Every time people lament changes to the lore that amount to “not every member of species X is irredeemably evil” and claim the game is removing villains from it, I think how villains of so-caleld evil species fall into two cathegories: a) bland and boring and b)have something else, unrelated to their species going on for them, that makes them interesting.

  • Adramis@midwest.social
    483·
    5 months ago

    I feel like:

    1. No race should have alignment locking in any direction, because people are people and can do whatever they want. Our goodness or badness isn’t determined by our genes.
    2. But, people are who they are because of the society they grow up in and how people treat them. If humans treat goblins like shit because they’re goblins, and a goblin turns into a big bad because they want to kill the humans that slaughtered their village, then that villain is interesting for reasons tied to their species.

    “No villain in D&D is interesting for reasons tied to their species” sounds very dangerously close to “I’m race-blind” in terms of not acknowledging that different people have different struggles, and racism is often a huge part of those struggles.

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
      15·
      5 months ago

      If you like this idea, you should read the webcomic The Order of the Stick. It’s surprisingly good for a comic that started out as DND jokes and stick figures. It deals a lot with the problem of evil in DND.

    • Mathazzar@lemmy.world
      113·
      5 months ago

      Your number 2 is based around cultural, not species differences. Two humans raised in two different cultures could end up very different.

      There could be two tribes of goblins. One that began eating people out of desperation and now just do it because it’s tradition. The other could have grown up in close relationships with their nongoblin neighbors and are seen as a valuable part of their region.

      So untying evilness to their race isn’t being race blind or pretending people down have struggles - it’s removing the shoehorning that occurred.

    • buckykat [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      61·
      5 months ago

      If humans treat goblins like shit because they’re goblins, and a goblin turns into a big bad because they want to kill the humans that slaughtered their village, then critical support to that goblin

      • macmacfire@lemmy.ml
        2·
        4 months ago

        I think the one you’re replying was making the point that you could just swap out “goblins” in that claim with “humans with slightly different features.”

    • phase
      1·
      5 months ago

      But keeping “race” means that people have issues because of what they are (their genome) and not who they are?

      I don’t get the point. But I have also to admit that I am from Europ and just using the word race for humans is… strangely feeling wrong. So I coukd be me.

    • shani66@ani.social
      1·
      3 months ago

      Big cats have hunting instincts that are hard to turn off even if they like you (see: any news story of a big cat eating their owner), humans have instincts relating to forming communities. every single species has some instincts they follow and they aren’t the same as ours, they’ll deeply shape how a species’ cultures/morals/etc develop. Just saying goblins are little green humans is deeply boring and hurts world building.