Grumpy RPG Reviews
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Episode 55: Blacks in Gaming
In this column, I will discuss the issue and while a conclusion is reached, this is a podcast column and not a comprehensive study of the subject.
Black People in Gaming
Yes, this post is a hyperlink to elsewhere but the essay is 12 pages and 3,500 words long.
But here is the short version, while black's constitute above 12% of the U.S. population, the appear in less than 1% of the art depictions of humans in the core D&D books in the past.
Here D&D 5E/Next Challenge; make at least 10% of the humans depicted black. Not all art must depict humaniods and not all humaniods must be human, but of the humans 10% should be black.
If not, then why not?
- For Black History Month, this column discusses the role of blacks in tabletop role-playing games.
- The essay employs the term black rather than African-American or Africa because most fantasy settings do not have an America or an Africa, even if they do include black people.
- Race is an important part of character creation, though there it usually refers to what should be called different species (elves, orcs, humans, etc.) and there is no real mechanical difference between blacks and whites.
- The default assumption of both the text and art of most RGP games is the characters are white.
- White Wolf Games are transgressive and progressive, making an effort to include blacks in the text and art of their games.
- Some fantasy versions of Africa do exist, though your mileage may vary as to the quality and results.
- RPGS lag behind other areas of society – such as business, sports and politics – in terms of including blacks. This will change only when fans make it change.
- Steve Sumner’s essay on Race in D&D-
- Chris Vav Dyke’s essay on Race in D&D-
- Atlantic Monthly Comments on Van Dyke’s essay
- ENWorld discussion of racially diverse artwork-
Black History Month - Black
- White
- Blood Meridian
- Dante,
- Ember
- Seelah
- Roy Greenhilt
- Monte Cook’s observations about gaming art
- Blacks are better than 12% of the population
- Black’s will have purchasing power exceeding $1 trillion
- Tokenism.
- Travis Williams
- The African continent in the Rifts game line
- Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom
- Africa had its own underworld kingdom
- Shaman mages
- African settings Nyambe
- Atlas Games
- Acererak
In this column, I will discuss the issue and while a conclusion is reached, this is a podcast column and not a comprehensive study of the subject.
Black People in Gaming
Yes, this post is a hyperlink to elsewhere but the essay is 12 pages and 3,500 words long.
But here is the short version, while black's constitute above 12% of the U.S. population, the appear in less than 1% of the art depictions of humans in the core D&D books in the past.
Here D&D 5E/Next Challenge; make at least 10% of the humans depicted black. Not all art must depict humaniods and not all humaniods must be human, but of the humans 10% should be black.
If not, then why not?
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