New post on the AL site that talks about the concerns that people have brought up, and the points/ counterpoints that others have raised:
http://dndadventurersleague.org/sensitivity-in-the-demiplane-of-dread/
I have mixed feelings about this article.
It's certainly well-intentioned, but it's not very focused and it's difficult to get a sense of what the article's thesis is meant to be. Is it 'AL DMs need to fully prep a module in order to avoid possible problematic things that may have slipped past editing?' Is it 'let's talk about the Gur and how they're actually really cool?' Is it 'hey, remember Arthur Chu's seminal 'Your Princess Is In Another Castle' essay regarding how nerd culture is excusing problematic or worse things because nerds are too dazzled by finally being in the spotlight they craved for so long?'
The entire essay could have been condensed to two sentences: "The reference to the Gur as a 'race' will be changed to 'ethnicity'. The AL regrets the error." Much of the rest of the material could be seen as simply muddying the waters -- I mean, did anybody actually believe that AL DMs could bring in characters from other campaign worlds as NPCs in their AL games? What if 'let's go beat up some gypsies' happens to be exactly what a specific table would consider 'fun'?
Though some might appreciate the timeliness of the response, the actual essay comes across as a shotgun-blast of topics hastily arranged around the premise 'we don't really think we did anything wrong here' (paraphrased), which is defensible, if not really defended. It's a pretty good example of what Suzette Haden Elgin refers to in her
Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense books as Distracter Mode; bring in lots of different, tangentially-related topics until nobody remembers what everybody in the room was so mad about.
I'd have appreciated a more focused essay, one that might have taken a bit longer to research and write, but that highlighted the process of publishing an AL module, how things like this can end up slipping through the cracks, and the responsibilities of AL staff, volunteer admins, and DMs to help prevent those things from becoming larger problems for the campaign. As it stands, the only clear advice to a DM is to 'make it fun!', which, if a player really is having an issue with the portrayal of the Gur as a Romany-themed culture in this module, isn't necessarily helpful.
I'd like to see a more thoughtful, more focused essay that can actually serve as the 'last word' on how issues like this can affect an Organized Play campaign, and what people should do when they encounter issues like this. That essay should also include advice to a DM when one of her players takes information in a module out of context or seems to be deliberately trying to provoke controversy at a table where it otherwise wouldn't occur. That would serve as helpful advice to an AL DM.
Let's try leveling with the Adventurers League.
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Pauper