D&D 5E WotC Apologises For Missing Cultural Consultant Credit in Strixhaven

In the initial printing of Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, the credit for Tanya DePass’ (who recently ran the hugely successful Kickstarter for the Afrofuturist RPG Into the Mother Lands, and founded the organisation I Need Diverse Games) role as cultural consultant was omitted. WotC has apologised and promises that the credit will be included in future printings.

The first print run of #Strixhaven missed a crucial credit - the consulting work by @cypheroftyr. We publicly apologize to Tanya for the omission, as we have privately. Future printings will include her credit. See the attached page w/ updated credits already available digitally.

We also failed at communicating this update appropriately. We apologize for both our communication failure and for making the initial credit mistake in the first place.

Thank you to all of our fans for pointing out our mistakes so that we can correct them. We hope our error doesn’t diminish any enjoyment of the work all our teams have put into making #Strixhaven the best it could be.

 

[Superchunk77]

Ok, but when are they going to apologize for Silvery Barbs

 

[Scribe]

Personally as long as my check cleared I wouldn't care

Fair, but if you were trying to bring about change, had your own organization that your name is tied to, and you are a freelancer...

I think one may care a bit more.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That's a bummer, but it is cool that she worked on it. If you ever have the opportunity to watch Tonya DePass speak (whether online or in person again eventually), I highly recommend it. Saw her speak with Peter Adkison and Steve Kenson at Gen Con '19.

 

[Bolares]

Tanya's response:

 

[Inchoroi]

Personally as long as my check cleared I wouldn't care.

As my boy Tupac said "All I want is money, f$%& the fame, I'm a simple man"

But still silly the proofreader didn't catch it.

Product credits are important in this industry. My name got cut out from all but one of the books I worked on for a 3rd party, and its like half my resume doesn't exist anymore.

 

[Marandahir]

The most important thing about credits here is that (1) WotC has publicly acknowledged this and published the apology, so she can save that apology as errata; and (2) that errata will be incorporated into future publications.

Jobs are made and lost based on whether someone's credits on a particular project check out or not.

This is entirely different from say, MercurySteam refusing to give credit to designers who worked months if not years on Metroid Dread and designed key elements that made it into the final game, just because their work was less than an arbitrary % of time on the project. Those developers who were not credited will suffer the consequences of their CVs constantly being questioned because MercurySteam didn't deign to give them credit. And in the game development world, credits are EVERYTHING. They're the proof that you know what you're doing.

 

[Bolares]

The most important thing about credits here is that (1) WotC has publicly acknowledged this and published the apology, so she can save that apology as errata; and (2) that errata will be incorporated into future publications.

I think the most important thing is that Tanya feels like the matter is resolved, and asked people to consider it as such. But otherwise you are correct

 

[Marandahir]

I think the most important thing is that Tanya feels like the matter is resolved, and asked people to consider it as such. But otherwise you are correct

Yes, you're right! I read her chain of tweets after posting.

That's more important than what I was saying. But I was speaking to the fact that in this case, it was resolved. This is a problem in recent news, and we've heard about it elsewhere where people don't feel like their issue is resolved - like the case with MercurySteam and those developers on Metroid Dread.

 

[Bolares]

But I was speaking to the fact that in this case, it was resolved. This is a problem in recent news, and we've heard about it elsewhere where people don't feel like their issue is resolved - like the case with MercurySteam and those developers on Metroid Dread.

Sure sure, not trying to call you or anyone discussing it here out. Just said it to expose her request to consider the matter resolved to the thread, as I assume not everyone will read all her tweets.

 

[Jer]

And in the game development world, credits are EVERYTHING. They're the proof that you know what you're doing.

In any creative field credits are hugely important. This is why every Hollywood union/guild includes demands for credit acknowledgement on a film/tv show - credit acknowledgement (or lack of it) can make or break a career.