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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8253910" data-attributes="member: 59082">Nice response - and I don't think we're that far apart. I think the main point of difference is that I don't see a problem with depicting, say, Dark Sun-style slaves. I'm not saying that someone won't find it problematic, but someone will find almost anything problematic. And then, where to draw the line? I mean, D&D is a game in which violence is a central component and could be seen as advocating the view that violence is a good way to solve conflict. Should violence be removed? Of course not. D&D is a game of make-believe, and set in worlds in which violence is, indeed, a major aspect of daily life - or at least the life of an adventurer!Again, it isn't a statement of advocacy for anything in particular, except perhaps that "slavery is bad." But it is also a matter of the context of the fantasy world itself, the set-up. So I think the question is not (or should not be) whether depicting slavery in a fantasy world is problematic--it isn't, no more so than depicting any number of other things that aren't nice--but whether or not, as you say, WotC wants to publish things with more mature themes. But they already do. The books are filled with stuff that a younger child might find scary or at least has not been exposed to before. A point of clarification: by "mature" I don't mean Book of Vile Darkness or Erotic Fantasy. I'm just talking about stuff that is mostly already in D&D, that is beyond the typical "PG" fare. And I do, of course, realize that there are different ranges of response - of what is and is not problematic. Actually, that's part of my point. I just think that WotC needs to find a middle-ground between extreme views on either side, and one way to do that is double-down on the idea that "fantasy is fantasy," and ideas explored in settings like Dark Sun aren't statements of advocacy for such things as slavery and cannibalism. I mean, it kind of should go without saying. p.s. No need to apologize for maundering, aka geeking out on interesting topics! And hey, you just taught me a new word (I thought you mispelled meandering).</blockquote>

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