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>Previous thread:
What's the best way to handle problematic topics such as sexism and colonialism in DnD? Some of my players prefer not to encounter it, but to some whitewashing history and ignoring struggles of opressed peoples is insulting and demeaning. What's your opinion?

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I come to tackle grandiose social issues in my make believe tabletop game filled with rape frogs

It's a fictional world. But if your players don't like pretend sexism I'm surprised they don't like pretend violence.

Americans love pretend violence and hate pretend sex. I'm told Europe is the opposite.

>Magic items aren't an expectation in 5e's design
>martials literally can't deal unresisted damage to higher-level monsters without magic items

realy dinks ur dink

Talk with your group

Monks can

I have a part of my homebrew world that is sand/desert. Its inhabited by mostly black people. I've had black pc's who have played and never heard anything about it.

But that could just be the age group I'm playing with, we're all in our late 20s.

I guess if someone had an issue with it I'd probably talk to them outside of the game and maybe explain more about and such.

Don't know what to do about the sexism part.

>Magic items aren't an expectation in 5e's design
I want this meme to die. Nobody runs a campaign without magic items. Official campaigns are filled with them too. But they can't be just bought in a marketplace like in 3.5, and you are in no way entitled to those Bracers of Defense that you want.

EK can.

No, bringing up magical items into any discussion means you lose automatically. There's no GUARANTEE that you'll have a +1 weapon at level 10. Maybe your DM will be bad and give you one, but probably not.

>It's generic and trite
The only thing generic and trite are the criticisms of FR here. They're always the same and they're always wrong.
>ugh all my campaigns are set in the blandest area of the Sword Coast and we treat every nation there like it's medieval England, why is this setting so BOOOORING

Forgotten Realms is a kitchen sink setting. It's got just about fucking everything. If you want something interesting, you just have to go to that area of the world. Don't get a bug up your ass about everywhere being standard medieval English fantasy if you're just chilling out in Cormyr.

Go fight the barbarian horselords of the Utter East and uncover ancient Gauntlet-style monster spawners that pump out golems made of blood.

Deal with political intrigue in the evil magocracy of Thay, where slaves and skeletons labor side-by-side on the street, across from crazy religious fundamentalists who DON'T like undead but DO like burning everyone.

Experience the bleakest "shit fantasy" of the Bloodstone Lands, where farming doesn't work, everything is a half-frozen marsh, everyone is an asshole, and you'll be eaten by five skeletons and eight worgs if you set foot outside of the thatch hut hommlet at night.

Deal with rabid isolationist forest Elves, rebellious lobstermen, and murderous crystals on the coasts of the Vilhon Reach, amidst the ruins of an ancient Psychic Roman Empire.

Wanna play Eberron? Halruua.

Wanna play Turok? Chult.

Wanna play Red Steel? Maztica.

Wanna play Dark Sun or Aladdin? Anauroch, Al-Qadim, or Calimshan.

Wanna play weeaboo nonsense or Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Various parts of Kara-Tur depending upon your preferred Asian persuasion.

Travel between the Spine of the World and the Plains of Purple Dust to uncover the origins of the Orcish race and reopen the farportals to usher in more of their kind or wage war upon another fucking planet.

Chat up the King of Tethyr and be invited to his palace ON THE FUCKING MOON.

If you're glorifying them they might have a point.

If you're using them as historical or ways to show villainy, then your players need to man the fuck up and stop being whiny bitches.

Personally? In the real world, I think that confronting these issues is very important. We can and should strive to better ourselves and our society constantly, and people who work against that - the KKK, neo-Nazis, the alt-right, and anyone who would willingly stand beside or speak positively either of those in an attempt to court their favor without regard for how (or, worse, precisely because it does) lend their causes legitimacy - should be treated as what they are: regressive at best, throwbacks at worst.

But at the table? This is a game, dude, I play games for escapism, so I don't want politics at the table - in either direction. DMs and players shouldn't use the game as their personal soapbox. Anything about a character should be thought up and taken simply at face value, and not as a statement. Everything should be seen in the context of the game, not reality.

For example, if I roll up a bisexual character, the concern should be "you just want to be able to seduce everyone you come across, you metagaming asshole", not "you're trying to make some kind of statement about social equality."

...

>but to some whitewashing history and ignoring struggles of opressed peoples is insulting and demeaning.
unless your setting takes place on earth, that argument isn't valid, as there is no "history" to whitewash. It's a fictional world full of fictional people.

>people fall for the bait question in OP
fools, all of you

That's only a problem if you're running into higher-level monsters that have damage resistance or immunity to nonmagical weapons. You might not be.

The statement is meant to be taken as "the math of the game does not innately require magic the way previous editions of D&D did", not "it's totally reasonable to expect an all-fighter, no-magic party to be able to defeat the Tarrasque."

>What's the best way to handle problematic topics such as sexism and colonialism in DnD?

Just run with it. A few sessions ago I had my players discover a brothel full of kids. This immediately made one of them walk out, but two more left when they discovered this was just one of a larger ring of human traffickers.

Anyone that gets upset by these topics can't differentiate reality from fiction and you shouldn't associate, let alone play D&D, with them.

>I ran my players out and you should too

You lost three players because of this?

Depends on how it was done, if it's seen as "Normal" in the setting I'd have a problem

if it's seen as a reprehensible act in the setting like it is in real life, I like it because it makes me hate the bad guys more.

First of all let me say that would be fun to run into, BUT, if you didn't tell them this is a dark setting with realistic issues like child sex trafficking and painted it like your average 5e game, then that is your fault because not everyone wants to deal with stuff like this in a high fantasy game

I know Tyranny of Dragons get shat on a lot, and for mostly good reason, but I still had a lot of fun running it and my players playing it.

My favourite encounter was the players being ferried on the back of an ancient silver to the dragon council summit and two adult dragons and a cult force attack them.

Fighting on the back of a dragon against another dragon. Everyone holding on as the silver flips and turns. Chucking cultists off or impaling them on dragon spikes

In my games ancients can be as big as football fields

>disemboweling sentient creatures, a-ok!
>human sex trafficking, NOPE I'M OUT!
user, it's better that they are gone.

>Anyone that gets upset by these topics can't differentiate reality from fiction

It's not about whether or not we can differentiate, jackass, it's about whether or not we want to have to deal with poignant reminders of the terrible nature of the real world IN our fictional escapist adventure. Particularly not D&D. It's also, in your case, probably the result of you failing to meet the player's expectations: most people who sit down at a table for D&D are expecting to play something akin to Lord of the Rings, not Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

>people get together to have fun fantasy elf game adventures and beat up world-conquering necromancers
>HEY GUYS IT'S TIME FOR THE CHILD RAPE CHAPTER
Sounds like you're a shit DM who can't play to his group and wants to force everyone to experience his magical realm.
actually it sounds like bullshit because this didn't happen

Lizardman Barbarian (Or other class, and if other, explain why)

Or Orc Paladin?

Having dark themes and evil people just makes being a paladin that much sweeter.

A light shines brighter in the dark.

CHILD sex trafficking. Big difference there. Seems like something you could write around or even just hint at.

Not just "Heres a child sex brothel"

>Lord of the Rings needed a sex trafficking chapter: the post.

Lizard folk druid because its one of the best class/race combos for lizardfolk

Why not a human, or a dwarf?

Eh

Thing is I like bad guys to make you want to hate them.

Killing innocents and wanting to take over the world doesn't really hit any notes with me.

Why not Lizardman Paladin?

Heaven forbid villains are depicted doing bad things.

Yeah. I was pretty graphic, but it was supposed to be disgusting and really give them motivation to go full Frank Castle on them. I think the worst I did was have a little girl offer herself to the party out of habit.

This is the same group of players that always leaves one monster alive to torture later, even when I directly tell him it doesn't know anything.

>D&D is only lighthearted fantasy

How boring can you be? Gritty urban campaigns are great.

Congratulations on the worst OP question I've ever seen

Lizardmen barbarians can't combine their natural armor and barbarian armored defense because fuck logic so I'd suggest not wasting a racial feature

Fuck off, Virt.

>i can't believe anyone reads Harry Potter
>there's a secret race of magical people and they have mind control, polymorphing, and invisibility spells but no one uses it for sexual adventures or subjugating the mundane race
>completely unrealistic
Maybe your players were turned off by the requirement that they buy the Book of Erotic Fantasy to play at your table

yes child sex trafficking, but still, you don't bat an eye when your character cuts down his hundredth bandit because they dare try to take your shit.
I'm not saying you NEED to have it in your story, I'm saying it's a little ridiculous to get all bent out of shape about it, when your character kills people as a living.

You were told correctly. Aereolas are strictly forbidden in the land of the free

True, but I was thinking Barbarian because after doing a quick readover on them it'd seem cool to play the "Savage warrior", but Druid sounds kinda nice too.

Did Human Fighter as my character before this, Dwarf Wizard before that, and now I want to try something non-PHB.

That does sound interesting, though I don't know if I want to or not.

Wait what? Ah, man that sucks.

>Gritty urban campaigns are great
Remember that chapter in ASOIAF where Arya was violently raped by twenty men for fifteen pages?
Wait, no...

>This is the same group of players that always leaves one monster alive to torture later, even when I directly tell him it doesn't know anything.
Still two completely different things, like I said, I'd have fun with it, but if you sprang this on them completely out of nowhere. I'd at least understand why they'd walk out

Yeah, but there are ways to make the players hate the villain without resorting to child sex. Rape is the cheapest, easiest, and laziest form of drama.

As a D&D-related counterpoint, the entire POINT of Ravenloft and Strahd is that by the time the players go to face Strahd, they should absolutely despise the guy, because he's been constantly and personally showing up to dress them down, hand them their asses, tempt them, taunt them, blue-ball them, and in all other ways be a complete asshole to them. And not once does Strahd have to rape anyone to do that.

>yes child sex trafficking, but still, you don't bat an eye when your character cuts down his hundredth bandit because they dare try to take your shit.

There are some men who need killing. There are no children who need brotheling.

"out of habit" you need to get some better habits.

Killing bandits in a table top RPG is normal. Child brothels are not a normal part of RPGs.

They have made moduels about killing bandits. Doubt they've made one about ol'dudes kiddie diddler fun park.

Lizardman Cleric of Light that wants everyone to have their own personal sun because sunbathing is the cure to all the world's problems.

>killing goblins and raping children are equivalent
How do you even type with all that edge

...

WHat about raping goblins and killing children?

As in the child was so broken she didn't know how to interact with people other than through the services she provides at the brothel. Might want to use a little more reading comprehension sometime.

I don't even buy this "you have to kill bandits" line. I play in games where laws, peacekeeping entities, and knowledgeable gods exist. My groups (regardless of which side of the table I'm on) don't murder highwaymen or back-alley thugs if it can be avoided.

>brotheling

my sides

If only

imgur.com/a/ExQrW

LOL!

/5eg/ lore!

Honestly Strahd doesn't make me want to hate him because he hasn't really DONE anything despicable, he's just a dick.

I want to fight awful awful people.

I can dig it.

>Discordfags are cancerous redditors
Who would have thought

>murderers can get the death penalty
>Pedophiles cannot
they aren't equivalent. Not that I necessarily agree with that.

This is completely correct.

>new fantasy book series came out and it's not popular yet
>got some good reviews by other writers, lemme check it out
>CHAPTER FOUR
>THE ENDLESS HORSE-DICKING OF A FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD
>eh, maybe not
There's better places to go if I wanted to read child rape fanfics.

>yes child sex trafficking, but still, you don't bat an eye when your character cuts down his hundredth bandit because they dare try to take your shit.

My character made it all the way to level 8 and only killed two people, one of them accidentally (she had meant to just knock him out, but the backstab did so much damage above the guy's maximum HP that the DM ruled that there was no way that the kobold could have lived). In D&D you don't NEED to kill things to get XP for defeating them, and when I wrote "Good" on my character sheet, I MEANT it.

Having said that, I'll admit that my character is probably fairly unique in that regard - but I hope that YOU'LL acknowledge that rape is usually regarded as a special kind of evil in most circles, completely distinct from killing folk and by a lot of people considered to be worse (whether they're right or wrong is subjective and isn't the point - the point is that the sentiment exists).

Plus, like I said, leaving aside any other moral concerns, rape is the cheapest and laziest form of drama.

Go back to tumblr.

Games aren't for handling "problematic issues" they're for rolling dice, roleplaying, and killing shit.

If you try to bring up "problematic issues" or "whitewashing history," sexism, or "colonialism" where it hasn't already come up at my table, you will be shown the door.

At this point I'm bent out of shape about people getting bent out of shape. Fuck me why does everyone need to goad these extreme reactions out of each other? Or is it me? Am I so used to the idea that everyone is just out to make some kind of statement about something that I start seeing them when they're not there.

Kek, laid-back lizardman of light. I like the sound of that, user. So far I'm thinking either Druid or Cleric, hmmm. Y'know, Nature Paladin Lizardman sounds kinda cool too. Hmmmmmm…

>Honestly Strahd doesn't make me want to hate him

Then your DM didn't do a good job.

It's not the first time this has been posted, either.

I DO acknowledge the sentiment exists, I just think it's hypocritical for most people to not bat an eye to murder and other violence, but you toss in sex (both consensual and non-consensual) and suddenly it's too far.

>deprivation of constitutional rights or conspiracy to do so, involving kidnapping or rape, or resulting in serious bodily harm OR death
Kidnap a child (or anyone) and rape (or beat) them to near-death and you can get the death penalty, user. In fact, it's the only crime other than treason and espionage that doesn't require a fatality for capital punishment to come into play.

Oh shit is the niggerposter back with his friend Not!niggerposter the totally real racist

Strahd, like most villains, is just a little cuckboi who is more pathetic than pitiable.

When I DMed, I accidentally made the head revenant guy even more dickish than Strahd. They actually attacked him mid-dialogue!

All he wants is a girlfriend but she keeps getting killed

What does strahd do to make me hate him? I've read curse of strahd but I haven't played it, what does he really do that makes you abhor him as opposed to think he's a bit of a dick?

Wellllll there IS a lot of violent rape in ASoIaF, so that kind of falls flat.

>rape is usually regarded as a special kind of evil in most circles, completely distinct from killing folk and by a lot of people considered to be worse

So if you want the villains to be completely reprehensible, they should do something more than just kill people.

While I agree that murder is worse than rape on a moral level, there's a reason we say things like "I'm gonna kill him" in anger and not "I'm gonna kidnap his daughter and rape her until she passes out".

Not sure about the rapin', but c'mon. Love me some gobbos.

The best way is to realize if you're not a confident enough storyteller to use touchy social issues to make a story that's both compelling and not hamhanded preaching then you shouldn't actually try

SHortstacks are pretty good

People don't bat an eye at combat in D&D for a few reasons.

1) It started as a combat game to begin with. Combat is expected by the basic premise of the game, so people are mentally "prepared";
2) Most people, particularly in Western society, do not have any real-world experience with life-or-death struggles, and so do not have a frame of reference. Conversely issues like sexual harassment and rape are common in the real world; even if a person has never personally experienced it, it's likely that they've met someone who has. Thus it's more "relatable", which makes it harder to deal with abstractly.

No, because rapists are sad little shits with inadequacy issues, not terrifying villains.

>not raping the father until he passes out
it's like they aren't even trying.

...

>not forcing the father to rape his daughter while you rape him

How do you make a terrifying villain then?

Certainly

But the villains aren't raping anyone. They're kidnapping people and forcing them into the sex trade.

Give them a motivation that isn't pitiable and have them perform actions that aren't derived from a position or feeling of weakness.

whitewashing what history, the history of my pretend world I have complete control over?

Although I think it's funny how WotC copped out of this whole topic by just erasing Maztica entirely from Faerun. I can't really blame them, any mention of that place is enough to get any old retards to sperg out about something involving that place.

As for myself this has been a factor in one or two campaigns. Usually involving lizard folk as the oppressed people. I just present the world and let the players make their own decisions, but when the oppressed are inhuman creatures the players tend to treat them as such. Until things get really bad. A discussion could be had about this factor if one felt like it.

What actions would they be?

Now, I don't have the stats, but i'm fairly certain there are more assaults than rapes in any given length of time.

>pitying rapists

WEW

OH LOOK EVERYONE, it's fuckin' Krongor the Destructor, Mr. King Shit Villain, but he's too fuckin' stupid to make a legitimate mercantile empire to pay for his army of hellish minions. Has to resort to bottom-barrel strange-peddling like a two-bit frontier town bar owner. And he can't even handle an operation with adult women; he's gotta use little kids who can't even fight back. Ooh, we're all quivering in our smallclothes. Look out, Krongor the Diddler's gonna get you! Hey, why are you trying to raise an army? Knocking over candy shoppes seems more your speed.

I'd say it's walking the line of committing what are effectively war crimes if they were committed by a nation and what saturday morning cartoon villains do to piss off Superman. Crossing into either can ruin a player's feeling towards a villain because it doesn't feel like something the villain should do.

You know very well that's not what he meant when he replied to that post specifically

who wants to play with a bunch of easily offended faggots anyway?

They didn't erase Maztica, they just never revisited it, like 90% of Forgotten Realms.

t. guy who gets really upset if the male bandit leader kisses his male character