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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 5049586" data-attributes="member: 17106">Even the modern world isn't as modern as we'd like to think (again I'll point to the gender equality issue for easy comparison, or the continuing classist/racist/etc. aspects of the world). There are certainly many forms of quasi-slavery; even basic poverty has similarities. The D&D worlds are frequently quite idealized.However, the modern world is actually far exceeded by most D&D worlds in the ability of one righteous character to make a difference. A slave could conceivably learn magic to blast the guards (or charm them, or a thousand other things). A single good-minded character (including a PC, as several posters described) can and frequently does take down slaver networks.Slavery is also predicated on ignorance, and I'd postulate that education is more widespread and prevalent in D&D worlds than it is in the modern third world. Certainly, almost anyone living in a sovereign kingdom in my world knows that there are outer planes where you go when you die and that divine magic comes from those planes and that anyone can access that divine magic and anyone can go to any of those planes upon death. Thus, it's hard to look on another person as being fundamentally different or inferior.I agree 100%. However, D&D is marketed to kids and there is still a level of fear and mistrust surrounding the game, so official materials (and individuals) have to be very careful in dealing with "real evil".I think slavery would have been a great BoVD topic (with that hard-to-remove "mature" label). Personally, I've found that adding "real evil" to the game greatly enhanced it, and made the PCs' quest more satisfying. Other people, however, prefer a less dark and more romanticized game, and don't want to spend their recreational time thinking about these kinds of things, which is certainly a valid point-of-view.D&D often seems to take a guarded approach on slavery by using the fantastical. Intelligent constructs and aberrations like the mind flayers and the neogi are often involved, which detaches the concept from its real-world version of peole enslaving other people. That's probably a good way of handling it, with darker versions reserved for those who want them.</blockquote>

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