Wizards of the Coast has announced that it will be making changes to Dungeons and Dragons that will promote diversity in the fantasy role-playing space that the game fosters. The game's developer will be reprinting all of its official handbooks to remove language that portrays certain D&D races as inherently evil and will be creating a new product to customize characters.
On June 12, the principal rule designer of Dungeons and Dragons, Jeremy Crawford, responded to a Twitter thread about the depiction of orcs, drow, and Vistani as evil in the D&D campaign books as well as the official rulebooks. He said that he and his team are working to change the direction that the famous role-playing game will be taking this topic to create a more inclusive environment. Now, the entire company is stepping up and announcing the changes that will be made going forward.
Wizards of the Coast released a statement on its website addressing the fantasy racism that has been written into the D&D handbooks. While they are working against these negative portrayals of races such as orcs and drow in more recent books like Eberron: Rising from the Last War and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, it recognizes that the older books still contain these monstrous and evil depictions. Because of this, the company has decided to reprint all of its D&D books to remove these descriptions.
The announcement specifically called out the Vistani, a race that is a part of the Curse of Strahd campaign book, which reflects real-world stereotypes associated with Romani people as the book is currently written. To correct this, Wizards of the Coast will be working with a Romani consultant to made changes to Curse of Strahd as well as two upcoming books that will feature the Vistani in a way the company hopes will not perpetuate these simple tropes.
Wizards of the Coast also mentioned that it's currently developing a product that has yet to be announced that will allow for greater customization to characters based on their origins. The company said that this product will be released later this year and will allow players to change the ability score increases associated with a character's racial background in D&D, saying that Wizards of the Coast wants to emphasize that "each person in the game is an individual with capabilities all their own." There is no other word on this unnamed product.
These new changes will allow for Dungeons and Dragons fans to explore more of the fantasy world without restrictions that may have previously hindered their creativity. Players are excited to see what adventures these changes may take them on via tabletop or Roll20.
Source: Wizards of the Coast