WotC WotC's Chris Perkins On D&D's Inclusivity Processes Going Forward

Over on D&D Beyond, WotC's Chris Perkins has written a blog entry about how the company's processes have been changed to improve the way the D&D studio deals with harmful content and inclusivity. This follows recent issues with racist content in Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, and involves working with external cultural consultants.

The studio’s new process mandates that every word, illustration, and map must be reviewed by multiple outside cultural consultants prior to publication.

Leveling Up Our Creative Process: Learnings From Spelljammer

In this blog post, I'll talk about how we in the D&D Studio are changing our review process following the problematic content that appeared in Spell...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[darjr]

Anyone who does this kind of review or is involved is this a good plan? Are there any pitfalls in this one even if it’s good?

 

[Charlaquin]

It’s bizarre it took them this long and this many flubs to finally commit to outside sensitivity readers, but I’m glad they finally did. Hope it’s for real and not just marketing.

Well, according to the blog post, they did use outside sensitivity readers before. It’s just that they left it up to the product lead’s discretion what elements of the product needed outside review. Which means problematic content that wasn’t already apparent to the product lead wouldn’t get an outside review, which kinda defeats the purpose of using outside reviews at all… But it’s good to see that they’ve recognized the problem and are now going to be sending everything to multiple outside reviewers, including reprinted content. That’s a significant commitment.

 

[pukunui]

Does anyone know if WotC ran a standard book offering print run of the revised Curse of Strahd? All my local stores still have the 1st printing from 2016 on the shelf, but I'm guessing the deluxe offering in the coffin box that is more expensive is how they initially handled offering the revised version?

Yes, that is how they initially offered the revised version, but all subsequent printings of the regular book should also contain the errata.

 

[darjr]

I’ve started a new thread about the errata here:

Spelljammer - Spelljammer Nov 10 2022 errata.

With the news of WotCs new review process going forward and Spelljammer: Light of Xyraxis reprint, comes a second round of errata. As I write this blog post, Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is about to be reprinted. Applying our new inclusion-review process to the Spelljammer reprint led us...

www.enworld.org

 

[Incenjucar]

This is great to see. Not only is this the right thing to do, it will also make the game more comfortable for more people to play and help us get a wider variety of interesting content.

I remember back when 4E wasn't out yet it was so hard to get the importance of this stuff through to people that I ended up getting invited to critique some art for an indie project because of how loudly I was arguing for being aware of male gaze in game art because, at the time, it was novel to be aware of it! I'll be happy to have that just never need to come up again.

 

[Oofta]

Surprised it took them so long.

 

[Malmuria]

Well, according to the blog post, they did use outside sensitivity readers before. It’s just that they left it up to the product lead’s discretion what elements of the product needed outside review. Which means problematic content that wasn’t already apparent to the product lead wouldn’t get an outside review, which kinda defeats the purpose of using outside reviews at all… But it’s good to see that they’ve recognized the problem and are now going to be sending everything to multiple outside reviewers, including reprinted content. That’s a significant commitment.

Yeah, I read this as they are actually going to put the financial resources toward inclusivity by having cultural consultants review all materials at multiple stages.

 

[Velderan]

Yes, that is how they initially offered the revised version, but all subsequent printings of the regular book should also contain the errata.

I'm asking if anyone knows if they've actually done an additional print run though. I'm just curious if the book is selling well enough 6 years later to justify putting more copies out or are they (so far) relying on the deluxe version's appeal to get the new material on store shelves. Sorry, I should have been clearer.

 

[Ixal]

Anyone who does this kind of review or is involved is this a good plan? Are there any pitfalls in this one even if it’s good?

Sure there are pitfalls. For example the sensitivity readers might have a different opinion on what is problematic than the hypersensitive twitter bubble. And when that happens you are back at square 1 as WotC obviously hired the wrong sensitivity readers or disregarded what they said.

Do you really believe that despite all what happened WotC did not use sensitivity readers already or disregarded what they said?

 

[bedir than]

I'm asking if anyone knows if they've actually done an additional print run though. I'm just curious if the book is selling well enough 6 years later to justify putting more copies out or are they (so far) relying on the deluxe version's appeal to get the new material on store shelves. Sorry, I should have been clearer.

Curse of Strahd has at least two errata, with one being for the premium

https://media.wizards.com/2021/dnd/downloads/CoS-Errata.pdf

They only announce errata on a reprinting