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

 

[AnotherGuy]

I waited to see if TDM had anything to say or were going to do anything about it, but radio silence.

Realizing it’s a Monday and this is probably not their day job.

I’ll def post if they respond.

Out of interest @dajr how many RPG books exist regarding Polynesian Culture? I would imagine not a lot. If I think on Mystara, it was covered in the vaguest of ways via their island nations (Ierendi Isles and The Minrothad Guilds)

My feelings are books like these should highlight that there may be a financial market for that particular genre of RPG which would then be great so people like That Liam guy and others with some or a lot of knowledge on the topic produce more accurate content.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Out of interest @dajr how many RPG books exist regarding Polynesian Culture? I would imagine not a lot. If I think on Mystara, it was covered in the vaguest of ways via their island nations (Ierendi Isles and The Minrothad Guilds)

My feelings are books like these should highlight that there may be a financial market for that particular genre of RPG which would then be great so people like That Liam guy and others with some or a lot of knowledge on the topic to produce great content.

Yes, but that doesn't excuse that, in 2022, the Mythic Polynesia folks could have easily reached out to actual Polynesian peoples -- who, it turns out, play RPGs! -- to at least fact-check/sanity-check/sensitivity read the book before publication.

Mystara also had Drums on Fire Mountain.

Gaming has been getting this stuff badly wrong for a long time and that's not a secret.

It's hard to imagine they spend hundreds of hours on this book without anyone ever saying "I say, old chap, do we want to actually speak to any of these people we're writing about?" (I assume all British scholars are constantly calling each other "old chap" and drinking tea in libraries, as my forthcoming book, Mythic British Academia, will show in detail.)

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yes, but that doesn't excuse that, in 2022, the Mythic Polynesia folks could have easily reached out to actual Polynesian peoples -- who, it turns out, play RPGs! -- to at least fact-check/sanity-check/sensitivity read the book before publication.

Mystara also had Drums on Fire Mountain.

Gaming has been getting this stuff badly wrong for a long time and that's not a secret.

It's hard to imagine they spend hundreds of hours on this book without anyone ever saying "I say, old chap, do we want to actually speak to any of these people we're writing about?" (I assume all British scholars are constantly calling each other "old chap" and drinking tea in libraries, as my forthcoming book, Mythic British Academia, will show in detail.)

Is the book deeply offensive? Can someone summarize what the perceived problems are with it?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is the book deeply offensive? Can someone summarize what the perceived problems are with it?

It mushes together multiple diverse groups of people together into a homogeneous one that doesn't seem to accurately depict any of them, calls some of the greatest sailors and navigators in world history primitives in dismissive language, describes gender roles and other cultural norms that appear not to actually exist, appears to use the Disney movie Moana as its basis of how Polynesian people view the ocean (great movie, but come on), skips past elements that are the bases of larger culture and generally views everything through a colonial lens without actually using any Polynesian sources or having actual Polynesian people involved in the project at all.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Yes, but that doesn't excuse that, in 2022, the Mythic Polynesia folks could have easily reached out to actual Polynesian peoples -- who, it turns out, play RPGs! -- to at least fact-check/sanity-check/sensitivity read the book before publication.

Mystara also had Drums on Fire Mountain.

Gaming has been getting this stuff badly wrong for a long time and that's not a secret.

It's hard to imagine they spend hundreds of hours on this book without anyone ever saying "I say, old chap, do we want to actually speak to any of these people we're writing about?" (I assume all British scholars are constantly calling each other "old chap" and drinking tea in libraries, as my forthcoming book, Mythic British Academia, will show in detail.)

Movies have been getting things wrong ALL the time, especially Disney, but it's capitalism and the margins for making monies on RPG content is thin, I imagine. Should have they have spoken to someone, ofc it would have been the decent thing to do to. Do they need to - eh - unless they got something egregiously wrong (and I'm not one to judge), I'm going to shrug my shoulders on that. If people do not like the product, they will feel its financial effects.

EDIT: Also thanks for that Drums on Fire Mountain - I have never heard of this. Will check it out.

 

[darjr]

Movies have been getting things wrong ALL the time, especially Disney, but it's capitalism and the margins for making monies on RPG content is thin, I imagine. Should have they have spoken to someone, ofc it would have been the decent thing to do to. Do they need to - eh - unless they got something egregiously wrong (and I'm not one to judge), I'm going to shrug my shoulders on that.

There is a table within with a column labeled “stereotypes” where they stereotype entire peoples.

I absolutely sympathize about the cost of doing publishing and that they are likely a one man operation if even that.

Still there are authors and artists being paid, presumably, I’d think it’d be super valuable to hire someone to take a look.

 

[Incenjucar]

It is not super difficult to get at least basic reviews of text, especially for large populations of people with thriving cultures. You can probably pop into Reddit or Twitter and just do a general ask for people of that population who would give you a read in exchange for a free copy and credit and get a few hits.

 

[darjr]

The other thing already mentioned, is this thread is about this happing to WotC. And it isn’t the first time. Have these other folks not been paying any attention?

 

[AnotherGuy]

Maybe it is just me or my table, but if I am interested in playing a particular setting based off real world settings - I'm likely going to attempt to acquire as much material as I can on that particular setting. That is how we did it back in the day - and I used to research at the university and local libraries. With Encyclopaedias

I'm extremely grateful for the Gazetteers in that they with a light touch opened the first door into a particular themed-setting. And fans of these settings would produce some free cultural material of their own - either here or on Pandius or The Piazza.
If I ever had the time to run a Polynesian themed setting I'd like to do my own research along with getting a RPG book. It is great that a RPG book at least exists for the setting. Hopefully it inspires some Polynesians to get into the game of publishing and do something of their own.

I think our biggest problem is there are too many awesome RW-styled settings we could use, but we have too little time to play in them.

 

[Faolyn]

An example.

I miss blogs. And websites. I can't stand having to read tweets.