Representation in Freeport and How Far We've Come

[Obryn]

This has minor spoilers (mostly descriptions) for an adventure so old it'd be entering college this year.

So after wrapping up our delightful 4e Zeitgeist campaign at Level 30, we were all in for something more down to earth and slightly different. I'm running the recently-released Shadow of the Demon Lord conversion for the classic Freeport series. (Shadow of the Demon Lord is fantastic, by the by - I am loving it so far.)

Anyway! When preparing the first adventure, Death in Freeport, I was about 2/3 of the way through the adventure when I realized ... there's not a single named female NPC. Not a one. Not the missing librarian, his priest friend, the high priest, the assistant, the vicious pirate, the mercenaries, etc. Everyone's basically just a weird, bland dude. I looked through the next two and it seems like there's at least one or two in the next few adventures - but in this first one? Germany doesn't have sausage fests this big.

A few things struck me about this.

(1) Wow, was it noticeable. But I don't remember ever hearing mention of it back in 2000 when it was released for 3e.
(2) I don't think this would have slipped by a publisher today, in 2017, except for the purposes of faithfully converting an old adventure. So we're not all the way there, but man, we've made some progress in the past decade and a half, you know?

At any rate, I'm going through Death in Freeport and making some changes to make the NPCs more vibrant. I didn't go with the immediately obvious switch and make it so the priest and librarian were romantically attached - that seemed kinda cheap. The pirates though? Scarbelly and Aggro? Married, mean, orc ladies - my players met them last night and loved them.

If you're familiar with the series, are there any changes you'd make? I'm open to suggestions.

 

[darjr]

Try one thing, put the leftover NPCs in a table and randomly roll which one(s) are women. I read somewhere a well know author sometimes does this and then leaves that characters story alone.

 

[Obryn]

That sounds like a great idea. Thanks - I'll use that for the next adventure.

 

[delericho]

Try one thing, put the leftover NPCs in a table and randomly roll which one(s) are women.

Good shout. Worked for "Alien"...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It also helps to just describe the NPCs very differently, in terms of skin color, hair, other features. A place like Freeport should look like New York, basically. If a race, culture or ethnicity exists in that world, some of its people can be found there.

 

[Obryn]

It also helps to just describe the NPCs very differently, in terms of skin color, hair, other features. A place like Freeport should look like New York, basically. If a race, culture or ethnicity exists in that world, some of its people can be found there.

Yes! That was my thought, too - this is supposed to be a cosmopolitan city, proud of its freedom, where malcontents and rebels of all sorts head off to.

I've been trying! But when push comes to shove and I need a random NPC, all too often it's "Uhm ... he's a goblin!"

 

[pemerton]

If you're familiar with the series, are there any changes you'd make? I'm open to suggestions.

When I ran it (12-15 years ago?) I was adapting it for a high level RM OA campaign so made many changes.

I remember a noblewoman as a prominent NPC - I don't know if she's from the books or if I made her up. Does one of them have a ballroom scene in it? (In our game, the party took place on a boat.)

More prosaically, I think the second and third - especially the third - can benefit from a fair bit of trimming.

 

[Obryn]

When I ran it (12-15 years ago?) I was adapting it for a high level RM OA campaign so made many changes.

I remember a noblewoman as a prominent NPC - I don't know if she's from the books or if I made her up. Does one of them have a ballroom scene in it? (In our game, the party took place on a boat.)

More prosaically, I think the second and third - especially the third - can benefit from a fair bit of trimming.

I am pretty sure there is a ballroom scene but I haven't dug that thoroughly into those.

I am also not sure about trimming too much because the way SotDL works, they are rocketing from 0 to 10 over the course of the campaign, and it already feels like a speed-run!

 

[Dioltach]

Try one thing, put the leftover NPCs in a table and randomly roll which one(s) are women.

Don't forget to adjust their treasure down to 77%.

 

[Lylandra]

I guess most guys wouldn't notice it until someone pointed their finger at it

But coming from Zeitgeist (which is pretty awesome in terms of representation and going against stereotypes), I can see why especially the city of Freeport would stand out.

I don't think having an all-dudes setup is intentional at all. It just happens when you simply write down an adventure without too many second thoughts. I was guilty of this as well, as I often ended up with a 70-80% female NPC quota when I DMed my homebrew adventures due to being a woman. I just started with "my default" and used male NPC when they needed to be male (spouses, love interests, members of all-male factions/races). Someday one of my players told me that there were basically only women in my world and that got me thinking.

And then I realized that my male DMs were prone to the same pattern just that they made every random NPC a dude. We talked about this phenomenon back then and agreed to have an open eye on representation so that our worlds made sense.

As many published modules are written by male authors, you'll most likely see an influx of guys. So I tend to make a list of major and minor NPC and see if I feel the need to switch some of their genders according to their role. I also do this to avoid using too many stereotypes. Another type of NPC I have to include/mention in a background regularly? Mothers. Most of them either simply don't exist or died in childbirth.