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. "

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

. . . Interesting discussion. Here are a couple of my quick takes:

- Graeme Barber is well within his rights to complain about editing changes, especially if he feels that they are problematic and could have been avoided by being cleared with him before the official publishing. However, how he did this could have been better executed.

- The word "primitive" definitely should not have been added. We're trying to move to a new standard, which is increasingly difficult to achieve if incidents like this happen. I am sure it was not meant to demean anyone or any group of people, but the word has baggage to it that is better avoided (and it could have been easily avoided). "Rudimentary" would have been better, but "crude" or "makeshift" also could have worked, with the decorations possibly being described as "unique" or "ornamental".

 

[Hussar]

Ok, sorry, haven't read more than the first two pages, none of the posters in which actually bothered to look at the text and see what is said.

Here is the offensive quote using primitive:

The place looks more like a refugee encampment than a trading post.

The primitive homes are the new shelters of grippli who escaped when evil yuan-ti came through

Note, primitive in this sense is not saying that grippli are primitive but rather the shelters are makeshift due to the recent disaster.

Now, the second example I can see as more of a problem:

The simple domes of the grippli's residences and storage buildings are spread haphazardly around the marsh. Mud-brick with wicker roofs, they're modest affairs, primitively decorated with giant crab claws. Most are empty and show signs of abandonment.

Yeah, talking about native art as primitive is a bit of a no-no. But, it hardly seems like such a major issue.

 

[Charlaquin]

- The word "primitive" definitely should not have been added. We're trying to move to a new standard, which is increasingly difficult to achieve if incidents like this happen. I am sure it was not meant to demean anyone or any group of people, but the word has baggage to it that is better avoided (and it could have been easily avoided). "Rudimentary" would have been better, but "crude" or "makeshift" also could have worked, with the decorations possibly being described as "unique" or "ornamental".

Heck, with the decorations the “primitively” part could have been left out with no replacement. When editing for wordcount, adverbs are often the first things to go.

 

[DM Magic]

Ok, sorry, haven't read more than the first two pages

Buckle up.

 

[Charlaquin]

Ok, sorry, haven't read more than the first two pages, none of the posters in which actually bothered to look at the text and see what is said.

Here is the offensive quote using primitive:



Note, primitive in this sense is not saying that grippli are primitive but rather the shelters are makeshift due to the recent disaster.

Now, the second example I can see as more of a problem:



Yeah, talking about native art as primitive is a bit of a no-no. But, it hardly seems like such a major issue.

If you aren’t going to read the thread (I don’t blame you, it’s long and moving fast), you should at least read Panzer’s blog posts. They elaborate on the issue pretty well, and make it clear that the use of “primitive” is really only one small part of the overall issue. It’s just getting a lot of focus in this thread because a lot of people are very protective of words that get deemed insensitive.

 

[Hussar]

Wizards as a company, during the 4e era fired a bunch of people a week or 2 before Christmas for several years running. From that I think we can safely say that it is insensitive as a company. That is not to say that Wizards does not have a racism problem, because, while "two swallows do not a summer make", it could be a start of a disturbing trend.
That said, it should be noted that it has a history of insensitive HR decisions and anyone thinking of freelancing for them should be aware of this.

Just to clarify, the Christmas firings were a 3e thing that stopped during the 4e era.

 

[Hussar]

If it’s rudimentary, call it rudimentary. There’s no inherent value in describing them as primitive and a lot of inherent baggage, so just use a different word. It’s not hard.

Except the letter count is different. So, what other two letter word do we need to cut to make room?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

...but when it does, I feel that you're in a position to address it with the publisher, and if necessary, express it outwardly to the public. It would still cause a wedge with the company, but you'd have been in the right position from an ethical position.

When it's happened to me, I have focused on getting it fixed online (which would be on D&D Beyond in this case) and in future printings. I don't know if that's possible here -- if the issue with the word "primitive" was brought up, he'd need to sell the powers that be on that being an issue they agree about.

As we can see on this thread, especially with older white folks, some of these issues don't seem quite as big of a deal as they do to younger and POC folks.

 

[Charlaquin]

Except the letter count is different. So, what other two letter word do we need to cut to make room?

Just leave the word out, you don’t even need to replace it with anything. If wordcount is an issue, “The primitive shelters are the new homes of grippli who escaped[...]" and “Mud-brick with wicker roofs, they're modest affairs, primitively decorated with giant crab claws. [...]" gets the idea across sufficiently. Like I said, adverbs are usually the first thing to go when editing for wordcount, so it seems strange to have added descriptive terms when editing if space was the issue.

Which it wasn’t. Again, you should really read Panzer’s blog posts.

 

[Haffrung]

"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.

In 'many circles'? Or by a tiny number of people of a particular ideological bent?