D&D 5E Content Warning Labels? Yeah or Nay?

[Dire Bare]

For example, here is what would appear for the Myling (ignore the formatting). It's...pretty grim and can be quite triggering for survivors of child abuse.

Myling CR 4 (CONTENT WARNING)
The lore behind the myling is exceptionally dark. These are ghosts and spirits of unwanted children killed by their parents and not having received proper burial. In certain regions throughout history, parents have committed infanticide for a number of reasons, not all of them necessarily rooted in evil. While many of them certainly were for evil reasons, oftentimes the parents were desperate with no other options before them, and had to make a choice to kill their own children, or to have the entire family starve. Or the mother was forced to kill the child by someone in a position of power. It sounds horrific today, and certainly is, but in some areas during certain parts of history, there were no alternatives or preventive measures available to mothers.

Mylings appear as ghostly images of children in great anguish, ranging in age from toddlers to preteens.



Lore & Rumors

10 A ghost of a child is a myling, a poor creature who was killed by their mother, wailing at night until it can be put to rest.

15 The myling will attempt to possess a person, driving them to find their bones and perform the burial.

20 if you refuse the plight of a myling, it will attack you in a rage.



Behavior

Because they are ghosts, the mylings do not have a complete recollection or memory of their past life. They only know one thing: betrayal and grief. They are desperate to have their bones buried appropriately, and will attempt to possess any creature that it comes across to accomplish this. Those creatures who are able to avoid the possession of a myling will be met with the furious wrath of the spirit.

During the night, mylings will wail loudly in despair near the area where it was killed. If a myling is put to rest, it will fade away in peace.



Quirks

Mylings can communicate, but in a childlike manner with limited grammar and appropriate vocabulary of the age of child they were when they died.



Habitat

Most mylings inhabit populated areas, usually places where the murder and disposal of a body of a child would largely go unnoticed, such as depressed slums, dark woods, or cemeteries.



Incorporation

• The PCs encounter a myling or group of mylings in the slums of a city, attempting to possess them.
• An NPC is possessed by a myling, and after the bones are buried, the PCs discover the myling’s murderer is a well off or influential personality who has been kidnapping children to replace the one she murdered that became the myling.

View attachment 146811

I would not include that, certainly not a section like that for every monster. The only time that could be reasonable IMO would be in the pre-sale blurb for a Myling-centric adventure.

I would totally include that! This paragraph about what specifically is problematic for the monster is the best idea you've had! Keep it!

As these discussions about what is and isn't problematic in D&D and the folklore and literature it's based on have shown (to me at least) . . . is that some of us aren't aware of specific issues, and we'd like to be informed.

What's problematic about the hag? Maybe I've missed the sexism, ageism, and lookism (discrimination based on attractiveness) that are at the core of this particular beastie, and would appreciate and benefit from a brief discussion in the monster entry. It can help me avoid monsters that are too problematic for my tastes, understand why my players might have issues facing a monster, and perhaps make changes to deal with elements I find problematic.

 

[LordEntrails]

The warning is a good idea. Won't totally protect you from complaints, but it's a reasonable step towards your responsibility. Also make sure purchasers know before they purchase.

Whenever possible, we have tried to tone down the references to those themes.

Is imo troublesome. Simple because is is completely possible to simple remove any such references. So their is no requirements that any creature have such references. Perhaps you should clarify with something lie "Whenever possible while staying with the intent of relaying the original myths..."

 

[Yora]

I don't think it's that at all. From a designer's perspective, I realize that we're all different. Some people might not have any triggers at all. Others might have different triggers than me. If I don't have any triggers about traumatic experience X, and put it in the book with no warning (since it doesn't affect me), that does a disservice to someone picking up the game who does. So I want to ensure I'm thinking about them as well. It has nothing to do with being afraid to present my work or not.

Phobias are random and irrational. Really anything could be unsettling to someone somewhere. Putting warning labels on everything does not seem like a sensible way to deal with that. Eventually you'd get so many labels that you can't see the ones that might be relevant to you anymore.
I also don't think it serves people well who have strong reactions to certain things. Making it a habit to put warning labels on everything reinforces the notion that the mere mention of some things is a real threat to be afraid of. That does not seem like something that can help people with managing their fears. And in the case of phobias, it's often not the thing that causes panic itself that becomes crippling, but the anticipation of encountering it. Warning labels on fiction seem like they confirm the idea that fiction is scary and a threat to be afraid of.
Nasty surprises in places where you'd have no reason to expect them are inconsiderate and really bad practice. But making a big deal about constant vigilance to avoid things that cause fear does not seem as something that helps with learning to manage fear. I don't think it helps people to tell them that they should be afraid and need to be shielded. Because no disturbing subject can be completely erased from your environment and at some point sooner or later you will encounter it mentioned somewhere. And perhaps even more importantly, it always exists in your own mind, to surprise you at completely random moment.
I am not advocating "suck it up" or "get over it". Panic caused by disturbing thoughts is not a joke, or something you can simply brush away and forget about it. And as I said, lots of tough things in fiction should not jump out as a suprise in a work where you wouldn't expect it. But I think everyone is better served by creating an environment that encourages "encountering something disturbing in fiction can't hurt you", instead of "we must banish even the mention of the thing because it's so dangerous". That's not some macho ignorance. It's the basis of exposure therapy in cognitive behavioral therapy to treat anxiety disorders, and also well known in pedagogy that shielding children from difficult topics and mild dangers does the opposite of helping them safely deal with real dangers.
Warning labels for "thought threats" are not the definitive be all, end all when it comes to treating anxiety disorders. But I think in the long term, they actually do more harm then good to people struggling with anxiety disorders. (As a general default practice, of course there can be individual cases where something wouldn't normally be expected but is critical for the work.) Presenting works in ways that give a clear expression of what you could expect inside is generally a sufficient and effective method.

Now specifically for a monster book in which you think 10% of entries need to be flagged, I would say it's something that makes it clear what content and tone you'll get inside before you even open it.

 

[S'mon]

As these discussions about what is and isn't problematic in D&D and the folklore and literature it's based on have shown (to me at least) . . . is that some of us aren't aware of specific issues, and we'd like to be informed.

Hmm. I'm actually a bit sceptical that infanticide-derived child ghosts is a common trigger for survivors of child sex abuse or other abuse (I won't go into what are triggers, but you can possibly imagine). Unless the author has strong evidence on this, it seems more like speculation.

An accurate discussion of possible triggers by monster is going to be a huge amount of work, largely orthogonal to the point of the product. Again, I suggest that a general pre-sale warning plus an introduction with an authorial discussion of intent & suggested use is a far better approach than "Monster X can trigger trauma Y" paragraphs.

 

[S'mon]

I also don't think it serves people well who have strong reactions to certain things. Making it a habit to put warning labels on everything reinforces the notion that the mere mention of some things is a real threat to be afraid of.

I was just thinking about one of my potential triggers/issues. I might not notice it normally in content, but if there was a trigger warning "TRIGGER: X" that would focus my feelings on the issue - I think this would likely make me feel worse. It's making me feel a bit worse just thinking about it now!

 

[FrogReaver]

'Caution: Coffee is Hot'

I'd say we tend to go a little overboard with content warnings. But that is where we are in the world now. So I think a basic intro content warning and your reason for publishing such content is a good idea. We are in a age of judging creator intent much more than an age of judging the content on it's own merits.

I personally wouldn't label each individual entry - too much risk of not labeling something that people later decide is problematic.

 

[Scribe]

I would totally include that! This paragraph about what specifically is problematic for the monster is the best idea you've had! Keep it!

As these discussions about what is and isn't problematic in D&D and the folklore and literature it's based on have shown (to me at least) . . . is that some of us aren't aware of specific issues, and we'd like to be informed.

What's problematic about the hag? Maybe I've missed the sexism, ageism, and lookism (discrimination based on attractiveness) that are at the core of this particular beastie, and would appreciate and benefit from a brief discussion in the monster entry. It can help me avoid monsters that are too problematic for my tastes, understand why my players might have issues facing a monster, and perhaps make changes to deal with elements I find problematic.

No thanks. That's way more than I would care to see and would put me right off buying any product that went to such lengths.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The benefit of having the warning before buying (and once in the book in case it's just lying in a library) is that you also don't need to tone down some aspects that would have had gaming interest. Once you have established that you inspiration is not cute fairy tales but the darker ones like (Grimm's over Disney's), there is no reason to drop aspect that would be useful in a gaming bestiary.

 

[MarkB]

I like the idea of having the warning on each entry. To me, the main issue with a product like this would not be the reader of the product being potentially too triggered or horrified by it, but instead the possibility of individual creatures being an issue for particular players when presented in game.

By putting the warnings individually on each monster, the DM can take note of them, consider what they know about the sensitivities of their individual players, and then choose whether or not to include that particular creature in a scene or encounter.

 

[Retreater]

For example, here is what would appear for the Myling (ignore the formatting). It's...pretty grim and can be quite triggering for survivors of child abuse.

So I was expecting myself to laugh it off and say "we're all adults, we can take it."
Then I actually started reading it ... and yeah, I guess this is what it feels like to get triggered. Like, I'm actually crying at my computer like a big dummy.
But this kind of proves (to me) how ineffective trigger warnings are. I don't know how something is going to affect me until I experience it. Just having a TW icon on your monster entry isn't going to keep me from getting upset or persuade me to not read something. I'd start reading the entry, stop reading it, and just avoid that creature in the future. (Which is what I plan to do even after the warning you posted.)
So maybe a general disclaimer in the start of your book, and that's all I'd do.