D&D 5E New Drow cultures coming in Starlight Enclave, the Lorendrow and the Aevendrow

[Remathilis]

Yes, getting rid of evil cultures fixes the problem of evil cultures.

Good. Then every culture will be peaceful and work together. We've solved the Forgotten Realms, everyone can go home now.

 

[Remathilis]

Yup. If modern folks can't appreciate D&D anymore, make a new edition that addresses these issues completely and couple it with a setting more in line with those sensibilities. Leave the rest behind.

You know, I'm getting on board with this. Use 5e's mechanics as a starting point, but nuke the multiverse 4e-style and create a whole new setting that aligns to the new paradigm. You could probably clean house on a bunch of redundant races and monsters while your at it.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Good. Then every culture will be peaceful and work together. We've solved the Forgotten Realms, everyone can go home now.

Cultures not being so uniform and lacking in depth that they can be carelessly painted over with a single shade of "good" or "evil" doesn't preclude the possibility of conflicts between different cultures, peoples, and nations.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I'm almost positive one of the early writers who provided the text for Elves, in an old old version of the game or MM or something, essentially said yes, Elves are racist.

I've tried to find it recently, as they went about defending there position throughout the article, only to end with 'and yes, they are racist' or something like that.

I highly doubt that's official canon anymore though.

From the PHB's sidebar regarding elves -- so still canon, since it's the PHB -- :

Haughty but Gracious

Although they can be haughty, elves are generally gracious even to those who fall short of their considerable expectations, which is most non-elves. Still, they can find good in almost anyone.

Dwarves are dull, clumsy oafs, but what they lack in humor, sophistication and manners, they make up in valor and their best smiths produces art that approaches elven quality."

The sidebar is presented as the typical mindset of an elf... that's pretty racist, especially since they feel being gracious for expressing such an opinion on dwarves. While the PBH doesn't write that elves are racist, they propose an example of racism from elves right from third page that mention them... I suppose it won't survive 6e, though.

Cultures not being so uniform and lacking in depth that they can be carelessly painted over with a single shade of "good" or "evil" doesn't preclude the possibility of conflicts between different cultures, peoples, and nations.

It removes the possibility of war, though, because you can't really be a "good" culture and support war of agression or acts so heinous against your own population that they would warrant an agression by your neighbours on a humanitary basis. Unless you're an evil culture -- which isn't the same thing as having all their members evil. If we declare that slavery is evil, all societies before the abolition of slavery were evil, but that doesn't mean that all members of these societes were evil themselves (or the Higher Planes are pretty empty...). In fact, approaching most FR culture with our 21st century moral reference frame will probably warrant them to be painted as evil, despite being more enlightened then ours on a few fronts.

 

[DarkCrisis]

6th Ed is going to be wild. I fully expect a 4th Ed level of difference and would not be surprised if the Critical Role realm is the default

 

[Vaalingrade]

Good. Then every culture will be peaceful and work together. We've solved the Forgotten Realms, everyone can go home now.

Because not having an E in their stat block has prevented all conflict between nations in our world.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

It removes the possibility of war, though, because you can't really be a "good" culture and support war of agression or acts so heinous against your own population that they would warrant an agression by your neighbours on a humanitary basis. Unless you're an evil culture -- which isn't the same thing as having all their members evil. If we declare that slavery is evil, all societies before the abolition of slavery were evil, but that doesn't mean that all members of these societes were evil themselves (or the Higher Planes are pretty empty...). In fact, approaching most FR culture with our 21st century moral reference frame will probably warrant them to be painted as evil, despite being more enlightened then ours on a few fronts.

It's a waste of time to try and categorize entire cultures as "good" or "evil". Every culture has elements of both.

 

[Remathilis]

Because not having an E in their stat block has prevented all conflict between nations in our world.

Oh no, we're not talking about alignment. We can't have "evil" cultures. Slave holding cultures? No. Warmongering cultures? No. Expansionist cultures? Nope. Demon worshipping theocratic cultures? Nada. Farolyn said no evil cultures, so that's that.

I guess you could create a political system set up between rival powers compete over resources in a zero-sum gain situation or conflicts between religions where both sides hold deep conviction or other such "neither side is right or wrong" conflicts. Then again, I've always felt Monopoly would be better if it followed real world economic models as well.

 

[Dire Bare]

Makes you wonder why we're applying 21st century progressive thought to a 20th century game based on mythological archetypes dating back centuries or millennia before that.

That's easy. Because the players live in the 21st century, not an earlier time.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

6th Ed is going to be wild. I fully expect a 4th Ed level of difference and would not be surprised if the Critical Role realm is the default

The new Critical Role setting book, Tal'Dorei Reborn, is being published by their own company, Darrington Press.