Dragon Diversity

Dungeons and Dragons Diversity

So I've written before that I had doubts on the diversity that we might see for the new Dungeons and Dragons. Well I got my book in and so it's time for me to reconsider some of my initial concerns. Now I haven't had time to read the book, but based on basic D&D I'm pretty sure the mechanics are going to be fairly good. So what does it look like on the inside?

Well I have to say the book is put together in a wonderful fashion. 4th Edition Legend of the Five Rings and 5th Edition Shadowrun still in my opinion are beautiful books but I will say 5th Edition may give them a run for their money. If they keep up this artistic look and production value in future books then I think the line is in good hands this time around.

So how is the diversity of the new core book for Dungeons and Dragons? Well out of 10 stars I would likely give it a 7. I found the pieces that featured women to be very tasteful and for the most part heroic. It seems WotC has firmly buried the old chainmail bikini look. There seems to be an even distribution of between the classes as well. So we get mystical women and adventurous women and lots of demi human
 women as well. Granted they are elf heavy but I did like the female dwarf. It's so rare to see a female dwarf.
Color wise I'd like to start of by saying I loved the diversity in looks for the black characters. We had a strong female in the fighter section and then we had the middle eastern looking black man and then home boy with dreads. All great looks and all very appealing.

But overall I still felt to some extent that the minorities were a bit lacking. There was only one Asian and while she looked awesome it is some what stereotypical to display the only Asian character in samurai get up. Don't get me wrong I love samurai, L5R is one of my favorite games to play, but I would have liked to have seen something a bit less stereotyped. I think there were some people that looked to be of middle eastern descent. If not middle eastern then they were black. But again for the illustration that might have middle eastern characters the art is once more stereotyped.  It was kinda hard to tell and I would have loved to have seen someone of Latin heritage depicted.

I still want to see more demi humans of color. I think there was one dwarf that looked black. But it was kinda hard to tell if he was black or if he looked darker because he was surrounded by fire. I think a stronger display of demi humans of color would have helped take the bite out of the numerous uses of Drow. It really bugs me how frequently Drow are still used. I think if they are going to continue to use Drow then they really really need to do a better job of showing the diversity of skin tones that elves are supposed to come in. It would be nice to see a black elf. I think one or two looked to be somewhat tanned.

So overall it was better than I expected. I think that WotC would have been better served making it clear that there was a bit more diversity in their art. I gave it 7 out of 10 mostly because I think they can do better. It is a huge improvement from previous editions I'll give them that. But the overall lack of demi humans of color and some of the very stereotyped portrayals of other races means that they still have some learning to do in my opinion. I also think that maybe better use of iconics would have helped too. Pathfinder got a lot of mileage out of having iconics that were diverse. And frequent use of them in the core book made it feel more real.

Based on this though and from what I read of basic (it will be a week or more before I can really sit down to read the entire book, the pains of school) it would be a game I recommend to others. Me and some friends have been giving the basic rules a try and I'm liking it. The art isn't enough to turn me off and if they continue along this path I might buy more books down the road.

       In closing  .... where are the Aasamir? And WotC if you're reading why haven't you posted any of the art that shows the line is more diverse. Some of that art is really good and it would go a long way to assuring fans that you are taking diversity seriously.