D&D 5E [Merged] Candlekeep Mysteries Author Speaks Out On WotC's Cuts To Adventure

In an event which is being referred to as #PanzerCut, one of the Candlekeep Mysteries authors has gone public with complaints about how their adventure was edited.

Book of Cylinders is one of the adventures in the book. It was written by Graeme Barber (who goes by the usernames PanzerLion and PoCGamer on social media).

Barber was caught by surprise when he found out what the final adventure looked like. The adventure was reduced by about a third, and his playable race -- the Grippli -- was cut. Additionally, WotC inserted some terminology that he considered to be colonialist, which is one of the things they were ostensibly trying to avoid by recruiting a diverse team of authors for the book.

His complaints also reference the lack of communication during the editing process, and how he did public interviews unknowingly talking about elements of an adventure which no longer existed.

"I wrote for [Candlekeep Mysteries], the recent [D&D] release. Things went sideways. The key issues were that the bulk of the lore and a lot of the cultural information that made my adventure "mine" were stripped out. And this was done without any interaction with me, leaving me holding the bag as I misled the public on the contents and aspects of my adventure. Yes, it was work-for-hire freelance writing, but the whole purpose was to bring in fresh voices and new perspectives.

So, when I read my adventure, this happened. This was effectively the shock phase of it all.

Then I moved onto processing what had happened. ~1300 words cut, and without the cut lore, the gravity of the adventure, and its connections to things are gravely watered down. Also "primitive" was inserted.

Then the aftermath of it all. The adventure that came out was a watered down version of what went in, that didn't reflect me anymore as a writer or creator. Which flew in the face of the spirit of the project as had been explained to me.

So then I wrote. Things don't change unless people know what's up and can engage with things in a prepared way. So I broke down the process of writing for Wizards I'd experienced, and developed some rules that can be used to avoid what happened to me."

He recounts his experiences in two blog posts:

• What happened? Writing for Wizards Part 1
• What Happened? Writing for Wizards Part 2

The author later added "Wizards owns all the material sent in, and does not publish unedited adventures on the DM Guild, so there will be no "PanzerCut". I have respectfully requested that my name be removed from future printings. "

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

But...they didn't describe the "indigenous peoples" as "primitive," right? They described their temporary structures as "primitive," to contrast them with their usual architecture and construction.

I'm not arguing a point. I'm explaining why people are upset and why, if WotC actually had their sensitivity training, they could have seen this coming.

 

[Mistwell]

You apparently missed nine months of WotC agreeing that D&D had done poorly by minority groups over the decades and promising to do better.

When you take indiginous refugees in a story and describe their buildings as "primitive," there are going to be a lot of people who find that to be a value judgement on those people. WotC has allegedly gone through training and in-house discussions about this -- see the very light updates to the Vistani in Curse of Strahd. Describing indigenous peoples and their works as "primitive" is the kind of thing you'd expect a company trying to do better to have prevented.

Maybe I am mis-resding the entry in the adventure (I have not read the full thing yet) but it doesn't make sense to me initially, in context. Because in context it appears to me on first read that these same people built two different buildings: 1) not-primitive more permanent structures, and 2) temporary ramshackle structures which can fairly be described as primitive relative to the other structures they built.

So the "primitive" isn't referring to the people, their culture or society. It's referring to the nature of these new ramshackle emergency structures relative to their own skills on the more permanent structure which are in the same scene.

So is this my mistake, and is the more permanent structure built by some other society?

It looks like, if ENWorld went down suddenly and Morrus slapped together an emergency message board as a temporary home for us posters to visit while he repaired the original board (which happened before) he might say, "I threw up this temporary board. It's kinda primitive and full of errors, but it should hold at least until we get the old system back up." Which wouldn't be a colonialist word in that context.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So the "primitive" isn't referring to the people, their culture or society. It's referring to the nature of these new ramshackle emergency structures relative to their own skills on the more permanent structure which are in the same scene.

"Primitive" is seen as a loaded word in many circles, as we can see. "Simple" would have worked just fine and not carried any negative connotations with it.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

But...they didn't describe the "indigenous peoples" as "primitive," right? They described their temporary structures as "primitive," to contrast them with their usual architecture and construction.

I feel somewhat the same way. I would feel pretty uncomfortable if a culture, a language, a custom or anything of the sort was called primitive. But it's a word that's used openly when talking about tools, production methods, etc. It's also used in other situations that never really bothered me. There's this trope of advanced civilizations looking back on humanity on earth and see us with our internet, electricity and nuclear bombs as primitive compared to them.

From my limited understanding, the anthropological meaning of the word has a very heavy colonialist tone to it. But used in other situations, not so much. But again, English is not my mother tongue and I'm basing myself off anecdotal experience.

 

[Reynard]

"Primitive" is seen as a loaded word in many circles, as we can see. "Simple" would have worked just fine and not carried any negative connotations with it.

I say they should have gone with "ramshackle."

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I say they should have gone with "ramshackle."

Ramshackle suggest badly built. A log cabin might be well build but would be primitive in comparison to proper board and beam construction.

 

[Mistwell]

"Primitive" is seen as a loaded word in many circles, as we can see. "Simple" would have worked just fine and not carried any negative connotations with it.

But simple doesn't carry the same connotation. Simple designs are sometimes considered the pinnacle of design and style. I mean, they're using the word exactly as it's used in the dictionary in a example used in the dictionary, "having a quality or style that offers an extremely basic level of comfort, convenience, or efficiency. "the accommodations at the camp were a bit primitive"" If it had been used about a people, their society or culture then sure I can see the negative connotation. But claiming ANY use of the word is "loaded" seems an abuse of the language. Particularly given the context where it's very clear the PEOPLE are not being called primitive nor is their skill level in building structures as the scene includes a non-primitive structure made by these very people.

 

[Greg Benage]

I feel somewhat the same way. I would feel pretty uncomfortable if a culture, a language, a custom or anything of the sort was called primitive.

Absolutely, and D&D has certainly used the word in that way. But they're not using it that way here, and it's bloody obvious! Like...dictionaries frequently use the phrase "primitive accommodations" to provide context for this usage. And these are editors we're talking about, so they probably know their way around a dictionary!

 

[Mistwell]

I say they should have gone with "ramshackle."

Ramshackle suggest badly built. A log cabin might be well build but would be primitive in comparison to proper board and beam construction.

They did use the word ramshackle earlier. They switch to primitive as an adjective to avoid reusing the same word twice.

Here is the boxed text:

"As the coastal mist clears, you get your first good look at the grippli trading post. Ramshackle shelters are clustered around a large permanent building. The low rumble of many voices softly croaking can be heard as your ship pulls up to the dock, where grippli bearing weapons are waiting to meet its passengers."

Followed immediately by:

The central structure of the trading post is a fortified stone and mud-brick edifice, decorated with the preserved carapaces and claws of giant crabs, where commerce is normally conducted. The ground around it, usually clear of construction, now houses a host of makeshift dwellings, and business has slowed to a standstill. The place looks and feels more like a refugee encampment than a trading post.

The primitive shelters are the new homes of grippli who escaped when the evil yuan-ti came through the village in their search for the earlier group of serpentfolk. All these individuals are noncombatants, with no particular knowledge to be gained by communicating with them.

So they use three different descriptions for the new structures: ramshackle, makeshift, and primitive. This is all in the context of a non-ramshackle, non-makeshift, non-primitive central structure which is described as a permanent, fortified, decorated, edifice.

In context it's very clear the word is not being used to describe the people, their culture, society, customs, or building skills. It's used to contrast the nature of a temporary structure with the permanent one.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

The insertion of the word "primitive" was certainly in poor taste.

The rest sounds like the author got a bit too ambitious with the level of obscure, Realms-specific lore they were putting into a short adventure (I personally am a fan of using obscure lore but have learned to limit it because my players usually aren't as fascinated by it as I am). I like the yuan-ti and would be interested in seeing a more fleshed-out good faction of them. Grippli honestly strike me as redundant when we've already got bullywugs and grungs, and trying to introduce a new PC race in a freelance adventure is a bit much.

That said, if he released some kind of product on DMs Guild featuring his take on the yuan-ti, at least, I'd be curious to check it out.