NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8021898" data-attributes="member: 59082">Thanks, although I'm not sure it was as much a "realization" as the simple fact that I generally embrace change as a general rule - if that change improves and broadens the game. As you know, I don't agree with the interpretation that orcs are inherently problematic and invoke racism, but I also like playing with the core archetype and have always customized creatures and races to fit whatever campaign ideas come to me (for instance, there are non-evil orcs in my campaign setting). So change has always been part of my creative process.What I did realize in the course of this conversation is that there are minor changes that can be made that broaden the game, appease those who want change, and preserve traditional D&D tropes within a wider range of possibilities. That was the impetus behind this thread. Maybe that's what you're picking up on.I still think, though, that doubling down on orcs invoking racism actually perpetuates the problem. It is not inherently problematic to create a monstrous race that is "brutal, savage and evil," especially when they are depicted in a variety of ways that don't have clear connections to a specific race (e.g. I've always related them more to Northern European or Slavic "barbarians" than any other real-world ethnic group).I am less concerned about preserving specific aspects of D&D tradition, and more the idea that "Fantasy Land" remains a free and open tableau to play with imaginary ideas, without interpreting everything through the lens of critical and/or cultural theory. See, for instance, <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/writers-blocked" target="_blank">this article</a> that discusses the kerfuffle around young adult author Amelie Wen Zhao's "cultural appropriation" of "Black narratives." So I have always been arguing from a position of wanting to preserve the tradition of make-believe - of myth-making, story-telling, and the free use of imagination. In this context, D&D. So let's make changes (not that we here have any say in the matter ;-), but let's do so carefully, and with an idea of broadening the possibilities of the game, not limiting them so that there is an ever-decreasing range of what is deemed appropriate to depict.</blockquote>

Verification