WotC Older D&D Books on DMs Guild Now Have A Disclaimer

If you go to any of the older WotC products on the Dungeon Master's Guild, they now have a new disclaimer very similar to that currently found at the start of Looney Tunes cartoons.

We recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website, does not reflect the values of the Dungeon & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

The wording is very similar to that found at the start of Looney Tunes cartoons.

Edit: Wizards has put out a statement on Twitter (click through to the full thread)

 

[DammitVictor]

Anyone else think it's darkly hilarious that they slapped their "legacy content" disclaimer on every 4e product, when 4e products were objectively better about every single thing that activists and critics are complaining about in 5e? It would make me question their motives, if at this point I were still capable of attributing rational motives to any of their decisions.

Also, this move is lazy, stupid, and gutless and it's guaranteed to make both the people who want D&D to change and the people who don't want D&D to change even angrier.

 

[Helldritch]

I would say that I prefer the warning than seeing the product banned. I do not like it, but at least, the product is still there to see and buy.

 

[Mercurius]

Anyone else think it's darkly hilarious that they slapped their "legacy content" disclaimer on every 4e product, when 4e products were objectively better about every single thing that activists and critics are complaining about in 5e? It would make me question their motives, if at this point I were still capable of attributing rational motives to any of their decisions.

Also, this move is lazy, stupid, and gutless and it's guaranteed to make both the people who want D&D to change and the people who don't want D&D to change even angrier.

It is a placeholder, them saying "We hear you but give us a minute to figure out what our next move is."

 

[183231bcb]

Anyone else think it's darkly hilarious that they slapped their "legacy content" disclaimer on every 4e product, when 4e products were objectively better about every single thing that activists and critics are complaining about in 5e? It would make me question their motives, if at this point I were still capable of attributing rational motives to any of their decisions.

Also, this move is lazy, stupid, and gutless and it's guaranteed to make both the people who want D&D to change and the people who don't want D&D to change even angrier.

Oddly enough, it seems that on DriveThruRPG (run by the same company as DMsGuild) they put the warning only on the store pages for Oriental Adventures (both 1e and 3e).

 

[SkidAce]

Also, this move is lazy, stupid, and gutless and it's guaranteed to make both the people who want D&D to change and the people who don't want D&D to change even angrier.

Nope, I am not angrier.

(Not telling what/if side I am on)

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I know when the disclaimer was first added, some people were upset that it was at the bottom of the various product descriptions, but I was just looking and it is now at the top, so no more scrolling down to find it. Also on DMs Guild, if you just go to each Edition category, every edition other than 5th has the disclaimer at the top of the page. This is what the current version says, which I think is a little different than before:

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

 

[billd91]

There's a definite trend amongst people who object to Oriental Adventures towards being Asian-American rather than native Asian... largely because the stereotypes that they are objecting to have a much greater effect on Asian-Americans living in America than upon Asians living in Asia.

Likewise, the Japanese don't tend to see a problem with clumsy Western aping of their cultural heritage... because cultural appropriation is the act of members of an occupying culture commercially exploiting the sacred culture of an occupied culture to produce pop culture. However we want to describe the historical reality of it, the Japanese do not generally view themselves as an "occupied culture": they consider Western appropriation of Japanese history and myth for commercial purposes as a good-spirited exchange between equals, an act of mutual irreverent respect that they can reciprocate with gleeful abandon.

Japanese people living in America, raised in America, don't (typically) feel like they're engaging with American culture on an even footing... and this puts them at odds with both their cousins and their neighbors when it comes to stereotyping and appropriation. It doesn't mean they're too sensitive, it means they're responding to different cultural pressures.

You might feel differently if you were a third-generation expat living in Japan and Japanese people treated you like you were a character from their pseudo-European fantasies.

You've got a point - the distress felt by someone with a foot in both cultures but living in white American culture is going to probably be more intense. But honestly, who has more authority to determine whether a white guy American interpretation of a concept in Japanese culture is excessively stereotypical? Someone living in Japanese culture or a Japanese-American? This is part of the problem of dealing with these issues. The stress felt by one group may be not felt or even dismissed by another that's actually closer to the culture being abstracted/stereotyped into a gaming product.

This is, ultimately, why I think a disclaimer really is the most appropriate way to go. Then the reader who feels they are most affected by the product can make their decision while the ones who don't feel a sense of oppression because of their distance from the particular milieu of American culture can make their own.

 

[DammitVictor]

But honestly, who has more authority to determine whether a white guy American interpretation of a concept in Japanese culture is excessively stereotypical? Someone living in Japanese culture or a Japanese-American? This is part of the problem of dealing with these issues.

Everyone and noone. I'm not Japanese, and I have a very strong opinion that Oriental Adventures is gross and that Wizards of the Coast needs to make an appropriate and timely response. A lot of not-Japanese people share that opinion, and a lot of Japanese and Japanese-American people share that opinion... and a lot of people who are both Japanese and not-Japanese do not share that opinion.

I don't believe WotC's response has been appropriate. This is me, right now, exercising all of the authority I believe anyone but WotC should have in this matter-- and I hope enough other people are doing so in sufficient numbers to encourage a more thorough response.

This is, ultimately, why I think a disclaimer really is the most appropriate way to go. Then the reader who feels they are most affected by the product can make their decision while the ones who don't feel a sense of oppression because of their distance from the particular milieu of American culture can make their own.

Yes, I agree-- actually, wholeheartedly, 100%. My problem with "the disclaimer" as WotC has implemented it... is that they slapped the disclaimer on every pre-5e product, when not every TSR legacy product needed a disclaimer and their own 4e products are, in general, much better than their current products in this regard. It shows a lack of understanding and a lack of effort toward actually making up for the past-- and a staggering disrespect for the authors of the past who, problematic or not, have not received a dime in years for those products.

It's lazy, gutless, and stupid and I don't think there's any section of their fanbase this is actually going to satisfy.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Anyone else think it's darkly hilarious that they slapped their "legacy content" disclaimer on every 4e product, when 4e products were objectively better about every single thing that activists and critics are complaining about in 5e? It would make me question their motives, if at this point I were still capable of attributing rational motives to any of their decisions.

The 4E Forgotten Realms' magical Indian Removal Act wasn't really a good look...

 

[Staffan]

• Just a couple of weeks ago WOTC publicly stated that they're not going to work with one of their longest term artists anymore for the high crime of following conservatives on Twitter.

This is quite disingenious. I assume you're talking about Terese Nielsen. We're not talking about someone who has followed Mitt Romney on Twitter. We're talking about someone who follows/likes/retweets material from Mike "Pizzagate" Cernovich and from frickin Infowars. You know, the monster who claims the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax. She also donates art to QAnon conspiracy theorists.