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In tabletop role-playing games, the character race represents the people to which a player character (PC) or a non-player character (NPC) belongs. "People" is to be taken in the broader sense, and may encompass ethnic groups, species, nationality〔e.g. in ''Savage Worlds'' ''Pirates of the Spanish Main'' or ''Weird War II''〕 or social groups.〔in ''Rolemaster Oriental Companion'', “Common man” and “Noble” are two distinct human races, although Nobles are said to have some divine or elfic ancestors〕 It can be a fictitious race from a fictional universe, or a real people, especially in case of a (even if it has a given level of fantasy), e.g. ''Call of Cthulhu'' (1981), ''Boot Hill'' (1975) or ''Bushido'' (1979). The term “race” is even broader than the usual meaning, as it also includes extraterrestrial beings; vegetal beings, e.g. the Aldryami in Glorantha (1978), or the Sylvanians in ''Fantasy Craft'' (2010); and robots, e.g. Artificials in ''Fantasy Craft'' or the Forgeborn/Dwarf-forged optional race in ''13th Age'' (2013). This notion is also present in most fantasy or science-fiction works: novels, comics, video games (especially role-playing video game), board games, LARP, etc. The transmediality is obvious in case of consistent universes, e.g. the Middle Earth or the ''Star Wars'' universe. Not all works use the term "race": in ''Tunnels and Trolls'' 7th ed. (2005), Ken St. Andre uses the term "kinship (kin)"; the term is ''"ドイツ語:Spezies"'' (species) in ''Das Schwarze Auge'' 5th ed. (2014), and ''"フランス語:éthnie"'' (ethnicity) in ''EW-System'' 2.0 (2004). In the heroic fantasy games, the races are usually humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, immaterial being (spirits, ghosts), etc. The main influence is the work of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Some fantasy or steampunk games also involve "artificial creatures" (alchemical homunculus, golems and mechanical creatures). In science-fiction games, especially space opera and cyberpunk, the races are humans, extraterrestrials, mutants, cyborgs, transhumans, robots, and artificial intelligences (AI). In some universes, it is possible to have mixed-race characters. For example, in ''Dungeons & Dragons'', it is possible to play a half-elf (breed of a human and an elf) or a half-orc (breed of a human and an orc). == History == The first role-playing game, “original” ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (1974),〔Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, TSR, Inc., 1974〕 stems from the wargame ''Chainmail'' (1971).〔Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren, Guidon Game, 1971〕 ''Chainmail'' was especially designed to include fantasy races. The race is therefore a core notion present at the very beginning of the role-playing games. The races in ''Dungeons & Dragons'' are strongly inspired by the fantasy literature of the 1930s-1960s.〔The authors of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' give references to ''Conan the Barbarian'' (Robert E. Howard, 1932–1936), the ''Sword'' series (Fritz Leiber, 1939–1988), the ''Dying Earth'' series (Jack Vance, 1950–1984), ''The Lord of the Rings'' (J.R.R. Tolkien, 1954–1955), and the ''Elric of Melniboné'' series (Michael Moorcock, 1961–2005)〕 It thus includes the Tolkienian archetypes, but the game makes a difference between: * the races that can be played as player characters, the so-called “playable races”: humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings (initially called hobbits), half-elves and half-orcs; * “monsters”, which can only be non-player characters, and which are by name opposed to the player characters: orcs, goblins, kobolds, trolls, ogres, gnolls, etc. In the first science-fiction role-playing game, ''Metamorphosis Alpha'' (1976),〔James M. Ward, TSR, Inc., 1976〕 it is possible to play humans and mutated creatures. In 1975, ''Tunnels & Trolls'' allows for the first time to play “monsters”, i.e. a player character can be any race, including possibly a “monster”, but the races are not described in this game; in the 1979 solo adventure ''Goblin Lake'', the player character is a goblin. The 1983 game ''Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game'' also allows "monsters" as PCs (e.g. goblin or a kobold), and these races are described in the same way as the “non-monster” races. The first fantasy game that breaks with the ''D&D'' conventions is ''RuneQuest'':〔 the “elves” (Aldryami) are vegetal beings, it is possible to play a , but the game also takes into account the cult (pantheon and system of beliefs such as animism) and the cultural background of the character's people: primitive, barbarian, nomadic or civilized. As opposed to ''Dungeons & Dragons'', the character is not totally defined by race and class, but by a list of skills (what the character can do); the cultural background defines the basic value of the skills, and the cult the access to magic. The race is thus less important in a functional point of view (how the character can interact with the fictional world), but more important in a mimetic point of view (roleplay). The “basic bricks” of the character are more flexible (see below). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Character race」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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