D&D 5E Dwellers on Shadow

[the Jester]

The difference is that many D&D players are already cutting themselves.

Where do you get this idea? Is there a study or something about this? I've played D&D with many hundreds of people, not one of whom was a cutter (at least during the time period during which we were hanging out).

I am willing to bet that the incidence of depression is substantially higher among D&D players than in the populace at large (not because D&D causes depression, but because D&D players tend to be more introverted, which correlates with depression), and even if it isn't, depression is far from rare among teenagers.

First off, I think your conclusion that depression correlating with gamers is suspect. Without evidence, I don't buy it.

While it's true that depression is far from rare among teenagers, D&D is not played only by teens. In face, I definitely have the sense that most D&D players today are in their 30s or 40s.

I'm not a big fan of portraying self-harm as the necessary response to the feeling that your soul is being drawn into a world of shadow and despair.

Remember, the shadar-kai are monsters. They aren't role models for the players to emulate. I really think all this concern about corrupting the children is... overblown and paternalistic.

I'll repeat, there is no problem here. The apparent issue of kids hurting themsevles because of the shadar-kai's description does not exist. No kids that I am aware of (again, unless there are stories in the news that I missed) have hurt themselves because of shadar-kai- or, for that matter, because of D&D. Not only that, but blaming a monster in D&D for some kid's dumb behavior reminds me of the attempts to blame a kid's suicide on Ozzy because he had a song called Suicide Solution.

If the whole shadar-kai self-mutilation thing is too creepy for your group, don't use them- or use them but leave that stuff out. If you have a player you are worried is going to start cutting himself or herself over the shadar-kai, I'd suggest you have a player with deeper problems that are probably going to manifest somehow regardless of the style of D&D he or she is playing.

I'm totally against taking all the awesome flavor out of the shadar-kai, and I have to say, the "save the kiddies" argument doesn't hold water here any more than it did against Suicide Solution, or against video games or any number of other scapegoats. Frankly, the kiddies don't need saving, specific individuals aside.

I will repeat, though: If there is any evidence that the shadar-kai's tendency to cut themselves causes actual harm, I'm willing to reconsider my position. Until I see some good, reliable, hard evidence, though, this discussion is a search for a solution to a problem that simply doesn't exist.

 

[SkidAce]

Remember, the shadar-kai are monsters. They aren't role models for the players to emulate.

Aren't they a pc race?

 

[the Jester]

Aren't they a pc race?

They are a monster from the 3e Fiend Folio that people like enough that it has had pc-style write ups. Nonetheless, like e.g. githyanki, they are a monster first and foremost.

 

[Shemeska]

I would be a lot more comfortable with the shadar-kai embodying extreme BDSM.

I could easily see them having a similar schtick to Zon-Kuthon worshipers in Pathfinder, but at the same time I'd try to avoid any association at all between self-harm/cutting and consensual (albeit extreme) S&M.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The difference is that many D&D players are already cutting themselves. The number of D&D players who kill people and rifle through their pockets is minimal. Furthermore, the stated reason the shadar-kai do it is very, very similar to the reason many people do it in real life: A response to depression. I am willing to bet that the incidence of depression is substantially higher among D&D players than in the populace at large (not because D&D causes depression, but because D&D players tend to be more introverted, which correlates with depression), and even if it isn't, depression is far from rare among teenagers. I'm not a big fan of portraying self-harm as the necessary response to the feeling that your soul is being drawn into a world of shadow and despair.

I think statement is bunch of feces from a male bovine. And really just reminds me of the scare about Emo Kids about a decade ago. Most of it was overblown, and there wasn't an epidemic of dead Emo Kids. While I generally despised those from that scene given that I'm primarily a Metalhead and somewhat prone to describing them as douchebags in my own elitist terms. That thing about Emo Kids and suicide as was just a scare for over-reactive parents and the media, and for a lot of those kids cutting (which involved superficial cuts, sometimes with a heated razor) was about attention. It's a moot point now, since most Emo Kids have faded away, and have likely become something else like Hipsters who aren't prone to things like cutting.

And D&D never seemed to be a thing that a lot of Emo Kids were interested in, and those who were into D&D were also geeks who were generally smart enough to not do things like that.