D&D General Modules with a political message?

[Charlaquin]

Actually, people say this or that is/isn't political all the time.

Some people do, and those people are incorrect when they identify things as “not political.”

 

[Dire Bare]

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

Guess @Charlaquin is scary. Me also.

Let's not insult other posters here, please and thank-you.

 

[Celebrim]

Guess @Charlaquin is scary. Me also.

Let's not insult other posters here, please and thank-you.

“Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

 

[Charlaquin]

I am unaware that Brooklyn-99 for example got review bombed despite one of the main characters, or at least important side character, being a gay african american. Because in my opinion B99 does inclusion right. Its not hidden, but (apart from a few episodes in later seasons) him being gay is not the defining trait of this character. Its just something he is and no special attention is paid to it.

No special attention is paid to it? Half the jokes in the show are about it!

 

[billd91]

“Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

Politics isn't just about the state and state power. It may also be between groups in society.

 

[SteveC]

I have been very fortunate to meet and play with some of the best designers in gaming, and they tend to be very smart people. I haven't met a single one of them that I would want to discuss politics with. It's just something that the gaming community doesn't have a strong overlap with.

I've also been fortunate enough to meet and interact with some of the most successful politicians in America, of all political stripes. It is surprising how many of the younger ones appreciate nerd culture. Even so, I would similarly not be interested in what they had to say about games and gaming. I think the two fields attract people with perhaps the opposite skills.

If your game or adventure puts politics front and center, I'm 99% likely to be completely disinterested in it.

 

[Blue Orange]

I've also been fortunate enough to meet and interact with some of the most successful politicians in America, of all political stripes. It is surprising how many of the younger ones appreciate nerd culture. Even so, I would similarly not be interested in what they had to say about games and gaming. I think the two fields attract people with perhaps the opposite skills.

It's more common than you think, and not only on the left. The last thing you ever want to reveal as a politician is a niche interest, but I remember Ted Cruz (of all people) having a number of Star Wars-themed campaign ads and quizzing Gorsuch about the Hitchhiker's Guide during his confirmation hearing.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Though it's got me thinking - has anyone here ever played, in good faith and not in an 'evil PC' game, a PC with political convictions and ideals completely opposite to theirs? How did it go?

This is such a great question it should be its own thread with the stories that would arise from such roleplaying experiences.

 

[Ixal]

I doubt many players are monarchists in real life...

 

[Blue Orange]

All art is political.

I wouldn't go that far (unless you take the position that the artist's view doesn't matter, which some people do), but there are cases where there's more than we think, particularly where the politics have been lost to time. Michelangelo's David, for instance, was an anti-Medici piece, and Dante's Inferno is full of the local struggles between the Guelphs (pro-pope) and Ghibellines (pro-emperor) and then black (pro-landed nobility, still supporting the pope) and white (pro-merchant, now anti-pope) Guelphs.

(Notice you have religion, business, and landed gentry, all considered conservative forces now, on different sides. The further back you go, the less the sides line up the way we're used to.)