D&D General "Red Orc" American Indians and "Yellow Orc" Mongolians in D&D

[Aldarc]

Do you have a source on that? Because that's almost exactly what happened for much of the native populations.

Source: How smallpox devastated the Aztecs – and helped Spain conquer an American civilization 500 years ago

The devastation of the local populations of the Americas is also what led to the importing of enslaved peoples from West Africa and the rise of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

For example, the popular MMO Guild Wars has its Nightfall campaign, which takes inspiration from a wide array of African cultures in a way that is not offensive in the slightest. In fact, it is quite beautiful. It is like a love song to all the beautiful architecture and traditional clothing, mixed with a savanna and desert climate.

Nightfall was probably the best expansion for Guild Wars 1, while Path of Fire was likewise an absolutely amazing expansion for Guild Wars 2. Elona is probably my favorite region of Tyria in the game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Relevant to this thread I feel the minor moral panic about Ace supposedly being "too violent for kids" was related to fears about race and culture. Specifically Ace was coded in such a way that she was basically a "b-girl" in the 1980s sense, i.e. she had a boombox, hair tightly braided on top of her head, a baseball bat, baggy jacket, etc. (though she's from the future and not from Earth). Hiphop was pretty huge at the time, and there was definitely moral hand-wringing about it (hell I went to breakdancing classes in the late '80s lol). As speaking out about her appearance etc. might have been seen as racist or bordering on it, instead there was moaning about her "violence". Which was pretty funny given the lack of concern about far more violent characters previously. It didn't last, but sadly neither did Doctor Who

It was earlier series that attracted a lot more flack than those. By then Doctor Who was a lot less popular, and therefore attracted less attention. Particularly of note for horror content where series' 12 to 15 (1974-77).

This gave us, amongst others:

The Ark in Space (Alien body horror - Dr Who did it before Ridley Scott)
The Sontaran Experiment (torture)
Genesis of the Daleks (Nazis)
The Seeds of Doom (Dr Who remade The Thing before John Carpenter)
Horror of Fang Rock (no survivors)
Image of the Fendhl (Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn)

Not sure how some of these would go down if made today, really.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It was earlier series that attracted a lot more flack than those. By then Doctor Who was a lot less popular, and therefore attracted less attention. Particularly of note for horror content where series' 12 to 15 (1974-77).

This gave us, amongst others:

The Ark in Space (Alien body horror - Dr Who did it before Ridley Scott)
The Sontaran Experiment (torture)
Genesis of the Daleks (Nazis)
The Seeds of Doom (Dr Who remade The Thing before John Carpenter)
Horror of Fang Rock (no survivors)
Image of the Fendhl (Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn)

Not sure how some of these would go down if made today, really.

God I need to find the channel I can rewatch 1970s Who on. Last time I saw that sort of stuff I was single-digits age, and yeah I do remember it being absolutely terrifying.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

God I need to find the channel I can rewatch 1970s Who on. Last time I saw that sort of stuff I was single-digits age, and yeah I do remember it being absolutely terrifying.

I have most of them on DVD! Obviously the horror is somewhat constrained by the ropey SFX.

 

[Mirtek]

Hi, I'm not happy with how you slipped in something I've never suggested.

You did:

each legacy product which has major "ethnic, racial, or gender prejudice" would be looked at

To find each such legacy product, they have to comb through every legacy product to find all those instances.

 

[Krachek]

5) Besides educating folks through the amendatory DRAGON+ articles, I'd also suggest that a large portion of proceeds of problematic legacy PDFs be perpetually donated to an appropriate charity. In the case of GAZ10, I'd personally suggest the Lakota Waldorf School...they could use the money.

That seem to me as a wicked strategy!
I’m sure you don’t hope that Wotc sell that much Gaz10 pdf, but at the same time you will hope better funding for the school.
Asmodeus could not offer you better deal!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

To find each such legacy product, they have to comb through every legacy product to find all those instances.

He said "major", so nah, not really. You could rely on reader flagging (just set up an email for it or w/e) to get a priority order of which ones people saw as most problematic. It might not be perfect but it would likely be pretty close to accurate.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

He said "major", so nah, not really. You could rely on reader flagging (just set up an email for it or w/e) to get a priority order of which ones people saw as most problematic. It might not be perfect but it would likely be pretty close to accurate.

It could be sabotaged by review booming from anti-woke nutjobs.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

He said "major", so nah, not really. You could rely on reader flagging (just set up an email for it or w/e) to get a priority order of which ones people saw as most problematic. It might not be perfect but it would likely be pretty close to accurate.

There are no, or close to no, non-problematic titles from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

If you can't find something that has racism, you will find something that has sexism. If it's not in the text, it's in the art.

Not to mention that there are no standards for such a thing; I think everyone can agree that GAZ10 is particularly bad. But what about B2 and its invocation of mental illness and issues regarding the possible killing of humanoid women and children? Or the depictions of drow in some artwork? Or the depictions of women in a lot of the art?

That's why they are using the standard disclaimer. Even for this product- its content may be offensive to American Indians, but it also offensive to a lot of other people.

And for a product that isn't exactly a big seller.

I think it is good and proper for people to go back and critique the culture of the past. The OP did some great analysis. But, absent special circumstances, there shouldn't be an ongoing obligation to correct the work of the past. One of the few benefits of the so-called "long tail" commerce method is that we are able to get things that we didn't used to have access to because they are old or out-of-date or don't have much of a market- books, movies, media of all kinds. But the past always is a mirror of the society from which it came from (which I assumed was a "duh" kind of observation, but maybe not?) and if we insist that everything from the past be brought up to current standards, there is a fair amount that just won't be provided any more.

...I'm waiting for the critical eye to be turned to some older 3PP supplements, myself. Obscurity is the sole solving grace.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

There are no, or close to no, problematic titles from the 70s, 80s, and 90s (at a minimum).

I feel like there's a typo in this sentence but I'm not sure what you're trying to say. The "at a minimum" doesn't seem to work with the rest of the sentence though.

Non-problematic instead of problematic maybe? If so I'm not sure that's really true. I think there are probably plenty that accidentally dodge any significant problematic stuff.

But I don't think that's really a problem. I think he said "major", and if you just let people email you or click a button after they've bought something on DM's Guild or w/e, the major offenders would get many times more hits than the other ones, and you could just have someone slowly working through it all.

I'm not sure where "correct" comes in. Acknowledge, though, is helpful. I don't think you need to hit every product. I do think there are ones as bad as this which perhaps deserve more than the disclaimer.

It could be sabotaged by review booming from anti-woke nutjobs.

Meh. All they'd do would be to get the order of approach wrong, and you could quickly dismiss them. You keep a spreadsheet and if they make you look at X book first and it's obviously fine, you check it off and ignore future reports on that unless someone like emails with specifics.