D&D General New WOTC racism allegations regarding Hadozee and Spelljammer

[jasper]

Wait, so the issue is that OLD LORE on A FAN WIKI highlighting some of the badly aged material from over a decade ago is somehow modern WotC's fault?

That's EXTREMELY DISENGENOUS of the writer. WotC has acknowledged its old lore is bad and is trying to distance itself from it. We know about Orc/Drow problem. There are REASONS why WotC has a warning label on all legacy products in DM's Guild. Yes, that lore is terrible, but it's not the MODERN lore. I guess you can squint at that bard art, but the rest doesn't reflect the race as it currently presented.

Which to me tells me that the attempts to rehabilitate Drow, Orcs, and other monster races are doomed to fail because the old lore will always be used to smear attempts to course correct. Unless WotC goes all Lorraine Williams and DMCA's every wiki referencing lore from before 2021, I guess.

shhsshh it took them 14 days to find something. But here is the cut and paste from beyond.
The first hadozees were timid mammals no bigger than housecats. Hunted by larger natural predators, the hadozees took to the trees and evolved wing-like flaps that enabled them to glide from branch to branch.

Several hundred years ago, a wizard visited Yazir, the hadozee home world, with a small fleet of spelljamming ships. Under the wizard’s direction, apprentices laid magic traps and captured dozens of hadozees. The wizard fed the captives an experimental elixir that enlarged them and turned them into sapient, bipedal beings. The elixir had the side effect of intensifying the hadozees’ panic response, making them more resilient when harmed. The wizard’s plan was to create an army of enhanced hadozee warriors for sale to the highest bidder. But instead, the wizard’s apprentices grew fond of the hadozees and helped them escape. The apprentices and the hadozees were forced to kill the wizard, after which they fled, taking with them all remaining vials of the wizard’s experimental elixir.

With the help of their liberators, the hadozees returned to their home world and used the elixir to create more of their kind. In time, all hadozee newborns came to possess the traits of the enhanced hadozees. Then, centuries ago, hadozees took to the stars, leaving Yazir’s fearsome predators behind.

In addition to being natural climbers, hadozees have feet that are as dexterous as their hands, even to the extent of having opposable thumbs. Membranes of skin hang loosely from their arms and legs. When stretched taut, these membranes enable hadozees to glide. Hadozees wrap these wings around themselves to keep warm.

 

[Malmuria]

I think we gotten to the bottom of this. Its not from the new book.

But what makes a "minstrel" in this sense is not someone with a lute.

Its someone in blackface.

A race of formerly enslaved simian creatures who now have "enhanced resilience" and whose fantasy portraiture strongly recalls minstrelsy images = fantasy blackface.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Which to me tells me that the attempts to rehabilitate Drow, Orcs, and other monster races are doomed to fail because the old lore will always be used to smear attempts to course correct. Unless WotC goes all Lorraine Williams and DMCA's every wiki referencing lore from before 2021, I guess.

Doomed if having anyone ever stir up controversy on Twitter is considered failure. If that is the goal than all human endeavors are doomed, as it is a platform that exists primarily to stir up daily controversies.

Companies and creators can still work to avoid giving people actual legitimate reasons to be upset, and just ignore the noise (or respond to it truthfully) when the noise is unfair.

 

[ECMO3]

I could be wrong, but I don't think WOTC is going to be upset at all. They may say they have regret, and even publish some errata, but in the end this controversy is going to sell books and that is what they really care about.

FWIW I am not too excited about spelljammer, but this obvious racism would not stop me from buying it or playing the game or even from playing one of these Hazodee.

 

[Parmandur]

A race of formerly enslaved simian creatures who now have "enhanced resilience" and whose fantasy portraiture strongly recalls minstrelsy images = fantasy blackface.

Yeah, it's pretty bad.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

A race of formerly enslaved simian creatures who now have "enhanced resilience" and whose fantasy portraiture strongly recalls minstrelsy images = fantasy blackface.

The prominent barefootedness, while totally appropriate to a monkey race is also very evocative of old-time drawn caricatures of poor African-Americans, once one is looking at it from that perspective.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm not suggesting anything unreasonable, like the moon and stars on a platter. All I ask is that publishing companies--especially game publishers, whose products will straddle the line between toys and books--hire a professional cultural sensitivity consultant to review their drafts before they send them to print. It's easy to tell when this isn't done, and...well, it's not a good look.

 

[Grantypants]

So... what's the next step here? What can WotC do to try and make this right? And what should the rest of us do in response?

 

[renbot]

"These people used to be uncivilized monkeys until an outsider civilized and enslaved them. And then that outsider was killed by his own people, who then freed these enslaved monkey people."

Slavery is a touchy subject. It needs to be approached carefully. This was not that.

No it just needs to not be approached. The game doesn't need slavery. Or rape. "But it's historically accurate." So are lots of terrible things that don't need to be in a fantasy game. D&D isn't a history text. It doesn't need this crap.

And no monkey/ape people. Just don't. How is that ever going to end well? Earth has over 2 million species of animals. This is the only problematic one. Pick a different one. It's not that complicated.

 

[Cadence]

So... what's the next step here? What can WotC do to try and make this right? And what should the rest of us do in response?

An errata giving them a completely new background in the Astral Adventurer's Guide?

And maybe not ever nickname them monkey or ape. (I want to say I always thought they were flying squirrels when Star Frontiers first came out back when).