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

 

[Umbran]

Um, I agree with you for the most part.

Except for the separating if from the "average racism of 20s America{.}" I've discussed this a little bit before, but I think we tend to give a pass to how racist America actually was in the 1920s by saying that Lovecraft's racism (which was nasty and virulent) was actually that much worse.

It was just better documented. Unlike many in that time, Lovecraft did not appear to act out in a violent fashion to enforce his racism. So ... yeah.

Yeah, folks - "1920s America" was the Tulsa Race Massacre.

 

[Alzrius]

Um, I agree with you for the most part.

Except for the separating if from the "average racism of 20s America{.}" I've discussed this a little bit before, but I think we tend to give a pass to how racist America actually was in the 1920s by saying that Lovecraft's racism (which was nasty and virulent) was actually that much worse.

It was just better documented. Unlike many in that time, Lovecraft did not appear to act out in a violent fashion to enforce his racism. So ... yeah.

Exactly this. People saying "even by the standards of his time, Lovecraft was super racist!" are objectively wrong, because "racist even for the standards of the time" in early 20th century America was not "writing a racist poem" or "giving your cat an offensive name" or "writing stories about xenophobia and othering."

It was putting on a white sheet and committing acts of mass murder and domestic terrorism.

Lovecraft was racist, yes, but putting him up as some icon of how racist America was a hundred years ago diminishes what African-Americans were forced to endure, minimizing their struggle.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Exactly this. People saying "even by the standards of his time, Lovecraft was super racist!" are objectively wrong, because "racist even for the standards of the time" in early 20th century America was not "writing a racist poem" or "giving your cat an offensive name" or "writing stories about xenophobia and othering."

It was putting on a white sheet and committing acts of mass murder and domestic terrorism.

Lovecraft was racist, yes, but putting him up as some icon of how racist America was a hundred years ago diminishes what African-Americans were forced to endure, minimizing their struggle.

again all of this is super complex stuff that is not really well argued on a gaming form... but with the details you have brought up I agree... like I said he was more racists then average, but FAR from the worst monster.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe you haven't realised but the last Pokemon game was very inspired into Spain.

And even if you hire cultural consultats these could suffer prejudices against compatriots from a different region, and nobody would notice but the people from that nation.

* Reporting the bigotry and intolerance is not enough. We have to promote positive values, the respet for the human dignity.

* About Lovecraft and Tolkien I dislike a double standars. Tolkien was not racist, but I have seen more complains about Tolkien than Lovecraft.

 

[billd91]

They were neither readers nor consultants, but closer to what we would consider "playtesters," who were thanked "for critiquing and improving the manuscript on short notice."

I've often remarked that it is a shame that no one has tracked down these five Japanese individuals and gotten some feedback from them about their experience.


ETA- Masataka Ohta, Akira Saito, Hiroyasu Kurose, Takafumi Sakurai, and Yuka Tat-ishi.

One challenging part of this is that even if they were like more modern cultural consultants, as native Japanese, their perspectives would likely still be wildly different from the perspectives of the Asian-Americans/-Canadians who critiqued OA more recently. The issues of appropriation and racism appear very different to someone living in Japan as native Japanese compared to someone who would be a Chinese or Japanese immigrant/descendent of immigrants in the Americas.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

* About Lovecraft and Tolkien I dislike a double standars. Tolkien was not racist, but I have seen more complains about Tolkien than Lovecraft.

wow, that is not my experience in both gaming and writing circles I would say conservatively 3 to 1 more realisticly 10 to 1 I hear lovecraft hate over tolkien

 

[Alzrius]

One challenging part of this is that even if they were like more modern cultural consultants, as native Japanese, their perspectives would likely still be wildly different from the perspectives of the Asian-Americans/-Canadians who critiqued OA more recently. The issues of appropriation and racism appear very different as someone living in Japan as native Japanese compared to someone who would be a Chinese or Japanese immigrant/descendent of immigrants in the Americas.

Quick sidebar: has anyone ever confirmed the nationality of those five individuals?

 

[billd91]

* About Lovecraft and Tolkien I dislike a double standars. Tolkien was not racist, but I have seen more complains about Tolkien than Lovecraft.

Frankly, Lovecraft's racism was pretty blatant and obvious from even a cursory review of his life. There's a lot less to discuss - it's right out there. By comparison, the racism seen in Tolkien is derived from tropes and descriptions that were pervasive in European views of Asiatic or non-European "others" - less the blatant Lovecraft racism and more institutional. That sparks debate in this modern world in which we aren't just concerned with blatant, personal racism anymore and are delving into institutional racist systems.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It was putting on a white sheet and committing acts of mass murder and domestic terrorism.

And thinking this was such a normal thing that there were Klan couple's retreats.

Lovecraft was racist, yes, but putting him up as some icon of how racist America was a hundred years ago diminishes what African-Americans were forced to endure, minimizing their struggle.

At the same time, it'd be nice if people stopped fawning over him and excusing all the racism because they like the facade he built up around his racist allegory.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Also, people don't realize that it wasn't the depth of his racism people 'of the time' were taken aback by, it was the breadth. The guy was obsessed with old timey (for the time) stuff - to the point of calling himself grandpa - to the point of hating groups that had become 'okay' by the 1920's.

No one was shocked or surprised that he hated black people or Jews or the Irish or Italians -- they were shocked at how he hated people who now counted as white just as much and how scared he was of the previous instead of violently inclined (except in his writing). Also the poor and working class. He hated them too, even when he was poor and wearing the same suit every day to pretend he was rich.