D&D 5E Dwellers on Shadow

[steeldragons]

They do come off as a bit 90's-angst-apathy-pierced-tattoed-boy, but having said that, I do like the shadow fey trying to cover the world in eternal twilight action (a bit like Illithids).

...or an 80's angst-apathy-pierced-tottooed boy...or a 70's-angst-apathy-pierced-tattooed-boy...or a millenial-angst-apathy-pierced-tattooed-boy.

That's all, I suspect, they were designed to be [maybe the design wasn't even conscious, though I find that highly improbable].

Shadow fey with a bent for world domination, great fine. That's all they need to be.

 

[Weather Report]

Shadow fey with a bent for world domination, great fine. That's all they need to be.

But some Coenobite/Hellraiser action could be kind of neat.

 

[gyor]

I like the S&M theme and honestly I couldn't carelessvif kids see it or not or if its kid friendly. And its S&M themed not emo.

 

[steeldragons]

I like the S&M theme and honestly I couldn't carelessvif kids see it or not or if its kid friendly. And its S&M themed not emo.

Fairly sure I can't continue to respond [and specifically to this] without stepping uncomfortably over the lines of propriety of EN world, so I'm gonna mostly leave this [post and the thread as a whole] alone.

I will simply say that you are welcome to "like" and see in it/interpret whatever you want, but as the company whois producing a game they want to market to kids (or have parents market to their kids for them), WotC and Hasbro, probably DO care what is kid friendly.

 

[TerraDave]

[MENTION=22953]SteelDragon[/MENTION], that's pretty 2E.

I was thinking, before reading your posts, that they were sorta emo/goth/bdsm, and should clearly lean towards bdsm, to avoid lameness.

 

[gyor]

Sorry Steeldragon that was ruder of me then I intended, I just get tired of cool stuff getting ruined or white washed because some kid's head might explode if they see a nipple or something.

Truth be told they don't have to make the Shadar-Kai description graphic to get the point across to the adults.

 

[steeldragons]

@SteelDragon , that's pretty 2E.

I was thinking, before reading your posts, that they were sorta emo/goth/bdsm, and should clearly lean towards bdsm, to avoid lameness.

In what way is this 2E?

And, after my posts you thought???

 

[Hussar]

It's 2e Steeldragons, because you sound exactly like those who stripped demons out of the game.

Hate to tell you this, but, YA fiction is WAY beyond this already. What I find utterly strange is that it's perfectly acceptable for our characters to be baby murdering demon worshipping cultists out to destroy the world, but, BDSM? No, can't have any of that.

 

[jadrax]

Results for this:

Pretty much an even split between if they should be Human or Fey.
Pretty much and even split over the nature of the pact.
A 70% win for the new relationship shadar-kai and the Plane of Shadow/Shadowfell.
A 56% win on the compromise option of why they hurt themselves.
Pretty much an even split between the four options to do with teleporting trough shadow.
And 59% of people would let someone play a shadar-kai in the games.

I may be over reading this, but I think it shows that people don't really have much of a solid idea of what the shadar-kai are, compared to other D&D races.

 

[Dausuul]

I have to disagree; I think that a monster's racial trait is inherently more likely to remain a strictly-fantasy element, and that, Tom Hanks-like, playing a character is far more likely to result in behavior that reflects the character's. Nor do I think killing people and rifling their pockets is all that fantastic compared to someone cutting him- or herself. Both happen in the real world.

I just don't see anything to worry about here. Obviously, we disagree.

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