D&D General Modules with a political message?

[RangerWickett]

When it comes to films and books, some just tell entertaining stories, but some have a political message, sometimes very explicit. Do we get similar things in tabletop RPGs?

Like sure, Indy beats up Nazis. Luke fights space fascists. But Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars weren't trying to change people's minds about present day politics.

Something like Star Trek 4 or 6, though, has a message. Care about endangered species. Or try to find a way to coexist with former enemies, even if some in power want to keep the conflict going - which was an obvious allegory for the end of the Cold War.

Iron Man was a cool hero with nifty tech, but he also was a repentant war profiteer. Captain America fought Hydra in Germany, but then he fought the same strain of tyrannical intent in SHIELD.

Have you played any published modules that sear to have a political message? Maybe they're more common in games other than Dungeons & Dragons, so don't limit yourself to just D&D. Like, ideally it would be something more than just dictators are bad.

Has anyone written an abortion allegory in Pathfinder? Has there been a debate about misinformation in a Call of Cthulhu adventure? Did mutants and masterminds criticize our involvement in neo-colonial military interventions in the Middle East?

And if those adventures don't exist, should they? Do you want your games to have a political slant?

 

[Alzrius]

The works of Chris A. Field comes to mind:

Choice and Blood (D20 Modern) - LPJ Design | Sanctuary: City of Secrets | DriveThruRPG.com

Choice and Blood (D20 Modern) - On a quiet day, an abortion clinic is indistinguishable from any medical building. Some are lone, freestanding buildings

www.drivethrurpg.com

Otherverse America Campaign Setting - Skortched Urf' Studios | Otherverse Games | Otherverse America | DriveThruRPG.com

Otherverse America Campaign Setting - **NOW A FREE PRODUCT!** Otherverse America “The Second American Civil War began just after 10 am CST on J

www.drivethrurpg.com

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[el-remmen]

My current D&D setting has a backdrop theme regarding the inequalities of a representative democracy, the old guard who both have the majority of power in that system but work to undermine it in hopes of even more, and an exploited labor class - though the PCs can decide to what degree they want to engage with any or all of it.

So I guess the answer is yes?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I don't know.

this is one of those deeply held things that can turn people off. Even just a hint of a political message can. Heck some just "hey I want it to look like the real world" gets push back as being political.

 

[Burnside]

The extremely popular Uncaged series is, among other things, a re-examination of classic female monsters through a feminist lens, and fairly political: Uncaged | Volume I - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Eat the Rich is a series of explicitly anti-capitalist D&D adventures:
Eat the Rich | Volume 1 - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Eat the Rich ran afoul of a OneBookShelf policy that states that overtly political works are not allowed on DMsGuild. Only one of the planned 4 volumes was published, and after publication the description had to be changed to remove the term "anti-capitalist." I don't think the 3 other volumes were ever published anywhere. You can read an explanation here of what happened with the first book (which did go Platinum on DMsGuild): A Statement Regarding Volume 1 | Eat the Rich Anthology

EDIT: Correction, the rest of the Eat the Rich series was stripped of WotC IP and published on DriveThruRPG, which doesn't have the same restrictions on political content: DriveThruRPG.com - Eat the Rich Anthology - The Largest RPG Download Store!

I wrote this short tier one adventure; it includes some ideas about health care as a human right (vis-a-vis D&D's diamonds-for-resurrection spell mechanics) that are a fairly obvious political allegory, although I didn't write, like, the whole adventure as a screed about the U.S. health care system: The Girl Who Woke the Dead - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

 

[Celebrim]

Given just how poorly I feel D&D writers understand ethics or ethical considerations, I shudder to imagine what overt political points would look like. Let's just say I wouldn't trust most writers to run the world. Lucas made great movies, but his politics, theology, and belief systems are just cringe and the more overt he was in those regards the more ridiculous it tended to be. His successful messages tended to be the ones where he was just trying to tell a timeless story, and oh look, a timeless story often carries timeless wisdom. Ditto a novel writer like Rawlings, whose stories are at their best (and make the strongest points) when she's not trying to make points.

One of the things I like in a novel is when philosophical positions are treated by the writer like playthings, not taking them fully seriously all the time and not having a character be an author insert - just representative of some position, often in a complex and nuanced way. For example, the better Heinlein fiction has this quality and even has some self-criticism, whereas later Heinlein fiction with more and more self-inserts and more and more taking himself really seriously just has cringy horrible politics, philosophy and theology. I recently read UKL's "The Dispossessed" and I loved how despite her obvious biases she was really trying to explore the political positions in a deep and even self-critical way and not just preaching her point of view.

As soon as an author starts to get didactic, they generally get terrible. It's a pride thing. Starting to passionately preach to the world as a nerd is generally a sign you are losing it. This happens with nerds all the time. Consider a writer like HG Wells whose space opera and sci fi is wonderful, but you don't want to get into his later political writings. Or for that matter, who really wants to be getting their politics from HP Lovecraft, however much insight he may have into neurosis and fear and existential crisis? Or consider a guy like China Mieville who I feel has never lived up to his potential because he got told early on how great he is and he's gone almost full blown self-indulgent late period didactic HG Wells almost his whole career.

In short, just no. I don't think artists are nearly as politically insightful as they think they are. It can be well done, as with 'Twilight Zone', but usually you want to make a story good first and then worry about the meaning.

 

[R_J_K75]

And if those adventures don't exist, should they? Do you want your games to have a political slant?

Making real world parallels on politics or hot topics of the day is not something I'm interested in seeing in adventures anymore the older I get. An adventure set in a specific world/setting is probably going to have some scenarios with political leanings based on the settings interworking's. That's OK with me, but I play D&D/RPGs as a reprieve from everyday life for a few hours, so I don't want to see an adventure mirroring social commentary. I'm guilty myself of doing this, I've written one-shots that were influenced by current events. Consciously or subconsciously its bound to happen so it's understandable if it does, but when its blatant, its off-putting.

 

[jdrakeh]

Splintered Peace by Atlas Games is, perhaps, the most overtly political D&D adventure I've ever seen.

 

[billd91]

I think a challenge of working political messages into RPG adventures is it's hard to tell how players are going to take them or where they're going to take them. But I've seen political elements enter into them.

Freedom City for Mutants and Masterminds is written to reflect a variety of historical phases of comics, but it also highlights Johnny Rocket, the first openly gay superhero in the setting. The interesting part about looking at it now, as opposed to when it was first published, that reference feels a tad dated. I don't see that as a bad thing because it means society has been changing around us.

Various historical elements, some with political weight, appear in various Call of Cthulhu scenarios. Harlem Unbound has some worthwhile scenarios to look at. Even Masks of Nyarlathotep, with its unflattering depictions of overt racism, includes people opposed to the racism of the British Empire and includes an encounter with the Kenyan nationalist who will eventually become Jomo Kenyatta.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I wish there were more of it in some D&D campaigns. I feel that WotC focus a lot on the political aspect of the release of some material itself, but when it come to the content in-game, its still same-old-same-old.

For example, while is pretty great they are pushing representation, doing so in a single, stand-alone book is pretty tame. I think they this kind of push should be seen in regular adventure paths, not just one-of themed book. And those themes could be explored in adventure paths, even if they arent the main focus.

As another example, with the major push to remove the monster tags from some humanoids, not doing an adventure with these idea seems like a wasted opportunity to explore some deeply political themes!

Anyway, that's me. I dont personally find political messages adverse to a good game night, but my table is pretty much united of most of the subjects, so there's no real danger of discord.