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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 9530173" data-attributes="member: 2067">It's solid. I'd definitely play it.There's one big consideration I'd have as WotC, though.How prepared are we for accusations of exploiting suffering for gain?There's this trope where fiction shows people suffering the kinds of violence that minority communities suffer - things like SA or slavery - and have the heroes fight it. Fiction like this is often fairly accused of exploiting that suffering, using fictionalized versions of this violence in ways that fail to respect the people that actually endured suffering like that. And I don't see this presentation dodging that accusation. The horrors of the trans-atlantic slave trade don't translate into slavery in Athas for a number of reasons. One could have a reasonable reaction of "Why the hell are you telling a story about slavery that presents a context-free tour of brutality as if it was a fantasy? The people who were enslaved weren't enslaved by dragons, and weren't rescued by swords, they were enslaved by people, by economics, and they weren't rescued by magical heroes, they were emancipated piecemeal in ways that still aren't complete. Why is what happened to actual people something that you can play through in a game, without any of those actual people in it?"This isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, but it'd be a concern I'd have, and the corollary would be: "How much do we HAVE to risk this? Is there a safer option?"And there's always gonna be a safer option. Tiamat and Acerarak and Vecna are outsider threats to the fairly pleasant status quo of the worlds they menace. In a world full of comic book morality, they can be your acceptable alien punching bags. It's more difficult to thread the needle when evil is the every day reality, when "normal people" are implicated.This is just a consideration I imagine WotC has, not something I'd really consider if I was to fan-reboot this or something. Things look different when you're considering the actions of the 600 lb gorilla.</blockquote>

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