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

[Lanefan]

Author's Note: Because the purpose of this book is to capture the original stories and portrayals of the creatures of folklore, there may be issues that are considered problematic by modern standards. Most of these myths and fables were created in a time or culture where issues such as misogyny, ethnic stereotyping, and ableism were part of the story, whether directly or indirectly. This book does not endorse any of these beliefs, and it is encouraged that any aspect you may find problematic for your game be modified or ignored. There are a lot of potential great stories to be told using original myths, but we must also be willing to acknowledge problematic aspects of those stories. Take what you want from this book, and ignore the rest.
Many of the core themes about fairies resonate in nearly every culture and may be triggering. These themes focus heavily on abduction, violating consent, sexual assault, child abuse, and mild torture. I feel it is my responsibility to call out references to these themes and have them labeled. This will be in the creature entry as “CONTENT WARNING” next to the creature’s name. Whenever possible, we have tried to tone down the references to those themes. Make no mistake, because they exist in folklore (and thus in this book), they are not to be celebrated, but viewed with caution. The inclusion of the “CONTENT WARNING” is to alert you ahead of time, so you can skip past them if you choose.

So my question to the community is, is something like that worth it? Is it off-putting? Not needed? Do you appreciate it, or would it turn you away?

Were it me I'd drop off the bolded part, replace it with a simple "Reader discretion is advised", and leave it at that. Flagging every occurrence within the work is overkill IMO.

 

[payn]

I think the Author's Note is fine, and certainly in line with how countless other publications do it.
On the other hand, seeing a label on each creature would be very off-putting, and not really necessary given the introduction. Honestly, it feels pretty micro-manage-y to me, like "Yes, yes, you already told me, now let me make up my own mind about the specifics."

Thats a good point. If you have say 30 entries and 3-5 of them need warnings its one thing. If you have 30 entries and 20+ pf them need warnings than the entire book should have a single warning in large print in the beginning.

 

[Scribe]

Myling CR 4 (CONTENT WARNING)

I just wouldnt get passed this being a pattern in the work. Putting in a general warning at the front, maybe some kind of symbol as you suggested in the header on the monster record, but not "CONTENT WARNING" over and over.

Thats my piece on this though.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Quite honestly that content warning seems like its a parody.

 

[el-remmen]

I think the author's note plus a small clear icon for each entry is the way to go.

 

[J.Quondam]

Yeah, the icon seems a good compromise: get the warning across without distracting from the content itself.
The main issue might be making it easy to look up what that icon means. It would be in the Author's Note, I assume; but maybe if the Author's Note was instead titled "About the # Icon" and appeared prominently on the TOC, that would make it easy to find in the book.

 

[MoonSong]

I second the idea to remove the last part of the warning and the individual labels later. I know OP wants to be thorough, but by going on a case by case, they are bound to not notice something or fail to label everything. (And then it can be misconstrued as a malicious omission "oh so you think THIS is fine?") Just a general warning applying to the work as a whole would be better.

And, well, you never know what is triggering for people. I got very triggered by "El dia de los dinosaurios muertos" and so was LuisCarlos17f by Ixalan. You'll never know how thorough you gotta get.

 

[Sacrosanct]

So something more like this? I think I like this better than the "CONTENT WARNING" text. (Also, the icon would appear in the Author's Note paragraph, so it would be defined there. Also ignore the CR4 and CR2 disparity; this was a quick mock-up)

 

[Malmuria]

I think a content warning/author note at the beginning would be appreciated. Mostly because I can't always tell if someone who is presenting problematic material is actually endorsing it, so just being clear up front would be good. You could also discuss ways for readers to engage productively with problematic material at the table. The Uncaged series of adventures is an attempt to think about and invert some of the assumptions of fantasy/folklore material.

 

[iserith]

With how dark the old fairy tales are relative to current viewpoints, you may as well just title the book "Content Warning: Folklore."