WotC WotC's Chris Perkins On D&D's Inclusivity Processes Going Forward

Over on D&D Beyond, WotC's Chris Perkins has written a blog entry about how the company's processes have been changed to improve the way the D&D studio deals with harmful content and inclusivity. This follows recent issues with racist content in Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, and involves working with external cultural consultants.

The studio’s new process mandates that every word, illustration, and map must be reviewed by multiple outside cultural consultants prior to publication.

Leveling Up Our Creative Process: Learnings From Spelljammer

In this blog post, I'll talk about how we in the D&D Studio are changing our review process following the problematic content that appeared in Spell...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Faolyn]

You might want to read up on African history then. The distinction is not quite as clear cut with many Africans being the raiders and slavers too.

People everywhere sucked.

That doesn't make it OK to enslave people, or to, hundreds of years later, use those stereotypes for a D&D race.

So instead of arbitrarily deciding based on personal sympathies and gut feeling, which persons have to be offended by some portrayals in RPGs why not let those people speak for themselves?

Um, people are speaking for themselves. And they're saying that these depictions aren't OK. What's also happening is that white gamers, male gamers, straight gamers, and cisgendered gamers are noticing the old stereotypes and realizing that they are bad, and also speaking up because they don't want that badness in their games.

People who aren't the target of bigotry can also be offended that the bigotry exists.

 

[Morrus]

So instead of arbitrarily deciding based on personal sympathies and gut feeling, which persons have to be offended by some portrayals in RPGs why not let those people speak for themselves?

They are. They have been. They do so on this very forum. You’re just ignoring them.

 

[Faolyn]

This is really an excellent point and something to keep in mind.

The Satanic Panic Christians who objected to demons in D&D were not offended for themselves. It wasn't that D&D was depicting Christians in a bad light. They weren't depicting Christians at all. The Satanic Panic objections were not based around how a group of people were being portrayed in the fiction.

Perhaps more importantly, they also weren't actually playing D&D. They heard about that there were demons in D&D, usually from someone else (a preacher, a radio personality, a neighbor) and never actually learned how they were treated in context of the game (i.e., as foes to be destroyed). They weren't actually playing the game and harmed by the presence of demons in it. This is different from how in-game bigotry can harm the people who actually are playing the game.

 

[Umbran]

Exactly. Which is why it's becoming physical or nothing for me again.

To each their own.

I paid for access to content that I could have fun playing with. Changing a bit of fluff here, or a statblock there, or the like, really doesn't change my ability to work with that content to have fun at the table.

I bought The Wilds Beyond the Witchlight on D&DB. My players are having a blast. If they applied some errata, that's not going to change. Ergo, I really can't say I care.

 

[darjr]

Anybody that makes the “upset on others behalf is wrong” argument are waving a red flag.

They can’t understand why your upset because they THEMSELVES are not upset by bigotry.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think it is something in America's historical make-up, absolutely. The tropes of D&D, even if it's only about 50 years old, can still have generations of history and literature informing them.

Though, I might also point out that both Ed Greenwood and Chris Perkins are Canadian.

Ironically it probably is due to a background awareness of America's history that it became the go-to way to show bad guys are bad guys. (That or racism, as in the Scarlet Brotherhood or to a lesser extent the Silvanesti.) "What's always evil?"

We don't seem to see the same obsession with Games Workshop, for instance. (But plenty of imperialism and tyrannical monarchies...)

 

[J.Quondam]

Anybody that makes the “upset on others behalf is wrong” argument are waving a red flag.

And not just a red flag, but a red herring. For a while, it successfully shifted the discussion away from the people actually hurt, and over to the people supposedly "offended on behalf of others." It's a distraction from legit issues, nothing more.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As for Kes... yeah. I realize they wanted to show someone who was alien and they already had numerous long-lived alien species, but having her be literally per-pubescent was just weird. Even using speculative biology here to make things more sensible doesn't help because it's never really addressed in the show.

It's worth noting that DC Comics did the same thing, with underage Green Lantern Arisia getting a crush on Hal Jordan, using her ring to age herself up (long after he'd met her, so he knows how developed she really is), and then he dates her for a prolonged period. DC handwaved it away with "oh, uh, she's an alien, they mature at different rates." Which is 1) gross and 2) a racist trope that's been used to excuse the sexual abuse of minority girls in the real world.

Even the relatively recent past is full of a lot of gross stuff that we haven't come fully to grips with.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It's worth noting that DC Comics did the same thing, with underage Green Lantern Arisia getting a crush on Hal Jordan, using her ring to age herself up (long after he'd met her, so he knows how developed she really is), and then he dates her for a prolonged period. DC handwaved it away with "oh, uh, she's an alien, they mature at different rates." Which is 1) gross and 2) a racist trope that's been used to excuse the sexual abuse of minority girls in the real world.

Even the relatively recent past is full of a lot of gross stuff that we haven't come fully to grips with.

as a huge GL fan that is one of the worst stories

 

[R_J_K75]

Having never done Spelljammer before I was really looking forward to the 5e book, but considering its poor reception from what I have seen - I might opt to get the older edition material and convert.

I'm not trying to discourage people from buying it but more so expressing my disappointment. There was a lot of mechanics left out from the 2E to 5E transition that could've been included, updated and streamlined. If you're an old school player of AD&D, go with the 2E. If you only know 5E then do the 5E version and then backtrack to 2E. I can 100% understand why 5E wanted to streamline things but there were glaring omissions IMO.