el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Every time I start to feel down about the direction of D&D rules and default setting assumptions and the amount of houseruling/homebrewing work I have to do to make it representative of what I want to play/run, I remind myself that this is still preferable to the assumptions in the game as it was once played, as evidenced by the opening sentence of this portion of a Dragon article from 1986 (#112). As most things in life, some things get better, other things get worse, and everything is different, even if some things seem to never change.
Not exactly a strong stance about the inappropriateness of playing out your peeping tom fantasies at the table.
Interestingly, however, the same issue also includes letters in the Forum section that challenge biases and insensitivities baked into the game at the time. One warns against using real-world religions as the basis of D&D gods, explaining that it is disrespectful to present versions of the divine for living religions like the Hindu gods or Native American spirits for a game. The other letter lambasts an article reinforcing the sexism of the ability score limits in 1E based on gender. You know, stuff some folks would like to claim are the relatively recent concerns of feckless rabblerousing young folk. The latter letter writer says that if she had known about the baked in sexism she would probably never even tried AD&D. So I am glad fewer people have to grapple with that choice and can feel included.
So yeah, the balance has tipped towards greater awareness and sensitivity in the last decade or so, even as the rules have embraced an over-the-top chockablock heroic fantasy that is not to my taste. I am not saying those things are necessarily connected (they certainly don't have to be), but that if change is inevitable (which it is), I am glad for the changes in the community assumptions of appropriateness because the older assumptions are a lot harder and emotionally draining to deal with than any set of rules one may like or not like (except, of course for the possibility of rules that reify the non-inclusive attitudes - of which there are decidedly fewer, if not completely absent).
Tangentially related, I am writing an overview of this issue of Dragon for the Dragon Mag Monday feature of HOW-I-RUN-IT.com, which should be live in a week or three depending on life.
Not exactly a strong stance about the inappropriateness of playing out your peeping tom fantasies at the table.
Interestingly, however, the same issue also includes letters in the Forum section that challenge biases and insensitivities baked into the game at the time. One warns against using real-world religions as the basis of D&D gods, explaining that it is disrespectful to present versions of the divine for living religions like the Hindu gods or Native American spirits for a game. The other letter lambasts an article reinforcing the sexism of the ability score limits in 1E based on gender. You know, stuff some folks would like to claim are the relatively recent concerns of feckless rabblerousing young folk. The latter letter writer says that if she had known about the baked in sexism she would probably never even tried AD&D. So I am glad fewer people have to grapple with that choice and can feel included.
So yeah, the balance has tipped towards greater awareness and sensitivity in the last decade or so, even as the rules have embraced an over-the-top chockablock heroic fantasy that is not to my taste. I am not saying those things are necessarily connected (they certainly don't have to be), but that if change is inevitable (which it is), I am glad for the changes in the community assumptions of appropriateness because the older assumptions are a lot harder and emotionally draining to deal with than any set of rules one may like or not like (except, of course for the possibility of rules that reify the non-inclusive attitudes - of which there are decidedly fewer, if not completely absent).
Tangentially related, I am writing an overview of this issue of Dragon for the Dragon Mag Monday feature of HOW-I-RUN-IT.com, which should be live in a week or three depending on life.
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