Read on Twitter
THREAD:
The new book from @Wizards_DnD, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, begins to make the changes the #DnD #DnD5e community needs & has been demanding, with regard to race & racism.
We welcome these changes, but they are not enough & seem to miss the point.
Here’s why:
1/6
The new book from @Wizards_DnD, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, begins to make the changes the #DnD #DnD5e community needs & has been demanding, with regard to race & racism.
We welcome these changes, but they are not enough & seem to miss the point.
Here’s why:
1/6
These options allow you to make “the good drow” or “the smart orc.” You get to play as the exception to the bio-essentialist rule that all dark-skinned elves are evil, that those savage orcs are stupid and violent, and so on.
This doesn’t address the deeper problems here.
2/6
This doesn’t address the deeper problems here.
2/6
And these rules don’t even remove some of the worst aspects, even for PCs. Even with Tasha’s, Half-Orcs still make “Savage Attacks”, Kobolds still grovel, hobgoblins still care about saving face, and Bugbears are still “shiftless layabouts”.
3/6
3/6
For years now, folks have pointed out that there’s some problematic content in #DnD, like tying inborn violence, stupidity, or ‘honor’ to Race. So, when WotC proposes DMs might let players move ability scores around or swap a language, they aren’t really addressing the issue.
4/6
4/6
Of course we welcome more player choice and freedom! But the rules have stated since the Players Handbook and DMG that DMs and players can change things as they see fit, so this really isn’t anything new. Yet they marketed Tasha's as addressing the problems around race.
5/6
5/6
Thus, we welcome the effort, but we also would have preferred them to address the problems around race & essentialism in D&D directly. Instead, we have a generic appeal to players having choices, rather than the progress our community needs.
6/6
6/6
