WotC WotC's Chris Perkins On D&D's Inclusivity Processes Going Forward

Over on D&D Beyond, WotC's Chris Perkins has written a blog entry about how the company's processes have been changed to improve the way the D&D studio deals with harmful content and inclusivity. This follows recent issues with racist content in Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, and involves working with external cultural consultants.

The studio’s new process mandates that every word, illustration, and map must be reviewed by multiple outside cultural consultants prior to publication.

Leveling Up Our Creative Process: Learnings From Spelljammer

In this blog post, I'll talk about how we in the D&D Studio are changing our review process following the problematic content that appeared in Spell...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Blue Orange]

???? It's not Japan I was wondering about (as far as I know, they don't have reasons to censor RPGs and are a rather liberal country) but China who might tick at typical PCs (who often defy or are at odds with established authority). They are already very touchy about video RPGs.

Great link--shows how some of their preferences are at direct odds with our own. They banned depictions of insufficiently masculine men a little while ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/opinion/china-masculinity.html

And there are other issues like the German government's sensitivity to gratuitous violence (probably based on its own recent historical issues...)

China's also in a time of heightened competition and tensions with the USA, where all these games are coming from. Who's to say it isn't some American plot to undermine their government? Remember how worried everyone was about TikTok?

 

[Vaalingrade]

If Paizo, GW, or even ENWorld Publishing were that big, they would eventually have a scandal sourced from it's size hindering vigilance of some sort.

I know it's been a few years, but Paizo used to constantly be dating controversy due to their status is WotC's sad edgelord brother-in-law at the time.

 

[Morrus]

I don’t think we need to turn a thread about Dragonlance into one about global politics, eh?

 

[Faolyn]

Old and revised versions are listed on there.

Hadozee - 1d4chan

1d4chan.org

"Censored."

Like the newer version is actually much different from the original take.

 

[Faolyn]

That said, while the treatment of the Hadozee in Spelljammer was rather insensitive and slavery is probably overused as a whole in D&D, I don't think I'd go as far as Paizo are doing according to their recent statement (based on a similar incident). It can still be a strong plot element as long as it's treated with care. The best example is, I think, Eberron's warforged. For those not familiar, warforged are basically mass-produced sapient and kinda alive constructs, built to fight in the setting's equivalent of World War I. They are constructed beings and were considered property, but they can think for themselves and they do have emotions. Two years ago, the War ended with a peace treaty stipulating that the facilities used to construct the warforged be dismantled, that no more were to be created, and the ones already existing would become free citizens (though different nations have implemented this in different ways). This has created a bunch of other social issues. One is that there are now a bunch of absolutely lethal war veterans wondering what to do with their potentially infinite lives. Some take regular jobs, and since they do not need to sleep or eat can often outcompete other people for these jobs, which creates strife (not to mention exploitation of the warforged themselves). They are visually highly distinctive, making them a visual reminder of the War. Some have gathered under the banner of a leader who claims to want to create a new homeland for them, and restart production under his control. These are all really interesting plot elements that are based on these beings recently being released from what was essentially slavery, and I think the Eberron setting would be much poorer without these elements.

Now, this is my perspective as a white guy from Sweden, and while Sweden certainly hasn't been innocent in matters of colonialism and trans-Atlantic slave trade (it's not that we didn't try, we just weren't any "good" at it), we pretty much haven't had any slaves here since the 14th century. So slavery is not an open wound here the way it, and its follow-ups (e.g. Jim Crow, redlining, etc.) have been in the USA. It's very possible that other people with different backgrounds than mine would feel differently about the above issue, but that's how I feel at least.

Good points--although I personally think that the warforged are less like a human ethnicity and more there to represent people who were unwillingly drafted to a brutal war and now have to fit into society while they are still conditioned for that war, with a lot of people around them who didn't like that war. A Vietnam veteran analogy, but in a post-WWI setting.

 

[BB Shockwave]

Two key paragraphs in my opinion. Reviewing past content is expensive, and an indicator that they feel that 5.5 will be using old books. There's no point in reviewing and reprinting books that have no value.

Also, Spelljammer sold well enough it is being reprinted less than 3 months after release.

I'd not declare it out of hand that old books have no value. Maybe to you, none, maybe to others, a lot. I personally could not care less about Ravnica and Theros, but it certainly must have brought some MtG players onboard...

 

[grimslade]

Good points--although I personally think that the warforged are less like a human ethnicity and more there to represent people who were unwillingly drafted to a brutal war and now have to fit into society while they are still conditioned for that war, with a lot of people around them who didn't like that war. A Vietnam veteran analogy, but in a post-WWI setting.

I would hazard a guess that depending on your generation the resonance of Warforged and War Veterans will be a similar experience regardless of the war fought.

 

[Minigiant]

I know it's been a few years, but Paizo used to constantly be dating controversy due to their status is WotC's sad edgelord brother-in-law at the time.

On Im not not shocked since the same people you've have to worry about are all over the industry.

Then you have GW who has a ton of them as fans.

 

[Mecheon]

"Censored."

Like the newer version is actually much different from the original take.

Its 4chan, you know how they be about things

 

[Staffan]

Good points--although I personally think that the warforged are less like a human ethnicity and more there to represent people who were unwillingly drafted to a brutal war and now have to fit into society while they are still conditioned for that war, with a lot of people around them who didn't like that war. A Vietnam veteran analogy, but in a post-WWI setting.

There's some of that too, but there are lots of veterans around in Eberron. If that was all they were going for, you wouldn't need a new race for it. But the warforged adds the slavery angle, even if they weren't considered slaves as such (because it took a while for people in charge to recognize them as actual people and not just automatons).

I'll add that I can't recall seeing any objections from black or other folks about the slavery aspect of the warforged. Perhaps this is because warforged are fundamentally awesome, or because they were created for a purpose rather than kidnapped and enslaved, or maybe I'm just reading different things into the setting than others do. Or maybe I'm not looking in the right places.