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Non-cliche slavery in fantasy campaign settings?
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6279849" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>You're right, the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade are not the same pains that all "slaves" in history endured. Of course, one may still wonder if there is any rightly moral way to treat another free-willed human being as property, ever. And it's wrong to call this a simple "American" concern , given especially what happened to the French empire with that trade, and their colonies such as Haiti, and the continued effects on large swaths of the African continent and whatnot. The thing was trans-national, after all -- nothing causes horror quite like economics. </p><p></p><p>What you seem to be asking for in regards to fantasy RPG's, though, is some model of "slavery" or serfdom or somesuch that isn't so clearly abusive and cruel as one informed by the abusive and cruel legacies of the trans-Atlantic era in human brutality. Given its historicity, fair enough, right?</p><p></p><p>I think the challenge with that, as it relates to RPG's, is just this: "Where is the adventure here?"</p><p></p><p>In an abusive, cruel slavery situation you have a clear villain and a clear heroic path of action. If the party comes across a city where slaves have voting rights and get paid and eventually become free after having worked off their debt (or whatever), what's the story? Who's the villain, and what is the action the party should take? </p><p></p><p>If you can find a reason for it to be an interesting adventure, you can probably get people on board with it more easily than just pronouncing that it should be done. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6279849, member: 2067"] You're right, the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade are not the same pains that all "slaves" in history endured. Of course, one may still wonder if there is any rightly moral way to treat another free-willed human being as property, ever. And it's wrong to call this a simple "American" concern , given especially what happened to the French empire with that trade, and their colonies such as Haiti, and the continued effects on large swaths of the African continent and whatnot. The thing was trans-national, after all -- nothing causes horror quite like economics. What you seem to be asking for in regards to fantasy RPG's, though, is some model of "slavery" or serfdom or somesuch that isn't so clearly abusive and cruel as one informed by the abusive and cruel legacies of the trans-Atlantic era in human brutality. Given its historicity, fair enough, right? I think the challenge with that, as it relates to RPG's, is just this: "Where is the adventure here?" In an abusive, cruel slavery situation you have a clear villain and a clear heroic path of action. If the party comes across a city where slaves have voting rights and get paid and eventually become free after having worked off their debt (or whatever), what's the story? Who's the villain, and what is the action the party should take? If you can find a reason for it to be an interesting adventure, you can probably get people on board with it more easily than just pronouncing that it should be done. :p [/QUOTE]
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Non-cliche slavery in fantasy campaign settings?
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