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Arts|Dungeons & Dragons Rolls the Dice With New Rules About Identity
  
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dungeons-and-dragons-rule-changes-race-species.html

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An overhead view of a man rolling dice behind a screen. He also has a
phone, character cards and a pad of paper.
Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, endorsed a
trend throughout role-playing games in which players are empowered to
halt the proceedings if they ever feel uncomfortable.Credit...Simon
Simard for The New York Times

Dungeons & Dragons Rolls the Dice With New Rules About Identity

The role-playing game replaced "race" with "species" and divorced
several character traits from biological identity. Some longtime
players are upset (as is Elon Musk).

Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, endorsed a
trend throughout role-playing games in which players are empowered to
halt the proceedings if they ever feel uncomfortable.Credit...Simon
Simard for The New York Times

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Marc Tracy

By Marc Tracy

  * Dec. 30, 2024Updated 7:52 a.m. ET

While solving quests in Dungeons & Dragons, the gamers who role-play
as elves, orcs and halflings rely on the abilities and personalities
of their custom-made characters, whose innate charisma and strength
are as crucial to success as the rolls of 20-sided dice.

That is why the game's first significant rule changes in a decade,
which became official this fall as it celebrated its 50th
anniversary, reverberated through the Dungeons & Dragons community
and beyond. They prompted praise and disdain at game tables
everywhere, along with YouTube harangues and irritated social media
posts from Elon Musk.

"Races" are now "species." Some character traits have been divorced
from biological identity; a mountain dwarf is no longer inherently
brawny and durable, a high elf no longer intelligent and dexterous by
definition. And Wizards of the Coast, the Dungeons & Dragons
publisher owned by Hasbro, has endorsed a trend throughout
role-playing games in which players are empowered to halt the
proceedings if they ever feel uncomfortable.

"What they're trying to do here is put up a signal flare, to not only
current players but potential future players, that this game is a
safe, inclusive, thoughtful and sensitive approach to fantasy
storytelling," said Ryan Lessard, a writer and frequent Dungeons &
Dragons dungeon master.

The changes have exposed a rift among Dungeons & Dragons players, a
group as passionate as its pursuit is esoteric, becoming part of the
broader cultural debate about how to balance principles like
inclusivity and accessibility with history and tradition.

Robert J. Kuntz, an award-winning game designer who frequently
collaborated with Gary Gygax, a co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons,
said he disliked Wizards of the Coast's efforts to legislate from
above rather than provide room for dungeon masters -- the game's
ringleaders and referees -- to tailor their individual campaigns.

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