race-as-class was in the first D&D books I got as a kid. Later I got my hands on AD&D, which patted itself on its back for letting you have both a race and a class, but I was right there nodding along - it's just an obvious logical improvement. 3rd removed the restriction entirely, and that was the edition that was out when I finally got to actually play D&D.

So because of that, race-as-class has this sort of nostalgic jankiness to me. It reads like a punch line. Oh who's in your team? Carpenter, Doctor, Engineer, Dutchman.

But that nostalgic jankiness is definitely in tension with the uncomfortable racial essentialism of it. There's a lot to unpack there. Apparently enough to fill an hour long video essay. It's telling that my jokey example had to end in Dutchman, because if we started using historically marginalized groups, the yikes factor goes through the roof. And that is, of course, what a lot of young racists are going to reach for when they make a similar joke. It's good that it's gone. (Though D&D still reeks of racial essentialism, yeesh.)

Let me know if the title says: "🎲🐲D&D's History of "Race-as-Class""

I tried editing the title, but it didn't seem to work.