Hello, Bedrockgames. For clarity and context: I’m not calling you a racist. I didn’t even need you telling me about your marriage, or how you’ve voted (which, by the way, I discourage, because how each of us votes is “political”, it’s quite literally political). I’m not calling for torches and pitchforks. There’s a Monty Python line, “We have found a witch! May we burn her?”. I leave “We have found a racist! May we ban him?” to the mods. If you were on Twitter, your fear of pack-attack Call Outs would make sense, but this isn’t Twitter; again, because EnWorld has active moderation.
I gave you the advice which you found annoying, to make a point, which you apparently missed. What we’re calling for, AS AN ACTUAL OUTCOME, is no different than what you’d already do, because you were raised not to use racial slurs.
Further advice: don’t drink rubbing alcohol as a beverage. You already weren’t gonna do that, right? But there’s a warning labels on bottles of rubbing alcohol which says “Not for internal use”. Because SOME people do that, and it’s a problem. Also: there ARE gamers who WOULD encourage Danny to play up the savage, physical aspects of his half-orc characters, without considering how that might land on a sore spot. I’ve met those gamers at conventions. You’re not one of them. They still exist.
Because 'colonialist propaganda parrallel' isn't something that most people think when they see an image of a D&D orc for the first time.
That’s true. Most people don’t think about it.
Also, *most* fans of the football team in Washington DC don’t think about whether the name of that team sounds like colonialist propaganda.
People who have actually been called by that name, however, tend to think about it. Some of those people apply a “fine-toothed comb” to the history of that word.
And what happens when all of our RPGs are virtuous? Do you really think it is going to change anything substantive about the culture and society?
Now THAT is an important question!
Sometimes change happens systematically, for example the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Sometimes change happens gradually, piece by piece, person by person. If you don’t know the story of Derek Black, look him up.
I know one person whose experience of D&D was changed, because WOTC chose “virtuous” for 5E D&D.
He’s a black man, who walked into a gaming store to try 5E (back when it was new). I was hosting Adventurer’s League. He told me that he wanted to play a human cleric. When I showed him the “Human” pages in the 5E Player’s Handbook, which list various kinds of human, he asked if the setting included “humans” who looked like he did. So I pointed out the paragraph on Rashemi, and the illustrations on page 70 and 112.
His face lit up with joy. He said “Okay, that’s where my character is from.” He stayed for the session, and he came back the following week.
That one gamer’s experience was “substantive”.
He still gets turned down for jobs, he still gets pulled over by police, people still look away if he walks hand in hand with a white woman. I can’t change those things. I do what I can, where I can. Welcoming him to D&D matters to me.