Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
"Red Orc" American Indians and "Yellow Orc" Mongolians in D&D
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Levistus's_Leviathan" data-source="post: 8506231" data-attributes="member: 7023887"><p>That's the thing. <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PerfectSolutionFallacy" target="_blank">There is not perfect solution</a>. There is no end to this, because fantasy and other fictional works will always be tainted by our internal biases, and many of our internal biases are based off of racism, ableism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, and other types of bigotry. No one is asking for future writers to be perfect or keep their internal biases away from fantasy, because, frankly, that's impossible to do. Perfection is the enemy of progress. </p><p></p><p>We will never get rid of every problematic part of D&D, because humans cannot be perfect. However, that isn't an argument against progress, it's one for it. If we aren't vigilant and meticulously scrutinizing D&D products, we're willfully ignorant of the stereotypes that may be perpetuated by the products. </p><p></p><p>And the answer is different for every scenario. Some of the time, it's better to just abandon the setting if it has so many problems built into its core (Mystara probably falls into this category, and I would even argue that certain parts of the Forgotten Realms do, like Maztica). Sometimes it's better to just ignore that part of a setting when republishing it (like Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft abandoning the Caliban) and publish the product with no mention to it. A lot of the time it's fine to just make minute changes to how certain parts of the product, typically by just removing language or even artwork that is problematic (how the Vistani are described in various Ravenloft products, how the Chultans are described in Tomb of Annihilation, etc). Sometimes you have to retcon something out of existence and replace it with something else (Hexblood kind-of replace Caliban in Ravenloft, but not really). The solution depends on the context. There is no perfect "one-size-fits-all" solution here. Sensitivity readers and cultural consultants are probably needed to fix most of these issues, and even they won't perfectly fix the problem (because nothing will). </p><p></p><p>A lot of the time, I would be fine with just straight-up ignoring some parts of past settings that could get translated to D&D 5e if they're not that big of a part of the setting (Caliban from Ravenloft, Gully Dwarves from Dragonlance). Sometimes they're such a big part of the setting that it might be better fully abandoning the setting or completely replacing that part of the setting with something entirely different. Sometimes it's fine to keep that part of the setting, but still dialing back the problematic parts of it (I'd probably argue that most of the issues with certain cultures/races in Eberron and Exandria could fairly easily do this). </p><p></p><p>Context is everything. The answer depends on the context. I don't know what answer you wanted, but I hope this one suffices.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Levistus's_Leviathan, post: 8506231, member: 7023887"] That's the thing. [URL='https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PerfectSolutionFallacy']There is not perfect solution[/URL]. There is no end to this, because fantasy and other fictional works will always be tainted by our internal biases, and many of our internal biases are based off of racism, ableism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, and other types of bigotry. No one is asking for future writers to be perfect or keep their internal biases away from fantasy, because, frankly, that's impossible to do. Perfection is the enemy of progress. We will never get rid of every problematic part of D&D, because humans cannot be perfect. However, that isn't an argument against progress, it's one for it. If we aren't vigilant and meticulously scrutinizing D&D products, we're willfully ignorant of the stereotypes that may be perpetuated by the products. And the answer is different for every scenario. Some of the time, it's better to just abandon the setting if it has so many problems built into its core (Mystara probably falls into this category, and I would even argue that certain parts of the Forgotten Realms do, like Maztica). Sometimes it's better to just ignore that part of a setting when republishing it (like Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft abandoning the Caliban) and publish the product with no mention to it. A lot of the time it's fine to just make minute changes to how certain parts of the product, typically by just removing language or even artwork that is problematic (how the Vistani are described in various Ravenloft products, how the Chultans are described in Tomb of Annihilation, etc). Sometimes you have to retcon something out of existence and replace it with something else (Hexblood kind-of replace Caliban in Ravenloft, but not really). The solution depends on the context. There is no perfect "one-size-fits-all" solution here. Sensitivity readers and cultural consultants are probably needed to fix most of these issues, and even they won't perfectly fix the problem (because nothing will). A lot of the time, I would be fine with just straight-up ignoring some parts of past settings that could get translated to D&D 5e if they're not that big of a part of the setting (Caliban from Ravenloft, Gully Dwarves from Dragonlance). Sometimes they're such a big part of the setting that it might be better fully abandoning the setting or completely replacing that part of the setting with something entirely different. Sometimes it's fine to keep that part of the setting, but still dialing back the problematic parts of it (I'd probably argue that most of the issues with certain cultures/races in Eberron and Exandria could fairly easily do this). Context is everything. The answer depends on the context. I don't know what answer you wanted, but I hope this one suffices. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
"Red Orc" American Indians and "Yellow Orc" Mongolians in D&D
Top