I don’t care if my campaign offends you
I supported homosexual rights before it was trendy.
You only have to rewind the clock a couple of decades for it to be a niche issue. To me, it was common sense that equal rights, including marriage equality, would be a great thing.
Back then, though, I mostly heard arguments against it:
“That goes against traditional marriage.”
“That isn’t natural.”
“You’re not gay, so why do you care?”
I could go on, but you get it. We’ve come a long way since those days.
I had rebuttals to all of these, and more, but the crux of it came down to this:
What consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedroom doesn’t affect you.
I believe in maximising individual rights. If no one gets hurt, it’s all good.
If nothing else, it makes the world more interesting.
Fast forward through the years and “their love life isn’t your concern” became one of the strongest arguments in favour of marriage equality.
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Fast forward some more.
This sort of thing keeps popping up these days. What I’m about to talk about is a specific instance of a general trend.
What am I alluding to?
It’s people going on to social media and saying something like this:
“I can’t believe Wendigoes are a monster in D&D. That’s so offensive to Native Americans! Dungeon Masters - you HAVE TO stop using them!!”
To which I say:
Hell no, I’m not doing that.
How could I be so regressive? How could I go from supporting gay rights ahead of many others, yet be so cruel and disrespectful to another long-suffering people?
Have I become a bitter, angry, cynical old man?
Hardly.
I’m simply applying the same logic I did before:
What my party does is none of your business.
What my players and I do in our game doesn’t affect you.
Don’t mistake me here - if one of my players pulled me aside and said I was being offensive to their heritage, I sure as manure would listen to, respect and accommodate their concerns.
But for some rando outside my game who - let’s be honest - is probably being offended on behalf of someone else?
Screw that. If you’re not in the campaign, your opinion is irrelevant.
That’s enough of a reason to ignore this nonsense. Why stop there, though? Here are some more reasons I’m happy to ignore it.
It’s not offensive
Some Native Americans are offended by the inclusion of wendigoes.
Others find it hilarious the way the white man misinterprets their culture.
Others are happy to see their culture represented at all.
Still others don’t care either way.
Now, sure, some things are genuinely offensive. I’m not about to stick swastikas in my campaign - there’s little room for debate on those. For everything else, it pays to mind the gap between “it’s offensive” and “I’m offended”.
Offense or exclusion?
I remember coming across a cool article from the folks at Tribality. They took Polynesian myths and legends, and mapped them into D&D 5e. They explained how the gods would work in this setting, outlined a range of magical races and talked about spellcasting.
It was pretty cool.
Now imagine if someone shrieked, “How dare you?!” at this, demanding an end to the “abuse” of this culture.
Great - now the gaming scene is poorer for it and the Polynesian cultures have been excluded. Yay, progressiveness!
Does removing Native American elements from D&D reduce offense? Even if it does, is it worth excluding their culture?
If the game misrepresents wendigoes, then this is an opportunity. Someone who knows what they’re talking about can toss out the Monster Manual and stat up a genuine, authentic version of them. Such a monster would be cooler than the original anyway.
Huh, it’s almost as if you can fix problems, rather than yell at them until everyone goes away…
If I’m keeping Asmodeus, I’m keeping wendigoes
Asmodeus is a demon prince from a number of real-world holy texts.
He’s also a D&D character.
In my campaigns, it’s possible to make deals with demons right out of Islam, Judaism and Christianity… all while killing angels.
Hell, in my campaigns, fighting angels is almost routine.
Want to cut the pRoBleMatIc Native American elements from your game? Great! Be sure to eliminate anything from the Bible, monsters from Irish mythology and creatures from northern European folklore. You wouldn’t want to offend anyone, right?
That’ll leave you with… uh… humans?
Enjoy your neutered gaming experience, you paragon of inclusion! I’m sure people from cultures you deny will appreciate it.
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If a creature offends you because it exists, then there’s no helping you.
If it bothers you that it’s depicted poorly - that wise, cunning protectors are depicted as mindless, savage monsters - then make your own version, share some of the mythology for context and share it with the world.
Me? I’ll gleefully use your version over the original.
But tell me I can’t use it at all because it might hurt someone’s feelings - someone who’s not a player and will never hear about my game - well, that’s just being mean.
Anyway, enough of this rabble-rousing.
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