The Line Between Real Earth & D20 Earth

[Jehosephat]

Over the weekend I purchased the Adventure! d20 System. I must say it's quite good IMO, but that's not why I am posting. I would like to get some opinions without this thread being locked, because it's not my intention of getting things stirred up. But this is something I have been thinking about lately.

As many of you know Adventure! is set in the 1920s (and I suppose 30s if you wanted to set it there). The Plessy v. Ferguson case was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution dealt with political and not social equality. This led to a series of Jim Crow Laws which were in effect until 1954. And of course many here are familiar with Berlin Olympics when Hitler refused to stand when Jesse Owens was awarded the Gold Medal.

So my question is this, in settings that are based on the real world prior to the ERA, do you uphold all the racial standards and issues as per the real world or is your imaginary world a little better place than ours. I have been thinking about this quite a bit lately, after stumbling across the "N" word in one of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. It got me to thinking about these instances and what they would mean to a RPG setting in pre-ERA America. Would you make an African American PC eat in a seperate restaurant or drink from a different drinking fountain than a Caucasian PC. Would you tolerate it if the Caucasian PC called the African American PC a "N"? Of course Jim Crow South is not the only example. There was The Chinese Exclusion Act. The whole Irish Need Not Apply scenario, etc. Was curious what your opinions were?

 

[Ranger REG]

For me, I set some ground rules. While I would try to convey the feel of early American 1930's and 40's, even I would not go so far to use racial slurs that are still hurtful now, and I will not tolerate that from my players as well.

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

Well it all depends on the players. If the players in your group feel comfortable with that in play then go for it. It may give the players(especially any playing a segregated minority at the time) a better sense of what living in that period was like with the jim crow laws in place.

If the players aren't comfortable you should probably change the way things happen in the campaign. You will be playing a more divergent game from real life, but that doesn't mean it cannot be fun. Or perhaps you can have the racism and segregation just be a less important theme, with a few mentions that it is there, but mainly leaving it behind the scenes.

Just talk with your players and see what they want to play, and what would be fun to play.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I think it would depend on the group you were playing with.

I'd be inclined to say yes, keep the attitudes reasonably consistent.

On the other hand, I know that "It's verisimilar!" would not be sufficient justification to prevent some players taking offence, and if you have one or more such in your group, it's likely best to either avoid or modify the setting to make it more palatable to them.

It's similar to someone playing a savage race in a Realms game. "Sure, you can play a troll barbarian... but bear in mind you'll have a lot of problems in civilised lands." If the player is fine with that, great. If not, there are three options. You can modify the setting, so that nobody is particularly concerned about a troll wandering through Arabel. You can ban the race, so the issue never comes up. Or you can let him play the character, have him chased by mobs with flaming torches, and listen to him bitch about how this is no fun (while trying to avoid saying "I warned you!" too often).

-Hyp.

 

[Jehosephat]

For me, I set some ground rules. While I would try to convey the feel of early American 1930's and 40's, even I would not go so far to use racial slurs that are still hurtful now, and I will not tolerate that from my players as well.

Thanks for replying. That makes sense, and I think most GMs would probably handle it that way. It was along those lines I was thinking. Would you also ignore things such as Jim Crow Laws?

 

[Rabelais]

Since it's fantasy...

I would do America d20 as an enlightened realm of Guys and Dames. No Racists need apply... unless of course you're a Nazi collaborator...

 

[Alzrius]

Thanks for replying. That makes sense, and I think most GMs would probably handle it that way. It was along those lines I was thinking. Would you also ignore things such as Jim Crow Laws?

I'd have done the same thing as REG, and have checked the slurs and such at the door when gaming in that era.

That said, things like racism can be used in a campaign, but mostly to portray a villain. A white-supremecist committing a series of murders that the PCs must stop would be a good example. Having the actual laws in place might be used if I wanted to focus on a "justice above the (corrupt) law" theme.

 

[WayneLigon]

So my question is this, in settings that are based on the real world prior to the ERA, do you uphold all the racial standards and issues as per the real world or is your imaginary world a little better place than ours.

It depends on how 'gritty' we want the setting to be. For a rip-roaring heroic pulps game, probably not much. It might be touched on, depending on the PC, or appear as a minor plot point. For Call of Cthulhu then not only might we include all of it, but take it further. It would certainly be a major plot point. Similarly, if we're in Victorian London, things like class and place in society get taken even more seriously.

One of the best games we ever did was a gritty CoC game set in Singapore in the 20's. We were all playing two characters; my primary was an American-born Chinese who was a pharmacy student. He was being sent abroad by the large drug company he worked for to study the feasability of various Asian herbal cures. As the game started in America he experienced quite a bit of racism, certain remarks, etc. The other PC's were a little distant, but we were all thrown together by shared circumstance and such; he became quite a bit more important later on since he was the only member of the party that could move 'unobserved' in Singapore.

The second was a British remitance man (a person paid by his family to stay the hell away from them) who was quickly known simply as 'The Twit'. The Twit was everything Jian was not; loud, boorish, garish, etc; he had only two loves: fine guns and fine horses.

The Twit was a real cad, and after one particularly jolting encounter found that he was in the hospital and had been given blood. He demanded to know who the blood had come from and was horrified to find that it had come from a German imigrant. He ranted and raved on about 'Hun blood' in him for weeks thereafter.

 

[Jehosephat]

I'd have done the same thing as REG, and have checked the slurs and such at the door when gaming in that era.

That said, thins like racism can be used in a campaign, but mostly to portray a villain. A white-supremecist committing a series of murders that the PCs must stop would be a good example.

In terms of racism, as was suggested above, few groups are the epitome of racism as the Nazi's and I think they would be a good 20s & 30s group to use. And they make such good villains in general.

 

[Jehosephat]

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. I have been doing some serious note taking. Also, WayneLigon, thanks for sharing your experience in the CoC game. Does anyone else have experience in an Earth setting where race was an issue?