Solid! The d20 Blaxploitation Experience

[reveal]

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=4284&SRC=EnWorld

Ok.... So I follow the link on the front page and check this thing out. Very, um, interesting. Is anyone actually going to play this? I mean, there are some "good" blaxploitation films out there, "Shaft", "Cleopatra Jones", "Black Caesar", etc but I don't think I could take it seriously enough to play this for more then, say, an hour. Heck, I'd probably start quoting Hollywood Shuffle and start saying things like "What you say, honky sucker pig head jive turkey fool?"

 

[JPL]

Well, it's a niche product, certainly. Me, I don't want to play "Babylon 5"...so I don't. But some folk do, apparently.

Probably any product that deals with race will make somebody out there angry. I haven't read the whole book, but the introductory overview of the blaxploitation genre appears well-written and respectful.

Pretending to be an "angry black man," or a pimp, carries a lot more real-world baggage than pretending to be an elf. The blackploitation genre itself is rooted in issues of race and racial tension, and some gamers might just plain not want to go there. Which is fine.

 

[Turanil]

Heck, I'd probably start quoting Hollywood Shuffle and start saying things like "What you say, honky sucker pig head jive turkey fool?"

I guess this is what this game is supposed to be about? I think that if I had to play a "true" d20 Modern game (that is: one set in contemporary urban world without any kind of FX or sci-fi), I would greatly enjoy doing it Blaxploitation. But maybe not much more than say a dozen gaming sessions.

IMO: typically, this kind of game requires you have a few DVDs of that movie genre, then extract photos from it, and display it using a laptop (or better a video-projector), so players may better visualize the story.

 

[GMSkarka]

I haven't read the whole book, but the introductory overview of the blaxploitation genre appears well-written and respectful.

Apart from referring to Melvin Van Peebles as a "Negro filmmaker", you mean.

 

[SuperFlyTNT]

DY-NO-MITE!!!

This would be a great one shot. I could see it now... "Shaft Generations" Richard Roundtree meets Samuel L Jackson somewhere in nitty gritty neo Tokyo. Hilarity ensues.

 

[reveal]

Apart from referring to Melvin Van Peebles as a "Negro filmmaker", you mean.

I don't believe this is disrespectful at all. I think he's trying to make a point that this is what this "upstart" was looked upon back then. Not just as a filmmaker, but as a Negro filmmaker. Heck, NAACP stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

 

[JPL]

Apart from referring to Melvin Van Peebles as a "Negro filmmaker", you mean.

Van Peebles wrote "The Chinamen of the 14th District" and co-starred in "The Hebrew Hammer," so it may be that he's not real hung up on that sort of thing.

 

[Crothian]

on a slighly related note:

Bell bottomed Badasses on the Mean Streets of Funk is a great card game by z-man games.

 

[GMSkarka]

My point is that "Negro" is an antiquated term and is today considered pejorative.

Van Peebles may not be "hung up on that sort of thing", but I guarantee that they didn't ask him, either. So why use an out-of-date term?

 

[JoeGKushner]

on a slighly related note:

Bell bottomed Badasses on the Mean Streets of Funk is a great card game by z-man games.

and have you added a review of that to RPG.net Cro?