Hello friends!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the past few years, and especially recently, there\u2019s been a lot of discussion in online circles about colonialism, racism and D&D. Last year there was a 100+ page thread on RPGnet about decolonizing D&D. Lately, I\u2019ve also been stumbling across apologia that attempts to disavow the existence of these things in D&D. Given Torchbearer\u2019s<\/em> debt to D&D, this is a topic Luke and I take very seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want to be very clear that I agree that D&D is embedded with colonialist and racist assumptions. I want to be equally clear that I\u2019m not claiming Dave and Gary were racist or that D&D is some crypto-white-supremacist work. What I am saying is that unconscious support for colonialism and racism is systemic to American culture and so it is part of D&D whether Dave and Gary intended it to be or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a part of Torchbearer <\/em>too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I say \u2018colonialism,\u2019 here\u2019s what I mean: Controlling a land, occupying it with settlers and exploiting it economically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the heart of the American story–going west and taming the savage frontier. Except that \u201csavage frontier\u201d was not empty. It was full of indigenous civilizations. The original American colonies grew on settlements and farms that had been tended by indigenous people for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In D&D (and Torchbearer<\/em>) players assemble their adventurers and send them out into the unknown (to them at least). There, they fight monsters and seize treasure to bring back to civilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t really need to even squint to see that these stories are cut from the same cloth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But orcs and gnolls and drow are evil, right? That\u2019s the difference, right? They have to be killed or driven off to protect civilization from their evil and rapaciousness. That\u2019s a good thing! I understand that argument, especially in a game that explicitly tags peoples with a good or evil alignment. I\u2019d give that point more credence if the same justifications hadn\u2019t been used for genocide, enslavement and forced migration of indigenous peoples all around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fellow game designer James Mendez Hodes<\/a> has written on these topics at length. I highly recommend you check out this<\/a> and this<\/a> to start if you want to delve deeper. James also cites this piece<\/a>, by Paul Sturtevant, which closely examines the concept of \u2018race\u2019 in D&D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look, the point is that D&D is problematic. Torchbearer<\/em> is too, for many of the same reasons. There is a hateful narrative embedded in these games. Does that mean I think you shouldn\u2019t play D&D (or Torchbearer<\/em>)? No! Do I think it\u2019s bad if you enjoy them? No! I do, however, hope that you\u2019ll think about the narratives that you\u2019re creating with your games and characters and try to minimize or rehabilitate the harmful aspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Mendez\u2019s second article linked to above, he provides some excellent ideas for reclaiming and rehabilitating the stories of orcs, which I think provides a good starting point. How would you decolonize your Torchbearer <\/em>games?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello friends! For the past few years, and especially recently, there\u2019s been a lot of discussion in online circles about colonialism, racism and D&D. Last year there was a 100+ page thread on RPGnet about decolonizing D&D. Lately, I\u2019ve also … Continue reading