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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 8459786" data-attributes="member: 18182">I feel you aren't arguing in good faith, but . . . .What is triggering varies, and when and how you should use warning labels is subjective. Of course. The decision rests with the author or editor of a product. Of course.[USER=15700]@Sacrosanct[/USER] could forgo all warning labels entirely, that would be a fair choice. Or instead, they could label every single monster entry with detailed discussions of problematic elements, that would be fair also. Or anything in between.Personally, if I felt my gaming product contained elements that could make folks uncomfortable or trigger them, in particular, regarding violence and oppression, I'd include some warnings. Perhaps a blanket warning on the back cover and in the front matter, "This product contains themes of violence and discrimination pulled from folklore and some may find them offensive or disturbing."One issue we find in folklore, literature, and the roleplaying games based on them is problematic elements that are not obvious to those of us with degrees of certain privilege. For example, I don't always recognize folkloric themes based on racism, sexism, ageism, or lookism (I'm white, male, cis-gender, not super old yet, really good looking) . . . but they are there, they offend or trigger some folks, and others would like to BECOME aware of them (if they aren't already).I absolutely loved [USER=15700]@Sacrosanct[/USER]'s paragraph example upthread that discussed specifically what was potentially problematic for a specific creature. It's a warning . . . but it's also EDUCATION. And, personally, I love learning about the sources of monsters for D&D, and discussing elements of those monsters I may not be aware of, including problematic elements.With that paragraph, it can help me avoid the use of certain monsters that either I, or my players, might find too problematic. Or perhaps give me a heads up, so I can use them, but with care. Or perhaps modify them to remove elements I find problematic. This warning gives me OPTIONS on how to use the particular beastie, and I LOVE that. Even with monsters that I don't find too problematic or triggering personally, I still like learning about the origins of the creatures, even if those origins are in the darker aspects of human psychology.Some great examples of problematic elements that could probably use warnings and/or discussions include:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">[ISPOILER]Consent, rape, and sexual violence [*]Incest [*]Child abuse, abduction [*]Sexism, usually against women [*]Ageism, usually against the elderly [*]Racism, discrimination, genocide [*]EDIT (add): lookism and ableism, discrimination against the disabled and/or ugly [*]This list is not all inclusive . . . .[/ISPOILER]</li> </ul>EDIT: I'll add . . . warnings can also help distinguish between authorial intent and folkloric source material. If a particular monster [ISPOILER]is all about rape[/ISPOILER] . . . is it [USER=15700]@Sacrosanct[/USER] who thinks that's an okay basis for a monster, or is it the source material they are pulling from?Does that help?</blockquote>

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