D&D / TTRPGs, Opinion

Does Your Diversity Affect Your D&D Character Choices?

Thread of Souls

Part II: We look at ethnicity and gender responses and see how that correlates to D&D choices.

It was early in 2020 that we posed the question: does your personality type affect what kind of D&D character you play as? Well, after about a year of collecting hundreds of responses, we have analyzed them all and come to some interesting conclusions. Not only about personality, but about player gender, age, ethnicity, and how some character choices correlate to others. This is the second in a series of blog posts throughout this month to dive into what we learned, and what it means for the game of Dungeons & Dragons.

While the first question in our survey revolved around Myers-Briggs personality types, the second and third were diversity-related questions. We asked responders to self-identify their ethnicity and gender. When looking at these responses compared to the D&D-based choices asked further along in the survey, there are some interesting patterns.

Please note that we had 545 responses total for these questions. While for some groups there were hundreds of responses, others were less than ten. For smaller groups, it is harder to determine true correlations. But patterns are worth noting just for interest’s sake!

D&D character

Gender

Females

We had a staggering 305 self-identified females. Does this mean that females are more likely to play D&D, or more active on the social media channels where this survey was marketed? It is an interesting question.

Here are the trends we saw in female respondents.

  • 47% had their characters on quests of Understanding.
  • 32% had their characters in a Person vs Self conflict.

Males

There were 189 self-identified male respondents, nearly half the female amount. Here are the trends we saw in male respondents.

  • 39% of their characters are on quests of Understanding.
  • 26% of their characters are in a Person vs Society conflict.

Gender Nonconforming

We had 22 respondents self-identify as gender nonconforming.

  • 40% of their characters are female.
  • 54% of their characters are on quests of Understanding.
  • 40% of their characters are in a Person vs Society conflict.

Transgender

We had 11 respondents self-identify as transgender.

  • The genders of their characters were split for top spot with 36% playing females and another 36% playing transgender characters.
  • 36% play Tieflings.
  • Their character classes were evenly split for top spot with 27% playing Warlocks and 27% playing Rogues.
  • Their internal character quests were also evenly split for top spot with 45% on quests of Transformation and another 45% on quests of Understanding.
  • 45% of their characters are in a Person vs Self conflict.

Agender

Only 10 of our respondents self-identified as agender.

  • 40% of their characters are male.
  • 40% of their characters are Elves.
  • Classes were tied for top spot, with 30% playing Clerics and another 30% playing Rogues.
  • 80% are on quests of Understanding.
  • 30% have a Person vs Self conflict.

Other

There were eight respondents that chose the “Other” option on the survey.

  • 50% had gender nonconforming characters.
  • 37% played Tieflings.
  • Classes were split for top place with 25% playing Barbarians and another 25% playing Rogues.
  • 37% of their characters are on quests of Understanding.
  • 50% of their characters have a Person vs Society conflict.
D&D character

Ethnicity

White / Caucasian

We had 482 of our respondents identify as White / Caucasian. Again we must pose the question if this means this group is more likely to play D&D, or simply more likely to frequent the social media spaces where this survey was posted.

  • 29% played either Elves or Half-Elves.
  • 45% had characters on quests of Understanding.
  • 29% had characters in a Person vs Self conflict.

Latinx

We had 22 respondents identify as Latinx.

  • 50% of their characters are on quests of Understanding.
  • 45% of their characters have Person vs Society conflicts.

Asian

There were 21 respondents that identify with Asian ethnicity.

  • 61% of their characters are male despite only 28% of the players being male.
  • 23% play Humans.
  • 23% play Rogues.
  • Internal character quests were evenly split for top place with 28% on quests of Understanding and another 28% on quests of Redemption.
  • 52% of their characters have a Person vs Self conflict.

African

We had only four respondents identify as African.

  • 50% play Dragonborn characters.
  • 50% play Rogues.
  • 50% are on quests of Revenge.
  • 50% are in a Person vs the Gods conflict.

Native / Indigenous

There were only four respondents that identify as Native / Indigenous.

  • 50% play Monks.
  • 75% are on quests of Understanding.
  • 50% have a Person vs the Gods conflict.

Pacific Islander

Only three respondents identify as Pacific Islander.

  • 100% play Warlocks.
  • 66% are on quests of Understanding.
  • 100% are in a Person vs Self conflict.

Middle Eastern

There was only one Middle Eastern respondent.

  • This one respondent plays a male Barbarian on a quest of Transformation with a Person vs Society conflict. They marked their character race as “other”.

Other

There were six of our respondents that chose “Other” as their ethnicity.

  • 33% play Warlocks.
  • Internal quests were split for top spot with 33% on quests of Understanding and another 33% on quests of Transformation.
  • Conflicts were also split for top spot with 33% having a Person vs Society Conflict and another 33% having a Person vs the Gods conflict.

You can see Part I of our survey revolving around personality types here.

Part III will be posted on February 11th. It will focus on respondent age groups and occupation and how that affects D&D character choices. Sneak peek: one group is 40% Human Paladin!

Published by Thread of Souls