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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 8467447" data-attributes="member: 11">I understand why some folks would not want those ugly and systemic issues to come up in a game that is ostensibly "fun," but fun is a nebulous and expansive and idiosyncratic thing.  For me, I'd have a hard time engaging in a setting (historical or not - but esp. the former) that did not have some element of the range of things from crappy to tragic that I know the world to have.If I am playing a WW2-era and themed game, for example, I'd expect that anti-Semitism and toxic eugenics would have some role in the setting because of when and where it takes place. That said, I would also expect that neither I or the other players would play Nazis or collaborators - however, I can also imagine playing a spy in that setting that has to tolerate awful things to not blow their cover and hopefully achieve some greater good. I can also understand why someone would not want to play that but sometimes I also feel that playing with that erasure is a greater problem.For example, one of my biggest criticisms of Captain America: The First Avenger which spends at least half the movie in a WW2 army setting (before transforming into a kind of retro sci-fi thing) without once mentioning that the US Army was segregated at the time! Later, when they rescue captives, Cap puts his Howling Commandos together and Gabe Jones who is black is part of the team, no one says anything and I find that erasure kinda offensive. The movie misses its chance to have someone object to Gabe, and then Captain America voices his explicit support for the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/events-african-american-history/the-double-v-campaign-1942-1945/#:~:text=The%20Double%20V%20campaign%20was,African%20Americans%20in%20the%20military." target="_blank">"Double V" campaign</a> (Victory in Europe and Victory at home for Black Americans getting equality), thus both giving a nod to "historical accuracy" while making Cap actually heroic in his positions compared to the time.When I run a game in such a setting, I also remind players that the "of their time" claim about old racists or sexists or whatever is a fallacious excuse, since plenty of people in those times knew those things were wrong - including the very people who were the targets of those policies and attitudes - even if the common standard attitude is gross to us now. So not only should you not feel the need to be a bigot to be "accurate," but you should explicitly not be and can still be accurate.</blockquote>

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