Is considered by whom? By Romani? It seems hardly relevant if non-Roma Americans consider that word an ethnic slur.
DDAL Racism and DDAL4-1 [Spoilers]
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Is considered by whom? By Romani? It seems hardly relevant if non-Roma Americans consider that word an ethnic slur.
delericho
Legend
That's true. But WotC own the rights, are making use of the pre-existing lore (and deliberately so - Ravenloft is some of their biggest IP, and the Vistani are a key part of Ravenloft), and haven't taken steps to disassociate themselves from that lore.
But, yes, it's important not to blow this out of proportion: I'm not calling for heads to roll, calling for a boycott, or anything like that, and I have made sure to thank them for their responses to correct the problems. Speaking for myself (and only myself), I'm highlighting some material that I think is problematic, and that's all.
Indeed. But that's slightly complicated if the book notes that the stereotype is just that but then only actually introduces you to a very small number of individuals, almost all of whom do live up to the stereotype.
Ganymede81
First Post
You'd think, but language is far more complicated than formulating a list of bad words and good words. Words that might be considered offensive often depend on time, place, context, and history, and an offensive word in one part of the world might not be offensive in another.
Consider the dreaded N-word. Highly offensive, but a uniquely American invention; derivations of it are spoken in other parts of the world but are not considered anywhere near as offensive.
But yeah, language is weird that way.
It's weird in another way too: you can use the passive voice to hide the subject of your sentence to make its meaning unclear. Let's take your previous statement:
This could mean:
- Romani consider the term innocuous.
- Non-Romani consider the term innocuous.
- Both/neither/etc
The only important meaning is the first one, but I'm guessing reality is closer to the second.
Passive voice is a tool of people being intentionally deceptive, so I recommend avoiding it.
Ganymede81
First Post
...thanks for the pro-tip?
flametitan
Explorer
What I might do for this adventure is add another Gur NPC, and instead of running the set-up as written, I'll have Aya usher the party over to a table with the new Gur NPC, who then explains what's going on, and that they're scared that the people around Phlan will form an angry mob to try and drive out the rest of the Gur because of this. Ideally this should add a layer of reinforcement to the idea that Gur are not purely a culture of thieves, and probably just want to be left alone.
delericho
Legend
Cascade
First Post
We ran lots of tables at a local Con this weekend. I played and ran AL all weekend (4-1,2 and 3).
The common term Vistani is prevalent. It means the Ravenloft fantasy gypsies...I never saw any real world connection in any of the events.
Most people that play and remember them originally as such. The players actually don't even like the word Gur and most don't even come to these boards. People seem to play D&D to get away from real world stuff, not have real world culture and events creep into their fantasy worlds.
After some reflection, this subject isn't that important for me to bother.
/enjoy
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