Wizards of the Coast, the company behind hit roleplaying game “Dungeons & Dragons” (D&D) has decided to remove half-species characters from the game, citing an effort to improve racial sensitivity, according to a report.
The new change was announced at the D&D creators summit, where the company stated that the game’s handbook will be updated remove the option to play as a biracial character, such as a half-elf. The changes are part of a larger movement within the company to make the gameplay more racially sensitive.
“Frankly, we are not comfortable, and haven’t been for years with any of the options that start with ‘half,'” D&D lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford claimed, “The half construction is inherently racist so we simply aren’t going to include it in the new Player’s Handbook.” (RELATED: Yale Gifted $1 Million To Study Alleged Racism Of Video Game Characters’ Hair)
The handbook for the fifth, and most recent, edition of the game describes half-elves as “[w]alking in two worlds but truly belonging to neither” and combining “what some say are the best qualities of their elf and human parents.”
Crawford then explained that every aspect of the game is now reviewed by inclusivity specialists.
I’ve never really “bought” the old horse shoe theory, that right and left meet on the extremes. But modern progressives do seem to loop back to the past. The owners of Dungeons & Dragons have now decreed that race mixing is racist and not OK. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/11QGTKlkGz
— Alexander G. Rubio (@AlexanderGRubi2) April 5, 2023
“Different reviewers have different areas of expertise and experience. Everything gets sent to at least 2 people, sometimes more. The old inclusion review process had holes in it because they would only send out what they thought would be a problem. Now EVERYTHING is sent out so we aren’t guessing what might be a problem,” Crawford said during a question and answer session.
“Even reprints are going through inclusion review. That’s why some older books are changing, too,” he added.
The game’s changes drew backlash online.
“This hate crime against mixed race children, erasing them from fantasy games, is yet another example of the pure malevolence of the leftist corporate and creative classes,” Twitter user The Gorgomons tweeted.
Another user accused Wizards of the Coast of having “decreed that race mixing is racist.”