D&D 5E How do you hope WotC treats the upcoming classic settings?

[Hussar]

Alternatively, don't write it in such a way that it can be mistaken for mental illness (which is what seems to have happened), but rather a point of view that seems weird to humans, but is entirely consistent and sensible to those who hold it. Or, let the non-humans actually feel unlike humans.

Oh, absolutely. I hope no one thought that I meant that there was only one way forward. There's a whole bunch of ways forward.

Again, I totally agree that there was no malicious intent on the author's part. They thought it was a cool idea and ran with it. And, at the time, no one would have given it a second thought, because, well, mental illness wasn't really part of the public conversation. This was the 70's and 80's. It's certainly not shocking that some of the things that seemed like a good idea at the time might be ... seen as less so now.

On a side note, because of the new Bond movie coming out, I'm rewatching all the original Bond movies in order. HOLY CRAP! I so want to wash my eyeballs out with bleach. Yikes! So, yeah, it's understandable that stuff that was written in that time might be just a shade less sensitive to various groups than it could be. Let's be honest here, Kender are hardly the worst offenders in the game and probably aren't really that egregious. But, it's such an easy fix that I don't know why we wouldn't. The notion of a group (race) that doesn't have a sense of personal ownership is perfectly fine. There are lots of real world cultures that don't go for personal property.

Anarcho Marxist Kender for the win!

 

[Steampunkette]

Again, you're trying to justify events in the fiction using the Thermian Argument.

Here's the link for a very good watch:


Basically, at it's heart, you're saying that no matter how egregious the text is, how racist, bigoted, misogynistic, whatever, doesn't matter so long as you can justify it in universe. The problem is, those gods DON'T EXIST. They are just fictional constructs of the author. The AUTHOR is the one writing these dehumanizing things. Now, do we accept that our fiction is racist, bigotted, hateful, or do we step up and say, "No!" There is no actual justification for glorifying mental illness. There just isn't.

So, yes, you can have kender who are mentally ill. That's fine. But, you can't, or at least shouldn't anyway, write them in such a way that this mental illness is a good thing. Oh, it's just because a random magical effect (note, Kender in universe were NOT created by a god, but rather by the accidental release of Chaos by the Greygem of Gargath - they are the gnomish victims of radiation exposure who have been horribly mutated to the point where they aren't even gnomes anymore) so, it's okay? No. It really, really isn't.

Either write kender so that their curse is an actual affliction, or don't write it at all. Celebrating mental illness and pretending that mental illness is a good thing is just not acceptable anymore.

Or, the short version:

"You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure."
-Jon Berger-

The character has nothing, is nothing, except what the creator has decided. They have no more motivation, no more agency, than a plastic cup on your desk.