Dungeons & Dragons: Wizards of the Coast Removes Problematic Lore - Wizards of the Coast continues to excise potentially problematic content from Dungeons and Dragons books to address issues of system racism.

Last edited:
My friend has been talking about wanting to get into D&D lately, but seeing shit like this makes me think what's the point

Play old D&D. You can buy the books - even from WotC - and print them out via print on demand, or Lulu or whatever. Old D&D had demons, devils, and naked chicks in the books. Orcs were evil, and Gary Gygax gave no fucks about it.
 
Generally, canon lore and characterization is a skeleton that you have to build off of and around when you're running a campaign. Players can surprise you in all kinds of ways, so without meticulous planning and a reasonable ability to fly by the seat of your pants, you're going to get caught flat-footed by the choices the people at the table make ("what's the Drow high priestess's favorite food?")

That's the thing Wizards doesn't get about these lore changes: this isn't Magic, where the competitive environment means that rules have to be clear and strictly enforced. This is a social, cooperative game that people can (and frequently do) customize however they like. Saying "ok the Drow aren't an evil matriarchy anymore" has no teeth because you can't actually make the players comply.

Or maybe they do realize how empty this is and are just making a cynical play for woke points.
No no let them keep going.
Don't tell them that the true secret to people choosing races is based on that race's stats AND their "personality examples" the two things they yeeted from the splatbooks.

I want them to realize trying to make everyone into a bland human will mean nobody will ever use those characters.
After all, true RP endgame was always human anyways, as the character is the forefront not their race WoTC.

Also I see they're trying desperately to shill Strixhaven, I see three twitch DnDers shilling it now.
 
It's fucking sad to see what D&D has become. They went full woke. They can pretty much wokify it as much as they want and not have to worry, becuase Critical Role will keep pushing new sales no matter how badly they sully its legacy.
 
  • Feels
Reactions: Syaoran Li
Like you ever gonna use all these generic monsters and bland setting provided by D&D creators "from the box".
I literally bought the Starter Kit that claimed everything you needed to start a game was in the box.

The instructions upon opening then say get 5-7 friends to start playing. I have never been so deceived in my life.
 
Or the worst of all "What's the Drow high priestess's slave's name?" I don't fucking know dude, I'm a DM not a fantasy name generator.
That's what charts are for.
Also I see they're trying desperately to shill Strixhaven, I see three twitch DnDers shilling it now.
Strixhaven? The setting with five guilds and a ton of races that are color-aligned? Umm, sweaty, don't you know that making races color specific is like, super racist and totally perpetuates stereotypes?
 
You know, this is the absolute worst part of the sanitation. Nobody, and I mean nobody, ever associated orcs and blacks prior to everyone screeching about how orcs are actually black people. And now that they've declared orcs are blacks... its open season for the jokes. And no, soyboy "journalists" aren't people.

40k orks do have african warlord hoopties, but they started out with a nazi asthetic that later got replaced by african one.

Warcraft orks had some african-american elements, but they were supposed to be the outcast good guys so....

All that said, poor orcs and monkeys don't deserve these comparisons!
 
40k orks do have african warlord hoopties, but they started out with a nazi asthetic that later got replaced by african one.

Warcraft orks had some african-american elements, but they were supposed to be the outcast good guys so....

All that said, poor orcs and monkeys don't deserve these comparisons!
I wouldn’t call it a “Nazi” aesthetic, it was germany military influences in the British punk movement. And those influences weren’t replaced, there are just different tribes of Orks.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Male Idiot
I'm almost afraid to ask but did the Hobgoblins fly under the radar for this round of the cuckening? Brutal military race that is implied/hinted to have made bugbears and regular goblins through breeding programs to be slave races.
40k orks do have african warlord hoopties, but they started out with a nazi asthetic that later got replaced by african one.

Warcraft orks had some african-american elements, but they were supposed to be the outcast good guys so....

All that said, poor orcs and monkeys don't deserve these comparisons!
O.G. 40k ORKZ were based on the oikers and hooligans of the day. it's a race of norf f.c. at it's heart but it's an easy mistake to make. (they are also the master race of 40k and the only ones enjoying themselves)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kulmeister
My friend has been talking about wanting to get into D&D lately, but seeing shit like this makes me think what's the point
D&D is one of those games where literally none of the official shit matters. You can play D&D with your friends using exclusively free, online resources (which are, mind you, way more convenient than guidebooks anyways), and if you don’t like a dumb rule, you can just ignore it or change it.
 
You can literally just play Pathfinder lmao The only benefit to playing DND in modern times in DND Beyond but even then you have to buy digital copies of books you probably already fucking own with the risk of WOTC just randomly removing lore on a whim always looming around the corner.
 
Strixhaven? The setting with five guilds and a ton of races that are color-aligned? Umm, sweaty, don't you know that making races color specific is like, super racist and totally perpetuates stereotypes?
That's Ravnica. Strixhaven is gay Harry Potter shit.
 
I don't own Neo-Tribes, so fair point there.

But since I actually agree with that stance, and the criticism is as much against supremacist mindsets. Also, slagging on "Me First" goes against quite a bit of right wing dogma.


That one's just going after typical uncontrolled greed, however.
Context matters, this isn't a condemnation of "Me First" in its entirety but applied specifically to cultural chicanery. Remember Animal Farm? "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"? That was a criticism of this exact shit, Orwell himself was a democratic socialist - until he gave up on politics entirely, I believe - but the issue in question is absolutely a left wing or progressive dogma. Especially since he was criticizing the USSR at the time of writing. The particular issues at play in that little snippet are tactics that the left use today and have since the 60's at the very least. Black Panther Party absolutely fits this particular "Me First" but I wouldn't call them right wing, would you?

Any college campus can show you that much. They preach a big game, but it's to get their name out there and to feel bigger than others. When actually pushed to act they back down fast when they realize it hurts them. Like when they were asked about wealth redistribution and they were like, "Yeah, everyone should have equal footing." but when asked if they'd be okay if the university enacted a grade redistribution to help people get better job prospects it's suddenly, "Well, I worked hard for my grade." They want you to sacrifice and not them. That's what that particular "Me First" is referring to.

But we can both agree that what WotC is doing is absolutely retarded, right?
 
Context matters, this isn't a condemnation of "Me First" in its entirety but applied specifically to cultural chicanery. Remember Animal Farm?
One of my favorite books of all time.
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"? That was a criticism of this exact shit, Orwell himself was a democratic socialist - until he gave up on politics entirely, I believe
No, he never gave up on it. I've read his entire body of work. Nobody with a brain cell working would read Road to Wigan Pier or Down and Out in London and think he was some sort of right winger or preaching of the dangers of left wing politics.
- but the issue in question is absolutely a left wing or progressive dogma. Especially since he was criticizing the USSR at the time of writing.
He hated Bolshevism. Not left wing politics. Snowball the pig was an ardent socialist, and he was not only portrayed sympathetically, in the story his ideas were actually working and made life better for the farm.

The man took up arms against the right wing in Spain for goodness sakes.
The particular issues at play in that little snippet are tactics that the left use today and have since the 60's at the very least. Black Panther Party absolutely fits this particular "Me First" but I wouldn't call them right wing, would you?
Which phase? The self defense phase where they were literally used as a reason BY THE NRA to lobby for new gun control laws, which by the way, the right wing at the time was all for, or the new Black Panthers who's stupid asses were harassing left wing voters into voting for the candidate they were already going to vote for?
But we can both agree that what WotC is doing is absolutely retarded, right?
Sweet jeebus, of course. Hell, we're passing retarded and going towards sheer batshittery.
 
Just gonna spoiler this shit not to clog up the thread. As for on-topic regarding it... the same "Me First" fuckers in that little snippet happen to be running WotC right now. Which we seem to agree on.
No, he never gave up on it. I've read his entire body of work. Nobody with a brain cell working would read Road to Wigan Pier or Down and Out in London and think he was some sort of right winger or preaching of the dangers of left wing politics.
Weird, I remember reading him becoming a nihilist in regards to politics later in life. That it's all fucked.

He hated Bolshevism. Not left wing politics. Snowball the pig was an ardent socialist, and he was not only portrayed sympathetically, in the story his ideas were actually working and made life better for the farm.

The man took up arms against the right wing in Spain for goodness sakes.
I didn't say he hated left wing politics, I said he was criticizing the USSR and to which I should have expressed he hated totalitarianism. Which is why he fought against the fascist party in Spain after he fought the Soviet-backed communists there. He greatly loved freedom and his brand of socialism was class based and not race based as it metastasized in the 80's. I'm fairly certain he criticized race based socialism like that one guy during Occupy where he said race has no place in the movement. That's how it turned out on the farm, you got Karl Marx - who Snowball was supposed to be the allegory for I believe - and then you got the idiots taking up the mantle after - now I think Karl Marx was an idiot regardless, but eh - where they take the movement to mean what they want it to.

So you ended up with movements that was essentially socialism, but for race where status is redistributed based on your ethnicity. Which that snippet was about, it was about racial agitators seeking a redistribution of power in their ethnicity's favor. Much like we have to deal with now. Shit we wouldn't have to deal with if we just stopped talking about race and lived in a post-racial society.

Which phase? The self defense phase where they were literally used as a reason BY THE NRA to lobby for new gun control laws, which by the way, the right wing at the time was all for, or the new Black Panthers who's stupid asses were harassing left wing voters into voting for the candidate they were already going to vote for?
They still think they're Marxists so you tell me. I mean, Che Guevara had them pegged, but they still thought and think they're Marxists all the same. Just because they were being dumb idiots doesn't change their political affiliation. 2nd Amendment shit isn't exclusively right wing either, in fact a fair number of communists are for it until they're in power. A lot of people are for it until they're in power.
Sweet jeebus, of course. Hell, we're passing retarded and going towards sheer batshittery.
Yay~! Common ground, let's have a picnic!
 
I know Blood Axes still got a more german asthetic as well as medals, but it is not universal for all orks.
 
Back