Roll to Save vs. Prejudice: Race and Play-by-Post Roleplaying Games

"Race" is one of the most important concepts in the narratives and imagined worlds of roleplaying games From Tolkien to Dungeons & Dragons and beyond, how players imagine "race" as a biological or social category has a profound impact on both game worlds and the real one. This presentation explores how play-by-post roleplaying games help players construct, revise, and understand what "race" means, and offers suggestions on how play-by-post games are both an indicator and a cause of a growing change in gaming culture regarding how race is understood.