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. "

 

[DM Magic]

Its funny but do we as a community know who the editors are at WOTC and how many there are?

Kim Mohan is the Managing Editor.

Plus I would assume these authors all signed a contract for their work-that contract I would assume has language in in that allows WOTC to do whatever they want with the material. the author get credit but I bet not to do whatever they want. Its like an actor they film the scenes but no guarantee the scene they worked for actually got put into the movie/show. the editor decides what makes the cut. they don't reach out to the actor.

As I said earlier in the thread, WotC sought out different voices, specifically for this product. To take the voice out of an author's text, text that was pursuing the vision for the book set forth by WotC, is a weird choice. Especially to do so to an author who's voice carries weight in the community.

 

[DM Magic]

Double post.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Kim Mohan is the Managing Editor.

Christ, Mohan has been with TSR and then WotC since 1979.

With no disrespect to their undoubted competence to retain that sort of role for as long as I've been alive (!!!) I think that might suggest this is part of the issue WotC are experiencing.

Also yeah pretty unsurprising that someone who has to seriously pushing retirement age didn't see a problem with "primitive" nor saw the value of the material being cut.

 

[the Jester]

Its funny but do we as a community know who the editors are at WOTC and how many there are?

Each of the adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries lists who edited it. In the case of Book of Cylinders, it was "edited and developed" by Kim Mohan. Actually, I just double-checked, and it was "developed and edited" by him. Most of the other adventures have similar credits, although at least one has different developers and editors.

 

[DM Magic]

With no disrespect to their undoubted competence to retain that sort of role for as long as I've been alive (!!!) I think that might suggest this is part of the issue WotC are experiencing.

As soon as I looked him up, I had the same feeling.

 

[Mort]

One of the things that strikes me as a bit odd:

The author (in his tweets) says a lot of the early communication was great with lots of feedback going back and forth. It's not until later where the feedback stopped and he learned (after the publication) just how much had been cut (and of the problematic additions).

It just seems odd that some of the early communication (since we know there was communication happening) from WoTC wouldn't have been something like "Look, you seem to really like the Grippli, the stuff you wrote was great; but this is a short adventure for an adventure anthology - it just can't fit all of that! maybe we can use it in a later supplement?"

Just seems weird that he thought the back and forth was great (to the point where he was promoting the adventure right up to publication) only to learn after the fact that that whole section was cut. But I don't know the writing/publishing business - seems from some of the posts in this thread, this kind of thing is not that uncommon.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It's been a few days, and not much more info has been discovered. Still a bunch of hyperbole and assumptions made on "both sides" (as far as there are sides). Messy situation, and there is culpability by everyone.

Graeme should have been more than aware that his submission could have major changes in word count with many things left on the cutting room floor. And yes, he was pretty upset about that and not just the "primitive" issue because that's what he complained about right out of the gate. It's industry standard, in every creative industry. You get paid for what you write, not what the print. Complaining about that, especially publicly and loudly, was a bad move.

WoTC should have known who they hired to do the work for them. Especially if a big selling point was to be more inclusive and work with diverse members of the community. There really isn't any excuse to have inserted the word "primitive' into Graeme's work. I'm doing a project right now as a matter of fact that has a goal of reaching out to and using many members of our diverse freelancer community. So while traditionally the editor doesn't always reach out to submitters when making changes, if your goal is to be more inclusive and I'm CISHET white male and my freelancer is not, before making any changes final, darn right I'm gonna pass it by them first. Because that's the whole point. Graeme has every right to complain about this part.

That's how I am seeing things so far at any rate. I'm not gonna make any sweeping comments on if the use of primitive in that context is inherently racist. I'm white so my opinion doesn't carry much weight. I've heard POC say it is. I've heard POC say it isn't. Which isn't unusual, POC are not some universal hivemind. And to be honest, isn't relevant. The writer certainly thinks it is, so if I'm editing things and hired that writer specifically for their contributions to diversity, I'm gonna let them have review of any changes to catch things I may not.

 

[Scribe]

Yup and note that Panzer isn't telling people not to buy it or anything like that, nor even hinting at it. It took Candlekeep from a must-buy to a "maybe buy sometime" for me. Like, literally I was about to buy it when I found this out. I'm not hugely offended or something but if they're doing this kind of thing it seems like maybe I don't need to be as excited as I was.

What changed though? I wasn't looking at this book because of some new approach to diversity that they may or may not really care about.

Are the adventures fun? With easy hooks to file the serial number off and use?

Seems like it, and that was a stated goal I saw mentioned more than once 'you don't need to be in FR'.

I'll still probably pick it up, because we'll I have.my doubts around the level of belief in their stated goals, and how relevant it is to the product they sell.

Could this guy's adventure have been better, with more setting specific lore?

Sounds like it.

Was that a goal of this product? I don't think so.

Should primitive have been used? Doubt it.

Should Wizards have helped the guy understand the template they wanted and expected? Yes, absolutely.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But I don't know the writing/publishing business - seems from some of the posts in this thread, this kind of thing is not that uncommon.

I can't speak for gaming, but it's not uncommon in some other kinds of editing for publication. However, at least in the fields I'm familiar with (legal/knowledge publishing) it is considered "bad practice" to fail to inform people about major edits to their work. And this sort of edit would definitely be major. Again though, maybe in gaming publications that's less frowned-upon? Because maybe you don't get letters from angry lawyer and librarians lol who trust me you don't want to mess with.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What changed though? I wasn't looking at this book because of some new approach to diversity that they may or may not really care about.

Totally honestly, like hand to me heart? THE BASTARDS CUT DAYS OF THUNDER STUFF. And given a couple of the adventures sound pretty eye-roll-worthy, that pushed it over the edge. Doesn't help that they pissed off an author I liked.

Also from the sound of it, plenty of other ones have pretty Realms-specific lore in them so that's not the issue.

As noted I may well pick it up eventually. I'm just no longer rushing to do so.

Could this guy's adventure have been better, with more setting specific lore?

Sounds like it.

??????????

Does it? Sounds like there was a ton of that and they cut it, so that doesn't make any sense to me.