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

[Ixal]

The more and more I think about it, the more I'm leaning on just putting a brief label at the beginning, on the cover, and than a paragraph about the importance of session zero on how it relates to some of the dark lore as presented. And leaving each individual creature entry unlabeled.

As sad as it is, the more you take care of content warnings the higher the expectations people have from you and the bigger the fallout is when someone finds something to complain which is out of your hands as you can't know every little thing people might find objectionable now or in the future.

Paizo currently suffers from that. Any other company would have gotten away with the current issues much more easily and things would have been forgotten already.

 

[J.Quondam]

The more and more I think about it, the more I'm leaning on just putting a brief label at the beginning, on the cover, and than a paragraph about the importance of session zero on how it relates to some of the dark lore as presented. And leaving each individual creature entry unlabeled.

Yeah, that's fair. If there are a handful of obvious themes (eg, the categories you listed upthread) shared across several creatures, those could be mentioned as examples in that explanatory paragraph. That would probably help frame what what is meant by "dark lore," just to be clear that some material might be "R problematic" or worse, not just "PG-13 problematic".

Totally unrelated: I love that you've got the pronunciations on these things!

 

[Malmuria]

The more and more I think about it, the more I'm leaning on just putting a brief label at the beginning, on the cover, and than a paragraph about the importance of session zero on how it relates to some of the dark lore as presented. And leaving each individual creature entry unlabeled.

Can I ask what your motivation is for including this content in the book and then also having a content warning? From what you've shared here, the sources of inspiration as well as their presentation seem broadly congruent with mainstream fantasy gaming material. So is the goal:
• To ward of criticism of the product
• To alert potential buyers of the content
• To provide tools for introducing possibly triggering violent elements into the game
• To draw on real world folklore in a way that hasn't been previously been done
• To create a more "gritty" and violent mood for a game (like any number of OSR products)

 

[Vince_Snetterton]

You are damned if you do, and damned if you don't. WOTC is caving in to the bunch that screams. If have a hard copy of Mord's, you will want to compare it the "new and improved" version that is coming out in 8-10 weeks.

I would save printing costs, and simply put it on the back cover, and on the front liner. If you put it on every potential problematic entry, you will chew up a lot of space.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Totally unrelated: I love that you've got the pronunciations on these things!

When much of the lore comes from Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, you have a lot of this:

Ellyll (pronounced AESS-ish).

So yeah, a pronunciation guide is pretty mandatory lol.

I'm reminded of a statement Jimmy Carr made to Aisling Bea when she pronounced her middle name (Clíodhnadh). She pronounced it as "Clean-uh". Jimmy said, "It sounds like spelling in Ireland was just so they could win at Scrabble." lol

 

[Ixal]

When much of the lore comes from Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, you have a lot of this:

Ellyll (pronounced AESS-ish).

So yeah, a pronunciation guide is pretty mandatory lol.

I'm reminded of a statement Jimmy Carr made to Aisling Bea when she pronounced her middle name (Clíodhnadh). She pronounced it as "Clean-uh". Jimmy said, "It sounds like spelling in Ireland was just so they could win at Scrabble." lol

 

[jasper]

Content Warning in the beginning with some like.
The module contains slavery, murder of innocents and makes Jasper look good. Creatures with an "!" are part of the content warning.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Content Warning in the beginning with some like.
The module contains slavery, murder of innocents and makes Jasper look good. Creatures with an "!" are part of the content warning.

That was the original plan, but as pointed out, that means I'm the one deciding what could be triggering and what won't. I think that's a problem. The better to make a general disclaimer up front, and let the individual person decide, then for me to try to make that decision. Because inevitably I'll miss something, especially in a game that is inherently violent anyway

 

[jasper]

That was the original plan, but as pointed out, that means I'm the one deciding what could be triggering and what won't. I think that's a problem. The better to make a general disclaimer up front, and let the individual person decide, then for me to try to make that decision. Because inevitably I'll miss something, especially in a game that is inherently violent anyway

That is why authors have both alpha and beta readers. So once you get 90% done. Aka just needs polishing, dress right dress and pictures. Send it out to your readers/play testers.

 

[Ixal]

That was the original plan, but as pointed out, that means I'm the one deciding what could be triggering and what won't. I think that's a problem. The better to make a general disclaimer up front, and let the individual person decide, then for me to try to make that decision. Because inevitably I'll miss something, especially in a game that is inherently violent anyway

Thats the problem with trigger/content warnings.
If you make them generic then the people have to read the triggering content first to see if they are getting triggered by that.
If you list them you have to anticipate everything that could potentially trigger someone.