Do people of color play RPGs?

[Adventus]

I played in a campaign run by an african american. He ran a great starwars campaign. He had to to stop playing due to family problems.

I actually ran into an entire gaming group of african americans in Kansas.

[Magmarock]

I consider myself a very colorful individual.

Oh, uhm... you were talking race? I don't look at people that way. Ever. People are people, in all their individual mannerisms. I look at a person's character, not their physical appearance.


Mags

[UltraRob]

Speaking in the broader Ethnic sense, I know RPGs are popular in Japan (I have lived there and been in Japanese gaming stores, but never actually played due the language barrier) and (this may shock some people) Brazil!

The Brazilians, being social people, I understand. The Japanese still surprise me a little, since I would have thought computer RPGs would have long outstripped their desire to play pen and paper games, such as is happening here.

Rob

[Kirby]

I consider myself a very colorful individual.

Oh, uhm... you were talking race? I don't look at people that way. Ever. People are people, in all their individual mannerisms. I look at a person's character, not their physical appearance.

Bah, I don't fall for that. While I don't judge a person simply because of their ethnic background, I don't pretend it's not there. Everyone with eyesight looks at a person's physical appearance; it's in our nature. This doesn't mean that all my friends are well-groomed, physically fit, model-types, and that all my female friends are buxom babes in addition, but I don't pretend that I never look at appearance. Heck, one of my best friends in high school was 6'0" 400 lbs and broke a sweat walking around the house (and he hated deodarants ).

In fact, I sometimes specifically look for people that aren't white males to look for or talk to at gaming conventions or when I see "players wanted" signs. One of the greatest things D&D and Champions helped me with (strangely enough) is researching Asian cultures. If it was in a college class or at work, I liked and still like talking to people born outside the U.S. to get their perspectives on life, or "non-whites" to understand their cultural upbringing (a white person growing up in the U.S. doesn't have the same culture as a black or brown or red person). It took me a while to realize this since I grew up on a military base in Guam.

As a side note, while not only playing female PC's, I've played Asian and Hispanic PC characters. Of course, as GM, I've played the whole spectrum, but not really in-depth.

[neverrob]

Neverrob,

Your post was excellent; very well thought out. One thing that caught my mind was that you said you'd had to endure casual racism, stereotyping, and gross underestimations of your intelligence from non-White gamers. For the benefit of White gamers who may or may not even realize what they are doing, can you please give some specific examples of this? Thanx.

1. If you are not black and you play a black character, PLEASE avoid all stereotypes. I cannot stress this enough. I don't do the "tight-a**ed, white dude" comedic stereotype. Don't be a "gun toting hip gangsta wannabe" (thanks, Maynard).

2. Place black NPCs in the same places you post white NPCs. If I see another black pimp/drug lord, I may scream. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying these characters should not be there. But they can't all be black.

3. Let me know, if I am playing at your friends/parents house, let me know if someone has an issue with my ethnicity. More than once, some jerk will keep their steely gaze on me, thinking I may take the TV, or impregnate their daughter while their back is turned.

4. I research whatever game I play. I try to immerse myself in the setting. I read all the lit I can get my hands on and create cheet sheets so I don't have to keep asking the GM for instructions if it is a game I have never played before. I know what I am doing. You don't have to dumb it down.

Mostly, it is just common sense stuff. If you don't do it at work, you should do it around me.

rob

[Kirby]

1. If you are not black and you play a black character, PLEASE avoid all stereotypes.

3. Let me know, if I am playing at your friends/parents house, let me know if someone has an issue with my ethnicity. More than once, some jerk will keep their steely gaze on me, thinking I may take the TV, or impregnate their daughter while their back is turned.

Heh, there are two things I find funny with this (not saying I disagree with you, because I don't, but that it reminds me of two funny things):

1. The last group I played Champions with, we had one black guy (the others being six white guys, one white girl). We were all middle class, but our black friend was 'lower' upper class. (Dad was the 'breadwinner' and mom made like 60K a year.) He never had a character with less than 13 INT and usually had wealth. In the latest game, his character had a DNPC model-turned lawyer. Heh, we were jealous.

3. For this same guy, our gang (though not me) was at his house playing (I had to work, dangit) and his parents came home after 11PM and were surprised that the 'guys' were there. His dad sort of laughed at the sight (there were five badly dressed, middle-classed white people in an black, upper-class neighborhood). His mom told him, Marvin, that she thought it was time for everyone to go home. The next time we got together, they were joking with Marvin that his mom didn't want us seen because we might drop the property value, he later told us, embaressingly, that his mom checked to make sure no one broke or took anything. lol!

I do agree with you wholeheartedly that sterotypes need to be avoided. Something funny though is for people to understand when you're not trying to stereotype a (black) person, but a gang. When I ran a San Angelo game, I told the players where all the gangs were and what they were made of (blacks, Hispanics, whites, Asians, low-mutants, etc.). The first area they went to was an area dominated by black gangs. When they encountered one (about a dozen people, only two were Hispanic) they looked at me for making a predominatly black group and then looked at Marvin. Marvin looked at them and said (paraphrasing) "What, he told you this area was dominated by black gangs. Don't look at me, I'm not embaressed. Besides, I'm an Asian warrior."
But, I don't have firsthand knowledge of gangs, just tv, movies, and documentaries.

Take care.

[Agent X]

1. If you are not black and you play a black character, PLEASE avoid all stereotypes. I cannot stress this enough. I don't do the "tight-a**ed, white dude" comedic stereotype. Don't be a "gun toting hip gangsta wannabe" (thanks, Maynard).

2. Place black NPCs in the same places you post white NPCs. If I see another black pimp/drug lord, I may scream. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying these characters should not be there. But they can't all be black.

3. Let me know, if I am playing at your friends/parents house, let me know if someone has an issue with my ethnicity. More than once, some jerk will keep their steely gaze on me, thinking I may take the TV, or impregnate their daughter while their back is turned.

4. I research whatever game I play. I try to immerse myself in the setting. I read all the lit I can get my hands on and create cheet sheets so I don't have to keep asking the GM for instructions if it is a game I have never played before. I know what I am doing. You don't have to dumb it down.

Mostly, it is just common sense stuff. If you don't do it at work, you should do it around me.

rob

1. Check. 2. Check. 3. Not an issue thankfully. 4. Not an issue thankfully. I'm sorry there are gamers who condescend for racial reasons.

Funny thing is one of the gamers I played with who happened to be African American ran a player I'm pretty sure none of the white guys in our games would have dared play. He ran an African American Archer named... Shaft. I wonder to this day if he was just wanting to see what our reaction was. (Nobody even flinched and we never discussed it so maybe it's just me but I still don't think any of us white guys would have put that name and that character together considering the possible perception of others.)

[stickninja]

well i'm of asian descent (my mom's thai, my dad's white), and my friend/roommate is black. ethnicity doesn't enter my head really when i first create a character. they all tend to start out white, and then i might change it if it fits the character conception. rarely do i make an ethnic character, unless the setting dictates it (ie and oriental adventures type campaign). course, other than my skin color, i'm about as white as you can get (grew up in the south).

[Magmarock]

Bah, I don't fall for that.

I do not judge because I prefer not to be judged. I hardly have room to talk, mind you, so I happen to know what its like to be on the receiving end of prejudice, no matter how casual it is.

I have played PCs of many different races, in many different games- M.O.D (Method of Destruction: a hip, black cyborg, Champions); Hero Montoya (Cuban Brujah Impersonator, she's actually a Malkavian, VtM); Justice Akita (Japanese-American Psi-Warrior, Champions); and Jackel (Porto Rican Merc, Cyberpunk) to name a few. My PCs tend to be female because I am female... that and I run enough male NPCs when I GM.


Mags

[lapsedgamer]

1. If you are not black and you play a black character, PLEASE avoid all stereotypes. I cannot stress this enough. I don't do the "tight-a**ed, white dude" comedic stereotype. Don't be a "gun toting hip gangsta wannabe" (thanks, Maynard).

2. Place black NPCs in the same places you post white NPCs. If I see another black pimp/drug lord, I may scream. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying these characters should not be there. But they can't all be black.

3. Let me know, if I am playing at your friends/parents house, let me know if someone has an issue with my ethnicity. More than once, some jerk will keep their steely gaze on me, thinking I may take the TV, or impregnate their daughter while their back is turned.

4. I research whatever game I play. I try to immerse myself in the setting. I read all the lit I can get my hands on and create cheet sheets so I don't have to keep asking the GM for instructions if it is a game I have never played before. I know what I am doing. You don't have to dumb it down.

Mostly, it is just common sense stuff. If you don't do it at work, you should do it around me.

rob

Yeah, I agree totally. I am African-American, and when I played, off and on, in the late 80s and early 90s, I knew one other Black guy that gamed. I learned from White and Asian guys. They were generally cool guys, who were definitely more academically inclined than I was. Their families were better off financially than mine was as well, but they never made a point of treating me differently. Looking back, I think those differences had a lot to do with social class, not race.

At times, I have been annoyed by the things Rob is talking about in games, but I am often annoyed by the same things in my everyday life. I actually think gamers and other so-called geeks are generally cooler about these things than other people. I only had to talk to someone once. We were playing Dark Champions and there was scenario with a Black gang. It was an old supplement (with a character named Deju?) and we were having a good time until this guy started doing a really inappropriate imitation of Black American slang, while taunting one of the bad guys. My character was Black, so I was both in and out of character when I called him on it. I was more out of character, but I was trying not to lose my temper. He actually only played with us a couple of times, and he later apologized. I was probably a little too sensitive, but at the time, it really bugged me.

My parents and most of my Black friends never did not get the whole thing, so I usually had to keep two separate groups of friends. My parents actually told me that it was a vast waste of time, and tried to encourage me to stop. As Nexus said, they did not think it was a good activity for a young Black male. In hindsight, I still don't agree. I actually got excited about reading and exposed my self to more literature, as well as books on scientific and historical subjects, because of things that came up in gaming sessions. I ended up with a diverse group of friends, some of whom helped me strive a little more academically.

[ShinHakkaider]

Questions for the African Americans, Philipinos and other people of color who responded: When you play human characters, do you specify that the PC is of your own race?

No not really. It’s always pretty much assumed that I’m playing a character who is black unless I specify otherwise in my character description.

Do you ignore that aspect?

I don’t ignore that aspect at all, it’s just that I’m gaming with friends, people who have known me for a great many years and doesn’t come into play unless we want it to.


Have you ever played White characters, whether to fit in with a White group or just because you wanted to?

As a DM I play White characters all the time. When I was younger I used to play white characters every now and then because I had a specific image of what the PC looked like. Now I play characters who have a physical resemblance to myself.


In fantasy games, have you been attracted to playing non-human characters?

In a fantasy game I’ve always enjoyed playing Half-elf characters. Mostly due to their semi outcast nature, the idea of having a foot in two worlds but belonging to neither. All of my half elf characters have been half black, half elf. I actually had some guy question that a few years ago. He said that he’d never heard of that and I responded that, at least in the game I was playing in at the time, that elves responded to beauty no matter what the color of a persons skin.

Did real-life race considerations play into this decision?

Not in any truly significant way.

[Damon_Dusk]

A question that came to me while reading this thread is: When a GM is trying to immerse himself and the group in the game by adopting a racial dialect or using racial slang (whether s/he be good at it or not), if he is not of that particular race, do people take offense?

Would people rather they didn't try at all?

As a GM, I try to adopt different tone and inflection when speaking through an NPC. If that NPC happens to use slang and speak in a certain way, I'd prefer to do it, mostly for the benefit of the players. It certainly has no malicious intent, and I do it for people of all color. I would certainly not want to offend someone.

I just find it takes people out of the game a bit to say, "Well he talks like an Australian, saying, "Hello there!" I'd much rather say, "He walks up to you and says, "G'day, mate."

I'm curious what other people think.

[lapsedgamer]

A question that came to me while reading this thread is: When a GM is trying to immerse himself and the group in the game by adopting a racial dialect or using racial slang (whether s/he be good at it or not), if he is not of that particular race, do people take offense?

Would people rather they didn't try at all?

As a GM, I try to adopt different tone and inflection when speaking through an NPC. If that NPC happens to use slang and speak in a certain way, I'd prefer to do it, mostly for the benefit of the players. It certainly has no malicious intent, and I do it for people of all color. I would certainly not want to offend someone.

I just find it takes people out of the game a bit to say, "Well he talks like an Australian, saying, "Hello there!" I'd much rather say, "He walks up to you and says, "G'day, mate."

I'm curious what other people think.

If I knew you well, I wouldn't mind. I would hope that it was done in a low-key way. If I was GMing I would probably say "this guy has a strong accent", or "this guy speaks in street slang." I might throw in an occasional slang phrase for emphasis, but I generally would speak in my normal tone, which is pretty Middle American, with a little slang thrown in. I think it avoids uncomfortable moments. It also saves others from having to suffer through my poor imitations of various accents. Also, every character from a certain race is not going to speak the same way. As long as the GM recognizes that, I can make allowances. I would only be truly offended if I thought that the person was making a personal comment about a certain group, or the imitiation was done in an offensive way (see above). I couldn't be sure about that until I knew what kind of person the GM is.

[Michael Hopcroft]

One of my best friends in gaming in the late '80s -- early '90s was not only African-American but a Muslim. When i was working won my first superhero book (which never sold -- this was before the days of ePublishing) I consulted with him on how a follower of "Classic" ISlam 9as opposed to "funadmentalist" or "fanatical" Islam) would react to the presence of supers in their community, or to being a super himself. His insights were quite interesting, and since I believe most Muslims actually are "classical" muslims (at least in the west), I still find the "He's different 0-- let's stone him to death!" way that comic books ahve always portrayed almost all Muslims as extremely annoying.

The comics play to our prejudices -- sometimesto the worst part in our nature.

I see many things in traditional games like D&D that a person of color would react negatively to. Anytime I see a sentient race in an RPG that is conisdered "inherently evil" I think of mid-20th-century American racism being chanbneled into a "socially acceptable" format. Not even Tolkien portrayed his orcs as evil by nature, merely because they were bound to the service of evil lords (Sauron and Saruman). A Tolkieneque Orc, if left to his own devices, would be no more likely to be a bloodthirty savage than anyone else. If I would notice that, and I ahven't experienced racial discrimination, how do you think someone who has would react?

[Damon_Dusk]

If I knew you well, I wouldn't mind. I would hope that it was done in a low-key way. If I was GMing I would probably say "this guy has a strong accent", or "this guy speaks in street slang." I might throw in an occasional slang phrase for emphasis, but I generally would speak in my normal tone, which is pretty Middle American, with a little slang thrown in. I think it avoids uncomfortable moments. It also saves others from having to suffer through my poor imitations of various accents. Also, every character from a certain race is not going to speak the same way. As long as the GM recognizes that, I can make allowances. I would only be truly offended if I thought that the person was making a personal comment about a certain group, or the imitiation was done in an offensive way (see above). I couldn't be sure about that until I knew what kind of person the GM is.

Well, I would honestly say that I'm probably not low-key when doing the different voices for my NPCs. But neither do I portray all persons of an ethnic type as speaking or acting the same. The NPCs all have their own personality and motivations, and rarely (if ever) play to racial stereotypes. Just the same as all my female NPCs are individuals and also do not fall into stereotypes. My intention with the different voices is to make the NPCs seem unique and to try to keep the PCs "in the game". Plus, I've been told that I do very good voices.

But what you've said has definitely made me think about things, and I will make sure that new players understand that there is never any derision or harm meant by my voices and if they feel that I'm delving into touchy ground, to let me know. I really don't think it will be a problem, but I hope to defuse any before it starts.

I guess my next question to other GMs is: Does anyone else use different "voices" for their NPCs and run into any problems by doing so?