Dungeons and Dragons Issues Apology for Tone-Deaf Player Race, Fixes on D&D Beyond
Dungeons and Dragons recently put out a statement apologizing for the depiction of the Hadozee from the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space books. The new player race stumbled into some troubling racist stereotypes, prompting a public apology from Dungeons and Dragons, as well as errata for its digital and future published works.
The Hadozee appeared in The Astral Adventurer’s Guide–the player options and campaign setting book from the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space anthology released on August 16. These flying monkey-like humanoids first appeared in Dungeons and Dragons 40 years ago as sea-faring peoples, but took to the stars in this new 5th Edition sourcebook.
Dungeons and Dungeons Will No Longer Have ‘Editions’
However, Dungeons and Dragons blundered in the depiction of the Hadozee in the new Spelljammer: Adventures in Space books. The new history for the Hadozee had them as a race of primates who were discovered by a group of wizards and magically uplifted for the purpose of selling them as slaves. The Hadozee eventually rebelled against the wizards with the help of the wizards' apprentices, granting them their freedom. A simian humanoid race is not intrinsically racist, but when combined with a slave narrative–as well as artwork that hearkened back to the minstrel shows of the 19th and early 20th century–it left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans.
Outcry rose over the course of the weeks following the books’ release, leading to a public apology from Wizards of the Coast. In the statement, it apologized for allowing the racist tropes to make it past vetting and into print. Effective immediately, Dungeons and Dragons has pulled the slave narrative from the Hadozee backstory and much of the artwork from its digital
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