Shadowrun War! "Arbeit Macht Frei!"

[El Mahdi]

One would be forced to assume that you are similarly boycotting Steve Jackson Games, Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, and at least a dozen other companies.

Unless, of course, you're just being obtusely selective in your "outrage".

WotC? Yes, but not for the reason we're talking about. Can you name or point out where WotC has done something similar?

As for Steve Jackson games and White Wolf, I've never bought any of their products anyways. Not boycotting, just not interested.

As for other games, if I was aware of similar behavior from them, then the answer would be Yes, I would not buy their products on principle. And I'd be vocal in saying so. Erosion of values typically takes place in small increments, not large chunks. And all it takes for evil to triumph, is for good men to remain silent.

Concerning movies, if a movie is protraying such stuff for pure entertainment value, I either won't watch it, or I would walk away from it upon realizing this.

Movies that show this in a respectful, honest manner (for example Schindler's List), I have no problem with.

As with any person, I'm not perfect. I do make mistakes, miss things, and like all people have some level of inconsistency in my value judgements...just as I'm sure you do also. But selectively obtuse? No, I don't think so. And I never said I was "Outraged". Offended? Yes. Find it distasteful? Yes Wouldn't buy it or anything else from this company because of it? Yes. Outraged? No.

I've seen too much like this, by this point in my life, to be outraged by this anymore.

Now WotC and their pdf's...that's worthy of "Outrage"...

 

[Imperialus]

I appreciate and accept your assessment of the author. It sounds like a very rational depiction of how this text came about. But, what about the editor(s)? What about the other people he works with that probably proof-read it, or even collaborated with? Shouldn't they have known better? Shouldn't a voice of reason, at some point in the process, seen this as misguided and corrected it before publication?

Shadowrun's dev. process has been a bit of a gong show recently. CGL is dealing with a whole new stable of freelancers and trying to co-ordinate between the lot of them. I only recognize one of the authors names from the author credits for example.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

This wasn't in mod-red, and it hits one of my triggers, so I'm commenting. If you want to delete it, Piratecat, please feel free to do so with no explanation needed.

I'm not nuts about ignorant, even if not intended as an insult

The problem with stigmatizing "ignorant" as an insult is that it makes all of us that much less likely to admit when we're actually ignorant about something. And then, since we can't even bring ourselves to admit it, we don't correct it.

There is nothing wrong with ignorance, in and of itself. In fact, the word "ignorant" actually implies a correctable condition. ("Willful ignorance" is when things get bad, and it's what I use (among many stronger words and phrases) when I'm on my way to getting pissed off and insulting.)

This is a case where having read SR4 is essential to having an informed discussion about the topic at hand.

Well, sure, but who needs to be "informed" to be "offended"?

 

[Imperialus]

Well, sure, but who needs to be "informed" to be "offended"?

Because like I said before, uniformed and offended has worked so well for RPG's in the past.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Indeed, to each there own. Just for example -I myself am a black man. I am very much aware of the suffering of American slaves, and the mistreatment of African Americans who (though against there will) were made critical asset that built America, and of their own free will fought in almost every war America has ever been in.

What if instead, there was a plantation adventure hook where you had to combat the ghosts or skeletal undead of American slaves that had been killed by the KKK and recover a Klan artifact?

I honestly dont entirely know, but offhand it sounds like (depending how it played out) could make an interesting Call of Cthulhu adventure. One thing I can say it would illustrate, is that idea that the evil mortal men do lives long after them. Honestly, I think (good) adventurers at least would try to destroy the artifact or relic if that would put the dead at ease. In a magical version of our own world, I could definitely see the relic being sought by Awakened characters of either ideology, Neo-Nazi or Klanners, and I (as any PC I have ever played) do not think I would want them to have that.

Exactly. It's not the subject matter, it's the handling: "treasure trove" is really the wrong way to go here.

After all, consider Mel Brooks' The Producers: a comedy about 2 crooked Broadway producers who figure out how to get rich producing an absolute stinker, and choose as their piece "Springtime For Hitler." It is absolutely hilarious, and Brooks considers it one of his greatest moments in comedy because he ("a nice Jewish boy") got the world to laugh at Adolph Hitler.




(P.S.: Nice to see another black gamer on the boards!)