D&D 5E Am I no longer WoTC's target audience?

[Fenris-77]

The last couple of pages is a great example of the problems WotC is going to have with fan pushback on a GH release pretty much no matter what they do with it. No judgement, we all like what we like, but yeah, issues.

 

[hawkeyefan]

If I worked at WotC, there’s no way I’d think that my efforts were worth the inevitable backlash that we’d face from the Greyhawk fans. It’s just nuts.

 

[Eric V]

If I worked at WotC, there’s no way I’d think that my efforts were worth the inevitable backlash that we’d face from the Greyhawk fans. It’s just nuts.

It's not about backlash, though; it's about money.

The GH fans will buy the setting book. Complain afterwards? Maybe. But the purchase has been made by then.

 

[generic]

No-good races amon the human populations are possible in the same way when after the fall of the Roman empire the barbarian tribes travelled across all Europe and even to the north of Africa.

But, the Roman Empire was composed of bad guys, and the Barbarians were the good guys, right?

Sorry, but I find the notion of 'evil' or 'no-good' Human ethnic groups racist and absurd in the highest order.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Fantasy races that are descended from fiends?

Very much so. It could be interpreted as literally demonising persecuted minorities .

Lol people will get upset over anything.

Yes, they will, and Hasbro are very very aware of that.

Look at Ravnica for example that didn't include everyone race in it. Only had a few really plus some Ravnica ones.

Ravnica includes every race as travellers from other planes. It's a very cosmopolitan city.

 

[generic]

Very much so. It could be interpreted as literally demonising persecuted minorities .

Which it obviously should not be interpreted as, but, that's not a chance which WotC is willing to take.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Which it obviously should not be interpreted as, but, that's not a chance which WotC is willing to take.

Quite.

 

[hawkeyefan]

It's not about backlash, though; it's about money.

The GH fans will buy the setting book. Complain afterwards? Maybe. But the purchase has been made by then.

That may be true. But I thibk I’d err on the side of putting out a book that might actually appeal to the majority of a settings supposed fans.

In these recent threads, it seems like everyone clamoring for a new Greyhawk has different ideas in mind. And many seem very rigid about what they’d accept in a GH Setting. It just seems like a bit of a quagmire that WotC can simply avoid.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That may be true. But I thibk I’d err on the side of putting out a book that might actually appeal to the majority of a settings supposed fans.

I would err by putting Greyhawk right at the back of the queue. It has nothing going for it apart from nostalgia, and you can never make grumpy old men happy anyway.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Lol people will get upset over anything. Im not claim my Tiefling can't exist but they're better of suited to NPCs on GH, probably Ravenloft as well but I don't care to much about RL.

Two things. Completely anecdotal observations, and skewed towards Millenials and Generation Z players, but still:

1. A lot of people tend to use tabletop roleplaying as a form of escapism from real life, and unless they're using game system which is specifically built to deal with heavy themes such as overt systemic racism and advertised as such, such themes tend to be either avoided entirely so the game can go back to being Monty Python Simulator, or treated as an obstacle to be overcome. Never really as a thing that "just is" or status quo.
2. Tieflings specifically are disproportionately popular with LGBT+ people. I'm not entirely sure of the why of it myself, might be because they're fertile ground for cute and fluffy OCs, but it's sort of a thing? Like, really, have another post on it that explains it in more detail. And another one. Point being, part of the zeitgeist around tieflings, but also other "exotic" and "monstrous" races has shifted, and a setting that loudly tried to push the original lore for them in your face would see that part of the setting ignored, probably because even in the context of devilkin, it still hits too close to home.

EDIT: fixed a link