Mana, Shamans, and the Cultural Misappropriation behind Fantasy Terms

[Sadras]

Many said that people discriminated against by the stereotype will usually notice it much easily. You're Italian, from what I've read in the thread, so you're not usually associated with tribe, unlike Germans ("germanic tribe" being the first idea that comes to my mind when thinking of the word) Frankish or Belgian (the bravest of the Gauls!). You'd probably notice it more if you were.

I will wait patiently for a Frank, Belgian or German to raise his/her hand about the INT.
Greeks had tribes, never seen a Greek complain either.

 

[Olrox17]

Many said that people discriminated against by the stereotype will usually notice it much easily. You're Italian, from what I've read in the thread, so you're not usually associated with tribe, unlike Germans ("germanic tribe" being the first idea that comes to my mind when thinking of the word) Frankish or Belgian (the bravest of the Gauls!). You'd probably notice it more if you were.

Sure, could be. Although, I also never really checked the NPC gladiator's Int stat, either (just checked, it's 10 ).

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The tribesmen having lower Int is pretty questionable, but I doubt people not noticing it is due privilege in this case. Like how often do you look at the mental stats of the enemies? Because I usually don't.

 

[TheSword]

Please, can you quote anyone actually stating this? Or is this just yet another red herring bugaboo that folks need to invent in order to have something to argue against?

You can go back through the thread yourself and see the post where someone was advocating using a word processor to replace words.

 

[Sadras]

The tribesmen having lower Int is pretty questionable, but I doubt people not noticing it is due privilege in this case. Like how often do you look at the mental stats of the enemies? Because I usually don't.

Apparently some D&D players identify themselves as fantasy tribesmen and go looking to see how they have been statted.

 

[TheSword]

On my side of the fence, I want to change about 7 words in the Monster Manual to remove Shaman and replace it with druid and change a couple of stats from 8 to 10.

Wait a minute, so you too want to do it! A few posts ago.

 

[Sadras]

Sure, could be. Although, I also never really checked the NPC gladiator's Int stat, either (just checked, it's 10 ).

To be fair, gladiators were not all Roman but were often silly little tribal warriors that were educated in weapons, armour, etiquette but mostly sexual performance (as per the true-to-fact show Spartacus) which allowed them to raise their INT from 8 to 10 with the bonus ASI. It's all very logical.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It seems to me there's two reasonable approaches to the problem of racism in D&D texts:

1) Avoid referring to real world peoples.
2) Refer to real world peoples but avoid predominantly negative portrayals.

The first approach could be characterised as "find and replace".

 

[TheSword]

It seems to me there's two reasonable approaches to the problem of racism in D&D texts:

1) Avoid referring to real world peoples.
2) Refer to real world peoples but avoid consistently negative portrayals.

The first approach could be characterised as "find and replace".

Removing references to real world is the nuclear option. Shutting down lots of interesting history.

Option 2 is sensible, measured and long overdue.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

It seems to me there's two reasonable approaches to the problem of racism in D&D texts:

1) Avoid referring to real world peoples.
2) Refer to real world peoples but avoid predominantly negative portrayals.

The first approach could be characterised as "find and replace".

Definitely option two.