D&D 5E [Merged] Candlekeep Mysteries Author Speaks Out On WotC's Cuts To Adventure

In an event which is being referred to as #PanzerCut, one of the Candlekeep Mysteries authors has gone public with complaints about how their adventure was edited.

Book of Cylinders is one of the adventures in the book. It was written by Graeme Barber (who goes by the usernames PanzerLion and PoCGamer on social media).

Barber was caught by surprise when he found out what the final adventure looked like. The adventure was reduced by about a third, and his playable race -- the Grippli -- was cut. Additionally, WotC inserted some terminology that he considered to be colonialist, which is one of the things they were ostensibly trying to avoid by recruiting a diverse team of authors for the book.

His complaints also reference the lack of communication during the editing process, and how he did public interviews unknowingly talking about elements of an adventure which no longer existed.

"I wrote for [Candlekeep Mysteries], the recent [D&D] release. Things went sideways. The key issues were that the bulk of the lore and a lot of the cultural information that made my adventure "mine" were stripped out. And this was done without any interaction with me, leaving me holding the bag as I misled the public on the contents and aspects of my adventure. Yes, it was work-for-hire freelance writing, but the whole purpose was to bring in fresh voices and new perspectives.

So, when I read my adventure, this happened. This was effectively the shock phase of it all.

Then I moved onto processing what had happened. ~1300 words cut, and without the cut lore, the gravity of the adventure, and its connections to things are gravely watered down. Also "primitive" was inserted.

Then the aftermath of it all. The adventure that came out was a watered down version of what went in, that didn't reflect me anymore as a writer or creator. Which flew in the face of the spirit of the project as had been explained to me.

So then I wrote. Things don't change unless people know what's up and can engage with things in a prepared way. So I broke down the process of writing for Wizards I'd experienced, and developed some rules that can be used to avoid what happened to me."

He recounts his experiences in two blog posts:

• What happened? Writing for Wizards Part 1
• What Happened? Writing for Wizards Part 2

The author later added "Wizards owns all the material sent in, and does not publish unedited adventures on the DM Guild, so there will be no "PanzerCut". I have respectfully requested that my name be removed from future printings. "

 

[Scribe]

I remember, way back in college, in my first serious computer science class. We were asked to write a program that did x. Some of the more gung ho students wrote a program that did x,y,z.

They were surprised that not only were they not rewarded, but that they were penalized on their grade.

The teacher called it out saying something like "you were asked to do x not x,y and z - you write what you are asked to write."

It was a sobering, if possibly overly harsh, lesson.

Absolutely this. I went through a technical college that focused very much on 'real job' scenarios and application, and all the teachers had professional experience.

That was the approach in every class. Do as you are told, that's what you were asked to do.

The attrition rate on that program was hilarious, something like 75% failed out.

 

[DM Magic]

Totally agree. It very much is a case of "You were asked to write an adventure. You've done that, but you've also written a lot of lore, written a lot on these cultures (Yuan-ti and Grippli), and wrote up rules for a new race. We will only use the adventure."

Should WotC told Panzer what they were cutting? Sure. But they were also well within their rights to do so, as PanzerLion seems to have gone way off-scope of the project's intent.

There was an initial back-and-forth where the idea was submitted and revised. What came out of that is what was written; not more, nor less. If you haven't yet, you should read his blog posts about this.

 

[Umbran]

I remember, way back in college, in my first serious computer science class. We were asked to write a program that did x. Some of the more gung ho students wrote a program that did x,y,z.

They were surprised that not only were they not rewarded, but that they were penalized on their grade.

The teacher called it out saying something like "you were asked to do x not x,y and z - you write what you are asked to write."

It was a sobering, if possibly overly harsh, lesson.

Overly harsh? A lower grade is... just a grade. As opposed to not learning the lesson, and not getting a promotion, which is rather more harsh.

For folks who don't understand - the lesson, of course, is that you were asked to do X, but you spent time on Y and Z before delivering X. That means X could have been delivered faster, and you could have moved on to A and B, the next requests they had for you.

 

[Dausuul]

This would be amazing, but I don't see them doing anything that could make it seem like they might have been in error over this situation.

I'm not so sure about that. After the Orion Black kerfuffle, first Greg Tito and then WotC itself apologized publicly; and that was based on a much vaguer, less-supported complaint than this one.

 

[Mort]

Overly harsh? A lower grade is... just a grade. As opposed to not learning the lesson, and not getting a promotion, which is rather more harsh.

For folks who don't understand - the lesson, of course, is that you were asked to do X, but you spent time on Y and Z before delivering X. That means X could have been delivered faster, and you could have moved on to A and B, the next requests they had for you.

When You're in college - it seemed overly harsh (i guess many things do to a college student ).

As a real world lesson, it was absolutely essential - the teacher was 100% correct.

 

[DM Magic]

I'm not so sure about that. After the Orion Black kerfuffle, first Greg Tito and then WotC itself apologized publicly; and that was based on a much vaguer, less-supported complaint than this one.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that! Well, I guess there's hope. Thing is, you can tell by the tone of many in this thread (and on Reddit) that folks don't understand just how big a deal this is. And WotC speaking out in support of their treatment of Graeme would go a long way.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

I'm not so sure about that. After the Orion Black kerfuffle, first Greg Tito and then WotC itself apologized publicly; and that was based on a much vaguer, less-supported complaint than this one.

That they did, but has the company done anything towards actionable and tangible change within the company since then? It will be difficult or even impossible to know, unless there's a huge staff shakeup at the VP level or something similarly drastic. But WotC seems to be in tranquil waters, given the recent news about its earnings and the company's promotion within Hasbro's holdings.

 

[Dausuul]

When You're in college - it seemed overly harsh (i guess many things do to a college student ).

As a real world lesson, it was absolutely essential - the teacher was 100% correct.

I've worked with developers who only ever build exactly the feature they were asked to build, exactly the way they were asked to build it. And I've worked with the software such developers produce.

I would not call this lesson "100% correct" by a long shot. 50% correct, maybe.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Yes, I'm sure you and your camping companions often refer to structures such as tents and log cabins as primitive. This seems extremely likely and totally normal.

There are campsites that are labeled as “primitive” camping and don’t include electric or in some cases toilets.

you can choose a “primitive” campsite. That’s how it’s labeled. With a sign.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yes, I'm sure you and your camping companions often refer to structures such as tents and log cabins as primitive. This seems extremely likely and totally normal.

We've used primal while camping. Normally in context of fire and cooking what you kill.