The New Roleplay

So, we've seen a lot of push back against the 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. Whether it's the art, or the inclusion of a 'consent' form, or certain text, there's a huge cry against "woke culture" and "politics in gaming".

Yeah. There has been a change in gaming. And yeah, it falls under "woke" and "politics". There's another way to look at it, though. It's accepting that there's people beyond what's normally seen in fantasy, and that there's a diversity of cultures, beliefs, and people. It's stepping outside of the old stereotype of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and accepting that the world is large and complicated, and that people are also complicated.

And it's always been political.

But we'll get to that in a minute.

So. You're seeing orcs that aren't thuggish barbarians and shamans.
That's good. Because societies can change, and it's a very tired stereotype. Why can't orcs have a disciplined, progressive society? One that's pushing forward, and advancing in technology and culture? It's like saying humanity should always be depicted in the stone age. It makes no sense.

You're seeing unexpected food showing up in a Heroes' Feast. Tacos, and sushi, and whatever.
That's good. Because why should the food be from only a single culture? Was the spell designed to do "only European-themed food"? Does the spell magically change what it provides based on the ethnicity of the caster? Or is it by region? If you're in Kara Tur, will it only make Asian cuisine? Or does the caster have to be from Kara Tur and it makes Asian cuisine regardless of where he goes or what he wants to do??

People complained about wheelchairs in D&D. Wheelchairs have existed for centuries in some way, shape, or form. It's not like it's a recent invention. Does this mean all dungeons should be accessible by wheelchair? Of course not. But it also makes you think ... why was the dungeon made the way it was made? And why can't someone who's wheelchair-bound adventure?

"Because the PC party wouldn't take someone like that, they're a liability."

That's a choice.
Or, the party can go, "yeah, we've known this guy for ages, he's one of us, so we're going to accept him even like this". Just like they'd accept someone who's missing an eye, or a hand. Or if a older brother decides not to abandon his younger sister because there's no home to go back to. Or maybe a young noble wants to go out, and the PCs are hired to keep him alive - and no, they can't force him to not adventure.

Yeah. Sure. There's going to be stairs or whatever. They can navigate it. Do you pay attention in game to every staircase the PCs go up and down? If not, there's no reason you need to pay extra attention to a character in a wheelchair going up and down, unless the PCs are being chased. In other words: unless it becomes a story beat. If it isn't a story beat, you can presume the PCs are doing the work to get the character up and down. Just like you can presume the PCs go to the bathroom, or change in and out of armour, or polish and sharpen their weapons and upkeep their armour. If it's not important to the plot that this stuff is paid attention to, you ignore it and game on Unless you consider losing an eye to suddenly be so bad the character can't function.

So, let us tell you about the tables we've run.

We have had / have currently:

• A character who was born the wrong sex. She went on a quest and got a divine miracle done to correct this issue -- knowing that this would impact her relationship with her girlfriend.
• A character who's autistic and has a stutter. They get easily confused by the events that go on around them, and often need to be guided or have things carefully explained to them.
• A character who would change into a new person every few days. Different sex, eye colour, ethnicity, body type. They had no control over this, and stopped considering themselves 'her'.
• Two trans characters who woke up in a body that matched their gender, which they were overjoyed about - while in the same game two people woke up in bodies not like their old ones, and are having to come to terms with it.
• A character who had reincarnate cast on them. They were an android (Pathfinder) and came back as a half-drow. She suffered severe dysphoria and fell into a deep depression until they were able to get her an android body again.
• A character who barely had enough strength to lift a staff, let alone walk, and who had no constitution to speak of. She rode a pony everywhere, and needed people to help her get around. (Str 3, Con 5). Only survivor of her first adventure, and became a favourite of the next party to have her. Nobody even thought to say she shouldn't adventure.
  
•  A character who couldn't speak common. Their nation is so divorced from where the campaign is set, that they have no common language with anyone else except for a single cleric. They both could speak celestial, and that was it. Also the difference in cultures was a constant shock to this character -- they stood out, and just couldn't comprehend some of the practices done in the 'core setting'.
  
• Speaking of reincarnate. A guy dies, gets reincarnated, and comes back as a girl. From a completely different ethnicity. (This was rolled at random). The character rolled with it, and wound up accepting the shift. Never bothered to get it 'corrected'.
  

This isn't forced on the players. Most of the time, they go 'yeah, I'm doing this for the new game', and our response is 'sure, okay', and we game on. A good reason for this is because they know we don't have any issue with any of this, and in fact welcome this kind of diverse RP. The players will make characters from different cultures, different nations, different faiths, and don't even bat an eye through any of it.

So, here's the thing.
It's a lot easier to remove something from a game that you don't want, than it would be to put something into a game that you do. You don't want wheelchairs in your game? Remove them. You don't want civilized orcs? Change it. That's fine, it's your table, do what you want. But the thing is, 'out of sight, out of mind' is a very real thing.

Which is why artwork and descriptions are important. Blue Rose talked about marriage laws and romance in their setting, because it stands out as an important part of the culture. It's what makes it not a stereotypical European-Fantasy setting.

Shadowrun, in a setting book, described how homosexuality and transexuality just isn't that big a deal. Not with elves and orcs and trolls, and transhumanism, cybernetics, spike babies, and everything else out there. Society's adapted, and most people are more inclined to go 'yeah, so what', than have an issue with any of that. But that had to be said, or the players and game master may never have thought of that.

(Case in point, one of the players had their character loudly declare one of our characters was in a gay relationship, thinking it'd be a point of contention. Everyone around the character looked at them like they'd grown a second head.)

But if it hadn't been written down, nobody at our table would have thought about just how much society had changed when it came to sexuality.

Our partner looks through the art and setting detail before they put pen to paper to make a character. They look for artwork to show them what the world is like, the cultures are like, and the kind of people are there. Having a diverse range helps them come up with interesting characters that are also diverse at times. It's important to show players a range of things, so that it can help them think out of the box. Also...

So, we were going to talk politics...

Art is political. Gaming is the art of storytelling. Thus, gaming is also political. It always has been, and it always will be. Every table brings politics into their game, whether they want to or not, whether they know it or not.

You are a product of your society, your media, the religions around you, the politics of your time, and the culture wars that take place -- the push and shove of identity, beliefs, values, this is all part of your psychological makeup. And it doesn't magically go away when you game. You might not mirror this stuff in the game world, but that doesn't mean it doesn't influence it.

And "well, these games have always been accepting". That's bullshit. When you crack open a game book and every single character in it is white, that is not accepting. And yes, that is a political choice. If the guys in the art are all beefcake power fantasy, and the girls are all lithe and beautiful and there as cheesecake, that's not accepting. And yes, that's political.

If the game holds to Christian values (1e AD&D) as "right", if 90% of the characters in the art are male, if everyone's physically fit and whole, if the PC's society is Euro-fantasy and seen as 'right' while other cultures are depicted as 'wrong' or 'strange' or 'backwards', it isn't accepting. And yes, it's political.

It is establishing a set of values for what is 'normal', and 'acceptable'. And yes, a player could step outside of those lines, but first they have to think of it, and second, the game master has to accept it as part of the setting.

And yes, there have been cases of "well, since you're a girl, you're the healer", because the game master couldn't comprehend a woman going out and being a fierce warrior or cunning rogue for some strange reason. Just like some girls were told that if they're playing Ghostbusters with the boys, they're the one that sits at the telephone to take calls, because only boys get to go out and hunt ghosts - that's what was in the movie, after all.

Yeah. Stuff that's actually happened.

And yeah. That's political.
Because it's using the values and culture and ideals of the Now and having it influence the game setting and what's considered "normal". And Art has always been a reflection and statement on society, past or present.

"Well, if I do this, how's that political?"
Because you made a choice on the matter. By saying 'I did this, it isn't political', you made it political. Because you're trying to exclude something. Trying to force it to be otherwise, is just being disingenuous.

"If everything is political, then nothing is political."  No, quoting the Incredibles isn't going to work, either. Because politics are diverse, not uniform. There is a clash of ideals, a push and shove, give and take of beliefs and culture and desires. So yes, art is political, and gaming is a form of art.

Which all circles around to this: representation matters. Diversity matters. And yes, it needs to be depicted, and yes, the players and game master need to be told, otherwise, they might not think of it. You might consider yourself savvy enough to come up with this stuff without prodding (hell, our table does it, as we've explained) -- but we're not all players, and you have to accept there's a wide diversity of age, and experience, and culture where some of this stuff isn't even a ping on their mental radar.

We started gaming when we were 12 years old.
We had no fucking clue what 'gay' meant, and didn't know 'lesbian' or 'trans' even existed. We never thought of characters being anything but stereotypical European fantasy, because that's all that was in the rulebooks. We didn't know anything about different beliefs, nothing about other cultures. It would take us a decade to assimilate that knowledge, and another decade to be able to put it into a game world.

New players shouldn't need to have the same struggles we did. They should be able to crack open a book and be amazed at new concepts and new cultures and new ways to look at things. It's a transformative experience when it happens. (1e Oriental Adventures was a shock, and again, it took us over 10 years to 'get' Japanese culture enough to feel comfortable running it -- because Oriental Adventures did an incredibly shitty job of explaining it).

So. Yes.
Gaming is changing. And this is a Good Thing.
Sure, you might not like the new direction, but nobody's busting down your door and forcing you to have it in your game worlds. But what it is doing is opening the door for people who were for quite a long time pushed to the margins, or were afterthoughts, or were depicted in some pretty shitty ways. (Rifts Africa, anyone?)