D&D 5E (2024) Greyhawk Confirmed. Tell Me Why.

[Micah Sweet]

I assume their groups? Just like my groups when we realized they didn't work for us?

Fair enough.

 

[Stormonu]

Can't wait to see the 1000 page thread on the Scarlet Brotherhood when the DMG comes out. Good times.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Can't wait to see the 1000 page thread on the Scarlet Brotherhood when the DMG comes out. Good times.

I'm not sure why villains being awful racists is an issue. They're someone no group should feel bad about stabbing to death.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm not sure why villains being awful racists is an issue. They're someone no group should feel bad about stabbing to death.

There's a vocal group out there that think social crimes of that sort shouldn't be depicted at all, even for villains.

 

[Belen]

There's a vocal group out there that think social crimes of that sort shouldn't be depicted at all, even for villains.

I think some people enjoy being angry and upset.

That said, I have been running games long before these types of issues were a thing and I always described the themes that would appear in a campaign. These days, it is just a good way to make sure that you can find a compatible group. If they object to content, then neither person will be happy.

Bad people in my games are often evil because they hold those views. A kingdom is evil because they have laws that support those types of situations. I like players to encounter them because they are heroes.

 

[I'm A Banana]

There's a vocal group out there that think social crimes of that sort shouldn't be depicted at all, even for villains.

Sometimes putting racists in your magical elf escapist fantasy is not the way. It's something a lot of folks deal with in real life, and isn't always fun times to put that in your game. Y'know, like how if you lost a parents as a kid it might be kind of not fun to face an enemy called the Orphanmakers. Or if you were intimately affected by a school shooting, you might not have fun with a villain who kills a bunch of children gathered in a place meant to protect them. Just, not really the subject you wanna deal with while hanging out with your buds for a casual Saturday afternoon.

Sometimes, alternately, you really wanna destroy a bunch of racists, and watching them absolutely eat sewer chunks can be kind of a blast.

Depends a bit on the group. The game. The local politics of the time.

Either way, D&D kind of has to deal with the fact that there's some weird stuff in it's DNA, be that racism or sexism or colonialism or whatever. Just like almost any brand that's been around for 50 years. It's some of the work they have to do to revisit old things.

I imagine 5e would keep the Scarlet Brotherhood around, since they are pretty distinctive villains (monks are so rarely folks that you fight!), but they might just not focus whole racial superiority angle. You can make it more of a footnote in their villainy than the whole point of it. They're shadowy assassins who murder people for political gain, they don't have to be actively pursuing a genocide or an ethnostate for them to be the Bad Guys.

Or, they might not even earn a mention. The DMG using Greyhawk as an example setting doesn't mean it has a lot of GH setting elements worked into it. I expect it to talk about how, like, the Free City is a good example of a "home base" for PC's, and here's some wilderness areas nearby as examples of how you'd build out regions with encounters, and here's a dungeon that shows how to do dungeons, and here's Acererak as an example of a villain and how you'd do antagonists in your game...

 

[Demetrios1453]

They could probably just cut and paste the two paragraphs from Saltmarsh on the Scarlet Brotherhood without too much issue if they wished.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They could probably just cut and paste the two paragraphs from Saltmarsh on the Scarlet Brotherhood without too much issue if they wished.

How are they described there?

 

[CleverNickName]

They could probably just cut and paste the two paragraphs from Saltmarsh on the Scarlet Brotherhood without too much issue if they wished.

Yep. What more needs to be said about them?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Here's their blurb from Saltmarsh:

The Scarlet Brotherhood claims that the bloodline of its followers traces back to an ancient empire, the Suel Imperium, and their goal is to restore the old Suloise noble houses to prominence in the world. As scions of a realm that once enjoyed unmatched arcane power and a vast dominion, its members see themselves as superior to all other folk and the only ones fit to rule.

For decades, this group has been concocting a conspiracy to spread fear, chaos, and uncertainty across the land. When the time is right, the Brotherhood will strike to seize the reins in kingdoms all across the world. Already its assassins have slain those who might oppose their sinister plans. In almost every court in the land, from the most remote backwater barony to the imperial courts of world powers, the Brotherhood’s agents have quietly assumed positions of influence.