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<blockquote data-quote="Malmuria" data-source="post: 8338236" data-attributes="member: 7030755">For context if you haven't seen it, here's the <a href="https://pocgamer.com/2021/03/23/what-happened-writing-for-wizards-part-2/" target="_blank">author's description of the changes</a>The mud brick structures is the only technological element mentioned; everything else has to do with their art and culture.&nbsp; Granted, in 2e, Grippli are (problematically) described as having &quot;primitive culture.&quot;&nbsp; Further, the editor took out the villains motivations and reduced them to evil-for-evil sake.&nbsp; Reviews of the book remark on how this is incoherent.In so far as the word primitive is related to technology (in real world usage), it refers specifically to an &quot;earlier stage of development.&quot; In English, it comes into that usage only in the 18th century and most typically as a way for the British to describe indigenous people across the world (previously it just referred to something foundational).&nbsp;&nbsp; That is, it does not simply describe differences between the effectiveness of different technologies for particular tasks, but includes a universalist view of the &quot;progression&quot; of technology in human societies, and it obtained that specific usage in English only when the British needed a vocabulary to talk about the colonies and native peoples.&nbsp; Like I said, mountains of research on this relationship already exist.Even if one takes a reductive view of technological development as universal and progressivist, and even if one disassociates it from its recent and pervasive colonial usage, it has little use for describing a magical fantasy world like the forgotten realms.&nbsp; If anything, the fantasy of FR is a time that is more inherently cyclical than progressive, and as with much fantasy, there are implications that the past was a magical golden age compared to the present.btw, thinking of Ernie Gygax's interview comments followed by his claim that 'everyone is welcome at his table.'&nbsp; That kind of statement becomes really empty, including from wotc, when otherwise marginalized people are told that they are 'bringing race/gender/sexuality/disability' into it&nbsp; and should just stop being so offended by things.&nbsp; It reminds me of the good advice in the original post in this thread:</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Malmuria, post: 8338236, member: 7030755"] For context if you haven't seen it, here's the [URL='https://pocgamer.com/2021/03/23/what-happened-writing-for-wizards-part-2/']author's description of the changes[/URL] The mud brick structures is the only technological element mentioned; everything else has to do with their art and culture. Granted, in 2e, Grippli are (problematically) described as having "primitive culture." Further, the editor took out the villains motivations and reduced them to evil-for-evil sake. Reviews of the book remark on how this is incoherent. In so far as the word [I]primitive[/I] is related to technology (in real world usage), it refers specifically to an "earlier stage of development." In English, it comes into that usage only in the 18th century and most typically as a way for the British to describe indigenous people across the world (previously it just referred to something foundational). That is, it does not simply describe differences between the effectiveness of different technologies for particular tasks, but includes a universalist view of the "progression" of technology in human societies, and it obtained that specific usage in English only when the British needed a vocabulary to talk about the colonies and native peoples. Like I said, mountains of research on this relationship already exist. Even if one takes a reductive view of technological development as universal and progressivist, and even if one disassociates it from its [B]recent[/B] and [B]pervasive [/B]colonial usage, it has little use for describing a magical fantasy world like the forgotten realms. If anything, the fantasy of FR is a time that is more inherently cyclical than progressive, and as with much fantasy, there are implications that the past was a magical golden age compared to the present. btw, thinking of Ernie Gygax's interview comments followed by his claim that 'everyone is welcome at his table.' That kind of statement becomes really empty, including from wotc, when otherwise marginalized people are told that they are 'bringing race/gender/sexuality/disability' into it and should just stop being so offended by things. It reminds me of the good advice in the original post in this thread: [/QUOTE]

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