D&D 5E Spelljammer Errata

[MNblockhead]

This is what Perkins chose to say to a games journalist for a story on representation in ToA. He is trying to express a different vision for what Chuult could be, but defaults to using loaded language to describe it. The fact that he didn't bother to hire a consultant to help is the cherry on top.

Does he have the ability to hire a consultant?

If he has the budget and authority to do so, and didn't...well, that's not good.

Either way, this is something WotC execs need to take care off at the company level. All of these controversies are nothing compared to the storms they'll need to navigate with their movie and video game properties. Even for the game, as they invest into pushing the game into more markets in more companies and translating it into more language, especially outside of western countries, they need to get on top of this.

 

[Alzrius]

It was in the earning call transcript. You can find it there : Hasbro, Inc.'s (HAS) CEO Chris Cocks on Q2 2022 Results - Earnings Call Transcript (though checking, it seems that their stat is based on D&D beyond customers, not book sales).

Thanks for that, though it also looks like it's the U.S. and Canada, rather than all of North America.

 

[Ixal]

I think people from "outside of the US" simply don't readas much D&D materials. With a market so US/Canada centric, if they published something offensive to Bavarians, they MIGHT have complains coming from US-based readers who identify themselves to Bavarians, but very few complaints from Bavaria, where most people are outside of the D&D market in the first place. And probably playing Das Schwarze Auge.

Yet that is the point. The complains are not coming from foreign cultures (Bavarians in this case) but from the US market itself (Americans identifying as Bavarians).
And in this case no amount of Bavarian sensitivity readers would help. Instead WotC would need US sensitivity reader. And its kinda strange that you need sensitivity reader on your own market but are fine in foreign markets.
So in this case WotC would not need to hire Bavarians, but Americans to catch the issue about Bavaria.

 

[EpicureanDM]

Agreed. I don't think anybody currently on the D&D team needs to lose their jobs. They need more help, a bigger team. WotC needs to hire additional support, folks who aren't Euro-American and who have some level of expertise in sensitivity editing and cultural issues. And then the D&D team needs to listen to those folks, which is a problem they've had in the past . . .

In all probably the designers are well intentioned. That's what makes racism so insidious, and why a more diverse team, with different experiences and expertise in different media, would be really helpful.

These are growing pains many companies have go through as the expand into increasingly diverse marketplaces. D&D is a big brand now. And an increasingly global one.

It must be great to work as a designer at WotC knowing that it will shield you from personal responsibility for your mistakes with anodyne press releases about how "we" naughty word up. And your fans will give you, the designer, the benefit of the doubt on judgments that would ruin any other TRPG designers career.

I'm curious as to how their recent design/writing hires aren't diverse. They've been women, Southeast Asian, Southwest Asian.

Lots of hires below the level of Crawford, Perkins, and Winniger have been diverse. But those three guys have been in charge for a while (a long while in the case of Crawford and Perkins) and the problems keep happening.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Elves got several pages in the original campaign setting. I think they were aiming for Victorian Age British Colonial Empire and not zealous Nazis, but it still wasn't a good look overall.

And there was this zinger in the original Hadozee entry from the 2E MC:

Sounds very French and Indian War to me from the British view of the Natives who were on their side.

 

[JEB]

If you want older settings to be retired . . . why not just pretend that they have? Think of each and every update to them as an entirely new setting. Ignore their existence just like you would for a new setting that doesn't interest you (like Strixhaven, I'm assuming).

Funny, I'm pretty sure "ignore the reboot" is the exact opposite response Wizards of the Coast - or any other entertainment company - wants veteran fans to have to a rebooted IP. But it's certainly less stress than expecting otherwise from Wizards, especially when their intent going forward is pretty clear.

 

[bedir than]

Lots of hires below the level of Crawford, Perkins, and Winniger have been diverse. But those three guys have been in charge for a while (a long while in the case of Crawford and Perkins) and the problems keep happening.

The claim was that the new hires were "supposedly diverse."

 

[MNblockhead]

I know they probably won't do this because of IP protection concerns, but if they playtested the lore they planned to use as well as mechanics, a lot of these issues could be avoided. Professional sensitivity readers will pick up on a lot of issues, but having the Twitter engaged playerbase look through the lore will pick up on even more red flags and offers a level of plausible deniability later: "100,000 people downloaded that UA pdf and no one had an issue with it" is a better defense than "we sent our staff to a one day cultural diversity course."

One way they could do this would be to do early releases on D&D Beyond, before they send the books to the printer. But that would outrage a significant percentage of the fan base and would likely affect book sales if you had to wait months for the physical books after the material is available on DDB.

Focus groups can get expensive, but that is what most large companies do to test marketing material, movies before release, etc. I believe WotC already has a system and network in place for private playtesting. Perhaps involving finding a way to work more diverse and sensitivy-trained teams into the playtesting would help.

 

[EpicureanDM]

The claim was that the new hires were "supposedly diverse."

And I agree with your claim. The new hires have been largely diverse.

 

[EpicureanDM]

Yes. That Ray Winnegar. Who else? @Alzrius suggested Winnegar's boss, Cynthia Williams. She should definitely be concerned and involved.

Who else, indeed? That's my point.