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

 

[Vaalingrade]

Oh god, don't get me started on their attitudes on SA. Two of them spent a weekend arguing that it as necessary for good YA. People are messed up.

Like people talk about how bad 'sanitizing' things are, but the pendulum on the other side is so much worse.

But that's a fight for another forum. A constant, emotionally draining fight against 13 year old edgelords in the bodies of mostly 45-year olds.

For here: if you want to do a racism, whether that's overt in the NuTSR Star Frontiers way or unintentional in the form of not researching and just throwing out a lot of stereotypes, please keep it at your table, far away from the public and for the love of god, don't try and publish it for all to see your ignorance.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Children's cartoons don't have enough brutal murders in them.

They're getting there, really.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

They're getting there, really.

Getting there? I think they've been there!


Hey, let's watch a movie. Hmmm... maybe something cute for the little kids. Something G. Something with fuzzy little bunnies! I know, Watership Down!

Spoiler: CUTE FUZZY BUNNIES PLAYING IN FIELDS!

Oh .... god..... Rinse my eyes out. That's pure nightmare fuel!

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

They're getting there, really.

I notice that in more than a few case, the hero takes extra step to end with a fatality an otherwise downed and neutralized enemy. That's the hidden moral of cars: an injured enemy could recover... FINISH HIM!

 

[Riley]

Getting there? I think they've been there!


Hey, let's watch a movie. Hmmm... maybe something cute for the little kids. Something G. Something with fuzzy little bunnies! I know, Watership Down!



Oh .... god..... Rinse my eyes out. That's pure nightmare fuel!

Spoiler tag, please, Snarf?

There’s a reason I haven’t watched that movie in over 30 years. It’s still too soon.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Spoiler tag, maybe, Snarf?

There’s a reason I haven’t watched that movie in over 30 years. It’s still too soon.

Well, I don't normally think about spoilers for things from over 30 years ago, but fair point. It's edited.

Hey, we should talk about Old Yeller! Nothing as heart warming as a sweet story of a boy and his dog!

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

This isn't new or contemporaneous to have strangely targeted content. What is this?

Spoiler

Answer A: a nursery rhyme
Answer B: a lament about houses of ill repute being closed and suggesting "alternative set-ups" at home until they reopen.
Answer C: both of them.

(Song from 1757 and part of children's songs ever since).

 

[Gradine]

As long as they're all treated equally badly, then.

In a vacuum maybe. Equal treatment does not map to equal impact in the real world. The disparity is quite large.

 

[Faolyn]

In a vacuum maybe. Equal treatment does not map to equal impact in the real world. The disparity is quite large.

I know. I was joking.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

When I was a child I enjoyed the old movies of pirates, but later I started to understand Hollywood wasn't telling the truth about English corsairs and the "evil" Spanish empire. Also I watched far-west movies of indians vs cowboys, but later I started to learn other point of view.

Maybe with the Western genre it was knowingly telling tales as part of a conspiracy to legitimate the colonization of the West (and even there, it might have been the same motivation as with pirates, with sheriff vs outlaw being more into focus), but I am pretty convinced that there was no ill intent behind glorifying pirates attacking the Spanish Main. They knew it was inaccurate, but they didn't feel that they'd be telling a better story by having heroes that their audience would find morally repugnant. So they sanitized the protagonist and made the antagonist evil. Entertainment where everyone is equally evil tend to be depressing and those where the good ones are unsympathetic dont't sell well (see Starship Troopers).

Have you thought any time any things are allowed today, but in a future, maybe a couple of decades, could become politically incorrect because the mind of the society has changed again?

This has already happened. Social consensus after the Renaissance up to the 19th century was much more hostile to women's rights than in the earlier eras. Slavery was unheard of in Britain after the 12th century... and then it was legalized to trade them. Society doesn't necessarily advance in a linear way (except probably a tendancy for every period and cultural group to consider itself right irrespective of its choices). Scientific reasoning might be declining as we speak: have you ever heard of flatearthers before the last two decades? (but it might be because the Internet expose us to all sort of lunacy). Maybe in 30 years it will gather enough traction that it will be accepted...