D&D General D&D Settings with No Problematic Areas?

[Ralif Redhammer]

I don't know that there will ever be a totally non-problematic setting. Because inclusivity is a continual progression. I don't see the Forgotten Realms going away anytime soon, there's just too much invested in that IP, but work will definitely be ongoing to make it less problematic. I fully expect, for example, the Kingdom of Many Arrows to appear as not a threat, but a locale, for a change, at some point.

 

[The Glen]

No. No matter what you write somebody is going to take offense.

Ravenloft has mature themes because it's horror themed. D&D is ages 12 and up can't have mature themes that would scare away future customers.

Dark Sun is built around slavery that the taboo topic so we can't have that.

Greyhawk and Birthright are based on European cultures and that is a major No-No right now.

Mystara's actually quite diverse but because it was written by white guys it'll never see the light of day again.

dragonlance is all about the struggle of Good and Evil. 5th edition has moved heavily towards evil having no ramifications. You can't actually be punished for your decisions now, so no dragonlance.

Forgotten Realms has evil creatures as default. That's getting taken out. Not to mention all the problematic colonies all over the map.

spelljammer and planescape take you to the problematic regions so until the problematic regions are purged we're not going to get them.

Eberron has the problematic drow, and then you got the people with dragonmarks who are better than everyone else which is not going to go down well.

Either we look past the flaws of each of the settings, or this argument cycles for all eternity. Some of these settings were the best fantasy settings written. Spelljammer was a flawed system but people love the setting. Nitpicking every single book to try to find something you don't like is just ruining the fun for people that do like it. There's 10 major settings if you don't like what you got nine more choose from. If you don't like any of them just write your own.

 

[ChaosOS]

No. No matter what you write somebody is going to take offense.

Ravenloft has mature themes because it's horror themed. D&D is ages 12 and up can't have mature themes that would scare away future customers.

Dark Sun is built around slavery that the taboo topic so we can't have that.

Greyhawk and Birthright are based on European cultures and that is a major No-No right now.

Mystara's actually quite diverse but because it was written by white guys it'll never see the light of day again.

dragonlance is all about the struggle of Good and Evil. 5th edition has moved heavily towards evil having no ramifications. You can't actually be punished for your decisions now, so no dragonlance.

Forgotten Realms has evil creatures as default. That's getting taken out. Not to mention all the problematic colonies all over the map.

spelljammer and planescape take you to the problematic regions so until the problematic regions are purged we're not going to get them.

Eberron has the problematic drow, and then you got the people with dragonmarks who are better than everyone else which is not going to go down well.

Either we look past the flaws of each of the settings, or this argument cycles for all eternity. Some of these settings were the best fantasy settings written. Spelljammer was a flawed system but people love the setting. Nitpicking every single book to try to find something you don't like is just ruining the fun for people that do like it. There's 10 major settings if you don't like what you got nine more choose from. If you don't like any of them just write your own.

I know it's easier to wrestle with strawmen, but this isn't really responsive at all to people's critiques of the settings. For example, even from "woke" authors I've never seen them bring up the dragonmarks of Eberron as an issue. Do better.

 

[The Glen]

I have. I found to be a very common criticism. Doesn't matter what it is, dragonmarks, Legacies, runes or anything else that one player has that the other player doesn't that's not exclusive. Especially from 4th edition where balance was the only thing that people seem to be concerned about. Everybody had to be equal.

 

[Mirtek]

Watch The Dragon Prince on Netflix if you want to see the future of Western D&D style fantasy. Spoiler: it looks a lot like the past, except some of the problematic bits have been filed down (or off).

TDP for one crowd, Goblin Slayer for the other. And let's keep our fingers crossed that they never meet each other

 

[Fenris-77]

I have. I found to be a very common criticism. Doesn't matter what it is, dragonmarks, Legacies, runes or anything else that one player has that the other player doesn't that's not exclusive. Especially from 4th edition where balance was the only thing that people seem to be concerned about. Everybody had to be equal.

They give up other rules to have the mark. I don't even really know how to respond to this. Equal is one thing, but 'the same' is something else entirely. Any player is free to take a dragon mark if they want at character gen. It couldn't possibly be fairer. Some people will complain about bloody anything.

Your post above is, um, certainly enthusiastic in it's fault finding. I'm sure if we looked hard enough we could add every single D&D book and setting to that list. Then there would be no more D&D to argue about. Wouldn't that be a relief. We can all play with a single d6 and a picture of stick person on a blank piece of paper. So equal it hurts, right? I can DM you the rules to Stickfolk in Blank Land if you're interested. It's what they call rules light.

 

[The Glen]

They give up other rules to have the mark. I don't even really know how to respond to this. Equal is one thing, but 'the same' is something else entirely. Any player is free to take a dragon mark if they want at character gen. It couldn't possibly be fairer. Some people will complain about bloody anything.

Your post above is, um, certainly enthusiastic in it's fault finding. I'm sure if we looked hard enough we could add every single D&D book and setting to that list. Then there would be no more D&D to argue about. Wouldn't that be a relief. We can all play with a single d6 and a picture of stick person on a blank piece of paper. So equal it hurts, right? I can DM you the rules to Stickfolk in Blank Land if you're interested. It's what they call rules light.

Just tired of people telling me what is socially acceptable to play. It seems you can't write anything without people running it through a strainer who have no idea the realities of designing games or writing a setting. It's gotten so bad we're limiting who can be a villain across multiple genres. I've seen people get offended for other people without asking those people what they actually thought. People would be surprised how accepting cultures are represented in a game. No matter who wrote it as long as they didn't get it completely wrong. Then again, Borat is insanely popular in Kazakhstan and I don't know of a single thing that that movie got right

 

[Fenris-77]

The nice thing is we all get to play what we want at our own tables. That's not to say that we should be insensitive, but we get to choose. The things people are interested in playing will continue to get made too. Maybe with a tweak or two, and avoiding this or that thing to mitigate the presence of tired and harmful stereotypes, but they'll still get made. People crowing about completely overhauling the hobby, disallowing X and Y, and not having villains and all that other nonsense are alarmists who are getting their rocks off telling other people what to do. Pay those people no nevermind - they're only happy when they're making other people miserable.

There's a thread on another site I read today called "what if D&D becomes too toxic to play..." or some such nonsense like that. Talking about what to play instead. I just shake my head and go back to campaign prep.

 

[pukunui]

I don't know that there will ever be a totally non-problematic setting. Because inclusivity is a continual progression. I don't see the Forgotten Realms going away anytime soon, there's just too much invested in that IP, but work will definitely be ongoing to make it less problematic. I fully expect, for example, the Kingdom of Many Arrows to appear as not a threat, but a locale, for a change, at some point.

Yes, I think bringing back the Kingdom of Many Arrows (or a successor state) would be the obvious choice to allow for more nuanced orcs in the Realms.

I reckon WotC kind of shot themselves in the foot with that one by having the Many Arrows orcs “revert to type” and go on a suicidal rampage that resulted in the destruction of their kingdom.

 

[Mirtek]

I fully expect, for example, the Kingdom of Many Arrows to appear as not a threat, but a locale, for a change, at some point.

Actually it has been destroyed during the Sundering novels. All gains from Obould's war have been lost, the Many Arrows tribe is back to the fortress they had just prior to that and the other tribes are no longer following them and disbanded back to their mountain caves