New D&D Rules to Replace “Race” with “Species”

As part of a larger overhaul of Dungeons & Dragons, both from a rules standpoint and a larger cultural perspective, Wizards of the Coast recently announced that D&D will no longer use the term “race” to describe individuals. Instead, the term “species” will be used in all future materials going forward.

The change comes just a months after Wizards of the Coast was blasted by fans for their campaign book Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, which many felt contained racist undertones in its depiction of the Hadozee, a simian alien species which actually first appeared back in the early 1980s. Wizards formally apologized for the incident and later announced that they would work with a number of cultural consultants to vet all materials going forward.

D&D has long been grappling with its use of race, with many of their nonhuman species (particularly those with a chaotic or evil alignment) often associated with racist stereotypes.

“We understand ‘race’ is a problematic term that has had prejudiced links between real world people and the fantasy peoples of D&D worlds,” the studio wrote on D&D Beyond, the online platform which Wizards of the Coast purchased back in the spring of 2022. “The usage of the term across D&D and other popular IP has evolved over time. Now it’s time for the next evolution.”

The addition of “species” will go into effect for the next playtest of One D&D, Wizards’ code name for the next edition of Dungeons & Dragons, which is still in development. The next phase of the playtest will begin on Dec. 21, and players are invited to give feedback on the race/species name change as well as all other changes the beta is trying out. One D&D materials are distributed through D&D Beyond, which Wizards of the Coast owner Hasbro purchased back in the spring.

“We have made the decision to move on from using the term ‘race’ everywhere in One D&D, and we do not intend to return to that term,” Wizards’ developers wrote on Thursday. “The term ‘species’ was chosen in close coordination with multiple outside cultural consultants.

“Having an open conversation around the term ‘race’ is both important and challenging,” they added. “That is why it’s vital we foster a positive, open, and understanding dialogue with one another.”

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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massechustes, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).