Bewilderingly, sushi and tacos have become the focus of a heated Dungeons and Dragons discussion online, as art from the new D&D Player’s Handbook happens to feature both of these foods. After a fan Tweet from September 1 decried this artistic choice as “nonsense”, several members of the D&D community rushed to defend sushi and tacos’ status as fantasy game food.
That original tweet came from X user osgamer74, who shared new art for the Heroes’ Feast spell from the 2024 Player’s Handbook. “Tacos? Sushi? What the fuck is this nonsense?”, they comment.
That original post has gained a lot of traction (so much that its creator has now muted the post), so osgamer74 has expanded on their original thought. Apparently, their, er, ‘beef’ with the artwork is that sushi and tacos are too “contemporary” for D&D’s mostly faux-medieval settings. They equate them to McDonald’s meals, as osgamer74 can buy both in their local mall.
For context, both these foods are closer to the current day than they are Medieval times, which serve as the main influence for D&D’s particular flavor of fantasy. Sushi in some form has been around for centuries, but the dish as we know it today is thought to have been invented in 1824, and it was already available in America by the early 1900s thanks to immigration.
Tacos are also an eighteenth-century creation, though there is some debate about exactly when and how the food came to be. Both foods reached Europe at a later date, with the first records of sushi appearing in the UK in the 1950s, and the first UK Mexican restaurant opening in 1982.
However, anachronisms have rarely bothered Dungeons and Dragons fans before. Potatoes are often a staple food for the fantasy game, despite only arriving in Britain in the 1580s. The Heroes’ Feast art also shows pumpkin as part of the meal, and these weren’t available in Europe until the 16th century. Nothing about this meal is particularly medieval. Nevertheless, osgamer74 has said that they’re “fine with pumpkins” as part of the feast.
Comments like this have led many online to call a spade a spade and accuse the post of racism.
Dungeons and Dragons writer and presenter B. Dave Walters shared the post, adding “People that complain about this sort of thing never seem to be bothered with overtly western medieval food and customs in their ‘fantasy’ game. Weird, I wonder why.” “In addition to everything else, I love that there are literally Samurai in D&D but Sushi is a bridge too far”, Walters adds. This post is accompanied by an image that says ‘careful, your racism is showing’.
Ennie-winning RPG designer Alison Cybe shares a similar sentiment, tweeting: “The reason folks get so pissy about artwork in D&D always comes back to the idea of fantasy being history; specifically WHITE history. Tacos & sushi are ‘too exotic’ to be real for them, because their idea of the genre excludes non-whites.”
While much of D&D’s world building is influenced by Medieval European fantasy tropes, the tabletop RPG has always taken inspiration from non-white cultures. 1985’s Oriental Adventures is not a kind and respectful portrayal of Asian culture, but it shows that all editions of Dungeons and Dragons have taken images and ideas from diverse nations. DnD Monks have been in the game since the ‘70s, and Samurai are also a first-edition character option.
In modern Dungeons and Dragons, books like Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel have created entire settings inspired by non-white communities, with far more nuanced and respectful portrayals of such cultures. Plus, there’s Pathfinder, D&D’s sibling rival, who recently proved in its Tian Xia character guide that Sailor Moon, Zelda, and Godzilla references can work in a heroic fantasy RPG.
Art depicting sushi and tacos has caused a divide on D&D social media, but if the actual DnD books are anything to go by, such diverse influences are here to stay for tabletop games.
For more Dungeons and Dragons updates, be sure to follow Wargamer on Google News. We can keep you up to date with the DnD release schedule, or we can help you choose the right DnD classes and DnD races for your next character.
Source: Wargamer
