Races: How they don't get along

[Azreal]

So has anyone played DnD that had any real specism in it? Personally any game I've played where it was well known/established that certain races just don't normally get along with other races or were feared, etc. I've never seen it played out so I've been wondering about other people's experiences.

[DarthPenance]

Not really much, we had some racism against our party's Tiefling and Genasi have been subject to fear and in the Genasi's case, having a curious Wizard want to analise him, but as we did more heroic things, those things began to not appear anymore among the common folk, the nobles are still like that tought. The other two party members are human, so we haven't seen any racism among the most common races.

[Naanomi]

It's a pretty big thing in my home setting. Humans and Goblinoids rule the planet, with humans idolozing elves and dwarves and being pretty 'superior' to everyone else... some races definetly get it worse. Gensai are mostly a slave race and everyone is surprised at the idea of a free Gensai. Dragonborn rule a militaristic continent and people assume they are invaders or spies for that empire

[Tawmis]

So has anyone played DnD that had any real specism in it? Personally any game I've played where it was well known/established that certain races just don't normally get along with other races or were feared, etc. I've never seen it played out so I've been wondering about other people's experiences.

Current campaign has a Tiefling (bard), and two half orcs (one barb, one rogue). I enjoy "hiking up the prices" in small towns, when the party needs food, drinks, rooms, and sometimes, denying them service entirely. I don't do it all the time, because then it discourages the players, but from time to time, as a gentle reminder that they're playing what is "unusual" (in my campaign setting, where half-orcs and tieflings are both "relatively new" to the world). There's also a Dragonborn in the party, but the Silver Dragons are highly loved by the people, so she doesn't get too much trouble.

[GlenSmash!]

In my current game inhabitants of most towns and villages distrust not only members of other Races, but also members of their own race that are from a different culture. Players can overcome this by becoming more renowned as heroes.

[Fflewddur Fflam]

I have a Ghostwise Halfling that's racist towards non-Ghostwise Halflings because of the war that drove his race out of Lurien.

[Potato_Priest]

I have played in such a campaign. Mere mention of the "Dragonborn Empire" still brings much gnashing of teeth at our table, a year since we last left that accursed place. In the Empire, Dragonborn are the one ruling race, and all others were put to work in factories for extremely low pay and barely any rights. When the capitol city of the dragon-born was attacked by a composite army of other reptilians, they sent barely armed dwarf, halfling, human and elf peasants out to fight and die. If it hadn't been for the fact that the Reptilian invaders were a serious threat, they probably wouldn't have even armed them.

[Dr. Cliché]

It's not something I see come up much, which I feel is a missed opportunity.

I don't expect certain races to be persecuted at every turn, but it does seem rather incongruous when a half-orc, Drow and Tiefling walk into town and no one bats an eyelid. :smallconfused:

I haven't encountered it so far in any of the campaigns I've been involved in in 5th (save for in my own backstory as a Tiefling). And, in the campaign I ran, everyone was using the 'good' races.


Anyway, here are some ideas for this sort of thing:

- Tiefling, Drow and half-orcs are regarded with suspicion in most civilised regions.

- Some towns or cities may be reluctant to let such races into them at all. If the party contains a paladin, a noble or such, then they may be asked to vouch for the offending member(s) in order for them to gain access. If the tiefling/drow/half-orc commits any crimes, the person who vouched for them may be held accountable also.

- Tieflings, Drow and half-orcs may be the first suspects whenever a crime is committed that fits with people's perceptions of them. e.g. if a person is found dead, having been hacked or clubbed to death in an alley, people will suspect the half-orc (even if the one in town is actually a sorcerer). Not that they won't necessarily be arrested, just automatic suspects and the first people the guards will question.

- In times of conflict, some areas may want to expel or lock up the above races. Especially if they are being attacked by members of the same race. e.g. if a city is being raided by Drow, it may want to lock up any Drow citizens - just in case. If a Drow has proved himself loyal to the city on multiple occasions, then he'll probably be spared this. But one who is unknown to the authorities will probably be detained - even if the party couches for him.

In terms of the other races, they usually won't have the above problems (unless an area is basically run by a group of xenophobes or such). There can still be exceptions though. For example, a Dwarf city warring with an Elven one may take the same approach with Elves as the Drow example above. Most of the time though, these races will probably be accepted without issue.

Of course, if the party ends up going to a drow city or orc settlement, they might well find these roles reversed.

[M Placeholder]

I have a Ghostwise Halfling that's racist towards non-Ghostwise Halflings because of the war that drove his race out of Lurien.

In the FR game I DM'ed, one of the players was a half orc and there was plenty of suspect glances and some anger directed at him, but not because he was a half orc - the setting was Thesk and the Great Vale. It was because he was a Paladin of Helm.

[Mith]

While my current campaign that I am playing doesn't have a whole lot of racism, we do have a few points. Notibly "It's hard for a goblin to get any decent work." and slavers with an orc boy.

Part of the reasoning is because we are interacting more on the interior, so the direct impact of orcs isn't felt as much. Though the party also containing a Dragonborn Paladin probably helps.

[StoicLeaf]

I run a campaign where the "evil" races are treated differently.

Big cities are likely to be tolerant (although if push came to shove, their race would be leveraged against them), rural areas less so. Cities that are known as being trade ports are more tolerant, isolated kingdoms less so. If there are any kingdoms or cities where no one cared what you look like, they're super rare.

I'm also currently playing in a campaign where I get to play a medusa!
Having serious difficulties getting around cities. Except for one where I've managed to garner a positive reputation.

[Joe the Rat]

Oh, my players will heap abuse upon one another even without the racial differences. It just makes an easy touchstone (The mist elf smells like fish, the gnome needs a high chair and to be kept away from breakables, etc.).

"Halflings are, in general, untrustworthy folk with strong criminal and familial leanings." Think Mafia. This is a notion the party bought into. So when they are resting in a blended human-halfling community, and notice something suspicious about a halfling they met on the way in, they go to the town guard, and try to get him arrested on grounds of being suspicious and a halfling. I got to dress them down in my finest fake Brooklyn accent, and the gnome spent the night in jail for disturbing the peace (because he wouldn't shut up about it).
They were right about him being a criminal. He was an expy of Kaveman's Snickle. He just hadn't done anything yet.

Goblinoids are not allowed within the city walls in many places. This made dragging their NPC minions around difficult - they either had to stay outside the walls proper, or do a lot of sweet-talking. Now that a goblin has joined the party proper, it's led to some interesting interactions.

We also have the standard elves hate dwarves, elves hate gnomes, elves hate humans, elves hate other elves... Elves are pretty much the biggest bastards in the setting. Five flavors, four of which range from exclusionary to xenophobic. The fifth are pirates.

[Fishyninja]

I don't know if this counts, but in a LMOP campaign by chance our entire party is either Half-Elves or Elves, the only non elf character is a Changeling, who is currently disguised as an elf. We have recieved a little stereoptyping (elve's and their magic, sodding knife ear etc.) but nothing huge. The Red-Brands are extremely racist but then again we are murdering them.

In another campaign of LMOP we had a; 3 Humans, a Tiefling, a Genasi and a Wood Elf. Again no one really batted an eyelid at the Genasi, the Tiefling was disguised.

[mr-mercer]

My half-orc in the campaign I'm currently playing in (we're doing Lost Mine of Phandelver at the moment, with plans to branch into an original campaign when that's done) is getting a small amount of prejudice from the town master of Phandalin, but not to the degree that it actually affects him functionally. He's otherwise been untouched by it, though.

We also have a tiefling in our group, and our human monk is from an order that hunts monsters and fiends in particular, which has caused a strong level of friction between the two (in character only, mind: it's all in good fun OOC). My character, who is otherwise the abrasive yet professional mercenary, has to play the role of team dad to keep them focused.

[RedMage125]

In my home campaign world, there was a war several hundred years ago wherein the drow invaded the surface (the plot of a 3.0/3.5 game I ran in college). During this war, the existence of a village of surface drow (and half-drow, and tolerant humans) came to light. This village was composed of drow who had fled to the surface long before the war, mostly made up of devotees of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun who co-existed in a tenuous peace. Well, members of this village actually came out of seclusion (disguised as surface elves) to come to the defense of one of the larger human cities, Cyran. The drow armies were actually pushed back from their siege of this city, and the line of engagement was pushed back. It was not until years later that the city's saviors were revealed to be drow themselves.

Also during this same war, the dwarven king, Dumah (who was Lawful Neutral) had decided that the Dwarven nation would not officially engage in the war on the side of the human-elf Alliance, remaining Neutral. Any dwarves who wanted to fight in the war had to exile themselves from Dwarven lands, and were not permitted to fight under Clan banners. Dumah, deciding to profit from the war, had opened up trade with the drow, giving them dwarven-made weapons and armor, and remaining neutral in the conflict, in exchange for the drow giving dwarves autonomy over ancestral dwarven lands. When this was discovered, the PCs managed to have him overthrown, installing his Paladin son as the new king (he's still the king even now). The new king immediately joined the human-elf Alliance, and the addition of the dwarven legions were instrumental in eventually beating back the drow armies. He also retroactively re-instated all the dwarves who had gone to fight for the Alliance on their own, and ordered that their deeds be recorded in Clan records.

After the war, many people mistrusted the dwarves for a long time. And many dwarves themselves were ashamed of what had occurred. Many families moved to the surface, dwelling in human lands. The city of Cyran opened its doors to their ebon-skinned saviors, and while tensions were high for a long time, the people of Cyran became acclimatized to the surface drow's presence.

My current campaign year is over 400 years after that war.

For 5e, the division between Hill Dwarves and Mountain Dwarves is those who stayed on the surface (Hill Dwarves) and those who stayed in Dwarven lands (Mountain Dwarves). Although in recent years, most of the animosity towards the dwarves from other races has died out (except a few elven veterans). Mountain Dwarves are once again being seen among human lands, and some Hill Dwarves have returned to the mountains to re-connect to their roots.

As far as drow...as a DM, I HATE the "Driz'zt clone" trope. Drow PCs hail from one of two locations. The small village of Elisana (which still exists), or the city of Cyran. Drow PCs have never been to the Underdark, have never met a cleric of Lolth, but have lived on the surface their entire life. In Cyran, a drow walking around doesn't even turn heads anymore. They're more or less trusted, because none of them worship Lolth, and if a Lolth-worshipping drow ever DID try and infiltrate the city, the drow of the city would be the first ones to sniff her out and execute her. The rest of the world knows this about Cyran, but drow are met with mistrust everywhere else, ESPECIALLY in Elven lands. Ironically, tieflings, which are fairly well-accepted (if a little less common) everywhere else, are GREATLY mistrusted in Cyran. Cyran has had a lot of problems with fiend-worshipping cults over the last few centuries (as yet no one knows why), and tieflings are automatically racially profiled as having connections to those cults.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

My current character's backstory has bits of species-ism in it. I was watching Sons of Anarchy when I wrote it up. There are human supremacists with red "A" tattoos.

[Mith]

In my home campaign world, there was a war several hundred years ago wherein the drow invaded the surface (the plot of a 3.0/3.5 game I ran in college). During this war, the existence of a village of surface drow (and half-drow, and tolerant humans) came to light. This village was composed of drow who had fled to the surface long before the war, mostly made up of devotees of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun who co-existed in a tenuous peace. Well, members of this village actually came out of seclusion (disguised as surface elves) to come to the defense of one of the larger human cities, Cyran. The drow armies were actually pushed back from their siege of this city, and the line of engagement was pushed back. It was not until years later that the city's saviors were revealed to be drow themselves.

Also during this same war, the dwarven king, Dumah (who was Lawful Neutral) had decided that the Dwarven nation would not officially engage in the war on the side of the human-elf Alliance, remaining Neutral. Any dwarves who wanted to fight in the war had to exile themselves from Dwarven lands, and were not permitted to fight under Clan banners. Dumah, deciding to profit from the war, had opened up trade with the drow, giving them dwarven-made weapons and armor, and remaining neutral in the conflict, in exchange for the drow giving dwarves autonomy over ancestral dwarven lands. When this was discovered, the PCs managed to have him overthrown, installing his Paladin son as the new king (he's still the king even now). The new king immediately joined the human-elf Alliance, and the addition of the dwarven legions were instrumental in eventually beating back the drow armies. He also retroactively re-instated all the dwarves who had gone to fight for the Alliance on their own, and ordered that their deeds be recorded in Clan records.

After the war, many people mistrusted the dwarves for a long time. And many dwarves themselves were ashamed of what had occurred. Many families moved to the surface, dwelling in human lands. The city of Cyran opened its doors to their ebon-skinned saviors, and while tensions were high for a long time, the people of Cyran became acclimatized to the surface drow's presence.

My current campaign year is over 400 years after that war.

For 5e, the division between Hill Dwarves and Mountain Dwarves is those who stayed on the surface (Hill Dwarves) and those who stayed in Dwarven lands (Mountain Dwarves). Although in recent years, most of the animosity towards the dwarves from other races has died out (except a few elven veterans). Mountain Dwarves are once again being seen among human lands, and some Hill Dwarves have returned to the mountains to re-connect to their roots.

As far as drow...as a DM, I HATE the "Driz'zt clone" trope. Drow PCs hail from one of two locations. The small village of Elisana (which still exists), or the city of Cyran. Drow PCs have never been to the Underdark, have never met a cleric of Lolth, but have lived on the surface their entire life. In Cyran, a drow walking around doesn't even turn heads anymore. They're more or less trusted, because none of them worship Lolth, and if a Lolth-worshipping drow ever DID try and infiltrate the city, the drow of the city would be the first ones to sniff her out and execute her. The rest of the world knows this about Cyran, but drow are met with mistrust everywhere else, ESPECIALLY in Elven lands. Ironically, tieflings, which are fairly well-accepted (if a little less common) everywhere else, are GREATLY mistrusted in Cyran. Cyran has had a lot of problems with fiend-worshipping cults over the last few centuries (as yet no one knows why), and tieflings are automatically racially profiled as having connections to those cults.

I like your justification for things here. It always adds a nice touch.

[RedMage125]

I like your justification for things here. It always adds a nice touch.

The best part is that it was a result of the actions of my players from years ago. My players were key in getting the Alliance to accept help from the "surface drow" (didn't hurt that one of them was a half-drow FROM that remote little surface drow town). My players were also the ones to depose the old dwarven king by convincing his son to depose him. The paladin crown prince, initially in self-imposed exile (because he couldn't reconcile his duty to oppose evil with his duty to obey his father/king), was sought out by my players, and they were very creative in stirring unrest and putting him on the throne.

Before that, drow PCs in my game world HAD to be from that little town of Elisana. My players fought for some very important movers and shakers to accept that those drow held no love for the Spider Queen and were valuable allies.

I like having campaigns that are grand in scale, but open enough to allow for PC creativity and action. And I want the actions of high-level PCs to leave a lasting impact. Had a 4e campaign that I regrettably did not get to finish, that would have resulted in a new deity in my pantheon.

[Naanomi]

That's funny, drow are probably the most accepted elves in my campaign setting (accepting perhaps aquatic elves)... sure they are evil slavers who might sacrifice you to dark powers, but they might actually trade with you or the like... high elves are incredibly racist elitists who locked themselves away in magically warded cities after their world-spanning empire fell, and wood elves are intensely xenophobic savages who would probably like the woods to overtake your village then kill you for trespassing.

[VoxRationis]

Ooh boy, yes. Hell, a lot of the games I've been in had good old-fashioned racism as well, between different human ethnic groups rather than between elves and dwarves or whatnot. One campaign had a character who responded to everything an NPC did with "Typical [the NPC's ethnic group]." The same setting involved elves who came to the conclusion that if a human civilization was expansionistic consistently, it should be wiped out to prevent the inevitable conflict. Even a one-shot I recently played in had the elf and dwarf PCs sniping each other based on the perceived foibles of their race.

[EvilAnagram]

In my current campaign setting, the players chose humans save for the half-elf. The various cultures tend to rub each other the wrong way, so prejudice is pretty high, though my party's makeup has insulated them a bit.

I wanted the relationships to mirror those of the real world, so prejudice is a matter of proximity, history, and similarity. For example, people in the North will look on orcs with curiosity, but in the South humans harbor nothing but hatred for them.

Dwarven cities have exterior cities and interior cities. Outer Dvergham, for example, is populated by an upper class of mountain dwarves with a large population of hill dwarves and some humans and a smattering of other races, as you might expect of any big city. Inner Dvergham - or Dvergham proper - is pupulated exclusively by dwarves, primarily mountain. Other species are rarely admitted, and when they are the secret police keep a close watch on them. Hill dwarves populate the farmland surrounding the city on the surface, but the interior mountains are ruled by the geldorf (mountain dwarf) elites. Since the human and dragonborn settlements near Dwarven lands only interact with traders and farmers, tension is essentially akin to the tension between farmers along the German and French border, where language and culture is slightly permeable.

Humans in the North tend not to like dragonborn, owing to an ancient war between their two empires which led to the collapse of both. Dragonborn tend to feel likewise, but they like human coin so they simply cheat them in trade.

The Great Goblin Empire is really just a goblin kingdom whose politics mirror the Kim family in Korea. Goblinoids who escape tend to receive poor treatment wherever they settle, as North Koreans often face in China, or Mexicans in the U.S.

Gnomes take advantage of their island home to keep their cities relatively unadulterated with outsiders. They're less suspicious than dwarves, but fairly isolationist. This policy means that no one had Ill feelings towards them, but their economy is hurting.

In the South, humans and dwarves feel a collective resentment towards orcish raiders who travel the grasslands, not to mention the troublesome swamp-dwelling lizardfolk. It's seen as a massive frontier, and the humans are relatively recent migrants. Half-orcs are seen as absolute scum, whereas elsewhere they're merely a curiosity.

Along the western coast, no one trusts the elves. The elven empire only recently completed its conquest of their home island (roughly the size of Greenland), subjugating the last of the wood elves. Other races are wary of them and keenly remember several wars that swept up the rest of them, so relations are heated. Most human settlements dislike elves and despise half-elves, though half-elves can often pass for human. Drow tend to keep to themselves, trading principally with the dragonborn, so most humans only ever hear (untruthful) horror stories about the dwellers in the dark.

Tiefling's face true prejudice wherever they go, save for the genasi cities in the far East.

No one really knows what to make of goliaths, since they live in giant country, and everyone gives them wide berth.

Everyone ignores the halflings, and they're quite fine with that.

[Fishyninja]

My character, who is otherwise the abrasive yet professional mercenary, has to play the role of team dad to keep them focused.

Oddly enough it is the LG Tiefling who is the responsible adult, the Genasi is a pyro who wants to burn everything in site and my character jsut want's to steal stuff.

[mr-mercer]

It is rather strange how often the role of responsibilty goes to the guy who looks decidedly un-facelike. In our case the tiefling rogue is a thief with a code against killing people who aren't immediate threats (LN) our monk is a rather off-the-wall oddball in a fun and unintrusive way who nonetheless has stake in seeing the adventure through (CN) and my half-orc just wants to get paid for this Phandelver job already (TN). We also have a halfling sorcerer/warlock (can never remember) but their player is busy a lot of the time so the character has been sleeping in a barrel for a while, meaning they haven't had the opportunity to really spark a dynamic in the party yet.

Looking at it now, the alignment spread is probably why my guy keeps the others focused: doing the Kirk thing of mediating their extremes. Nifty.

[EvilAnagram]

You know, my goliath ranger frequently keeps taking over the face role.

Of course, he has a -2 to Charisma, so it's usually because I'm actually charismatic in real life and get my group behind a plan before they remember the goliath is terrible with people.

[Sigreid]

Best example I have is a character I played who was an elf that absolutely hated dwarves. To the point where he refused to acknowledge them as people, seeing them as vermin to be exterminated at worst or particularly ill tempered and undesirable pets at best. He attacked and killed any dwarves he came across if he could get away with it and when the campaign ended was establishing a kingdom of like minded elves.

Yes he was evil, but he didn't believe he was evil. After all, it's not evil to kill a nuisance animal.