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So THAT's why Regdar gets no love...

ShinHakkaider

Adventurer
I'm just glad to see that the DnD developers didn't want any white males in their game. Nothing like reverse racism.

Wow. Just seriously WTF?

We'rent there like 4 other white characters in the iconic party? Where did you get this from? So ANY representation of anyone who ISNT white is reverse racism?
 

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Ashrem Bayle

Explorer
I'm just glad to see that the DnD developers didn't want any white males in their game. Nothing like reverse racism.

I hate that phrase. It implies that racism normally only goes one way. Just because the media only pays attention to racism directed toward minorities doesn't mean that an equal amount of racism isn't directed back toward the majority.

In short, racism is racism.

Back on topic...

I don't get it. There are other white male iconics. Why is Regdar the focus of all of this attention? Just because he got a cardboard display?
 


MadMaxim

First Post
Jeebus! He's just a fighter and I don't mind him or any of the other iconic characters. The only thing that can really annoy me is when the artwork is bad (in my opinion, of course).
 

danbuter1

First Post
I know there are other iconics. It just ticks me off that a developer just HAS to point out that he didn't want the main character to be a white male, and it must really piss him off, as he is still bothered by it. Political correctness gone mad, or racism?
 

Darrin Drader

Explorer
You know, this is one of those things where I was always completely in the dark. I never looked too closely at the cover art when it depicted to iconics, so I always assumed that Regdar was black. Even after 'playing' the interactive DVD, I still assumed he was black, and I was totally cool with it.

My personal preferences are usually to play the meat shield, usually as a white guy, but not for any particular reason. One of my friends in a D20 Modern game I ran played a black man. He's not black in real life. Another one of my friends always plays a female with red hair in any game we play, whether it be an RPG or an MMO. Yet another friend of mine always plays a male character who is quite a bit older (I think the median age he plays is about 45). My wife likes to play axe wielding foul-mouthed dwarves.

My point here is that I agree with Monte that players can and do see beyond themselves, and that it is absolutely a good thing to use characters of a variety of ethnicities and races as iconics.
 

mlund

First Post
Marketing wants a "Big lug with a big sword" on the front cover. This is perfectly legitimate if you think you need to reach back to Conan and Elric or go to the FFVII well for as close as you can get to a Buster Sword in the PHB.

So who do you hand the "Big lug with a big sword," job to, exactly? If you give it to anybody other than the white guy you get accused of racist overtones by depicting "persons of color" as unintelligent / savage / defined by physicality.

Same thing goes for making a certain character "Kenny," by the way. If you put a female character or a "person of color" through all the abuse and mutilation heaped upon Regdar you risk being accused of racial intimidation or misogyny.

If you need a character to be extensively abusive, abused, depraved, or depicted as a "lug" of some sort without much in the way of special enlightenment your go-to-guy is always the random white dude - that's how people play it safe. No one who counts is allowed to be offended so you catch less flack that way.

Fantasy settings are generally well equipped to avoid this trope, though. They've got so many trans-racial options (non-human species) that you really don't need to go there. In 4th Edition they can easily make a Dragonborn be the Conan stand-in or have random Eladrin and Tiefling deaths and not have to worry about racial overtones.

- Marty Lund
 

Marketing wants a "Big lug with a big sword" on the front cover. This is perfectly legitimate if you think you need to reach back to Conan and Elric or go to the FFVII well for as close as you can get to a Buster Sword in the PHB.

So who do you hand the "Big lug with a big sword," job to, exactly? If you give it to anybody other than the white guy you get accused of racist overtones by depicting "persons of color" as unintelligent / savage / defined by physicality.

Bull. If he'd been East Asian-styled no-one would have made such allegations. Black, maybe.

The rest of what you're saying is somewhat correct, except that you seem to think that it's an accident that in an iconic-free edition of the game, the iconic character of the previous game is being killed repeatedly.
 


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