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

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Ok, I misspoke. Are the vast majority of the people I described above bigots?

If the only thing they're complaining about is dark skin color or including some other marginalized minority? Probably.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Sarah Z has a particularly great video on the dilemma of media that gets lambasted by people with bigoted goals that still themselves are worthy of critique. Choosing targets is part of the tactic.

 

[Lord Twig]

If the only thing they're complaining about is dark skin color or including some other marginalized minority? Probably.

The danger here is failing to understand people you disagree with and just labeling them bigots. You don't help them in anyway, you just prevent them from explaining themselves. Shouting people down and "canceling" them does not change their minds. It just pushes them away and they will be embraced by more extreme parts of the populus who will try to turn them into actual bigots.

So what non-bigotted reason might someone have? Well I'll tell you my own problem with some of these shows. It is the lack of an explanation.

I thought Hamilton was brilliant. And I thought the Miracle Workers show with Daniel Radcliff was great. Both have diverse casts that do not fit the "historical" inspiration. But they didn't need to, they were not going for an immersive story. Hamilton is a play where you are required to fill in a whole lot with your imagination and Miracle Workers was a comedy.

For immersive stories like Amazon's Wheel of Time and Rings of Power you expect to lose yourself in the atmosphere of the show, not force yourself to ignore inconsistencies because they couldn't be bothered to come up with an explanation.

For instance, the Harfoots are a wandering people. Why not drop a line about how they wander all over the world and when the various troops meet up it is common for people to leave the old troop and join the new one? There you go! Now there is a logical reason for there to have Harfoots of all different races and ethnicities.

For the elves, we have only ever seen them in "The West". Why couldn't elves be different colors in different parts of the world? Or, since they were changing so much anyway, they could make something new up altogether. Heck, just add a line about, "Elves are naturally more diverse than humans." It is a magical world, elves are more magical than "mere humans". Why couldn't they just be born different shades? Nothing like this is mentioned in the books and I am sure it is absolutely not what Tolkien intended, but if you are going to change things at least change things in a way that makes sense.

But there is no explanation at all. The only explanation is that they wanted to have a diverse cast so people wouldn't get mad and that is it. So when I sit down to watch the show and I see all of these different races represented I don't have an in-world explanation, I just have the thought that the studio needed to hit a certain quota so they won't get labeled as racist.

Side note: I have watched the first season of Rings of Power and regardless of the casting the story itself was just ok. Not fantastic, but better than the Wheel of Time in my opinion. Honestly, since they didn't have the rights to the Silmarillion, they shouldn't have tried to just make up their own story for it. Tolkien already has a story and it is better. There were two blue wizards that went to the East that we know nothing about and they could have a cast with no white actors at all and I would have liked it better. Or maybe there could be a real cosmopolitan city over there somewhere where everyone is represented, and since it wouldn't conflict with anything already written it wouldn't be a problem at all.

Final thought. Please try to spend a little more time understanding the people on the other side of the argument and listen to what they are actually saying instead of just hurling insults and you will find you can make new allies instead of creating new enemies.

 

[Vaalingrade]

If they need a reason for a diverse cast, then they should need a reason for a non-diverse cast. You know what has a diverse cast? EARTH.

It's not like there haven't been black people in England for hundreds of years.

Basically it's high time that we banish this fantasy that people like me are this weird new anomaly that just started existing and it's somehow 'incorrect' to have melinated people on pretty much any world with a sun.

In conclusion, I'm done trying to understand the people trying desperately to pretend I don't exist.

 

[MichaelSomething]

And, just to add to that @MGibster - I think there are a number of people who simply don't understand the issue. Not that they disagree or agree, but, they simply cannot understand why this is a problem. Not that they lack empathy or some essential character or whatnot, but, because they are so far removed from the issue, they just cannot see it at all.

Like how some people can't understand how a high level wizard can over power a campaign?
Or how people can play a Warlord who can shout wounds away?
Or how a Dungeon Master can't challenge a party of PCs?

 

[Clint_L]

Well, I'm old. I started playing this game in 1979. Back then, we were the young know-it-alls and our parents and grandparents didn't get it. And we were right! We moved the culture in our direction. But now it's a new generation's turn to move it further. And I figure I can complain and try to hold back the sea, or I can acknowledge that this is their time now and go with it. If there's one thing that age has taught me, it's that I've been wrong plenty, and I still have lots to learn.

So I just try to keep an open mind.

And if it's any consolation, in twenty, thirty years their kids will be complaining about their old fashioned values. That's just how it goes. It's healthy. So I respect what Wizards is doing. They are trying to listen and learn.

As for diverse casting in a fantasy setting...I could care less if a Halfling is Black or whatever. I mean, I've already accepted Balrogs and Cave Trolls and stuff, so a Black Halfling is not really exercising my imagination a whole lot. It's not something that I really give a thought to. Why shouldn't some Halfings be Black?

 

[Echohawk]

Basically it's high time that we banish this fantasy that people like me are this weird new anomaly that just started existing and it's somehow 'incorrect' to have melinated people on pretty much any world with a sun.

Especially since the exact opposite is true. My understanding is that the lighter skin colour associated with people of European descent has only been around for 8000 years or so. Relatively speaking, that's the weird new anomaly!

 

[Fifinjir]

Believe that one person is offended and that the other person is not.

Obviously I can’t read FrogReaver’s mind, but I see something that might have been his point. If we want to say racism is objectively bad (which it is!), then we can’t suddenly metamorphose into moral relativists when it comes to determining what is or isn’t racism.

Regarding the topic at hand: the hesrodee were a problem because it wasn’t just one or two unfortunate parallels, but a significant host of them. And this is probably the best course for Wizards to take, and their transparency into their methods and committing to a reprint gives evidence that it’s more than a publicity stunt.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The danger here is failing to understand people you disagree with and just labeling them bigots. You don't help them in anyway, you just prevent them from explaining themselves. Shouting people down and "canceling" them does not change their minds. It just pushes them away and they will be embraced by more extreme parts of the populus who will try to turn them into actual bigots.

So what non-bigotted reason might someone have? Well I'll tell you my own problem with some of these shows. It is the lack of an explanation.

I thought Hamilton was brilliant. And I thought the Miracle Workers show with Daniel Radcliff was great. Both have diverse casts that do not fit the "historical" inspiration. But they didn't need to, they were not going for an immersive story. Hamilton is a play where you are required to fill in a whole lot with your imagination and Miracle Workers was a comedy.

For immersive stories like Amazon's Wheel of Time and Rings of Power you expect to lose yourself in the atmosphere of the show, not force yourself to ignore inconsistencies because they couldn't be bothered to come up with an explanation.

For instance, the Harfoots are a wandering people. Why not drop a line about how they wander all over the world and when the various troops meet up it is common for people to leave the old troop and join the new one? There you go! Now there is a logical reason for there to have Harfoots of all different races and ethnicities.

For the elves, we have only ever seen them in "The West". Why couldn't elves be different colors in different parts of the world? Or, since they were changing so much anyway, they could make something new up altogether. Heck, just add a line about, "Elves are naturally more diverse than humans." It is a magical world, elves are more magical than "mere humans". Why couldn't they just be born different shades? Nothing like this is mentioned in the books and I am sure it is absolutely not what Tolkien intended, but if you are going to change things at least change things in a way that makes sense.

But there is no explanation at all. The only explanation is that they wanted to have a diverse cast so people wouldn't get mad and that is it. So when I sit down to watch the show and I see all of these different races represented I don't have an in-world explanation, I just have the thought that the studio needed to hit a certain quota so they won't get labeled as racist.

Side note: I have watched the first season of Rings of Power and regardless of the casting the story itself was just ok. Not fantastic, but better than the Wheel of Time in my opinion. Honestly, since they didn't have the rights to the Silmarillion, they shouldn't have tried to just make up their own story for it. Tolkien already has a story and it is better. There were two blue wizards that went to the East that we know nothing about and they could have a cast with no white actors at all and I would have liked it better. Or maybe there could be a real cosmopolitan city over there somewhere where everyone is represented, and since it wouldn't conflict with anything already written it wouldn't be a problem at all.

Final thought. Please try to spend a little more time understanding the people on the other side of the argument and listen to what they are actually saying instead of just hurling insults and you will find you can make new allies instead of creating new enemies.

If Hamilton doesn't need to justify its diverse cast, then Rings of Power doesn't need to either. And pushing racists out of the community does not make more people be racist.

 

[Hussar]

If the only thing they're complaining about is dark skin color or including some other marginalized minority? Probably.

Look, I get it. I really, really do.

The problem is, this isn't helping. Note, I don't even really disagree with you. Personally, I probably actually do agree. But, no matter how much I might agree with you, it just doesn't actually help the conversation at all.

Being right doesn't actually matter in this case. Because, like I said, the two sides (as if there were only two sides) are fundamentally not speaking the same language. Look at @Lord Twig's example right above here. He's explained his point quite clearly. And, presumably, he believes what he is saying. He's not acting in bad faith. The thing is, his priorities are not the same as yours. Shouting him down or "cancelling" him or whatever doesn't actually help at this level where it's just a couple of folks shooting the breeze on an Internet forum for ultra-nerds. None of us has any actual power here. So, it's all just talking.

Now, I strongly disagree with @Lord Twig's priorities. Again, fair enough. But, calling him out as a racist for feeling that way is certainly not going to help the conversation to go forward. And, again, I totally get the frustration and anger. Running at the wall over and over again is just so exhausting. But, at the end of the day, it's necessary.

To particularly address @Lord Twig's point, I would say this. Tolkien was writing for pretty much himself. Amazon is producing a show that has probably been seen by more eyeballs in a month than the Similarian has in it's entire existence, simply because Amazon is all over the world. Which means that Amazon's priorities for creating this show HAVE to be different than Tolkien's. Explaining "why Harfoots are black is pretty pointless considering that the overwhelming majority of viewers have never read The Silmarillion, and likely ever will. Since we don't have to explain why Aragorn is being played by a white dude, we certainly don't have to explain why Harfoots are black.