I'd never heard of Chult until Tomb of Annihilation. When I think of jungles and Lost Continents the first thing that pops into my head is either Central/South America or Southeast Asia, not Africa. Jurassic Park is set in Central America. The movie actually called The Lost Continent is set in the South Pacific and Skull Island from King Kong is in Southeast Asia.
D&D 5E Thoughts on this article about Black Culture & the D&D team dropping the ball?
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I'd never heard of Chult until Tomb of Annihilation. When I think of jungles and Lost Continents the first thing that pops into my head is either Central/South America or Southeast Asia, not Africa. Jurassic Park is set in Central America. The movie actually called The Lost Continent is set in the South Pacific and Skull Island from King Kong is in Southeast Asia.
A general comment about race and D&D.
I grew up in Montana from 1983-2000 (ages 9-26). It's where I started playing D&D. It's the least black state in the union by far., a mere 0.5% while I was living there. That I never saw anyone who was black play D&D meant little.
Currently I live in Augusta, GA. The two largest counties in the area are about 34% black and 58% white combined. Almost everyone I see playing D&D in a public setting is white. I've seen at least 3 dozen white people, two black people and one Asian.
Regardless of the merits of this article, there's something about D&D that seems to very heavily appeal to white people.
I grew up in Montana from 1983-2000 (ages 9-26). It's where I started playing D&D. It's the least black state in the union by far., a mere 0.5% while I was living there. That I never saw anyone who was black play D&D meant little.
Currently I live in Augusta, GA. The two largest counties in the area are about 34% black and 58% white combined. Almost everyone I see playing D&D in a public setting is white. I've seen at least 3 dozen white people, two black people and one Asian.
Regardless of the merits of this article, there's something about D&D that seems to very heavily appeal to white people.
Hussar
Legend
Let's be honest. That's fantasy for you. Unfortunately, our chosen genre for the hobby hasn't exactly covered itself in glory when it comes to social empathy. It's based on incredibly bigoted and outright racist roots (Lovecraft anyone?), and hasn't really shifted too much since. I mean, good grief, name the top ten fantasy characters from the genre. How many of them aren't white (and probably male)? From Howard and Lovecraft, through Tolkien and Moorcock and even today with George R.R. Martin and J.K. Rowlings, fantasy isn't exactly the most culturally accepting of genres.
TheCosmicKid
Hero
Uh... how can I put this? Without knowing anything about you, and without meaning any disrespect whatsoever, I'd be willing to put down good money that you can't do the clicks correctly. There is more to them than you think.
I think you should have faith that when you tell the players they're in the middle of a freakin' dinosaur race, they're going to be too distracted to notice that events are being related to them in a Canadian accent, eh?
After all, Stargate SG-1 ran for ten years with nobody noticing that all the aliens spoke perfect Vancouver English. And they had a linguist as a main character.
MechaPilot
Explorer
I'm sort of saddened by all the "if you look for things to offend you, you'll find them" comments.
While the statement is true on its face, its use here also looks very much like it's being used to dismiss the thoughts of others as provocateuring by people desiring to get offended. Even among those who're activist-minded, I've never met a single person who wants to be offended. If such people exist, I can't help but believe they're an immensely small fraction of a percentage of all people in existence.
While the statement is true on its face, its use here also looks very much like it's being used to dismiss the thoughts of others as provocateuring by people desiring to get offended. Even among those who're activist-minded, I've never met a single person who wants to be offended. If such people exist, I can't help but believe they're an immensely small fraction of a percentage of all people in existence.
MechaPilot
Explorer
Assuming the PCs have some means of understanding the language being spoken, such as a Comprehend Languages ritual, you shouldn't need to do the clicks. Presumably, the clicks have an actual meaning in the language that would be translated by the ability to understand the language.
The basics are simple enough, but doing them at speed and consistently- and using the correct KINDS of clicks- is a true challenge.
[video=youtube;31zzMb3U0iY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31zzMb3U0iY&sns=em[/video]
Just had a mental image of Bob & Doug MacKenzie calling the race in Canadian-accented Xhosian. Hilarious, *click*eh!
I always suspected the Asgardians were actually Canadians from the future...
They do exist as a small but VERY vocal percentage of the overall population.
Thing is, like broken clocks, they are occasionally correct.
S
Sunseeker
Guest
Exactly. Besides, doing vocals for hundreds of NPCs gets tiring. Especially if you are potentially dealing with people of multiple "races". At best most attempts come out tropey. I mean there's a solid reason why all my aristocrats sounds like Gerard Depardieu, it's what I know. A DM shouldn't be expected to learn another language just to make an NPC the party likely won't even remember (or will probably kill) seem more authentic.
In terms of speech, I sometimes throw curveballs: one of my players awakened a giant lizard- it talked like Elvis.
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