DDAL Racism and DDAL4-1 [Spoilers]

[Mirtek]

perhaps this game is not for you?

Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D[2] or DnD) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons

So a an adventure featuring blackface would be OK?

For all the sensivity that american companies show to the racial issues perceived in the US they overlook how badly Roma are discriminated in Europe today still.

While from an american view European comanies may be guilty if many racial fauxpax, no European company would date to create a group like the vustani or gur in this day and age

Just last year there's was a public discussion in germany whether the dish "Zigeuner Soße" should be renamed for being a racist slur.

In the last there was a sweet called "Negerkuss" which long since has been renamed to "Schokokuss" for this reason.

The whole Roma issue just seems to be below the US radar, but they are a very current issue in Europe.

 

[RCanine]

So a an adventure featuring blackface would be OK?

America's a weird place. We have a professional football team whose name is an ethnic slur.

 

[delericho]

Rather than worry about PMs and all that, I've opened this up for comments:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_QuFrRa3aEBmWD363zufVQTQjMrI_wuJp9QH3JVN6-w/edit?usp=sharing

I'll email it as well. But if this issue is important to you, or if you don't actually think it's a big deal, your comments are appreciated.

That's pretty good. I'd remove your "intentional jab" though - I don't think it really adds anything, and it also relies on the context of the other article. I'd stick with "for bros killing monsters", or something like that.

 

[Mirtek]

America's a weird place. We have a professional football team whose name is an ethnic slur.

The issue is that the Roma in Eastern Europe (not that Western European countries are much better whenever Roma try to escape the oppression by migrating West) are still where the oppressed minorities in the US were prior to the civil right movement.

They still have their camps raided, are not admited into stores and restaurants, and even spit on on the streets, etc.

While not all is well in the USA today, at least there's are no longer separate Water dispensers only for white people.

 

[delericho]

While from an american view European comanies may be guilty if many racial fauxpax, no European company would date to create a group like the vustani or gur in this day and age

To be honest, I doubt WotC would create such a group today either - the Vistani and the Gur were created back in the 80's.

Indeed, if this was 'just' about the Gur in the FR, I suspect they wouldn't have featured in a storyline and would have been quietly retconned out of the setting. (And by the same token, I'll be surprised if they ever revisit Matzica or The Horde again.)

But the current storyline is mostly in Ravenloft where the Vistani are a much more integral part of the setting and therefore harder* to remove. And it appears that they've chosen to connect the Gur from FR with the Vistani from RL, which doesn't seem unreasonable. Hence their reappearance in this adventure.

* That said, it being hard isn't sufficient justification not to do the right thing - if it were decided that the Vistani had to go, then they should take the step and deal with the fallout. (NB: the key word in the previous sentence is 'if'.) Even saying "we'll deal with it when the time is right" wouldn't be enough, since too often that somehow results in the time never quite being right.

Perhaps should do is get an official update of the Vistani (and the Gur) up onto the DM's Guild site ASAP, significantly revising these cultures and, in particular, firmly breaking the link to the real-world groups that were their original inspiration. I'm not sure that's an absolute fix, but it would be a strong step in the right direction, I think.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Curse of Strahd is a setting based on the tropes of old Victorian and pulp horror, not a hate speech tract against a specific group. While I support the OP's right to their own interpretations I do not share that opinion and know enough to separate entertaining literary stereotypes from reality, as I do when reading the works of Mark Twain, R.E. Howard or Edgar Rice Burroughs.

ETA - I've read the AL response and appreciate the measured and mature approach taken there. I would not deride a player for their views at my table, and would appreciate that we could have a good conversation on that opinion and the how it relates to the game being played.

 

[RCanine]

That's pretty good. I'd remove your "intentional jab" though - I don't think it really adds anything, and it also relies on the context of the other article. I'd stick with "for bros killing monsters", or something like that.

I was originally much harsher and toned it down a bit. Here's the thing: in an essay ostensibly about being culturally sensitive, using a literary device where you present women in a way that is interchangeable with words like "loot" or "property" and have it still make sense does more than undermine your point. It alienates exactly the audience that you're hoping to reach.

 

[delericho]

I was originally much harsher and toned it down a bit. Here's the thing: in an essay ostensibly about being culturally sensitive, using a literary device where you present women in a way that is interchangeable with words like "loot" or "property" and have it still make sense does more than undermine your point. It alienates exactly the audience that you're hoping to reach.

I don't disagree. But if you want to make that point in your rebuttal you should make that point in your rebuttal. Don't go for an "intentional jab" - there's a real chance you'll be misinterpreted; there's also a chance you'll come across as passive-aggressive and weaken your other (good) points.

 

[TwinPeaksGuy]

I keep circling back to remembering the recurring kerfuffle over teaching Twain's "Huck Finn" in schools, on the grounds that a certain unpleasant word is used. The complainers invariably missed the point that Jim was shown to be head and shoulders a better human being than the bigoted whites Huck encounters. Depicting prejudice is not the same as endorsing and promoting prejudice; depicting prejudice can be a powerful tool in combating it.

Can't wait to play this adventure, and reading the text if I can arrange it. I'd been lukewarm on the setting and considering skipping the season, but now I'm interested. Interested in about the same way I'm curious to read both Das Kapital and Mein Kampf on the grounds that there are people who don't want others reading such "dangerous" books.

 

[RCanine]

I keep circling back to remembering the recurring kerfuffle over teaching Twain's "Huck Finn" in schools, on the grounds that a certain unpleasant word is used. The complainers invariably missed the point that Jim was shown to be head and shoulders a better human being than the bigoted whites Huck encounters. Depicting prejudice is not the same as endorsing and promoting prejudice; depicting prejudice can be a powerful tool in combating it.

You're 100% right. The problem isn't that the adventure depicts prejudice it's that it appears to validate prejudice through it's organization and presentation as a small part of a larger story.

The AL dudes have actually been pretty awesome about inclusivity, they just made an easy-to-make mistake. The problem now is that they've compounded it with a knee-jerk response that could be the poster child for how not to respond when someone tells you that you've hurt them.