D&D 5E Should the next edition of D&D promote more equality?

[Jacob Marley]

Jacob Marley's picture of a knight below is better, although I'm wondering if she wears makeup every day, or if it's a special occasion. Maybe it's date day on the battlefield?

Haven't you heard? All knights wear make-up while traveling. They also wear highly polish armor accented with pearly white banners! Not a hint of dirt or grime.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It was a military parade. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Kaodi]

I have not read the whole thread so I do not know how this turned from equality to sexuality, but the only romantic cliche that comes to mind that could work in a D&D context is like, "Holy jehosephats, we just survived White Plume Mountain and everyone else in the party is dead. Are you getting the same urge I am, to celebrate continued life with a roll in the hay?" That sort of things happens in real life. I am not sure how realistic it is.

 

[bogmad]

I have not read the whole thread so I do not know how this turned from equality to sexuality, but the only romantic cliche that comes to mind that could work in a D&D context is like, "Holy jehosephats, we just survived White Plume Mountain and everyone else in the party is dead. Are you getting the same urge I am, to celebrate continued life with a roll in the hay?" That sort of things happens in real life. I am not sure how realistic it is.

Good point. The trope of the player who just wants to sleep with everything is certainly one I've encountered before, but I don't think we need to encourage it by mentioning it in any rule books.
Nor has he (not trying to enforce gender pronouns, but it usually is a "he" isn't it?) always been overtly concerned with whether or not the object of his affection is a female.

 

[Ichneumon]

Jacob Marley's picture of a knight below is better, although I'm wondering if she wears makeup every day, or if it's a special occasion. Maybe it's date day on the battlefield?

I always knew that the rouge had a place in battle.

 

[Li Shenron]

Whereas to me, I don't want the "Cantina Scene." I'd much rather they show diversity like this:
View attachment 57531

Or this:
View attachment 57532

Or even this:
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These are really excellent examples of the "more equality" in art I would like to see.

As for the sexuality subtopic, I do not like sexualized art, neither explicit nor the "winking" type. An occasional bellybutton or even chainmail bikini can make for a good laugh, but it really should not be the standard.

That also applies to couples in art. It barely even happens to see two consorts holding each others' hand, much less hugging or kissing, because it is just a VERY marginal part of D&D stories.

Thus I want to remind everyone once again, that my original post is NOT about showing same-gender couples in art!! It's ONLY about allowing same-gender couples to appear in published settings or adventures, FEATURED IN THE TEXT exactly in the same way that every couples are featured in D&D, which 99% of the time is simply that they are acknowledged to exist. It practically never happens in D&D to read more than a mention that character X is character Y's wife or husband, and nothing else is mentioned because nothing else is needed. If you need to know in the story that X is cheating, or that Y is unhappy, or that they argue all the time, because this has an effect on the outcome of the PC's story, then it's normal to mention it.

But in no case a D&D book goes into intimate details on husband-wife relationship or displays them in art, therefore in no case I would suggest such thing should be done for other relationship, because that would NOT be equality.

 

[Hussar]

Jacob Marley - good find on those images. I completely agree.

However, the "cantina scene" has its place too. It's an easy way to showcase the diversity of play in the game. If we're going to have non-human PC races, we might as well show images where the humans and the non-humans hang out. It does reflect at least some people's games, although certainly not all for sure.

But, let's be honest here, that cantina scene image would fit in an Eberron or Waterdeep source book pretty easily.

 

[Dausuul]

Nor has he (not trying to enforce gender pronouns, but it usually is a "he" isn't it?)...

Not always. Believe me, not always.

 

[MrHemlocks]

I think D&D is doing a (fairly) good job at promoting equality of men and women. There are no discrimination of sorts in the rules, and men and women characters are "roughly" equally featured both in the text and the artwork (with the exception of the chainmail bikini sacred cow, of course).

But how about characters of different ethnicity? I don't know in 4e books, but in 3e books there were occasionally some asian-looking characters, but there were almost no black human characters. Notice that I'm not talking about necessarily having black dwarves, elves and halflings, but why not humans?

How about gender-bending characters? Can we have some occasional man NPC with man consort, or woman NPC with woman consort in the game (just presented as such, with no attached comment)? Or is the topic still too sensitive?

What's your take?

WOW...! Equality is a myth and those that truely believe in it are truely living in a fantasy realm. As for gender bending...heck no! We have enough problems with players acting all wierd that WotC does not need to praise it in a rule set. In my campaings men have on average two extra points in strength and intelligence while women have two extra points of agility and charm. What is next....men and boy love societies in game???? Madness needs to end. What is the modern human condition...sick

Mod Note: Please see Morrus' post below. ~Umbran

 

[Kaodi]

Good point. The trope of the player who just wants to sleep with everything is certainly one I've encountered before, but I don't think we need to encourage it by mentioning it in any rule books.
Nor has he (not trying to enforce gender pronouns, but it usually is a "he" isn't it?) always been overtly concerned with whether or not the object of his affection is a female.

That is not quite what I meant. The situation I am referring to, as far as I recall, is somewhat spontaneous. Two characters for whom there might have been some sexual tension before end up surviving some traumatic event together and that is what gets them both to want to get it on immediately. It is not just an excuse for one of them that already wanted that to happen before anything bad happens. I wish I could think of an example off hand, but I cannot.