D&D is reinforcing an Anglo-centric view of the world...

[Melcar]

D&D is "racist" and so un-PC. It's what makes it special. The day it stops being that way is when... shit, lost my train of though.

 

[mountain hare]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara-Tur

Oriental Adventures is the title shared by two hardback rulebooks published for different versions of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. Each version of Oriental Adventures provides rules for adapting its respective version of D&D for use in campaign settings based on the Far East, rather than the medieval Europe-setting assumed by most D&D books. Both versions of Oriental Adventures include example campaign settings.

OMFG D&D BEIN' ANGLO ETHNOCENTRIC!

 

[Zomg]

Eh, Oriental Adventures is a pretty good example of soft Eurocentrism, because it's a random mishmash of Oriental cultures and timeframes that's designed be exotic rather than meet the low bar of internal consistency and detail TSR usually demanded from 1st edition AD&D settings. I.e. it was created and sold on shallow xenophilia, like a 15 year old weeaboo jerking off at the barest hint of an epicanthic fold.

 

[oscar]

I really don't see the problem with everyone being white in a game with a medieval European setting. Maybe the occasional black or Arab trader or something but the "lol ther should be a big happe multikulturel villag3" really is rage inducing.

 

[Mr. Wednesday]

I can't believe this thread went a page and a half with no one mentioning Arcanum. Although not D&D, Arcanum actually deals with racial prejudice in a way that most D&D games avoid. You all should be ashamed.

 

[kris]

Somehow I think that Nigerian writers wouldn't discuss why they only have black characters in their books. Then again, maybe they have a token white? John Cleese could play him, just like in Jade empire.

that said, I just got nervous and am about to put in a black, asian and hispanic into my book.

 

[SuicideBunny]

D&D is "racist" and so un-PC.

wrong actually. it tries incredibly hard to be pc, which contributes to the racism.

 

[Beans00]

who gives a shit about rag heads spicks chinks or niggers, fuck white people suck too so who gives a shit, fucking faggots

 

[Trash]

If it really is medieval european based there should be one big rahowa going on in the form of the crusades.

 

[dagorkan]

Eh, Oriental Adventures is a pretty good example of soft Eurocentrism, because it's a random mishmash of Oriental cultures and timeframes that's designed be exotic rather than meet the low bar of internal consistency and detail TSR usually demanded from 1st edition AD&D settings. I.e. it was created and sold on shallow xenophilia, like a 15 year old weeaboo jerking off at the barest hint of an epicanthic fold.

LOL, so true

 

[Humanophage]

What a ridiculous accusation. Post-AD&D rulebooks are heavily packed with characters sporting non-white features. African braids are almost an obligatory attribute, many characters have abnormal noses, lips, eyes, and cheekbones, though that could be a result of the new clunky art direction. Many humans are obviously mixed. Elves tend to look like Pocahontas (see this, for instance), whereas in the past they used to look ultra-Nordic. The drow have suffered a particularly strong blow, turning from elves with unnaturally black skin (it's supposed to be a curse) into some Dravidian-Amerindians.

 

[mondblut]

I want to go back to AD&D times.

 

[Melcar]

It's all about the elven lasses is revealing chain mail.

 

[Ron Obvious]

I'm surprised to see this type of exposé written post-election. The television told me that if I elect Obama, race issues would evaporate and I wouldn't have to feel guilty anymore.

In fact, I was just thinking about that today. As a white man, it makes me so proud to have elected a half-white man to the highest office. It's about time we had a white president.

 

[Lurkar]

If anything, it's the vidya that's bad for never leaving the fucking Sword Coast.

Actually, amusingly enough, it WAS company policy in TSR to make a human white male fighter the center for just about everything. When Wizards bought D&D, in 3rd edition, the developers and artists were ecstatic they no longer had to do that, and made the fighter icon the dwarf. Then marketing came by. Enter Regdar. The art team did what they could to make him racially ambiguous, but eventually decided on a more passive aggressive form of protesting. Try to count the number of D&D books and materials that have Regdar in the art and don't have him being attacked, consumed, or killed by the monsters.

 

[Rhalle]

The trope of 'racism is eeeevil' that inevitably involves the player siding with a misunderstood and downtrodden faction, one persecuted only because they are different , is cloying and boring and intellectually insulting.

I could just watch Sesame Street if I wanted to be subjected to that, and it would probably be more entertaining.

Part of the charm of an atavistic fantasy universe is its rigid racial and ethnic distinctions and attendant xenophobia.

So what if it's Eurocentric?

If, say, Asians want to make an Asian-centric game, that would be their prerogative; and their game would be all the more fun in the playing it because it was.

 

[aron searle]

You know i hate that they cast a black woman to play gwen or whatever in merlin, because she's playing a charachter in medievil england that was white as white.

It harkens back to the days when men had to play women, humanity is just stupid.

/inane rambling

 

[Ausir]

I can't believe this thread went a page and a half with no one mentioning Arcanum. Although not D&D, Arcanum actually deals with racial prejudice in a way that most D&D games avoid. You all should be ashamed.

As does The Witcher (and the books it's based on).

 

[Data4]

D&D is "racist" and so un-PC. It's what makes it special. The day it stops being that way is when... shit, lost my train of though.

Here, I'll finish it. We- at least I-- play these games to get away from the bullshit that permeates "real life". When I roll up a D&D character, my concern is this: What faction am I a part of? What is my skill set? What perks are available to me as I increase my character's experience? What kind of phat lewtz are there waiting for me? Who is warring with whom? How can I leverage rivalries in my favor? Does this +3 Bastard Sword give me an edge against my foes?

What I DON'T want to be concerned about is fairness, political correctness, equality, conservatism vs. liberalism, gay rights, civil rights, racism between EARTH-BOUND RACES THAT DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO HAVE AN EXACT FUCKING COUNTERPART IN MY GOD DAMNED GAMES, etc.

 

[1eyedking]

No, the gnomes are jews, duh.

Win.

 

[Redeye]

The failure to market AD&D to inner-city negroes is absolute and total proof of racism.

Instead of the crack wars of the 1980s we could have had an entire generation of dark-skinned furries and cheeto-overdosing fat computer-science major african-americans.

moar proof

 

[Argosy]

As does The Witcher (and the books it's based on).

The Witcher(the game at least) tries a bit too hard and it comes off as disingenuous. The usage of the term non-human in the game seems horribly artificial to me.

 

[Ausir]

The Witcher(the game at least) tries a bit too hard and it comes off as disingenuous. The usage of the term non-human in the game seems horribly artificial to me.

Sounds OK in Polish to me. Maybe they should have found a better translation of the term instead of translating it literally.