Race in Dungeons & Dragons

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Written by BuckGB on November 26th, 2008

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In the roughly 100 illustrations that depict adventurers in the 1st Edition Player Handbook and Dungeonmaster's Guide (both published in 1978), there are NO non-white adventurers. In the over 100 illustrations of adventurer's in the 2nd Edition Player Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide (both published in 1989), there are NO non-white adventurers. Finally, after 25 years the 3rd edition, published in 2003, makes some passing mention of race in the character creation process:

(Most humans are the descendants of pioneers, conquerors, traders, travelers, refugees, and other people on the move. As a result, human lands are a mix of people physically, culturally, religiously, and politically. Hardy or fine, light-skinned or dark, showy or austere, primitive or civilized, devout or impious, humans run the gamut . . . [They have a variety of hair types] from black to blond (curly, kinky, or straight), and facial hair (for men) from sparse to thick) (p. 12)

There you have it (dark) and (kinky) are they only two adjectives in the first 25 years of D&D core texts that acknowledge that PCs might be something other than fair-skinned Anglo-Saxons. Yet the illustrations still show an almost purely white world. In 80 illustrations spread over the two core books of 3rd ed., there is one black woman and no black men. Coming across this picture after flipping through 982 pages of rules, I wasn't sure whether the correct reaction was to be glad that the editors of the 3rd edition were broadening the concept of who a PC might be, or wonder why the first trace of race was a scantily clad, busty black female warrior.

Most recently, the 4th edition was published this last summer. While I only have the Player's Handbook, of the 45 PC illustrations in the volume, there is one non-white character, this time a black man. In 4 editions, published over 30 years with 325 illustrations and 1,691 pages, I found exactly 1 non-white male and 1 non-white female. Note that this includes humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, Halflings, gnomes, and other core non-human races all white.

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