FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
More in the thread topic, I want to see some Real world religious inclusivity in d&d. I’m not sure what that looks like though. Any ideas?
D&D (2024) (+) New Edition Changes for Inclusivity (discuss possibilities)
- Thread starter Levistus's_Leviathan
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Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
I honestly don't know. I think the game is fairly inclusive to Christianity, and I am a Christian. For Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and other religions, I'm not a member of their religions, so I don't know what is offensive to them.
A sensitivity reader could help WotC with this. Can anyone on this thread help here? Is there anything offensive or problematic for religions in 5e?
FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
There are many Christian denominations. It may be inclusive to yours and exclusive to someone else’s. One of the most controversial Christian beliefs in modern times is that homosexuality is a sin (not all Christian denominations teach this but many do). Perhaps d&d could leave sexuality up to the DM instead of imbedding it into certain parts of the game? Perhaps we could get some characters in official adventures that look like Christians so they can see representations of themselves there?
Just brainstorming and thinking aloud.
jmartkdr2
Hero
I think the goal should be to include, say, Islam, as much as we include Christianity,. Meaning not directly at all, but borrow from the underlying mythos.
In other words - more Arabian- and Persian- and South Asian-inspired content. Monsters, items, settings, etc. Or make sure the influences that are there are represented well - basically better genie lore that gets at the old Arabian versions.
Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Isn't sexuality already detached from the game? I also don't think including depictions of Christians in the game is a good idea. They're a real religion, and I don't think D&D should have real religions in the fantasy worlds, even people who are meant to look like them.
Also, the Christianity and Homosexuality thing is probably not a good thing to discuss here. In simplest terms, we don't change things to be more comfortable for homophobes.
Mercurius
Legend
Out of curiosity, why do you want this? Inclusivity in terms of real world ethnicity and gender makes sense, but I'm not so sure about religion, unless you're talking about fantasy analogues for real world religions. But that may create more problems than it solves, especially when there doesn't seem to be a problem to begin with.
I suppose one approach could be a "fantasy Earth" setting - ala Ars Magica or Mage Dark Ages/Sorcerer's Crusade - with direct analogues to real world cultures and religions.
That said, I do think that D&D history is rather weak in terms of the range of religious structures and cosmologies, always defaulting to the Gygaxian/Wardian polytheism. How about a monotheistic religion (the "Way of Ao"), or something akin to Taoism or an actual shamanism that is, well, shamanistic. Or the dualism of Zoroastrianism, with the good Ahura Mazda and the evil Angra Mainyu. Or the non-theism of Buddhism in which the "gods" are actually embodiments of aspects of Buddha Mind.
Mod Note:
Discussion of such would run afoul of the rules, so please don't go down this road. Thanks.
AliasBot
Explorer
In a vacuum, I'd say Exandria, as it mostly* keeps the standard fantasy-kitchen-sink fare of previous default settings, but lacks the outdated concepts or other lore baggage of those settings, by virtue of the recency of its creation: its lore isn't entrenched nearly as deeply as the FR's is, so there's much more room to tweak stuff if necessary. Same concept, newer model, basically.
The issue there is that the Critical Role company might own Exandria as an IP - collaborations are one thing, but I doubt WotC would want its game's central setting to be one that somebody else owns if it has other options at its disposal. Whether that matters to this thread depends on whether it's about what we want out of 6E, or what we might expect. If it's the former, then hypothetical legal quandaries are irrelevant.
(Eberron would also be fine: the only theoretical issue I can see would be that the feel of the world seems a bit further from D&D default: since the other intended changes would topple a few sacred cows already, keeping other stuff mostly the same might make those changes a bit easier to swallow for some.)
*The one major exception being the increasingly-widespread existence of firearms: an edition with Exandria as the default setting would probably be an edition that treats the presence of firearms as the default. Though I suppose the same might be true of Eberron, so maybe it's a wash there...
"Object" is a strong word.
Eberron is rather steampunky. But the steampunk fad is well past its peak. Shifting your default to an aesthetic and themes that are a bit passe is probably not wise.
Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Yeah. It is a lot different from the other D&D settings. Do you think that they should keep Forgotten Realms as the base, or change to a different setting?
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