What We Lose When We Eliminate Controversial Content

[Alzrius]

Drat.

Ninja'd.

Charles R. Saunders, Out of Africa. Supernatural Creatures from the Dark Continent, in: Dragon 122 (TSR, 1987)

Roger E. Moore, Gaming in the Dark Continent, in: Dragon 122 (TSR, 1987)

Michael John Wybo II, Mythic Races of Africa, in: Dragon 202 (TSR, 1994)

There were a couple others as well. To cut-and-paste from the DragonDex:

Africa:
Armor "Arms & Armor of Africa" Michael J. Varhola 189(20) D&D2
Clerics of "Priests of Africa, The" Michael John Wybo II 209(16) D&D2
Creatures of "Gaming the Dark Continent" Roger E. Moore 122(27) D&D1
"Out of Africa" Charles R. Saunders 122(22) D&D1
Game adaptation "Dark Continent, The" David Howery 189(10) D&D2
Gods and religions "African Genesis, A" Brady English 191(32) D&D2
"Deities of Africa, The" Michael John Wybo II 215(48) D&D2
"Mythos of Africa in Dungeons & Dragons" Jerome Arkenberg 27(39) OD&D
Races, mythic "Mythic Races of Africa" Michael John Wybo II 202(46) D&D2
Warrior kits "Real Warriors Ride Elephants" Michael John Wybo II 195(26) D&D2
Weapons "Arms & Armor of Africa" Michael J. Varhola 189(20) D&D2
Wizard kits "Magic From the Gods" Michael John Wybo II 200(14) D&D2

 

[Scribe]

What's funny is this post - had this forum existed at the time - could be straight from 1991, as a reaction to 2e.

The more things change....

The steady march of progress (??) lol

 

[Lanefan]

To wit, while murder and slavery are both bad, from a standpoint of US history and current culture they are not really equivalent.

As a non-American my first thought here is why should the rest of the world be beholden to US history and current culture?

 

[ilgatto]

There were a couple others as well. To cut-and-paste from the DragonDex:

Double drat!

I knew there was one of those early "Mythos' things in an early Dragon but couldn't remember which one.

 

[Hussar]

It seems to me that we're talking about slavery as an issue because of the recent Dark Sun kerfuffle. It is certainly not the only issue that people find problematic: virtually any feature of history that people find problematic has a group that wants to remove it from gaming. If you look at pretty much any polarizing political issue, there are people who want to remove it from being fair play to have as a part of gaming. Enworld has a ban on politics still (I think so, right?) so I'm not going to bring them up but ... take a moment to think about political controversies and then ask "what form would they take in a fantasy universe," and then you'll have your answer about what's next. And not even what's next: what else is being removed right now.

I don't think anyone is saying that every campaign needs to focus on slavery, it's just a specific recent example that applies to topics that some thing should be removed from gaming. And it's something that's part of campaigns for characters to fight against. To make positive change in the world by getting rid of.

Can't we just get rid of this one bad thing? Of course we can, but we all know that slavery is one of many horrible things that exist in fantasy. This whole discussion makes me want to ask "why is murder okay to have in fantasy, when it affects so many people in the real world?" The answer is simple: you have things like murder in a fantasy game as something bad happening that you have to stop or somehow make right. That's the same answer for any controversial bad thing in an RPG: it's something bad guys do and we can make it better in the game world.

Because murder is equal opportunity?

 

[SteveC]

Nothing to see here, move along. Not going to go there.

 

[Cadence]

As a non-American my first thought here is why should the rest of the world be beholden to US history and current culture?

If you can get WotC to move or another country to publish a contender...

 

[mythago]

Charles R. Saunders, Out of Africa. Supernatural Creatures from the Dark Continent, in: Dragon 122 (TSR, 1987)

Side note: while I don't recall if this was mentioned in the Dragon article, Charles R. Saunders also wrote a swords and sorcery series, Imaro, which is a lot of fun. The characters are more or less archetypes but the setting is very rich, and, well, swords and sorcery.

 

[Scribe]

If you can get WotC to move or another country to publish a contender...

It wouldnt matter. Largest market = ?

Gotta be the US.

 

[Hussar]

You get villains who are truly bad guys. No one is going to be on their side. There's a surprisingly short list of groups you can put on that list at the moment.

Except that’s not true.

Most of the fantasy society is on their side. Like virtually everyone in that society is on their side.