Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark Hope" data-source="post: 8947569" data-attributes="member: 27051">All these pages posted while I was asleep! Stop it! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />To answer the very broad question, yes, of course there should be room for problematic content under the context of it being something you fight against. There are nuances here, but at its core, villains can be villainous and heroes can fight them because of it.The idea that slavery in Dark Sun can't be fought or is just some kind of weird grimdark window dressing is completely baffling to me. The introductory adventure starts with the PCs as slaves and makes their escape the opening scene - it's presented wholly as evil. The elves who attack the caravan they're in (and it's not inadvertent according to the tie-in fiction) do so in revenge for the enslavement of their own people - fighting slavers is baked in from day one. The first full adventure is 100% about overthrowing a tyrannical regime through a slave revolt. The second adventure is about protecting your newly freed city from a neighbouring tyrant. The next one is about helping a good-aligned creature transform into a being that can begin healing the environmental damage to Athas. The one after that highlights how cruel a slave-holding society is through its ritual hunts of the enslaved - it's just presented as awful. It's not until the final adventure of the first run of modules that slavery stops being a central theme, because by that time the PCs are high enough level to start tackling some of the underlying issues (in this case an order of psionicists known as The Order). Like, it's right there, front and centre. This is what the designers presume you'll be doing. Later adventures explore other aspects of the setting but the evils of slavery and environmental collapse and why we should smash them are never far away.I've been running Dark Sun since day one, have written for the setting, just wrapped a 40-episode streamed game set there and I have never seen a Dark Sun game where slavery was depicted as anything other than awful and something to be fought. We've had a slave owner in our game and it was a very compelling piece of fiction that allowed us to unpick the concept with care and real narrative weight. Yes, there are doubtless people who will use it to engage in awful behaviour but that can't be laid at the feet of the setting as presented. It's wholly and unashamedly opposed to slavery and the ills that come with it. It's written into the setting and published adventures very clearly and claiming otherwise just isn't supported by the material. So yes, there's room for this content in games. Slavery is not a thing of the past. It's happening right now. I just have to step outside and walk down the street to see a modern version of it in action, as does almost anyone using any electronic device or wearing clothes. I can do very little about that in my daily life but I very much appreciate the idea that we can address some of these issues through gameplay and (dare I say it) art.</blockquote>

Verification