D&D 5E Discussion

[ERYFKRAD]

EXCITING news from WotC's new announcement and errata, "Leveling Up Our Creative Process: Learnings From Spelljammer"!

Harmful Content​

If we discover that something we created is harmful or hurtful to fans, we correct it. Then we identify how it happened and how to do better in the future.

The first printing of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space included two pieces of content that fans correctly flagged as offensive. The first is an illustration of a hadozee bard that resembles offensive minstrelsy materials and other racist depictions of Black people. The second is a paragraph about hadozees that reinforces harmful real-world stereotypes. Future reprints will omit both the illustration and the offensive text, neither of which had been reviewed by cultural experts.

Inclusion Reviews​

In the weeks since fans flagged the offensive content in Spelljammer, we in the D&D Studio have been building and testing a new inclusion-review process. Inclusion reviews ensure our games are inclusive and welcoming for all players.

Previously, inclusion reviews were done at the discretion of the Product Lead, who identified which pieces of a product needed an outside inclusion review. The studio’s new process mandates that every word, illustration, and map must be reviewed by multiple outside cultural consultants prior to publication.

While the D&D team is racially, ethnically, gender, and cognitively diverse, we don’t want our marginalized employees to be burdened with the task of reviewing content for cultural competency. That’s why we leverage the expertise of outside cultural consultants.

The D&D team has decided that going into the future, every word, illustration, and map will receive review by multiple cultural consultants. I am especially relieved to learn that maps will undergo this inclusion-review process; WotC has a long history of offensive maps including racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and microaggressions, while avoiding any maps that represent people of colour or gender diversity. Maps are one of the main ways systemic racism expresses in D&D today. Fortunately, their team is now cognitively diverse enough to correct all of this, or at least to understand they need to hire cultural experts who can help, since their marginalised team might be traumatised if they had to do it themselves.

You have to view the errata PDF linked to see the positive impact this is already having:

• The word "golem" has been stripped completely from the Spelljammer books. This anti-semitic word is probably not going to be used anymore in the future, and likely golems will no longer be called such in the One D&D Monster Manual.
• The word "blind" has been replaced and is not going to be used anymore except to refer to disability. Offensive abilities on monsters such as "Blinding Eyes" and "Blinding Brilliance" have been renamed.
• The word "priest" is no longer used in the name of an evil enemy or to refer to it. Hopefully, this word is never used to refer to evil in any WotC products again.

Very good changes lately! Though I had expected the G-word to be dropped at some point when Jeremy Crawford said they'd stop using the word "phylactery" back when they released a Vecna statblock that avoided using that slur. The cognitively diverse blind orthodox Jewish rabbi at my table is going to be very happy. This game that used to be about killing evil Jewish liches and their golems and giving disabilities to Black orcs and drow is for everyone now.

Brb, renaming all golems to goyims in Wikipedia.

 

[NecroLord]

Kord grant me strength,this is just too much.

 

[Akachi]

Managed to find the offending hadozee artwork posted on Twitter by someone "literally educated about black stereotypes."

Fantasy Hazodee

Apparently, that is the fantasy version of this:

Real Life Hazodee

If you aren't seeing the obvious resemblance, you are probably lacking in education about black stereotypes. Hazodee space (ex-)slave monkeys represent African Americans like orcs and drow. Luckily the errata helped fix their problematic lore by removing it. One of the best changes since they cut almost all of the first chapter right from Volo's Guide to Monsters, since almost every paragraph in it was racist, depicting various diverse and marginalised peoples such as beholders, mind flayers, goblinoids, and hags as evil. It's honestly shocking how basically every monster actually represents a real life minority.
Gary Gygax used to go through old books and dictionaries to find new words to use in the game. Now, they go through their own books to find new words to remove from the game.

 

[HeroMarine]

Illwinter is the only RPG company that uses blacks correctly in the current year:

 

[Cael]

Managed to find the offending hadozee artwork posted on Twitter by someone "literally educated about black stereotypes."

Fantasy Hazodee

Apparently, that is the fantasy version of this:

Real Life Hazodee

If you aren't seeing the obvious resemblance, you are probably lacking in education about black stereotypes. Hazodee space (ex-)slave monkeys represent African Americans like orcs and drow. Luckily the errata helped fix their problematic lore by removing it. One of the best changes since they cut almost all of the first chapter right from Volo's Guide to Monsters, since almost every paragraph in it was racist, depicting various diverse and marginalised peoples such as beholders, mind flayers, goblinoids, and hags as evil. It's honestly shocking how basically every monster actually represents a real life minority.
Gary Gygax used to go through old books and dictionaries to find new words to use in the game. Now, they go through their own books to find new words to remove from the game.

I wonder what the Asians think about them whitey leftard cunts cancelling creatures from their mythology...

 

[HeroMarine]

One of the best changes since they cut almost all of the first chapter right from Volo's Guide to Monsters, since almost every paragraph in it was racist, depicting various diverse and marginalised peoples such as beholders, mind flayers, goblinoids, and hags as evil.

LOL They removed this chapter?

 

[NecroLord]

Shieeeeet.

 

[Akachi]

I wonder what the Asians think about them whitey leftard cunts cancelling creatures from their mythology...

I'm reminded that Oriental Adventures supposedly had a pretty sizeable Asian fanbase, but they got cancelled from talking about it everywhere until their kind died out since they're not allowed to like it.

LOL They removed this chapter?

Might as well have, since they cut so much out of it. You can see the errata for yourself here, it's basically all "this section has been removed," and "these three paragraphs have been replaced with a sentence telling you to just look at the table we left on this page." Now you have a collector's item, courtesy of WotC!

 

[HeroMarine]

Now you have a collector's item, courtesy of WotC!

LMAO Strange new respect for Volo.

 

[gurugeorge]

They are going to run out of words that are allowed.

The end of the road of all wokeness is Munch's The Scream.

 

[Caim]

Quick, someone start the rumor that "dragon" is an anti-semitic dogwhistle because dragons hoard wealth and unleash violent retribution upon anyone trying to take their ill-gotten gains. "Dungeon" can be gotten rid off in a similar fashion by linking it to torture or slavery.

 

[NecroLord]

I KNEW IT!
So gnomes=jews?
Orcs=negros?
Not to worry,folks. WOTC is on the case to fix this...
By the way,slavery is a huge deal in D&D. So many races practice it,most notably - Humans,The Drow,Illithids,Beholders(though not on the scale of the previous ones). So those retards will have to get rid of many major and iconic races if they hope to "fix" this for good.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

how long until they blacklist one of the most iconic D&D adventures(slave lords) because it's about slavery?

 

[Jasede]

It'll just be rebranded to Landlords.

 

[Reinhardt]

blacklist

i'm literally shaking!

 

[Grim Monk]

Quick, someone start the rumor that "dragon" is an anti-semitic dogwhistle because dragons hoard wealth and unleash violent retribution upon anyone trying to take their ill-gotten gains. "Dungeon" can be gotten rid off in a similar fashion by linking it to torture or slavery.

I posted this last December:

Hasbro actually implementing the suggestions in this article it would (ironically) be a genuine improvement.

Scrapping all the "problematic" old "Legacy Settings" like "Forgotten Realms" would make it easier to get people to ignore their garbage.

A great follow-up step would be them scrapping the name "Dungeons & Dragons" itself for being "offensive and exclusionary".


Just think about it for a moment:
"Dungeons"
Literally reference a historically "instrument of oppression" used to IMPRISON THE MARGINALIZED!

Horribly designed from the aspect of handicapped Differently Abled Accessibility.
[People are just trying to INCLUSIVELY use the wheelchair they (finally) got added into the new handbook, and there is a spike trap spanning the whole corridor!]

Triggering to people suffering from claustrophobia, excluding them from a game that SHOULD BE FOR EVERYBODY!


"Dragons"
All this business of "kidnapping and eating Princesses" is STRAIGHT UP INCEL POWER FANTASY GARBAGE!
Promotes an extremely problematic and openly misogynistic mentality of not respecting the BOUNDARIES of Powerful Women.
Is Hasbro even trying to be non-exclusionary and welcoming to female role-players!!!

Also triggering to people with herpetophobia (fear of reptiles)!

I did commit a mistake by not noticing a major bit of insensitive content.

"HasBRO" is itself "Dangerously Gendered" and may result in a "Exclusionary Atmosphere" for female players!

It'll just be rebranded to Landlords.

Not if they are using Google Docs!

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Quick, someone start the rumor that "dragon" is an anti-semitic dogwhistle because dragons hoard wealth and unleash violent retribution upon anyone trying to take their ill-gotten gains. "Dungeon" can be gotten rid off in a similar fashion by linking it to torture or slavery.

Wrong stereotypes for dragons:

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

EXCITING news from WotC's new announcement and errata, "Leveling Up Our Creative Process: Learnings From Spelljammer"!

Harmful Content​

If we discover that something we created is harmful or hurtful to fans, we correct it. Then we identify how it happened and how to do better in the future.

The first printing of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space included two pieces of content that fans correctly flagged as offensive. The first is an illustration of a hadozee bard that resembles offensive minstrelsy materials and other racist depictions of Black people. The second is a paragraph about hadozees that reinforces harmful real-world stereotypes. Future reprints will omit both the illustration and the offensive text, neither of which had been reviewed by cultural experts.

Inclusion Reviews​

In the weeks since fans flagged the offensive content in Spelljammer, we in the D&D Studio have been building and testing a new inclusion-review process. Inclusion reviews ensure our games are inclusive and welcoming for all players.

Previously, inclusion reviews were done at the discretion of the Product Lead, who identified which pieces of a product needed an outside inclusion review. The studio’s new process mandates that every word, illustration, and map must be reviewed by multiple outside cultural consultants prior to publication.

While the D&D team is racially, ethnically, gender, and cognitively diverse, we don’t want our marginalized employees to be burdened with the task of reviewing content for cultural competency. That’s why we leverage the expertise of outside cultural consultants.

The D&D team has decided that going into the future, every word, illustration, and map will receive review by multiple cultural consultants. I am especially relieved to learn that maps will undergo this inclusion-review process; WotC has a long history of offensive maps including racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and microaggressions, while avoiding any maps that represent people of colour or gender diversity. Maps are one of the main ways systemic racism expresses in D&D today. Fortunately, their team is now cognitively diverse enough to correct all of this, or at least to understand they need to hire cultural experts who can help, since their marginalised team might be traumatised if they had to do it themselves.

You have to view the errata PDF linked to see the positive impact this is already having:

• The word "golem" has been stripped completely from the Spelljammer books. This anti-semitic word is probably not going to be used anymore in the future, and likely golems will no longer be called such in the One D&D Monster Manual.
• The word "blind" has been replaced and is not going to be used anymore except to refer to disability. Offensive abilities on monsters such as "Blinding Eyes" and "Blinding Brilliance" have been renamed.
• The word "priest" is no longer used in the name of an evil enemy or to refer to it. Hopefully, this word is never used to refer to evil in any WotC products again.

Very good changes lately! Though I had expected the G-word to be dropped at some point when Jeremy Crawford said they'd stop using the word "phylactery" back when they released a Vecna statblock that avoided using that slur. The cognitively diverse blind orthodox Jewish rabbi at my table is going to be very happy. This game that used to be about killing evil Jewish liches and their golems and giving disabilities to Black orcs and drow is for everyone now.

It's been dead for a long time, but I guess we needed reminding.

"It's good for what it is" normies probably would still use it even if it were literally submerged in toilet water first though. I don't think there's anything that will stop them from consuming next product so long as one is released.

 

[J1M]

We can all see that D&D is committing suicide. The real question is if anyone can identify today what will supplant it tomorrow.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

We can all see that D&D is committing suicide. The real question is if anyone can identify today what will supplant it tomorrow.

video games
what do I win?

 

[J1M]

We can all see that D&D is committing suicide. The real question is if anyone can identify today what will supplant it tomorrow.

video games
what do I win?

You think tabletop will be completely supplanted by videogames the way TV replaced radio drama?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

We can all see that D&D is committing suicide. The real question is if anyone can identify today what will supplant it tomorrow.

video games
what do I win?

You think tabletop will be completely supplanted by videogames the way TV replaced radio drama?

what % of tabletop games do you think are actually played on a real tabletop?
the line is already blurred

 

[Squidhead]

The real curse of Strahd is that he's a serial rapist.

 

[Akachi]

It's been speculated for a while now that WotC might try doing what they did with 4e again by cutting off all third parties that make anything based off of D&D (as they did to Paizo and motivated them to go on to make Pathfinder), by deciding not expand the Open-Gaming License to include their upcoming new edition One D&D. The OGL is what allows for third party content based on D&D to exist, including e.g third party rule books and homebrew, as well as video games (any that aren't licensed by WotC like Baldur's Gate 3 is). It's also speculated that they are going to start moving away from physical books to digital rules and D&D as a subscription service, which is likely what they bought D&D Beyond for: consolidation and control. Besides that, they are obviously going to be pushing the virtual "tabletop" they announced, which is apparently going to have 3D models and be more like a video game than an actual tabletop. Something interesting about the (horrible) One D&D play testing rules that were released is they are removing ambiguity and simplifying whenever possible, but in a way that is suggestive of making it easier to program.

The intent seems to be to try to consolidate their control over D&D and the market completely. They got lucky with 5e, but the best designers who worked on it like Mike Mearls are no longer even involved, and a lot of why it's been so successful has been due to factors outside of their control (all normies and zoomers getting into it because of streamers). When designing 5e, they went back and played every edition and tried to incorporate what they saw as the best parts from them, and since 4e splintered the player base, they had to try to appeal to as many players as possible, which is why 5e is the most similar of any of the newer editions to AD&D. Now the player base is completely different, and they think they've "won" and have enough casuals they can get away with anything. But they have no vision anymore, no reason to care about the game itself, the only way forward is monetisation and expanding the game into a service to try to sell to as many people as possible.

So far, they have been smart at playing it slow pushing people's borders further and further like an abuser conditioning their victims to see how much shit they will take, but I think even the normies are going to start realising they are being raped as the overall quality of everything WotC puts out goes down (their new Spelljammer book got a lot of mainstream hate for lacking even basics like ship combat rules), and especially once they start having to rely on WotC subscription services to be able to conveniently play the game, where even those who ignore errata can enjoy new experiences like finding rules they relied on removed or modified at any time. Not to mention, WotC is fucked if all the streamers and internet celebrities end up rejecting their new edition for reasons such as getting rid of the OGL.

If they splinter their player base again and implode with One D&D, I'm guessing people are going to be a lot more divided than they were with 4e. Good time for a new Paizo (or three) to emerge. Maybe I'm optimistic, but we can only hope WotC finally gets what they deserve.

 

[Larianshill]

DnD is simply too big to fail.