Why 5E may be the last edition of D&D

[Hussar]

hmmmm like this?

View attachment 103771

There's more to the problem though. It's not like Nightcrawler is a black skinned sadomasochist who hates and enslaves all men. It's not just the color issue here. The entire race is very problematic. And trying to point to mythological origins doesn't work either because, while drow might look something like svartalfar, the whole femdom dominatrix thing is going to piss off pretty much everyone.

To be honest, I'm actually pretty shocked that drow have managed to stay in the game as long as they have. Even a cursory glance paints an incredibly bigoted picture. Hrm, man hating women who worship a black widow spider demon. Yeah, that's not going to trigger anyone at all. Then plaster in the color thing - good elves are white and evil elves are black - and you're just begging for a spanking.

 

[Sadras]

Forget the elven version of 50 shades of black, coming up with a decent storyline that manages to draw the non-D&D market is the real issue. Warcraft failed to capture the market...

The Dragonlance Saga is no match for LotR, the playerbase is divided on Drizzt tale and you cannot do another Orc vs Humans fiasco...what is left? MiBG maybe, a Strahd story, the Fall of Lord Soth?

 

[Jester David]

I think the Nightcrawler is a good point. You can sell a dark skinned elfin hero without making it "blackface". Especially if you add the blue/violet hues.

The trick with Drizzt is to focus on his adventures on the surface. What makes him cool and all his best adventures are above ground, when he's confronting prejudice and being a hero and running around with friends.
You just imply his origin. He retells it to allies and you get snippets in dreams. We don't need a full trilogy of films focusing on his early days.
You don't make it his origin story, but the origin of his party.

But once you have an entire race of dark skinned inhuman monsters, then it gets problematic. Or, at least if that's the only people of colour. Which was the problem Lord of the Rings faced as it was white humans and elves and dwarves vs the darkie orcs. Which is not a good look. (Even if the orcs are meant to represent industrialisation and modern warfare.)
You can fix that by having some people of colour in the cast. Having some diverse humans.

Which is probably the advantage of making a new story for the movie or adapting a lesser known story. More freedom to reinvent characters.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Forget the elven version of 50 shades of black, coming up with a decent storyline that manages to draw the non-D&D market is the real issue. Warcraft failed to capture the market...

The Dragonlance Saga is no match for LotR, the playerbase is divided on Drizzt tale and you cannot do another Orc vs Humans fiasco...what is left? MiBG maybe, a Strahd story, the Fall of Lord Soth?

You make me think: the scenario from the Baldur's Gate video games would be great on screen. Maybe more in a serie than in movie, but still...

 

[Imaro]

I kind of wish they'd go the streaming route (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) and do a series vs. a movie for D&D. I think an Artemis Entreri (all of the Drizz't action sequences and none of the problematic elements) anti-hero/noir-esque fantasy series would be dope. Even have some references to Drizz't in the background (sort of like how Titans treats Batman in most of the first season) without having to actually show him.

 

[AtomicPope]

I kind of wish they'd go the streaming route (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) and do a series vs. a movie for D&D.

Joe Manganiello talked about producing a D&D series of Dragon Lance that was akin to Game of Thrones in scope and ambition.

 

[Azzy]

They do seem to be. I *think* the logic is basically that bc it’s ancient folk lore, it can’t be problematic?

It's just that the "svart" in the name of folklore's svartalfar is the only thing similar to D&D's drow aside from maybe their subterranean nature. So, people propping up svartalfar from folklore seem kinda either ill-informed or spinning the name fore a lot lore than it's worth.

 

[Azzy]

Having some diverse humans.

I also think that having ethnically diverse human characters would help the drow pill, but I think that having a diverse cast (especially with regards to human characters) would be beneficial in the first place.

Though, they could get away with nixing the drow in favor of having a tiefling character to fill the same hole.

 

[generic]

There's more to the problem though. It's not like Nightcrawler is a black skinned sadomasochist who hates and enslaves all men. It's not just the color issue here. The entire race is very problematic. And trying to point to mythological origins doesn't work either because, while drow might look something like svartalfar, the whole femdom dominatrix thing is going to piss off pretty much everyone.

To be honest, I'm actually pretty shocked that drow have managed to stay in the game as long as they have. Even a cursory glance paints an incredibly bigoted picture. Hrm, man hating women who worship a black widow spider demon. Yeah, that's not going to trigger anyone at all. Then plaster in the color thing - good elves are white and evil elves are black - and you're just begging for a spanking.

Yep, and I'm still shocked that the "voluntary torture" scene in DotMM got past editors.

In a 12+ game made in 2018?

 

[generic]

Oops!

Wrong thread.