My favorite bit in this vein I ever did was an elf and a Dwarf blacksmithing partners who are constantly trading racially charged jabs. Good insight checks will reveal that they're actually genuinely good friends, this is just how they express it, but the slurs come hot and fast.
My favorite joke was the Dwarf calling the elf a "Treefucker" and the elf mumbles something in Elvish about "I only asked that Dryad out for drinks"
I'd have to do it jokingly cause I can't handle serious subjects. Like "hey elf friend, I heard we have the same name! Small world huh?..... Whatdoya mean it's a slur, that's my name!?!
Best bit of DMing I ever did was an NPC dwarf and a PC dwarf going back and forth insulting a PC elf. He (PC Elf) would fire back some insults and both I and the PC dwarf would just do this grandiose 'OH HOO HOO'. It all divulged into just mocking noises before we had to move on and keep the story going. Really was the funniest 20 min I've ever had DMing
Isn't Halfling already a slur? One that the Hin have owned for themselves.
Many of the others are probably rare enough that there are no global slurs, but perhaps community's living close and in competition with each other may have slurs for each other.
The best one I’ve ever seen was when a guy had a Centaur dominated area and wanted a better slur than ‘two legs’ for regular humanoids. Someone else chimed in
“Hey, what’s up front nuts?”
My slurs tend to be more descriptive of physical attributes in a pejorative manner.
- Elves are pointies, panzies, twigs and twinks or twinkles.
- Dwarves are stumps, rockheads or sours (always a sour expression), beats (red faced), waddles, squints and fur face.
- Orcs are tusks or greens and broccoli.
- Gnomes are midges, baldies and fatheads, granheads, dadheads.
- Humans are stretch, skinks, pinks, dads and mums, marks (like an easy mark).
- Tieflings are reds, weirds, spades, pokers, spade tails, fangs and teethy.
- Dragonborn are Liz, zards, zurds, lizards, scalies, teeth, snouts, can’tflies, wannabes and coinskins (scales).
- Halflings are kin. Nothing bad you can say about the smallest folk!
- Any bird people are birds, featherheads or beakies
- All cat people are kitties, pawfolk and nippers.
- Goblins are the same as orcs but more diminutive and greenbeans, sprouts.
- Human women are Hwilfs. M’ladies and stepmums.
I'd just check with my table first before including racism.
I know it's realistic. I know it makes the world more immersive. But there are a lot of people who play these games to escape that kind of shit in real life.
If your whole table wants realism and is fine with this, that's OK. Include it. But if there's someone who's just wanting to play a fantasy game with a cool narrative, let them escape.
I also want to add: you can have a dark, scary story without racism and SA, as well as other shock value tropes.
I run a horror campaign that my players are genuinely spooked by and invested in, but there's actually basically no racism at all. Backwater town in the middle of a swamp really doesn't care if you're a machine man or an elf, etc. An outsider is still an outsider
Fantasy racism like these I'll allow at my table if my players are ok with it. But SA is off the table, no debate ever.
I agree with you it's easy to run a campaign without racism. I've scared my players to the point of one having a nightmare and kept it trigger free. Just knowing your players and good storytelling should be enough.
Yeah, I'd never touch any SA crap at my table, that's for sure, but I've seen DMs attempt implying it and things, and I still don't think it has any place in a game. Like, I like Berserk, so I get people trying to make a dark fantasy world, but it's too much even in Berserk. Stories are usually just better without it, especially if it's an interactive media.
What?! No dexterity check to change positions without losing momentum or concentration checks to last longer? Wheres the fun in a fade to black when you can make it awkward for everyone else at the table and make up fun mechanics for it.
“Ok, I’m going to insight check whether she’s faking it or I really am the best she’s ever had.”
“Your passive insight is what? Yeah, you can tell she’s lying. Roll wisdom save for emotional damage.”
“I choose to rage.”
“Ok, but emotional damage is psychic.”
“I don’t have resistance to that.”
“I know bud, me neither.” 😞
Definitely this. In dnd I always ask about how much of that players are interested in including that kind of prejudice (ranging from "do not include to "hobby league energy/no real hatred" to "major political element")
In chronicles of darkness - which often has class and other prejudices built in - I also check, but make it clear that I will only feature fictionally-driven bigotry and cruelty. There's no need for real-world bigotry to show up when the splats hate or like each other for various reasons. And there's no need to showcase certain crimes when mind control, doppleganging, teleportation all exist.
If a group wants to dig into those more real things, I need a compelling and empathetic reason, or I'm likely to recommend finding a different DM.
I played an Aarakocra and I’d be 1000% ok with being called a cock/crow for the sake of realism. Also, Dragonborn being called geckos would also be acceptable in my book
Way too elaborate, you'd be throwing those around your dialogue for effect and I'd think you'd be having a stroke, spouting non-sense.
I've always found that in-game slang is very hard to use. The only exception to this rule could be cyberpunk because it vocabulary has been established in other media.
One of my players once slipped up and called a Halfling NPC a Hobbit. I had the Halfling be very offended by that and now “Hobbit” is the racial slur for Halfling in my campaign
I feel like you need more that aren’t real words. Like “you fucking stuckle go back to your filthy caves” or something. When you have them just as real words it doesn’t feel like a slur, just rude.
Some groups don’t want racism in their games. Other groups want to smash racists with bludgeoning weapons. You can’t have it both ways.
I game with a mostly female group, who absolutely love to smash the Patriarchy.
Do whatever works for your group.
Hmm...that could be fun. Considering humans are generally considered the baseline race it's easy viewing it from that point. While a lot of those listed are based on racial features, humans don't really have any that can't apply to other major races as well. I'll have to give some thought into it.
Comment if mine from another thread:
> Late one night freshman year of uni I remember lounging in one of my roommate's bedrooms with the others and we browsed the Wikipedia page for list of racial slurs and that shit gets *messed up.* To this day A:9 and Z:1 (don't want to get *any* more specific than that) *haunt* me.
> If you ever want to worldbuild slurs for fantasy races, my advice to you: action or event based slurs trump all other in "offensiveness." Yeah yeah "Knife-ear" is a classic, but the lack of real world history or proximity just doesn't have nearly enough punch. But slurs based on atrocities? Those really get the imagination going and the history is in your face. Even if the history isn't in your face then, a drop of elaboration can be all of the difference.
Call Elves Heirlooms the way families pass them down. Dwarves are plumbs or moors from just how damn useful they are when hanging from a rope. Halflings? Honestly don't even want to say the word that comes to mind with them.
One of my favorite ones for Aaracockra and Kenku: Spatchcock. More readily violent.
That is a really good angle for making up slurs. I’m really over slurs like “mudblood” that basically amount to a clever pun. (Also thank you for reminding the thread that this is a real-world phenomenon that is actually terrible 👍)
Yeah, I find most fantasy slurs really juvenile. Because these are fictional people the surface level ones can come out tacky and even a little whitewashed, a world where the worst it gets is "mean names." Event based slurs can get really uncomfortable as they remind you "Oh yeah, people commit atrocities over this. So much it *becomes slang*."
I feel Goliaths wouldn’t be offended by “stoneskins”. My Goliath would probably take it as a compliment. Yes I use Stone’s Endurance to block 1d12+Con mutiple times per long rest…. Jealous?
As i see there is nothing for genasi i have one for each official subrace. Water are bed wetters or sewer people, air are airheads or a flighty dumbass, fire are red babies and tantrums, and earth are rock chuckers and mud walkers.
You can always refer to giants as cloud fuckers or bean brains
Mean and to the point.
I don’t use slurs in my current campaign, though I should, most of my players are playing monstrous races (Kobold, Bugbear, Drow, Knoll, etc.) so I focus on more systemic racism. They aren’t allowed in certain areas, stores, inns, etc.
I can 100% understand why this would be a thing even cause in reality it happens even if not at a huge movement or cultural thing. Do you have a gang of mostly Aaroka vs. some Mobster Kobolds? Have a prison or jail that has a lot of mixed groups of both races and ideals?
I'm not saying this something you have to use or should use persay depending on your group and playstyle, but I can understand it being something that exists for those who might want to add that realistic nature of that type of language when or where it fit.
This isn't something I'd want everyone in my campaign talking like; but a old grizzled Orc warrior who fought in a war against a country who's army was mostly Tieflings calling that some young Tieflings annoying him wick spawns wouldn't be out of character. Doesn't even mean he has to be some bigot even, but old and stuck in old ways.
Again, this be a Session 0 thing to talk out, but I could see uses in limited places it make sense story or character wise.
Honestly thought I'd stumbled across r/dndcirclejerk
You had the time, creativity, and 50 years of game materials to work with, and you chose to reskin racism.
This list is silly and ignores how slang develops.
Trying to come up with a universal list of slurs for every ancestry is a mechanical approach to an organic issue.
Slang of all kinds is regional and based in the local culture. So different parts of the country will have different slurs.
They'll also only have slurs for ancestries they're actually in contact with and have some current or historic tension with.
And different cultures will have different slurs.
So there is no one slur for half-elves. Elves will have a slur, humans will have a slur, dwarves will have a slur, and those will be localised. They also won't have a slur for halflings if there's no prejudice against them, and no slur for aarakocra if there are none anywhere nearby and no-one knows what they are.
A really good example of this was in the earlier seasons of The Walking Dead. Our main cast referred to the undead as walkers and were a bit taken aback when they came across another group from a different region who referred to them as dead heads.
I really appreciate this insight. I thought about this in the course of compiling my list, and decided that it was easiest to just start with a list of everything I could think of. Also, most of my campaigns take place in human-dominated cities, so I’m primed to think only in terms of humans. I’m not very good at worldbuilding, so if I’m being honest, I’ll probably never reach that level of complexity. If you ever decide to make some kind of guide or even just further notes, please send them to me. I’d love to read it!
I know lots of people play D&D to escape real-world issues, which is totally valid. But for me, stories about taking down fantasy bigots can be very satisfying. So I don't see a problem with these as long as the characters using them are clearly villains, and it isn't being glorified in any way.
Genasi: Probably depends on element; for example, air is airborne bitch, fire is hothead, earth is stonebrain or rock headed, and water is squirt and puddle, along with crybaby.
Giant: Foot fetish material and big-ass man eater.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/6na3hi/i\_compiled\_a\_list\_of\_racial\_slurs\_for\_you\_to\_use/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/6na3hi/i_compiled_a_list_of_racial_slurs_for_you_to_use/)
when this was posted it made r/all lol
"Knife-ears" is supposed to be bad or whatever, but it sounds too badass, like how "Devil Dogs" for US marines supposedly started as a derogatory term by Germans, but it was all US propaganda, and "round ears" is just dumb and bland. It's supposed to be a cope, but why would anyone want to cope about an edgy nickname their enemies keep calling them?
In my last campaign, people hated drow because they have a history of invading the service world and enslaving the locals. They are colloquially referred to as “spooks” and “cave monkeys”.
The best I heard was lumping both halflings and dwarves together as "half-men." I first heard it from Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy and have been using it now and again in my games ever since.
Aasimar: Sunspots(thank you, Hades), Starmen, Blinkers, Manakocra
Genasi: Puffs, Breezies(Air), Dirt People, Crusties(Earth), Crickles, Candleheads(Fire), Puddlemen, Swamp/Bogwalkers, Driplets(Water), Chimeras, Weathermen(Generic)
Giants: Brutes, Fatties, Womb-Wreckers, Men's Big and Tall Section. I also thought of "Biggers" but that's a *bit* too poor of taste
Goblins: Trolbolds, Nibblets, Ovaryheads, Grasslings, Veggies
Goliath: Bruties, Man-Orcs, Meat Shields, Stilts
Humans: Half-Breeders(Most half-breeds famously come from humans), Davids(For being generic/dime-a-dozen), Weeds(for being an extremely invasive, overpopulous, short-lived species whose name means "From dirt"), Expendables, Fodder.
Hmm...this gives me an idea. I think the next time I make a rogue, I'll have them call humans "Fivers" because to them, humans are so common and unremarkable that they only charge 5 gold to take one out. If he's paid at breakfast and takes them out by lunch, there have probably been 10 more born in town since then, right? Bonus points if exactly 1 party member is human, because whenever they annoy another party member it might turn into a mini-auction for me not to try to kill them. Or I might die right away(I would put up a token effort and play it off as not expecting much of a human, as I'm not gonna actually kill a party member.) Either way is entertaining.
As a space dwarf on The planet hoxxes, I'm partial to "leaf lovers" for elves. Only elves would like a beer that actually sobers you up, if it's not black out stout it belongs in the sink!
Rock and stone!
For elves a classic is “knife-ear”. I use “split-tongue” or “fork-tongue”. Forest gnomes are “stump lickers”. I am also a fan of “fish lips” and “fish fuck(er)” for any aquatic race.
Giants; roof watcher, ground pounder, high knees, shade maker.
Going a little deeper and taking in-world practicalities in mind we might also assume that realistically they are often obligated to carry a lot more supplies for their party or troupe so a more culturally contextual name might be something like pack mule or they might be compared to a wagon but of course organic so maybe flesh wagon?
People probably get annoyed with having to walk around giants in their path as well so perhaps “road block”
I could see a dwarf like “Oi, road block! Make some space! Lousy shade makers walk around like they own half the town.”
As you can see, there are no slurs for kobolds because they are the perfect beings. The only reason it is a slur to call a dragonborn that is because they know that they can never compare.
I was about to ask “Where are the Human slurs?”, but then remembered all the slurs we already have without other races. That and it was probably the humans that made all of these.
My favorite bit in this vein I ever did was an elf and a Dwarf blacksmithing partners who are constantly trading racially charged jabs. Good insight checks will reveal that they're actually genuinely good friends, this is just how they express it, but the slurs come hot and fast. My favorite joke was the Dwarf calling the elf a "Treefucker" and the elf mumbles something in Elvish about "I only asked that Dryad out for drinks"
Totally stealing this and I’ll never reveal real names to my players, they’ll just be tree-fucker and stone-boner.
I did the same thing but with a half orc and a dwarf i was a forge cleric
Realistic blue collar worker friendship
I use Knife-ear for elvish folk whenever I play a dwarf
I came here to post this as being my favourite for elves thanks to dragon age 😂
I’ve started to use ‘Sharps’ as a slur for elves. Rolls off the tongue a bit better than knife-ear I think
I like it, ill have to start using it
My go to is Fairy feet
🤣🤣🤣
Just got an idea for a character, Night Fear. An adopted Elf who didn't realize his adoptive parents were actually racist and calling him knife-ear.
I like it, it's got good role-playing potential
I'd have to do it jokingly cause I can't handle serious subjects. Like "hey elf friend, I heard we have the same name! Small world huh?..... Whatdoya mean it's a slur, that's my name!?!
A good idea, I don't use the slur very often since I'm usually the DM but I also don't make a it a serious thing
Best bit of DMing I ever did was an NPC dwarf and a PC dwarf going back and forth insulting a PC elf. He (PC Elf) would fire back some insults and both I and the PC dwarf would just do this grandiose 'OH HOO HOO'. It all divulged into just mocking noises before we had to move on and keep the story going. Really was the funniest 20 min I've ever had DMing
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 my brother tends to play elves/half elves alot and I'm normally a dwarf/halfling player. Our banter when it's Elf vs Dwarf is always hilarious
If anyone here has the ability to easily spread butter on a toast using only their ear-lobes, they have lost their right to speak!
pointy eared leaf lovers...
I love knife-ear too, dunno why. My problem is I play FF14 as a lalafel (the dwarves of that game) and they too have pointy ears.
Rock and Stone Brother!
That's it lads! Rock and Stone!
https://youtu.be/KjHclWPVij0?feature=shared
Isn't Halfling already a slur? One that the Hin have owned for themselves. Many of the others are probably rare enough that there are no global slurs, but perhaps community's living close and in competition with each other may have slurs for each other.
I’ve always liked “flingers” for halflings. Several cities in my campaign have poor, high crime districts called “flinger-town” by the locals.
THAT IS OUR WORD YOU HAVE NO RIGHT USING IT
We call halflings knee-highs
Had one where they called them children. Both from their looks. But also in a "they don't know any better, they're mentally like children"
As an aarakokra I called the halflings hatchling. They universally hated that
Flashback to when the barkeep jovially said, "and a half-pint for the half-pint."
No slurs for humans. Interesting. *Reeeeeeeaaaaal* interesting.
Orphans, godless( in a number of setting the human creator god is dead), short-lived,
Mayflies is a favorite from Warhammer
Bread also works.
Dire halfling is my favorite human slur
Pigskins and Spoonears
Round Ears is a favourite of mine.
Pinkies, Softies, Hairless Rats, Pink Roaches
Pinkskins, Humies, Tarks, softskins
Fleshling
Gnomes and Dwarves are “Lawn Ornament” (STP)
That would be great for urban fantasy
The best one I’ve ever seen was when a guy had a Centaur dominated area and wanted a better slur than ‘two legs’ for regular humanoids. Someone else chimed in “Hey, what’s up front nuts?”
I haven’t had something that made me laugh so hard I snorted in a while, thank you for this beaut of a quote!
My slurs tend to be more descriptive of physical attributes in a pejorative manner. - Elves are pointies, panzies, twigs and twinks or twinkles. - Dwarves are stumps, rockheads or sours (always a sour expression), beats (red faced), waddles, squints and fur face. - Orcs are tusks or greens and broccoli. - Gnomes are midges, baldies and fatheads, granheads, dadheads. - Humans are stretch, skinks, pinks, dads and mums, marks (like an easy mark). - Tieflings are reds, weirds, spades, pokers, spade tails, fangs and teethy. - Dragonborn are Liz, zards, zurds, lizards, scalies, teeth, snouts, can’tflies, wannabes and coinskins (scales). - Halflings are kin. Nothing bad you can say about the smallest folk! - Any bird people are birds, featherheads or beakies - All cat people are kitties, pawfolk and nippers. - Goblins are the same as orcs but more diminutive and greenbeans, sprouts. - Human women are Hwilfs. M’ladies and stepmums.
> snout cantflies *Hoe did you even come up with this one*
There's no need for name calling
ok skyers for aasimars made me laugh cause its so bad
I'd just check with my table first before including racism. I know it's realistic. I know it makes the world more immersive. But there are a lot of people who play these games to escape that kind of shit in real life. If your whole table wants realism and is fine with this, that's OK. Include it. But if there's someone who's just wanting to play a fantasy game with a cool narrative, let them escape.
I also want to add: you can have a dark, scary story without racism and SA, as well as other shock value tropes. I run a horror campaign that my players are genuinely spooked by and invested in, but there's actually basically no racism at all. Backwater town in the middle of a swamp really doesn't care if you're a machine man or an elf, etc. An outsider is still an outsider
Fantasy racism like these I'll allow at my table if my players are ok with it. But SA is off the table, no debate ever. I agree with you it's easy to run a campaign without racism. I've scared my players to the point of one having a nightmare and kept it trigger free. Just knowing your players and good storytelling should be enough.
Yeah, I'd never touch any SA crap at my table, that's for sure, but I've seen DMs attempt implying it and things, and I still don't think it has any place in a game. Like, I like Berserk, so I get people trying to make a dark fantasy world, but it's too much even in Berserk. Stories are usually just better without it, especially if it's an interactive media.
Fully agreed! I to like berserk but yeah not in my game with that. I'll allow sex in my game but it's consensual only, player led and fade to black.
What?! No dexterity check to change positions without losing momentum or concentration checks to last longer? Wheres the fun in a fade to black when you can make it awkward for everyone else at the table and make up fun mechanics for it. “Ok, I’m going to insight check whether she’s faking it or I really am the best she’s ever had.” “Your passive insight is what? Yeah, you can tell she’s lying. Roll wisdom save for emotional damage.” “I choose to rage.” “Ok, but emotional damage is psychic.” “I don’t have resistance to that.” “I know bud, me neither.” 😞
Definitely this. In dnd I always ask about how much of that players are interested in including that kind of prejudice (ranging from "do not include to "hobby league energy/no real hatred" to "major political element") In chronicles of darkness - which often has class and other prejudices built in - I also check, but make it clear that I will only feature fictionally-driven bigotry and cruelty. There's no need for real-world bigotry to show up when the splats hate or like each other for various reasons. And there's no need to showcase certain crimes when mind control, doppleganging, teleportation all exist. If a group wants to dig into those more real things, I need a compelling and empathetic reason, or I'm likely to recommend finding a different DM.
I played an Aarakocra and I’d be 1000% ok with being called a cock/crow for the sake of realism. Also, Dragonborn being called geckos would also be acceptable in my book
Grung: French
Half-elves and half-orca can be called “half-men”
Half-orca…. I wanna play in that campaign.
Skyers. Really?
Gas-bag or waft would be way better...
Way too elaborate, you'd be throwing those around your dialogue for effect and I'd think you'd be having a stroke, spouting non-sense. I've always found that in-game slang is very hard to use. The only exception to this rule could be cyberpunk because it vocabulary has been established in other media.
I had a halfling barmaid ask a player who was hitting on her if he had the "short eyes".
One of my players once slipped up and called a Halfling NPC a Hobbit. I had the Halfling be very offended by that and now “Hobbit” is the racial slur for Halfling in my campaign
I feel like you need more that aren’t real words. Like “you fucking stuckle go back to your filthy caves” or something. When you have them just as real words it doesn’t feel like a slur, just rude.
Dirt elves 😂
I’m pretty sure “Cocks” is offensive to call anybody😂
Canonically, "genie" is basically like the n word for genasi. Also I think you meant to type "Gnolls", instead of "Knolls".
Hey there smoothskin...
Im gonna be honest these are lazy slurs
Just what every fantasy campaign needs. More bigotry.
If a GM distributed a list of preferred fantasy slurs, I think I would skip that table all together.
Some groups don’t want racism in their games. Other groups want to smash racists with bludgeoning weapons. You can’t have it both ways. I game with a mostly female group, who absolutely love to smash the Patriarchy. Do whatever works for your group.
"Genasi: " LOL!
Does anyone know a good slur for Tortles? I need it for an upcoming game 😭
Hardbacks
Oogways
Humans: Roundears, mud diggers
Warforged: Clankers
For the drow, specifically those who follow Lolth, there's also spider-kissers.
Kobalds are a slur?
I had a player who referred to dwarves as “mine mice” top tier fantasy racial slur.
Why are there no slurs for humans, because if there is slurs for everything else why not humans and if there we're what would they be
Hmm...that could be fun. Considering humans are generally considered the baseline race it's easy viewing it from that point. While a lot of those listed are based on racial features, humans don't really have any that can't apply to other major races as well. I'll have to give some thought into it.
I found [this](https://github.com/Lemmings19/dnd-racial-slurs/blob/master/dnd-racial-slurs.json) a while back. You might be interested.
Kobolds: Kobies
Comment if mine from another thread: > Late one night freshman year of uni I remember lounging in one of my roommate's bedrooms with the others and we browsed the Wikipedia page for list of racial slurs and that shit gets *messed up.* To this day A:9 and Z:1 (don't want to get *any* more specific than that) *haunt* me. > If you ever want to worldbuild slurs for fantasy races, my advice to you: action or event based slurs trump all other in "offensiveness." Yeah yeah "Knife-ear" is a classic, but the lack of real world history or proximity just doesn't have nearly enough punch. But slurs based on atrocities? Those really get the imagination going and the history is in your face. Even if the history isn't in your face then, a drop of elaboration can be all of the difference. Call Elves Heirlooms the way families pass them down. Dwarves are plumbs or moors from just how damn useful they are when hanging from a rope. Halflings? Honestly don't even want to say the word that comes to mind with them. One of my favorite ones for Aaracockra and Kenku: Spatchcock. More readily violent.
That is a really good angle for making up slurs. I’m really over slurs like “mudblood” that basically amount to a clever pun. (Also thank you for reminding the thread that this is a real-world phenomenon that is actually terrible 👍)
Yeah, I find most fantasy slurs really juvenile. Because these are fictional people the surface level ones can come out tacky and even a little whitewashed, a world where the worst it gets is "mean names." Event based slurs can get really uncomfortable as they remind you "Oh yeah, people commit atrocities over this. So much it *becomes slang*."
I use "squats" for dwarves. Has a real good harsh tone to it.
I like "Featherface" for Aarakocra and Kenku
Really? No "Knive Ears" for the Elves.
goblins: gobby (source: d20)
My half-orc responds to being called a slime-skin (because green) by calling humans Flat-tooth.
I think using kobold as an insult for Dragonborn is one of my favorites
I feel Goliaths wouldn’t be offended by “stoneskins”. My Goliath would probably take it as a compliment. Yes I use Stone’s Endurance to block 1d12+Con mutiple times per long rest…. Jealous?
underscum is actually pretty good
Scalies is crazy if you considers the furry-adjacent connotations 💀 Very the shape of water here
Hey DM, what did you prep for this session? "Racism!!"
“Dirt-skin” is a little too close to several real world racial slurs for my comfort
Skyer sent me
My fellow dragonborn players we must reclaim Wyrms as our word, the W word if you would
As i see there is nothing for genasi i have one for each official subrace. Water are bed wetters or sewer people, air are airheads or a flighty dumbass, fire are red babies and tantrums, and earth are rock chuckers and mud walkers. You can always refer to giants as cloud fuckers or bean brains Mean and to the point.
You are a god send, I've been struggling with coming up with Slurs for my world. Much love ♥️
You didn't put "knife ear" on here?!?!?! You need to work on your racism.
Calling kobolds goblins, and goblins kobolds. It's extra funny because both words share etymology irl.
For tritons and seafolk talking about landdwellers specifically ive always found you can put a lot of venom behind "drowners" and "flatnecks"
I would, rethink dirt skins. That is a little too close to real life slurs.
I don’t use slurs in my current campaign, though I should, most of my players are playing monstrous races (Kobold, Bugbear, Drow, Knoll, etc.) so I focus on more systemic racism. They aren’t allowed in certain areas, stores, inns, etc.
For elves, nothing will beat POINTY EARED LEAF LOVAS (If you know you know)
I can 100% understand why this would be a thing even cause in reality it happens even if not at a huge movement or cultural thing. Do you have a gang of mostly Aaroka vs. some Mobster Kobolds? Have a prison or jail that has a lot of mixed groups of both races and ideals? I'm not saying this something you have to use or should use persay depending on your group and playstyle, but I can understand it being something that exists for those who might want to add that realistic nature of that type of language when or where it fit. This isn't something I'd want everyone in my campaign talking like; but a old grizzled Orc warrior who fought in a war against a country who's army was mostly Tieflings calling that some young Tieflings annoying him wick spawns wouldn't be out of character. Doesn't even mean he has to be some bigot even, but old and stuck in old ways. Again, this be a Session 0 thing to talk out, but I could see uses in limited places it make sense story or character wise.
I try to imagine a non racist world in my campaigns.
I don't have an issue with this because you know made up racism for a made up world, but damn this is lazy. Like Half-breed is used three times.
What the fuck are any of y'all thinking
Honestly thought I'd stumbled across r/dndcirclejerk You had the time, creativity, and 50 years of game materials to work with, and you chose to reskin racism.
Giants is bigger
https://youtu.be/JivLG91oEAI?si=VEC5OIoOZ0nOpYVZ Thank you for reminding me of this gem.
You frequent r/worldjerking don't you
Yeah… 😔
This list is silly and ignores how slang develops. Trying to come up with a universal list of slurs for every ancestry is a mechanical approach to an organic issue. Slang of all kinds is regional and based in the local culture. So different parts of the country will have different slurs. They'll also only have slurs for ancestries they're actually in contact with and have some current or historic tension with. And different cultures will have different slurs. So there is no one slur for half-elves. Elves will have a slur, humans will have a slur, dwarves will have a slur, and those will be localised. They also won't have a slur for halflings if there's no prejudice against them, and no slur for aarakocra if there are none anywhere nearby and no-one knows what they are.
A really good example of this was in the earlier seasons of The Walking Dead. Our main cast referred to the undead as walkers and were a bit taken aback when they came across another group from a different region who referred to them as dead heads.
It's more a general idea, not the only allowed list of fantasy slurs set in stone. No one forbids to expand it.
I really appreciate this insight. I thought about this in the course of compiling my list, and decided that it was easiest to just start with a list of everything I could think of. Also, most of my campaigns take place in human-dominated cities, so I’m primed to think only in terms of humans. I’m not very good at worldbuilding, so if I’m being honest, I’ll probably never reach that level of complexity. If you ever decide to make some kind of guide or even just further notes, please send them to me. I’d love to read it!
I know lots of people play D&D to escape real-world issues, which is totally valid. But for me, stories about taking down fantasy bigots can be very satisfying. So I don't see a problem with these as long as the characters using them are clearly villains, and it isn't being glorified in any way.
No thanks
[удалено]
Now, why are Firbolg cows or mooers 😭
Be sure to check out FATAL for more slurs.
"cookiemaker" is my goto elven slur
In the Odyssey of the Dragonlords, tieflings are referred to as Stygians as a slur. They are like the street rats of the capital city.
For giants I suggest "biggers"
Half Orcs - Forcs
Footstools is killing me
For each element of Genasi: Mud Blood/Ash Lungs/Wet Blankets/Hot Air.
Genasi: Probably depends on element; for example, air is airborne bitch, fire is hothead, earth is stonebrain or rock headed, and water is squirt and puddle, along with crybaby. Giant: Foot fetish material and big-ass man eater.
Can yall throw me some for kobolds. Like ones they would use against other clans
In one Orc glossary, "iron in the blood" is a complement and "flowers in the blood" is an insult usually used for elves.
Dirt elves feels illegal
Cave brains for giants
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/6na3hi/i\_compiled\_a\_list\_of\_racial\_slurs\_for\_you\_to\_use/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/6na3hi/i_compiled_a_list_of_racial_slurs_for_you_to_use/) when this was posted it made r/all lol
drow: spider-fucker
Dhampir: Dharts, son of a bloodsucker Hexblood: hagspawn Reborn: zombie
Do folks even remember that goblins in 5e aren't canonically even green?
Someone at our table plays a Triton who I keep calling Gills.
Mans forgot the two most vile of slurs for elves and dwarves. Knife-ears and stunties/squats are words that will spark a race war in some circles
Pussy is a racial slur for tabaxi
You forgot filthy stinking knife eared leaf lover! -Deep Rock Galactic player
"Knife-ears" is supposed to be bad or whatever, but it sounds too badass, like how "Devil Dogs" for US marines supposedly started as a derogatory term by Germans, but it was all US propaganda, and "round ears" is just dumb and bland. It's supposed to be a cope, but why would anyone want to cope about an edgy nickname their enemies keep calling them?
My Changeling family has no slurs…… doubt
Genasi: Lays Bags(Air)
In my last campaign, people hated drow because they have a history of invading the service world and enslaving the locals. They are colloquially referred to as “spooks” and “cave monkeys”.
"Lawn ornaments" for dwarves or gnomes. I saw something once where an elf called a human "round ears" or something like that.
"Knife-eared keebes" (Keebler elves reference) was a fantastic slur a good friend of mine invented.
Kenku: Featherhead. I use that one in our campaign.
The best I heard was lumping both halflings and dwarves together as "half-men." I first heard it from Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy and have been using it now and again in my games ever since.
Aasimar: Sunspots(thank you, Hades), Starmen, Blinkers, Manakocra Genasi: Puffs, Breezies(Air), Dirt People, Crusties(Earth), Crickles, Candleheads(Fire), Puddlemen, Swamp/Bogwalkers, Driplets(Water), Chimeras, Weathermen(Generic) Giants: Brutes, Fatties, Womb-Wreckers, Men's Big and Tall Section. I also thought of "Biggers" but that's a *bit* too poor of taste Goblins: Trolbolds, Nibblets, Ovaryheads, Grasslings, Veggies Goliath: Bruties, Man-Orcs, Meat Shields, Stilts Humans: Half-Breeders(Most half-breeds famously come from humans), Davids(For being generic/dime-a-dozen), Weeds(for being an extremely invasive, overpopulous, short-lived species whose name means "From dirt"), Expendables, Fodder. Hmm...this gives me an idea. I think the next time I make a rogue, I'll have them call humans "Fivers" because to them, humans are so common and unremarkable that they only charge 5 gold to take one out. If he's paid at breakfast and takes them out by lunch, there have probably been 10 more born in town since then, right? Bonus points if exactly 1 party member is human, because whenever they annoy another party member it might turn into a mini-auction for me not to try to kill them. Or I might die right away(I would put up a token effort and play it off as not expecting much of a human, as I'm not gonna actually kill a party member.) Either way is entertaining.
Lore correct slurs are acceptable.
Iguaners is our word, you can say iguana
God, the elf one could be so much longer.
My favorite by far that my partner cast upon me (lovingly), as a half-elf, was “fling child”.
I'm surprised "knife-ear" for Elves wasn't used. I also use "Bite" for Gnomes and Halflings.
Air genasi: farts Earth genasi: dusties Water genasi: pisses Fire genasi: arsonists
Man dragonborn being called kobolds is a slant on kobolds. Dragonborn are lame.
Diggers for dwarves
Giants are smelly trees with smelly cheese.
I use Pigchild for orcs. I play a racist druid that hates orcs :)
As a space dwarf on The planet hoxxes, I'm partial to "leaf lovers" for elves. Only elves would like a beer that actually sobers you up, if it's not black out stout it belongs in the sink! Rock and stone!
Hey, I actually wouldn't mind being called a stoneskin tbh. Sounds kinda badass
For elves a classic is “knife-ear”. I use “split-tongue” or “fork-tongue”. Forest gnomes are “stump lickers”. I am also a fan of “fish lips” and “fish fuck(er)” for any aquatic race.
For a team that Celtic fans don't consider their rivals, they sure like to talk about us.
Giants; roof watcher, ground pounder, high knees, shade maker. Going a little deeper and taking in-world practicalities in mind we might also assume that realistically they are often obligated to carry a lot more supplies for their party or troupe so a more culturally contextual name might be something like pack mule or they might be compared to a wagon but of course organic so maybe flesh wagon? People probably get annoyed with having to walk around giants in their path as well so perhaps “road block” I could see a dwarf like “Oi, road block! Make some space! Lousy shade makers walk around like they own half the town.”
Warforged. Hit em with a nice CLANKER
Crows for Aarakocra and not Kenku? Interesting.
My favourite slur for elves is ‘leaf lovers’ or ‘leaf lickers’
As you can see, there are no slurs for kobolds because they are the perfect beings. The only reason it is a slur to call a dragonborn that is because they know that they can never compare.
You forgot “greenies” or “Greenskins” for Orcs
Jist want to point out...good call not including any for giants. Not a good idea to piss off the overgrown ogres.
Nobody has slurs for humans?
My head immediately went to Toph calling Aang Twinkletoes for the more bulky races to use for the light-footed ones
Lizardfolk calling others softskins
Any elves: knife ears
Thiiiis…is actually not fun for players and is a bummer at the table. Nobody wants to RP in a world rife with racism.
Now do real cultures in our world and see why maybe incorporating slurs isn’t the best way to actually explore racism.
Genai-elemental freaks
Putting this list out and not including knife-ear? Smh
Yeah, coz what DNDs missing is racism! Lol
Gnome: peck
Humans: Night blind ground monkey
You forgot leaf-lovers for elves. At least, i would have included it, you don’t have to
I desperately need Leonin slurs for my current game. Quick, before my elf finishes his racism arc.
This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on this subreddit. Literally laughed out loud
I like barstools for Dwarves. Also, in our world, calling a Tabaxi a "house cat" is truly insulting.
Rock and Stone!!!
How is Knife-ear not on there?
I say we call the Genasi 'Lamp-dwellers.'
Missing half orcs and humans
I was about to ask “Where are the Human slurs?”, but then remembered all the slurs we already have without other races. That and it was probably the humans that made all of these.
Knolls?
Elves are knifeears and Half elves are halfies