D&D 5E What’s So Great About Medieval Europe?

[Son of the Serpent]

That actually sounds awesome.

Agreed. A lot of cultures have really cool ancestral home building.

 

[Tonguez]

Americans are destroying their history and culture one statue at all time. Of course I'm Canadian, so I have no cultural connection to any of that stuff.

but those golden arches are everywhere
um, that is the American culture you were refering to wasnt it?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That is an oversimplification, but I don't wish to derail the thread by making it about that.

I’m glad to avoid derailing this thread that I wanted to be about cultural inspirations for D&D games And fantasy in general, yeah.

But please, don’t tell the American that you understand what’s happening in my culture better than I do. You do not. Those statues coming down is not destroying any culture, and my description of their history is at worst a mild simplification. There were multiple waves of building. The first one started around when the KKK did, and for the same reasons.

 

[Argyle King]

Honestly, I can tell you as a black man who lives in D/FW that people who HAVE seen “that kind of thing“ can get still get antsy. Violent, even. Just because a sight is familiar doesn’t make it welcome or comforting.

See also racism, xenophobia and other forms of profound distrust.

And that’s without actually having claws & fangs.

How many bipedal reptilian races are there in D&D? Do you think the average peasant can tell the difference just by looking? (Before you answer, consider how many Sikhs have been targeted by anti-Muslim attackers.)

Bigotry isn’t universal. It doesn’t have to be. Wrong place, wrong time is enough to cause a problem.

While traveling to different areas of the US, there have been noticeable differences concerning what happens when I have been pulled over by law enforcement officials versus how things go when a girlfriend of mine has been pulled over by law enforcement officials. In one instance, it was late at night and I had my passenger seat pushed back, to get some rest while she drove. There was a drastic difference in how they spoke to her before noticing that I was in the vehicle and how they spoke to her after they noticed I was in the vehicle.

I imagine that such situations might arise more often in a world were physical differences are more pronounced than superficial features. (Mages might also face scrutiny, and this idea is explored in comic books in terms of whether or not mutants and supers should be regulated.)

Whether or not that is included in a game is dependent upon the situation that people interacting with the game want. In some cases, it may be that a group plays a game for escapism and wants to get away from real-world concerns of that nature. In other cases, it may be that a group finds value in touches of reality and exploring real-world concepts through the lens of play and fantasy.

I'm not quite sure how someone writing a product or a setting should approach that split.

 

[Morrus]

While I realize every thread seems to eventually descend into being about US politics, this thread is NOT about US politics.

 

[Zardnaar]

While traveling to different areas of the US, there have been noticeable differences concerning what happens when I have been pulled over by law enforcement officials versus how things go when a girlfriend of mine has been pulled over by law enforcement officials. In one instance, it was late at night and I had my passenger seat pushed back, to get some rest while she drove. There was a drastic difference in how they spoke to her before noticing that I was in the vehicle and how they spoke to her after they noticed I was in the vehicle.

I imagine that such situations might arise more often in a world were physical differences are more pronounced than superficial features. (Mages might also face scrutiny, and this idea is explored in comic books in terms of whether or not mutants and supers should be regulated.)

Whether or not that is included in a game is dependent upon the situation that people interacting with the game want. In some cases, it may be that a group plays a game for escapism and wants to get away from real-world concerns of that nature. In other cases, it may be that a group finds value in touches of reality and exploring real-world concepts through the lens of play and fantasy.

I'm not quite sure how someone writing a product or a setting should approach that split.

My theory is it depends on what the setting is trying to achieve.

Drizzt in his early days is a good example of it in FR, Greyhawk probably not as open as FR.

Midgard some areas the non humans are seem as blessed by the gods. In some cases it's literally true.

I'm not going full holocaust in my home games but some areas are run buy military orders with attitudes like the Suel in Greyhawk.

Freedom of religion doesn't exist and non humans gonna have a tough time. A non human diplomat can visit the more exotic looking the worse it gets but the inquisition will deal with any locally. They don't do death camps but move along is heavily encouraged backed by militant order.

LN type state but the inquisition has been subverted by devil's.

I give the players the choice though as I ask them how gritty they want it. They usually pick somewhere in the middle which is usually nicer than RL otherwise I'll run the game as us if I'm using a setting (currently Midgard pre lockdown).

Homebrew Elves not to popular but they're Imperialists and recently ruled everything.

 

[Voadam]

Can you give some examples of where this has happened in rpg's? I'm genuinely at a loss for where this has taken place... And remember it's not about using the cultures it's about how they are used and presented.

Plenty of people argue it is about using culture and not limited to how they are presented.

For instance there are those who say the Cleveland Indians baseball team is problematic because of using Native Americans as the brand in general at all for a non-Native American context, which is different than saying it is problematic because the official logo until 2018 was a racist red-faced caricature of Native Americans.

Earlier in this thread there was the assertion:

As a general rule, you shouldn't produce content for public consumption based on the culture of a people you do not belong to, with the exception of making product based on the majority culture.

 

[Imaro]

It's a safe bet the majority of people in any given country has no knowledge about their heritage that goes much deeper than the general popculture version of it.

Plenty of people argue it is about using culture and not limited to how they are presented.

For instance there are those who say the Cleveland Indians baseball team is problematic because of using Native Americans as the brand in general at all for a non-Native American context, which is different than saying it is problematic because the official logo until 2018 was a racist red-faced caricature of Native Americans.

Earlier in this thread there was the assertion:

I dont think this is answering the question I was asking...

 

[Voadam]

I dont think this is answering the question I was asking...

You are correct I was not answering your question.

I was commenting on your "its not about using culture" statement.

 

[Imaro]

You are correct I was not answering your question.

I was commenting on your "its not about using culture" statement.

I think your example is still about how it's being used...