D&D 5E (2014) Spelljammer Errata

[Dire Bare]

Wouldn't that be Cynthia Williams?

Winnegar is head of the D&D studio, Williams is head of WotC overall. I would assume Winnegar would be the point man for new hires for the D&D team, but I don't work there, and of course . . . it's a team effort.

 

[darjr]

I surmise that Cynthia Williams will probably be involved.

 

[Faolyn]

You think 99% of tables are wholly rewriting the lore of races? Based on what?

I think it's more that a very large number of tables--I am not going to say 99%, but a lot--don't really care about the written origins. Not that they're rewriting the lore, but aren't even bothering with it in the first place. It's honestly not important for most games, unless those games are going to deal with some seriously cosmic or mythic elements.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Technically, there's nothing wrong with it. They make for good villains. If I were running a Spelljammer game, I'd probably use them. But in the modern political climate, it's not a great idea to include them, especially since elves are still viewed as Always Good. Not unless they spent a couple of pages talking about how and why this particular group of fascist elves was evil and destructive, and sadly, 5e Spelljammer is practically lore-free. (I know you don't like 5e Ravenloft, but at least it had lore to dislike.)

It did at least have lore to dislike.

If the current political climate has hamstrung WotC to this degree (especially if they can't seem to navigate these waters adriotly) then that's even more reason for me to cut them loose. If they aren't allowed to use space nazis because they look like people who are generally thought of as "good guys", then creativity has been curtailed farther than I'm comfortable with.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Part of the problem is having a playable people be Nazis. It can be seen as ambiguity toward whether racial purity ideology is evil or not.

Its a culture, not a race. I thought that's what we were pushing for here, to separate those things.

 

[MNblockhead]

Maybe they had budget constraints because of the new format and increased amount of art in these books?

I can't imagine that having someone read over the material for potentially problematic content would be that expensive.

The thing I would struggle with is whether one person is really enough? I know in terms of building up excitement for a release and protecting your IP, you can't really crowd source it. Also, as they are printing books, they can't really take a software-always-beta approach and release and apologize and correct in DDB. The offensive material will always be in the first run of print books and it likely isn't financially feasible to reprint and let people offended by the first printing swap for the new printing.

My wife works in a government job that has had a lot of DEI training from both internal and external trainers. Some of them may be great with some issues and communities but completely tone death with others. That's not knock against well meaning and otherwise well designed trainings, just that we all have our blind sides.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

From what I have seen, most players would have preferred to have had a more mechanically robust ship-to-ship combat system or ship building system than lore dumps for each of the new species. Heck, use the space saved on the lore for all the new races to include an extra race or some more Spelljammer related magic items or spells or even a new subclass.

 

[MNblockhead]

It does strike me that, after 8 years, every accidental problematic themes controversy in 5Ehas involved the same editor/writer...

I feel like I should now who you are referring to, but I guess I don't follow the news as much as I thought I did. Who are your referring to?

EDIT: Never Mind. I have a bad habit of replying to posts in long threads that I haven't read through.

 

[Faolyn]

You don't read much fantasy beside D&D, do you?
The haughty elf who looks down on all others is not exactly uncommon. Also Drow.

I've read almost no D&D books ever. Like, maybe five or six novels over the past thirty years.

Also, haughty isn't the same as fascist. In fact, there's a tremendous difference between the two. And within D&D, elves are considered to be a Good race--capital G, alignment-style, in just about every monster block for them, in every edition--despite being "haughty."

 

[Malmuria]

I posted this in a different thread, but I deleted it there and am posting it here, as it is more relevant to the conversation here

I saw a something on twitter today and was rather taken aback:


This is just an astonishing take. For all the petty disagreements that take place in fan communities, wotc and 5e is not lacking for praise. There is a constant, months-long stream of hype around every release, and when a book is released, there are gushing reviews from journalistic outlets that at most point out a couple of minor disagreements. Almost every 5e book on amazon as between a 4 and 5 star rating. People spend hundreds of dollars a year on wotc products. Entire fan communities exist not just around 5e as a whole, but around particular adventure modules, sharing advice and making content, sometimes for the dms guild but often for free. Actual plays rush to play the new adventures, because that's what people want to watch. For Abadia to describe the inclusion of racism in the game as 'mistakes were made but the designers are well intentioned' is almost sycophantic. Simultaneously praising Wotc for supposed diverse hires and using Radiant Citadel to deflect criticism suggests an inability to see the forest for the trees

That being said...

I don't think Perkins (or anyone on the team) is racist... I don't know them. HOWEVER, if there was a petition to fire everyone and start over I would seriously think about signing it. Because if it was on purpose, or by accident, this is happening too much.

I am MUCH more willing to assign incompetence and error over malice and prejudice.

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. For example this paragraph from an article several years back stuck with me as speaking to both how well-intentioned the designers are and how that alone does not produce good results:

Why has Chult changed over the last two decades? When I asked Perkins, he said that “We didn’t want to create a city that felt backward...It’s a tale of Chultans reclaiming their own city and land and redefining who they are and moving way from the idea of warring tribes to a more business-minded culture.” Perkins explained that the D&D team made a great effort not to depict the Chultans in a regressive way, but added that “The land that they live in is a savage land. That’s just part of what Chult is. It’s a place of monsters. It was our intention to show the Chultans have not only survived it, but have risen above it—that they have dispelled the warring tribal nature that previously defined them and are now actually thriving.” When I asked, Perkins said that no black writers or consultants worked on Tomb of Annihilation.

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.