Dungeons & Dragons has a history of evolving to meet the needs of our players and foster an inviting space for everyone.

With that in mind, we understand "race" is a problematic term that has had prejudiced links between real world people and the fantasy peoples of D&D worlds. The usage of the term across D&D and other popular IP has evolved over time. Now it’s time for the next evolution.

Since the release of the fifth edition of D&D in 2014, we have made the conscious decision to reduce usage of the term “race” to only apply to the game mechanic. We took this a step further with the release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything in 2020 when we presented an alternative to character creation that untangled ability score improvements from your choice of playable people. We have also evolved the lore of the peoples throughout the D&D multiverse to be more diligent in extracting past prejudices, stereotypes, and unconscious biases.

The 2024 core rulebooks give us an opportunity to go deeper into every component of Dungeons & Dragons. The immense interest and level of feedback across the first few playtest material releases shows us the value in having an open dialogue with our community about everything related to the game.

In the next Unearthed Arcana containing playtest materials for the 2024 core rulebooks, we are presenting a replacement for the term "race." That new term is “species.”

We know this is an important change to D&D—one that requires an open conversation with our community. And we want to be clear about a few things as we playtest the new term.

• We have made the decision to move on from using the term "race" in the 2024 core rulebooks, and we do not intend to return to that term.
• The term "species" was chosen in close coordination with multiple outside cultural consultants.
• In the survey for this Unearthed Arcana playtest, which will go live on December 21, players will be able to give feedback on the term “species” along with everything else present in the playtest materials.

Having an open conversation around the term "race" is both important and challenging. That is why it's vital we foster a positive, open, and understanding dialogue with one another. We welcome your constructive feedback on this evolution and the many more evolutions to D&D that make this game exciting, open, and accessible to everyone. Dragons and elves belong in our world, and so do you.

This article was updated on June 9, 2023, to clarify messaging around the 2024 core rulebooks.