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The dark elves of folklore are primitive. They don't live in decadent cities, worship demons, torture slaves, and indulge in narcotics. Melniboneans do. Moorcock was a major influence on Gygax (it's always where the law/chaos thing came from). Drow are a synthesis of Norse folklore dark (earth)...

There's no reason to believe the discourse of twitter is representative of widely held beliefs either. Twitter is the farthest thing from a window into social norms. It brings to mind efforts to use the term "Latinx." You may well use social media where it's the norm. But it's anything but the...

You know drow are based in large part on Melniboneans, right? As are pale, decadent Targareans. It's one of those heads you lose, tails I win kind of paradigms. Evil group is dark-skinned? Racism. Non-evil group is dark-skinned? Irrelevant. White group is good? Racism. White group is evil...

And most of the people seeing issues aren’t part of the demographic that they’re alleging is being impacted either. So if we’re agreed that white people aren’t qualified to speak on the subject, that goes for both sides. As far as I can tell only one person of colour has commented on the issue...

And here’s one with straight hair. First official monster manual depiction. Again, does this look anything like African-American caricatures, or is it an evil elf with black skin?

I guess that just goes to show how two people can see something completely different in a picture. That illustration looks nothing like racial caricatures of Black people historically found in American culture. If you showed it to 100 people walking down the street in Akron, Ohio and asked them...

They’re elves with black to purplish skin. Slim, delicate-looking, and sharp-featured. This is the first illustration of drow published. Does it look like African-Americans to you? One of the problems with illustrating drow is it’s difficult to illustrate characters with black - actually...

Nigh on impossible? I‘d hazard that the great majority of people who have played D&D over the years have never made that connection. Most people don’t even know what the Curse of Ham is (I had to look it up). I think people who travel in a very particular American cultural and political milieu...

That‘s one infamous illustration that bears no resemblance to how drow are described in their original appearances in the G series, or the folklore that Gygax got his inspiration from.

Actually, we have no idea how many of the 10 million-plus player base of D&D dislikes clear good vs evil models of play. We don't know how many want more nuanced portrayals of monsters. We don't know how many find orcs and drow 'problematic'. All that has changed is some recent uproars on...

All species? Ogres, minotaurs, medusa, ettins, trolls, wyverns, troglodytes, umber hulks, driders, yuan-ti, and behirs? All a rich and nuanced population of good, evil, and in-between? No monsters that are inherently evil and that players can assume are hostile?

It may well be harmful. But you realize it's found in virtually all storytelling in every culture on earth, right? When the protagonists discover a new group of people, they demonstrate pretty narrow traits because that's how you dramatize. The new group are brawny or weak, gentle or aggressive...

OK. But what you're describing is pretty much a human universal in storytelling. D&D was not developed by 21st century sociologists. It was a tactical wargame influenced by European folklore and mid-20th century fiction pulp fiction. But even if its cultural genesis was Japanese epics, the...

It isn't really, though. If it were, Wisdom would be a core attribute for Rogues, not Clerics. Elves would get bonuses to Wisdom. The current incoherent system means Clerics make the best scouts and guards. It doesn't make any sense.

All of this confusion and complexity around perception (and it's been going for multiple editions now) is due to a fundamental flaw in D&D: Perception should be an attribute. Whether it should be a 7th attribute, or it should replace wisdom (which I favour), it's lack is a deep flaw in the...

Some people don't have the temperament to be GMs. They're too passive, anxious, lazy. Or can't step back and be an impartial adjudicator of a game. However, it would be good for the game groups - and the hobby in general - if more people gave it a shot. At the very least, it would make them...

I would guess Glass Cannon is the most popular Pathfinder actual play. But their main show is still PF1 and they've only dipped their toes into PF2. I'm not sure how much streaming shows sell game systems. I'd hazard that most of the people who watch/listen to GCP (and Critical Role, etc.)...

This matches my experience. In our group at the office made up almost entirely of newbs, two people out of six bought a PHB. Other than those two, nobody has cracked a book or given any thought to D&D outside the time we were playing. Everybody bought their own dice, though, because funky dice...