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Why the Concept of Evil Races Needs to Die
Dungeons & Dragons is still the world’s leading roleplaying game, especially if you count its various spinoffs and variants such as Pathfinder.
There are a number of concepts that make something D&D. And one, which has existed from the very start (and for which I blame the wargamers involved in the game’s creation) is hugely problematic:
Inherently evil sentient species.
I’m going to give a quick rundown of how this has worked for people who don’t play.
What is Alignment in D&D?
In D&D all creatures have an inherent alignment. In the very first version these alignments were Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic.
The “alignment chart” came later, along with the concept that unintelligent animals were unaligned. The D&D alignment chart has two axes. Good-Neutral-Evil and Lawful-Neutral-Chaotic.
To help understand this:
Lawful Good — Superman
Neutral Good-Spider-Man
Chaotic Good-Robin Hood
Lawful Neutral-Judge Dredd
True Neutral-Tom Bombadil
Chaotic Neutral-Deadpool
Lawful Evil-Hitler