Hollywood
Educated
It's been on my mind recently, the concept of race and species when applied to RPGs. Thinking back to when I was younger, playing CRPGs like Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind, I ended up always playing as Human or Redguard respectively -- occasionally, I'd try Half-Orc or Khajiit, too.
The thing about these games, though, was that any other playable race (or probably more accurately, species) for the most part to me was a kind "speciality type", if that makes any kinda sense. Dwarves and Elves, Nords and Orcs, they would always have some kinda penalty to their attributes or they would have a restriction on which class they could pick. To me as a kid, I mostly just saw that as numbers that told me what their optimal character build would be but when I read the descriptions of the peoples such as Orcs and Redguards, it struck me as odd that a people who are apparently energetic, adaptive, hardy, versatile and obviously highly intelligent and have their own complex civilizations are given a heavy penalty to their Intelligence, Willpower/Wisdom, Charisma/Personality attributes. At the same time, Imperials, Nords and Elves have heavy penalties to their Strength, Dexterity/Agility, Constitution/Endurance atrributes, so why are they wearing heavy armour, using bows or swinging big-ass swords or even have civilizations which have many buildings, facilities and even ships that require a strong, resistant, agile people to have even built, maintain or use them when they obviously do not have the muscles, manual dexterity or stamina to have even gotten that far.
Where it gets real stupid is when you have the Tiefling/Aasamir or Half-Orc/Half-Elf paradigm. Tieflings are given bonuses to their Intelligence and Dexterity but are given heavy penalties to their Charisma as though as just inherently incapable of being likeable/not assholes. On the flipside, Aasamir get bonuses to Charisma as well as Intelligence and Wisdom and no penalities to anything even though they come across as arrogant and full of themselves much of time as they are described in the lore. When it comes Half-Orcs, they get the worst of the lot with penalities to everything except, say Strength or maybe Constitution, to which they get large bonuses to. On the flipside, Half-Elves get bonuses to almost everything but no real penalities (stuff like Strength and Constitution just stay the base rate).
None of these bonuses or penalties make sense in context of their respective lores or in a vaccum. Tieflings can be some of the most persuasive and seductive peoples around even with their demonic ancestry so why the penalty to Charisma? Half-Orcs are some of the biggest motherfuckers around with a natural mix of intelligence, ferocity and insight into the worlds and mindsets of both their Human and Orc ancestries which ultimately outmatches the brightest and strongest of their Human or Orc relatives so why would they have penalties at all. In fact, if we take these factors to their logical conclusion, it would be a penalty in and of itself to play as a monoracial Human or Elf or Orc or Dwarf just by their inherent capabilities being more limitied than their mixed-race and/or planetouched offspring.
The racism and ignorance is palpable, especially from older lore, descriptions and mechanics of these peoples and it ends up being self-defeating for both game designers and players because it rigidly defines what kind of characters can be created or scenarios/stories designed and, as a result, limits the inherent potential for fun and satisfying gameplay and roleplaying because for some reason a Half-Orc can't be a Wizard, a Dwarf can't be a Ranger, an Elf can't be a Paladin or whatever other combination of skillsets and/or natural abilties are restricted simply because one people is seen as being "savage" while another is "civilised" or that that they're just not intelligent to use [x] skill or have [y] ability because of their genetics.
And we all know thousands of RPG players (likely including half of the Codex) have cried out at one point or another over the decades, "WHY CAN'T MY ELF BE A PALADIN!", which is just a simple, basic example of why this way of looking at and designing RPGs has and will always harm and hinder the medium as a whole rather than benefit it or help it become stronger and possibly attract new players, GMs and designer from other walks of life and/or backgrounds. So why does it persist...
The thing about these games, though, was that any other playable race (or probably more accurately, species) for the most part to me was a kind "speciality type", if that makes any kinda sense. Dwarves and Elves, Nords and Orcs, they would always have some kinda penalty to their attributes or they would have a restriction on which class they could pick. To me as a kid, I mostly just saw that as numbers that told me what their optimal character build would be but when I read the descriptions of the peoples such as Orcs and Redguards, it struck me as odd that a people who are apparently energetic, adaptive, hardy, versatile and obviously highly intelligent and have their own complex civilizations are given a heavy penalty to their Intelligence, Willpower/Wisdom, Charisma/Personality attributes. At the same time, Imperials, Nords and Elves have heavy penalties to their Strength, Dexterity/Agility, Constitution/Endurance atrributes, so why are they wearing heavy armour, using bows or swinging big-ass swords or even have civilizations which have many buildings, facilities and even ships that require a strong, resistant, agile people to have even built, maintain or use them when they obviously do not have the muscles, manual dexterity or stamina to have even gotten that far.
Where it gets real stupid is when you have the Tiefling/Aasamir or Half-Orc/Half-Elf paradigm. Tieflings are given bonuses to their Intelligence and Dexterity but are given heavy penalties to their Charisma as though as just inherently incapable of being likeable/not assholes. On the flipside, Aasamir get bonuses to Charisma as well as Intelligence and Wisdom and no penalities to anything even though they come across as arrogant and full of themselves much of time as they are described in the lore. When it comes Half-Orcs, they get the worst of the lot with penalities to everything except, say Strength or maybe Constitution, to which they get large bonuses to. On the flipside, Half-Elves get bonuses to almost everything but no real penalities (stuff like Strength and Constitution just stay the base rate).
None of these bonuses or penalties make sense in context of their respective lores or in a vaccum. Tieflings can be some of the most persuasive and seductive peoples around even with their demonic ancestry so why the penalty to Charisma? Half-Orcs are some of the biggest motherfuckers around with a natural mix of intelligence, ferocity and insight into the worlds and mindsets of both their Human and Orc ancestries which ultimately outmatches the brightest and strongest of their Human or Orc relatives so why would they have penalties at all. In fact, if we take these factors to their logical conclusion, it would be a penalty in and of itself to play as a monoracial Human or Elf or Orc or Dwarf just by their inherent capabilities being more limitied than their mixed-race and/or planetouched offspring.
The racism and ignorance is palpable, especially from older lore, descriptions and mechanics of these peoples and it ends up being self-defeating for both game designers and players because it rigidly defines what kind of characters can be created or scenarios/stories designed and, as a result, limits the inherent potential for fun and satisfying gameplay and roleplaying because for some reason a Half-Orc can't be a Wizard, a Dwarf can't be a Ranger, an Elf can't be a Paladin or whatever other combination of skillsets and/or natural abilties are restricted simply because one people is seen as being "savage" while another is "civilised" or that that they're just not intelligent to use [x] skill or have [y] ability because of their genetics.
And we all know thousands of RPG players (likely including half of the Codex) have cried out at one point or another over the decades, "WHY CAN'T MY ELF BE A PALADIN!", which is just a simple, basic example of why this way of looking at and designing RPGs has and will always harm and hinder the medium as a whole rather than benefit it or help it become stronger and possibly attract new players, GMs and designer from other walks of life and/or backgrounds. So why does it persist...
My mind's still stuck in 2e I guess.
nice addition as smocking and silk dress making your PC more liked and charisma being the spiritual magnetism giving you larger numbers of followers, but it was possible even for Half Orc to be great orator... Just like in RL this kind of 
''underprivileged person'' had to work harder. (not to mention the exceptions of the rule like Gor the smartest Orc or Donn Throgg)
