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)

 

[reelo]

Race a is portrayed as monstrous so players have no qualms about exercising their heroism by killing its members.
Someone then decides - hey wouldn't it be cool to play a member of the race but I'll be an outcast going against the trope. This then gets traction to the point of race getting popularity amongst the players.
We then enter the stage where people seemingly forget that monstrous race wasn't meant to be a player option and claim it problematic on grounds of being portrayed as monstrous because they have made the outcast so mainstream as to be a representative of the average member of said race.

This happened with the drow (thanks to Drizzt). This happened with goblins, orcs and kobolds. They literally humanised the races that were never intended to be represented as humanlike and now take issue with original portrayal.

This is what I've been arguing all along. Sidestep the problem by making human the only player option. No player can hope to accurately roleplay an elf or a dwarf anyway, without just roleplaying a "haughty human with pointy ears" or a "short bearded human with a grumpy temper" so we might as well ditch them as player options as well. Humans can, by themselves, fill all tropes of culture so there's really no need for any other player races.

 

[dalisprime]

I agree kobolds are less human looking, so safer to describe. Same goes for dragonborn.

But at the same time, many players seem to love the kobolds, and want to play them. So they pretty much have to be designed as a player character anyway.

Which pretty much proves my point - something that wasn't problematic before is now problematic because it gained popularity. The only way to prevent this is to depict monsters in ways that keep them from becoming popular but I'm at a loss as to how that can be done because tastes differ

 

[Haldrik]

@reelo

To make an elf unplayable solves nothing.

The moment the DM describes the elf as a hippy with pointy ears, the problem of reallife tropes enters.

Make all humanoids playable by design.

 

[Haldrik]

Which pretty much proves my point - something that wasn't problematic before is now problematic because it gained popularity. The only way to prevent this is to depict monsters in ways that keep them from becoming popular but I'm at a loss as to how that can be done because tastes differ

If a creature looks more human, be more careful.

If a creature looks less human, then errors of judgment seem to have less reallife resonance.



Since "humanoid" is a special creature type that implies playability, design all of them as playable anyway, whether human looking or not.

 

[reelo]

Elves should be Fae anyway. And dwarves made of living stone.

 

[Haldrik]

Elves should be Fae anyway. And dwarves made of living stone.

There are different kinds of elves.

The forest elves are earth spirits, thus fey (fairy).

However, the sunlight elves are sky spirits. In D&D terms, it is probably ok to make them Feywild dwellers, but be high up above the clouds and wherever sunlight gleams.



With regard to fey eladrin, they can be either humanoid or fey. I prefer they be fey and humanoid. But am ok if there are eladrin who are only fey thus lack freewill.



Regarding dwarf as living stone. Yes!

 

[Haldrik]

@reelo,

You seem keen on a human-only setting. I enjoy this kind of human-centric setting. I make all of the nonhuman spirits like fey, celestial, etcetera mirror human behavior. So if the player characters do ugly things, then the spirits become more hostile. An angel might turn into a devil because of the human behavior. And hunt the characters down. Oppositely, if the human characters behave altruistically, even a nature demon might become negotiable, or helpful, ... or even Good.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Elves should be Fae anyway. And dwarves made of living stone.

I did both, but in separate campaigns. When the dwarves were stone, the GNOMES were Fey.

When the elves were Fey, they were unchanging, so the gnomes were reskinned into anthropomorphic mustelids, with attributes varying by environment.

 

[dalisprime]

If a creature looks more human, be more careful.

If a creature looks less human, then errors of judgment seem to have less reallife resonance.



Since "humanoid" is a special creature type that implies playability, design all of them as playable anyway, whether human looking or not.

It doesn't stop there though. People get offended over how demons and devils look even though these creatures are specifically made to represent vices and sins, some choose to identify with these portrayals and brand them as hateful agendas. The only way out is to remove anything even vaguely human looking from the MM if we are to avoid offending anyone.

 

[Haldrik]

It doesn't stop there though. People get offended over how demons and devils look even though these creatures are specifically made to represent vices and sins, some choose to identify with these portrayals and brand them as hateful agendas. The only way out is to remove anything even vaguely human looking from the MM if we are to avoid offending anyone.

I am unaware of complaints about the appearance of fiends. Any examples?