About Good Races

One of the big issues in modern D&D is the question of 'evil' races, particularly orcs and drow. It is becoming increasingly unacceptable to portray any of these races as being evil, and to a large extent that's fair enough - if orcs are indeed just another humanoid race with free will (as opposed to Tolkien's orcs, who were neither), then you would expect the full range of alignments.

One of the problems with that, however, is that for the most part the evil races are set up in opposition to the good races - drow are, first and foremost, the opposite of the benign and playful elves, and so on.

I'm inclined to think that a big part of the solution to the problem of 'evil' races must therefore include a significant rethink of the 'good' races. If elves aren't the benign and playful creatures we're used to, the contrast can become much less problematic.

And that's no bad thing. D&D's elves basically suck, being one part Tolkien, one part imaginary girlfriend, and generally without character. I'm inclined to think they're much better to adopt Lennier's maxim, "We may sometimes look like you, but we are not you."

So, have the elves lean in to their fey origins, where even the Seelie court were dangerous to encounter. Lean in to Pratchett's portrayal in "Lords and Ladies". Lean into their dedication to protect the environment, even against a humanity that they see as inherently destructive. And that way, the drow are not so jarring.

Likewise, the dwarves can be creatures of grudge and obsession, and an inhumanly powerful work ethic. And thus the dvergar need not be "evil dwarves", they can be a part of dwarven society in good standing, but be those dwarves that the others think take it all a bit too far.

And so on.