Search results

The use of blunt weapons to avoid the prohibition on shedding blood is a 19th century myth that made its way into D&D.

How about Paranoia, where every PC has to be a member of an (illegal) secret conspiracy?

Proto-Great Wheel diagram from an article by Gary Gygax, The Meaning of Law and Chaos in Dungeons & Dragons and Their Relationships to Good and Evil in Strategic Review Vol II Issue 1 (1976). I think it demonstrates the early synthesis between Christianity and ancient Greek religion in D&D...

That's already essentially the text of the 5e Monster Manual: "The alignment specified in a monster's stat block is the default. Feel free to depart from it and change a monster's alignment to suit the needs of your campaign. If you want a good-aligned green dragon or an evil storm giant...

If I was advising WotC I'd say the first thing they ought to do is change the 5e Monster Manual art for the goblin and hobgoblin. They are caricatures of East Asian people.

I'm less concerned about a race like the drow because it doesn't correspond to any real world stereotype. Smart + evil is closest to an antisemite's idea of Jews, but Jews are not usually considered to have dark skin (tho ofc there are dark-skinnned Jews) so, for me, it's a less strong and less...

You're looking for comparisons between quotations from genocidal and colonialist racists and the evil humanoids in D&D? Stuff like this? "The capacity of the crania of the Mongol, Indian, and Negro, and all dark-skinned races, is smaller than that of the pure white man. And this deficiency...

You're right. Lizardfolk alignment in 5e is very peculiar imo and doesn't make much sense given their behaviour and the fact they are sentient. They almost seem to be permitted to escape the normal good/evil judgement. 5e Monster Manual: Lizardfolk have no notion of traditional morality, and...

Evil humanoids such as orcs are not very important in Gary Gygax's Greyhawk setting, which is humanocentric. Afaict they are in the majority in only one land, Pomarj. They are far more numerous in 5e's default world. 5e Monster Manual: Humanoids are the main peoples of the D&D world, both...

It may seem strange but the answer is yes. This post by Gary Gygax explains his position: EDIT: Gary Gygax seems to be unaware of the existence of modern paganism here, as he doesn't consider polytheism to be an "actual religion".

That's entirely consistent with Christianity. That's what demons/devils do in the Christian tradition. They're supposed to be very evil and punish sinners in Hell. The extent to which they have power over the physical world varies.

The warlock, a class that can make a pact with an archdevil, and doesn't have to be of evil alignment, is the most un-Christian content that has ever appeared in D&D imo.

I'd be interested to know if any Christian who knows D&D well thinks it has an anti-Christian message. Demons and devils are presented as evil and so are their followers. The players can take on the role of clerics who have many spells derived from Christianity such as Raise Dead. Evil clerics...

Examples of actual anti-Christian content in D&D are Pholtus the Blinding Light and St Cuthbert of the Cudgel from Greyhawk, both created by Gary Gygax, himself a Christian. Both are satires of particular forms of Christianity, not Christianity as a whole.

I appreciate your efforts but I don't think we need to come to a solution, in the sense of a compromise. We're not a political body trying to agree on a joint statement or a policy. By its nature rpg-ing is very individualistic - every game is different. The solution to the problem of...

That's a good point. Mona doesn't use the word apology. He does use the word regret tho - "To that end, I should acknowledge that some members of our staff did raise concerns about the campaign’s theme early on. In retrospect, I did not give these concerns the full audience that they deserved...

Mona's statement seems completely reasonable to me.

You're really on to something with this imo. In addition to Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs as the other main route by which colonialist and racist portrayals of non-white people get transformed into non-human monsters and then make their way into D&D. I've only read Princess of Mars and it was a...

Three culturally specific points in favour of the idea of orcs as vikings - axes*, berserkers*, and one-eyed Gruumsh as Odin. I'm considering vikings here from the modern popular perspective - a Scandinavian people who lived in the middle ages, and had fearsome warriors who engaged in raiding...