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

 

[Zardnaar]

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More rural/urban thing that's the same around the world. We call out equivalent of New Yorkers Jafa's. JustvAnothervF Aucklander. You can guess what the F stands for.

It's just a variation of regionalism, yuppie stereotype from the 80's and events that happened in the 80's.

 

[Aldarc]

It's good to know that despite being born and raised on a completely different continent, the mere fact of his genetic European descent imbues him with a natural expertise on all things medieval Europe.

The person you quoted did not say anything about his European descent giving him natural expertise on medieval Europe. That is a strawman.

 

[AnotherGuy]

No.

It's observing others describing harm, then deciding it's a great idea to loudly declare one doesn't care care as long as the harm done is at a level acceptable to oneself, completely ignoring the very idea that other people are being harmed. And then inexplicably deciding the profit motive will solve the problem.

Yeah, given we won't agree on the certain characterisation of some of the words you use - we will have to just agree to disagree.

 

[AnotherGuy]

The person you quoted did not say anything about his European descent giving him natural expertise on medieval Europe. That is a strawman.

It was implied.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Ierendi was the Polynesian book, but it not considered one of the better ones due to the limited scope of the book. It was only 64 pages compared to the 96 pages the series would expand to next book. It does cover the Makai people in detail but too much of the book was done in a weird way focusing heavily on pop cultural references. Also needed some actual conflict as an island paradise can get boring.

Funny thing is that the Glantrian Gaz was the first one I acquired and then purchased Ierendi and Minrothad, so you can imagine my disappointment with limited Ierendian content.

 

[AnotherGuy]

The Glantrians are even worse, a nation of wizards comprised of Spanish colonial elves, elfy elves, Scottish, French, Germans, Mongolians, Flemish, Borgia Italians, pale blue transdimensional humans and Transylvanians.

And they HATE each other.

I think the criticism was that within the Polynesian themed book, no distinctions are made amongst the various Polynesian people which in RL are spread out over a variety of nations, as if painting them with one broad brush, whereas the Glantrians are very much distinctly different settlers and described as such in the Gazetteer. The Traladarans like the Polynesian themed book are one people based on like 3 or more major groups of distinct cultures.

 

[Aldarc]

It was implied.

No, it was not implied, but that implication was certainly read into it by those looking to score easy buckets against strawmen arguments. But since you think it was implied, I will give you the chance to explain to me and everyone else here how that argument was implied by the OP's statements. If you can't then maybe, you can admit that you are making too much out of the OP's statements.

 

[AnotherGuy]

No, it was not implied, but that implication was certainly read into it by those looking to score easy buckets against strawmen arguments. But since you think it was implied, I will give you the chance to explain to me and everyone else here how that argument was implied by the OP's statements. If you can't then maybe, you can admit that you are making too much out of the OP's statements.

That's a pretty arrogant reply, so are the days on internet.
But anyways, the comment was not made by the OP. That particular poster mentioned Ed's European ancestry. Why?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Culture Chop Suey - TV Tropes

Culture Chop Suey is a Fantasy Counterpart Culture cobbled together from two or more real world cultures. As with an Anachronism Stew, the reasons for this can vary from case to case. It can stem from the writer's ignorance on the subject: they …

tvtropes.org

In my opinion some times to create a culture chop-suey, mixing elements from different civilitations from real world could be necessary for reasons of politically correction, to avoid if that nation was used as antagonist faction, then lots of pejorative traits were added to their people.

* We don't know when Mystara will be republished, but if this happens, I suspect the reboot will be radically. I mean even the geography will be different.

Copying and pasting I would like to show some example of mistakes about other culture, mine.

Source: False Myths About Spain in Films: Some of the Funniest Mistakes - don Quijote's Spanish Blog

Mission Impossible II​

To begin with, let’s look at one of the best known and extravagant examples: Mission Impossible II. In the film, Tom Cruise lives a unique experience: Holy Week in Seville, the Fallas in Valencia, and San Fermines in Pamplona, all together in the same scene. (In fact, not only do these festivals take place in different cities, they also happen at different times during the year.) Anthony Hopkins (Swanbeck in the film) himself is amazed and puzzled at such a spectacle: "Festivals are a pain in the ass. Honoring their saints by setting them on fire. Let's you know what they think of saints, doesn't it?” We Spaniards were even more perplexed at these tremendous cultural misconceptions. (For the record, saints are not burned in any of the three separate festivals untruthfully mixed together here.)

Knight & Day​

Oops, he did it again! Tom Cruise messed about with Spanish traditional festivals once more. On this occasion, he and Cameron Díaz attend very peculiar bull runs or encierros and run in front of a herd of eight steers and two placid bulls. In addition, this recreation of the San Fermines of Pamplona was actually filmed on Calle Ancha street in Cadiz, and (due to the script's demands) ended in the Maestranza bull ring in Seville.

 

[Aldarc]

That's a pretty arrogant reply, so are the days on internet.

Maybe, but let's put this in perspecitve: You are defending another poster's strawman argument that is being used to make smug pot shots at another poster, and moreover you are now making it personal against me by calling my post arrogant and brushing me off with a condescending passing remark that "so are the days on the internet."

But anyways, the comment was not made by the OP.

I mean OP as in the Original Poster in question not the Thread OP.

That particular poster mentioned Ed's genealogy. Why?

I know they said that Ed Greenwood is of European descent. But that's not what I am asking you. You have said that expertise was implied. I am asking you to tell me how mentioning Ed's descent implies expertise in medieval Europe? So explain to me how it was implied in that statement. To me, it's not expertise that is being implied by this, but your opinion is obviously different.