Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

That's the real problem, and whining about it being "woke" is a bullshit reason to freak out about it. Plenty of games have black people in them and it isn't woke. Look at l4d2. It would be weird if it didn't have black people in it considering where it is.
A lot of it is outrage baiting. There are so many choices for entertainment out there, you need to do something to get noticed, and negative attention is better than no attention at all. Generating bullshit outrage and astroturfed controversy is how you get the Internet to pay attention to your otherwise mediocre product. The alternative is that you don't get noticed at all and nobody buys your product. Also see here.
 
just turning every redhead woman into a groid.
That's not because of woke, they're just dyslexic.
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It didn't take long until people started cashing in on the Ukraine war, including tabletop gaming. How soon until someone cashes in on the Israel vs Hamas war? Also, what are some games that I play as coded an Israeli? Because playing a coded Palestinian sounds gay as fuck.
It's really pathetic that these people can't relate to or understand these conflicts unless they're filtered through the lens of pop culture.
 
That's the real problem, and whining about it being "woke" is a bullshit reason to freak out about it. Plenty of games have black people in them and it isn't woke. Look at l4d2. It would be weird if it didn't have black people in it considering where it is.

It's "woke" when it's ridiculous, like replacing Doomguy with a groid for no reason at all or just turning every redhead woman into a groid.

Woke isn't a negro existing. It's putting negroes in places they don't belong in order to push The Message.

Not woke: The protagonist of a game set in modern Los Angeles is black, and this is portrayed in the game as normal.
Woke: The protagonist of a game set in feudal Japan is black, and this is portrayed in the game as normal.
 
Woke isn't a negro existing. It's putting negroes in places they don't belong in order to push The Message.

Not woke: The protagonist of a game set in modern Los Angeles is black, and this is portrayed in the game as normal.
Woke: The protagonist of a game set in feudal Japan is black, and this is portrayed in the game as normal.
It is all contextual. If you are making a game where you play as Yasuke, he will be black. If you make a quarter of the population of feudal Japan black, then it’s pushing the Message.

If a game wanted to include different groups of people at a time where they would historically not be majorly present in, the developers have to provide a reason for that inclusion. There are tons of interesting bits of history that provide a reason. Asians in 1800s Britain? Delegation from China, a British diplomat’s mistress and her family. Africans in Renaissance Italy? Impressed sailor on a merchant ship, visitors from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

I have no knowledge if these are events that happened in history but they are plausible given the time periods. It just requires a little bit of effort.
 
Yasuke's presence in Japan was not normal in any way whatsoever, and portraying it as normal means you have an agenda.
Yeah, he wasn’t the norm, that’s why he stands out. It is why people know about him.

I don’t get what you mean by portraying him as normal. He existed. We have evidence that he was in Japan.
 
One black dude in Japan does not mean that black people were normal in that country at that time, in the same way that .1% of trannies existing does not make it normal for them to be inserted into every group of 5+ people in media. There's a wide gulf between a vanishingly tiny outlier existing and them existing in a number sufficient to be commonplace. That's the fallacy of people being like, "Oh there were totally black vikings so it's cool for 20% of the extras in Thor being black along with some of their gods." There might be A black viking somewhere back when, but I guarantee you they did not break a single digit percentage.
 
Yeah, he wasn’t the norm, that’s why he stands out. It is why people know about him.

I don’t get what you mean by portraying him as normal. He existed. We have evidence that he was in Japan.
He also didn't do anything except fight some people in a house for an undetermined amount of time and then get sold back into slavery. Anyone making a game about him is bound to be pushing an agenda that he was somehow important or notable beyond just being an African in Japan for all of two years. There's no other discernable reason to focus on him in any media.
 
>Starks and Stannis on opposite sides despite Ned actively supporting Stannis's claim to the throne and Stannis and Robb never openly coming to battle.
This image is shit.
Also, what are some games that I play as coded an Israeli? Because playing a coded Palestinian sounds gay as fuck.

If you want to be on the side of the empire, play any of the Warhammer TTRPG's, 40k or fantasy, besides Black Crusade.
 
He also didn't do anything except fight some people in a house for an undetermined amount of time and then get sold back into slavery. Anyone making a game about him is bound to be pushing an agenda that he was somehow important or notable beyond just being an African in Japan for all of two years. There's no other discernable reason to focus on him in any media.
I think you could do a lot with his character in the hands of a good team. Yasuke is a fish out of water and so has to learn about the strange foreign land he lives in. The fact that we have little information about his life could be useful in developing a story that shows his progression.

We know that he served Oda Nobunaga as a member of his court, permitted to carry a sword and possess land. Yasuke fought for Nobunaga and appears he would have served his son if not for being disposed of his sword by the Akechi and forced to return to the Jesuits.

There is a story here about loyalty, betrayal, honor, and clashing cultures at one of the most important periods of Japanese history. The problem is that you need good writers.
 
I think you could do a lot with his character in the hands of a good team. Yasuke is a fish out of water and so has to learn about the strange foreign land he lives in. The fact that we have little information about his life could be useful in developing a story that shows his progression.

We know that he served Oda Nobunaga as a member of his court, permitted to carry a sword and possess land. Yasuke fought for Nobunaga and appears he would have served his son if not for being disposed of his sword by the Akechi and forced to return to the Jesuits.

There is a story here about loyalty, betrayal, honor, and clashing cultures at one of the most important periods of Japanese history. The problem is that you need good writers.
He served Nobunaga as a sword bearer and was largely considered Nobunaga's pet to the point that when he surrendered following Nobunaga's death, he wasn't even considered human by the Japanese. Any idea of a story about loyalty and betrayal, etc. has to ignore the fact that he was in Nobunaga's service for all of a year and did very little of note in that time.
Most of his story is as a Jesuit missionary doing so little the other Jesuits barely mention him. And because it'd have to be largely fictional, I think the choice of Yasuke serves primarily to push an agenda about a "Black Samurai". There were certainly more realistic and fleshed-out foreign samurai to choose from in those days anyways which aren't a dog-whistle for more immigration to Japan. Although, I suppose there's something in there akin to the Wire or ASOIAF where he is but one small POV character in a much larger web that could work.

In my opinion, you can tell that same story but much better about someone who did real things of note. Jules Brunet or any of the other Frenchmen who joined the Shogunate in its last days.
 
Yeah, he wasn’t the norm, that’s why he stands out. It is why people know about him.

I don’t get what you mean by portraying him as normal. He existed. We have evidence that he was in Japan.
Portraying him as "normal" would be if none of the Japanese characters ever mentioned or referred to him being an unusual sight in Meiji-era Japan. That's what people are complaining about.

That applies to white people, too. The entire point of Tom Cruise's arc in The Last Samurai was him going through the trouble of being accepted by the clan he was being held captive by. But even in the end, the Japanese didn't see him as "Japanese". He was still a white dude.

If you're going to make a story set in a time and place where people are highly homogeneous, and you include a character that is different (even if they're just a foreigner from a different culture that still looks the same as the general population), you should pay attention to that and think about how the locals would react to said character. A black guy in Meiji-era Japan would be seen as a curiosity. Some people wouldn't even want to touch him. He'd be called names and given (usually negative) titles. It could make for a really cool story about overcoming adversity and prejudice by proving one's worth and making allies with those who are able to look past appearances. But that kind of story is getting harder and harder to come about these days.
 
Portraying him as "normal" would be if none of the Japanese characters ever mentioned or referred to him being an unusual sight in Meiji-era Japan. That's what people are complaining about.

That applies to white people, too. The entire point of Tom Cruise's arc in The Last Samurai was him going through the trouble of being accepted by the clan he was being held captive by. But even in the end, the Japanese didn't see him as "Japanese". He was still a white dude.

If you're going to make a story set in a time and place where people are highly homogeneous, and you include a character that is different (even if they're just a foreigner from a different culture that still looks the same as the general population), you should pay attention to that and think about how the locals would react to said character. A black guy in Meiji-era Japan would be seen as a curiosity. Some people wouldn't even want to touch him. He'd be called names and given (usually negative) titles. It could make for a really cool story about overcoming adversity and prejudice by proving one's worth and making allies with those who are able to look past appearances. But that kind of story is getting harder and harder to come about these days.
It's one of those things I miss in current year, along with the "woman warrior in a world where that's not a common thing" trope.
 
It's really pathetic that these people can't relate to or understand these conflicts unless they're filtered through the lens of pop culture.
That’s been a thing for so long and the only way they can digest and process what’s going on in the world. They can’t grasp reality because their minds have been warped by years and years of propaganda laced media consumerism.

Portraying him as "normal" would be if none of the Japanese characters ever mentioned or referred to him being an unusual sight in Meiji-era Japan. That's what people are complaining about.

That applies to white people, too. The entire point of Tom Cruise's arc in The Last Samurai was him going through the trouble of being accepted by the clan he was being held captive by. But even in the end, the Japanese didn't see him as "Japanese". He was still a white dude.

If you're going to make a story set in a time and place where people are highly homogeneous, and you include a character that is different (even if they're just a foreigner from a different culture that still looks the same as the general population), you should pay attention to that and think about how the locals would react to said character. A black guy in Meiji-era Japan would be seen as a curiosity. Some people wouldn't even want to touch him. He'd be called names and given (usually negative) titles. It could make for a really cool story about overcoming adversity and prejudice by proving one's worth and making allies with those who are able to look past appearances. But that kind of story is getting harder and harder to come about these days.
This is because people don’t want to think about how a black Person would stick out in a homogenized nonblack society. They don’t want to think about the adversity and struggles such a person would have to deal with because much like with companies like WotC, they get the majority of their understanding of foreign cultures and history from Disney and marvel.

They don’t want to have to be faced with the aspect of things like the protagonist being discriminated against or being disliked because they’re different because they think having such things means that the producer and consumers are advocating for it. That’s a huge part of why dark sun is so taboo among soylennials that like modern D&D. You can’t include such themes or implications of the existence of such themes because in their minds such implications can be seen as supporting them, rather than giving an understanding of the world or whatever.

Personally I can’t stand the kind of shit that people with Disney brains seem to enjoy. It’s always sanitary and there’s always more effort put into trying to make it inclusive than ensure it makes sense or is good. I hate the trope of a group of ragtag rejects coming together and trying to do something because it gets used so much in that kind of media. That’s what really made me dislike wolfenstein: the new colossus. It wasn’t the “le hecking nazees are evil”, it was the insufferable “here’s your friends: a joyless black lady with her mulatto baby and her pet white boy, a fatass German lady who hooks up with the token black guy, a Jewish scientist, a retard and his wrangler and a bunch of others to fill up the diversity quota”. There wasn’t anything else to any of these characters and the game could’ve been better if they were never in it. That’s the kind of slop they like to eat up and it’s boring as hell.
 
If you're going to make a story set in a time and place where people are highly homogeneous, and you include a character that is different (even if they're just a foreigner from a different culture that still looks the same as the general population), you should pay attention to that and think about how the locals would react to said character. A black guy in Meiji-era Japan would be seen as a curiosity. Some people wouldn't even want to touch him. He'd be called names and given (usually negative) titles. It could make for a really cool story about overcoming adversity and prejudice by proving one's worth and making allies with those who are able to look past appearances. But that kind of story is getting harder and harder to come about these days.
Actually it seems that if there's only a handful of "different" people in a country the position seems to be one of amused tolerance and acceptance or at least this is what I've gathered from the historical travelogues I've read a prominent example is this one:
 
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