D&D General Drow & Orcs Removed from the Monster Manual

[pemerton]

I Googled Jewish complaints about lich phylactery and found a bunch of Jews saying exactly what I am saying. And a few non-jews saying it was antisemitic.

This just isn't a thing in the Jewish community. There might be a few outliers, but it's not offensive to Jews in general.

I refer you to my post upthread.

This one is the 7th result on my Google query: Dungeons & Dragons Has an Antisemitism Problem - Hey Alma

As I posted, I don't know how representative these views are. But I don't think it's true to say they're not there.

 

[AnotherGuy]

... Oh. We have different settings for posts-per-page then lol, 'cause I only see 51 pages

Is that a thing?

EDIT: Ah okay just saw where this was dealt with.

 

[pemerton]

But we have had lots of Jewish posters weigh in here saying they don’t think it is a problem.

By my count, two Jewish posters. I'm not sure that counts as "lots".

 

[Sepulchrave II]

I honestly think the only reason Gygax didn't choose the word "amulet" was his love of archaic language (cf dweomer). The link to Judaism would have never even factored into it. (AFAIK anti-semitism is one thing that Gygax hasn't been accused of)

Except that the word phylactery has been exclusively and explicitly used by Gentiles for almost 2000 years to apply to tefillin, and the Anglicised version - Middle English Phylactery as opposed to φυλακτήριον - has only ever been applied to tefillin.

As I’ve noted, the phylactery of long years also seems to be a reference to the powers attributed to tefillin.

I’m not suggesting that Gygax was an anti-Semite. But I’m pretty sure he was aware of the cultural associations of the word, and wasn’t looking into Greek antiquity to find something obscure, which he then Anglicised.

 

[Jensaarai]

if one is wanting to add historical weight to something like a lich, why not take a look at the long-running practice of alchemy? there's tons of inspiration just on the wikipedia pages for this stuff, like the elixir of life and the yliaster

 

[AnotherGuy]

I’m not suggesting that Gygax was an anti-Semite. But I’m pretty sure he was aware of the cultural associations of the word, and wasn’t looking into Greek antiquity to find something obscure, which he then Anglicised.

He likely would have known the cultural association but that doesn't discount @QuentinGeorge's point that Gygax had a love for the archaic language and thus used phylactery as opposed to the simpler description such as spirit cage/jar/box/amulet.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So what’s this nonsense with renaming the Girdle of Giant Strength to Belt of Giant Strength. I can’t believe people are not complaining about this change of language! It’s appalling, and extremely offensive to William Shatner.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Except that the word phylactery has been exclusively and explicitly used by Gentiles for almost 2000 years to apply to tefillin, and the Anglicised version - Middle English Phylactery as opposed to φυλακτήριον - has only ever been applied to tefillin.

As I’ve noted, the phylactery of long years also seems to be a reference to the powers attributed to tefillin.

I’m not suggesting that Gygax was an anti-Semite. But I’m pretty sure he was aware of the cultural associations of the word, and wasn’t looking into Greek antiquity to find something obscure, which he then Anglicised.

"Exclusively" is a bold claim, as I've pointed out I've used the word myself and never associated it with that.

And I mean... how many tefillins do you think 1960s Wisconsin men encountered? I think Gygax's thought processes extended to "wow that's a cool sounding word" and not much beyond that.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

So what’s this nonsense with renaming the Girdle of Giant Strength to Belt of Giant Strength. I can’t believe people are not complaining about this change of language! It’s appalling, and extremely offensive to William Shatner.

Non-ironically I think it should have stayed as Girdle. (again, D&D creator's love sucking any flavour out of anything)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Non-ironically I think it should have stayed as Girdle. (again, D&D creator's love sucking any flavour out of anything)

Yeah, I spent ages looking for it under "G" last week!

But "flavour" is why lots or archaic terms were used (Tolkien and REH did it to), and "plain English" is why they are being changed. Personally, I think there is a strong case for both, so I'm not picking a side.