D&D General Modules with a political message?

[R_J_K75]

I was getting at the difference between what you quoted and what you said.

OK gotcha now

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

You can do it in your tabletop after talking with your friends about possible taboos, but it may too risky for companies. People don't want to spend their money to suffer an author who believe to know about certain threats more themself. In my land we would say something like "enter a chemise of thirty feet" ( = the chemise is the wall between two towers of a wall, too dangerous in a castle siege and the risk doesn't worth).

Of course you can use the stories to tell allegories about real threats, but it is useless if others share your same point of view, you aren't telling anything they didn't know, and it is also useless if the other side thinks you are writting annoying propaganda about what they should feel guilty and ashamed if their opinion is different.

X-Men is a good example of using the fictional fiction as a softer way to talk about reality. Or it was until Marvel started to lose readers because these didn't find characters could identify with.

If you really want to convince somebody, then be polite, earn her trust, and never, never, never try to force her to agree you. Sooner or later people realise when they could be manipulated emotionally apealling feelings as fear, pride, desire, resentment, envy, guilty or shame. If you try to "punish" who has got a different opinion, then you are doing it wrongly.

 

[Steampunkette]

Consider, though, @RangerWickett, that art can oppose -or- reinforce social structures through it's political impact.

Luke fought Space Fascists without changing people's minds to suddenly hate fascism... but his actions reinforced the anti-fascist structure of western society at the time. Just because it wasn't spreading a message of reform doesn't mean it wasn't spreading a message. Same with Indiana punching Nazis... Though it's also worth noting that Neonazis were having rallies in the US in the 70s and 80s.

Which is why the Blues Brothers hate Illinois Nazis. So that may have even been an overt political stance against current events, at the time, viewed retroactively as being "Not Political" or otherwise not having a message.

And a game without queer characters in the world -also- spreads a message, unintentionally in most cases, of exclusionism. Same thing with a game where everyone is white. But these positions are rarely viewed as a matter of politics and instead seen as a default state upon which diversity and politics are imposed.

Gargoyles is apparently a great example. The show has hispanic and native characters, black characters, scots, brits, whole nine yards. People I know loved it as kids for being so apolitical. But if you pitch them the show without specifically saying the name, they call it "Woke" to have a female minority detective as the monster's friend.

Like... Eliza Maza was just as political a decision in the 90s as it is today. Possibly -more- so. We were just kids and didn't internalize it that way 'cause we weren't aware of politics.

Honestly... that might be the true crux of the whole "This stuff wasn't political in the good ole days!" problem. Yeah, it was... you were just too young and/or unaware of politics to realize it at the time.

 

[Hussar]

Personally I find fantasy to not really be a great genre for exploring politics. Far too romantically grounded in the notion of a magical past where good kings rule good kingdoms sort of thing.

If I want to go political, I’d stick with SF.

 

[Stormonu]

I guess A1-A4, the Slavelord series counts? Though, I admit when I ran it, we never really touched on the slavelord's actual activities, just that the players needed to stop them.

 

[el-remmen]

Eat the Rich is a series of explicitly anti-capitalist D&D adventures:
Eat the Rich | Volume 1 - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

This looks awesome. I usually don't do PDFs but I'll make an exception.

 

[el-remmen]

far too romantically grounded in the notion of a magical past where good kings rule good kingdoms sort of thing.

I think the notion of failed empire built upon failed empire is at least as common. Dark Fantasy is a huge subgenre.

 

[LordEntrails]

Not interested in politics in D&D adventures. It's not done well and usually assumes one stance or view is correct.

Now, social commentary, or presenting moral or ethical situations where the players can be faced with difficult social decisions is great. Present them with situations they can decide for themselves. i.e. Do they help the poor? Do they free the oppressed?
What about if the oppressors are a minority? Or an oppressed demographic in our world?

Do they kill the dragon and take it's treasure so that the settlers are safe? Or do they negotiate peace between them? Or perhaps help protect the forest from urban encroachment?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

X-Men is a good example of using the fictional fiction as a softer way to talk about reality. Or it was until Marvel started to lose readers because these didn't find characters could identify with.

X men are currently running a story with VERY different feels then normal (a world that hates and fears you... forget that they took there ball and made a new home or two) the plan had a beginning middle and end, BUT someone realized it was more in line with modern "Find your own place, or just build your own place" mentality that younger readers have flocked to but older (and I may say more financial stable) fans are VERY hit or miss on.

this is now a huge curse, if they 'end' this new way of doing things and go back will they enrage new fans? If they keep it this way are they looseing old ones? It reminds me alot of how D&D edition changes happen.

the thing is as mad as we get about thac0 and powers/spells imagine how much worse it would be if we REALLY saw our own problems in this...

 

[Charlaquin]

Let's not go there again. People that believe that everything is political are scary.

And correct.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I think the notion of failed empire built upon failed empire is at least as common. Dark Fantasy is a huge subgenre.

I had a game, 5-8 years ago with a good but low wits king telling the players something and (like anyone could expect) they mouthed off... but what they said made all of us (even the speaker do a double take) "Who died and left you incharge"
I cant' even remeber who but someone real low almost under there breath said "um his dad and mom... thats how kings and queens work"

 

[Charlaquin]

Can't this just be a case of someone not wishing to add a political message or revealing their political position/loyalty?

Certainly. Doesn’t mean they aren’t communicating a political message or revealing something about their political position in the process of trying not to do so though.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

And correct.

someday I would love someone one to do a deep dive into all the settings and what is and isn't poltical... but here isn't the right place and now is not the right time

 

[Charlaquin]

Not interested in politics in D&D adventures. It's not done well and usually assumes one stance or view is correct.

Now, social commentary, or presenting moral or ethical situations where the players can be faced with difficult social decisions is great. Present them with situations they can decide for themselves. i.e. Do they help the poor? Do they free the oppressed?
What about if the oppressors are a minority? Or an oppressed demographic in our world?

Do they kill the dragon and take it's treasure so that the settlers are safe? Or do they negotiate peace between them? Or perhaps help protect the forest from urban encroachment?

All of that is political…

 

[Charlaquin]

someday I would love someone one to do a deep dive into all the settings and what is and isn't poltical... but here isn't the right place and now is not the right time

I mean, just going through and labeling everything as “political” or “not political” would be easy because everything is political. Unpacking what political messaging is contained in those materials, especially the ones that didn’t set out with the explicit intention of communicating a specific political message would be much more involved, and fascinating.

 

[Azzy]

I've never gone out of my way to be political with D&D but I suppose being inclusive and having bad guys that profit from the harm of others, that are oppressors, or terrorists is intrinsically political.

Now, Cyberpunk, on the other hand.... let slip the dogs of war, so to speak, and bring on that social and political commentary.

 

[HammerMan]

Certainly. Doesn’t mean they aren’t communicating a political message or revealing something about their political position in the process of trying not to do so though.

Do you think it’s possible for a someone (not you just someone maybe a profiler) to read just our discussions on orcs Thac0 edition wars and the like and make a good guess as to how we vote? If so how good do you think they would have to be to get it right more then 66% of the time?

 

[HammerMan]

Now, Cyberpunk, on the other hand.... let slip the dogs of war, so to speak, and bring on that social and political commentary.

I promise no one could play shadow run or vampire the masquerade with me for more then a week or two and NOT know who I was voteing for.

 

[Shiroiken]

And if those adventures don't exist, should they? Do you want your games to have a political slant?

Ugh. I feel too many people keep trying to bring real world politics into D&D enough as it is. Obviously if there's a market for it, the product should exist, but it's definitely not for me. The only kind of politics I care about in D&D are those that make sense in-world.

 

[Charlaquin]

Do you think it’s possible for a someone (not you just someone maybe a profiler) to read just our discussions on orcs Thac0 edition wars and the like and make a good guess as to how we vote? If so how good do you think they would have to be to get it right more then 66% of the time?

I doubt that anyone could do that with any reasonable degree of accuracy. Maybe if you narrow it down to a very specific policy issue, but in general I think it’s too complex a subject to be able to accurately predict based on opinions about pretend elf games.