my big bad was ace because she finds romance boring in comparison to causing chaos). It's not like it's a big deal, it's just the way it is. Fun fact for people in tales of adventurers tavern pbp, atemos is pan.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
making a smoothie for meta
——————| EXTENDED SIG |——————
Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ