So, this week the Internet learned that Dark Sun, the D&D setting where the world is a scorching wasteland ruled by evil sorcerer-kings, is getting a new edition that removes the presence of slavery, because you see, some people find the idea of slavery upsetting. The Internet, quite understandably, was… unamused.
Now, when discussing things of this nature, I wish to be precise. It is always too easy to join in with knee-jerk poo-pooing of anything that you don’t like, and that just contributes to polarisation and a general dumbing down of the discussion. So be patient with me as I take the long way around, to try to make sure you understand just where I am coming from.
From the contents of this blog, it should be pretty clear that I’m a child of the 90s and that I love me some grimdark. I like games where things are kind of horrible and you just have to make the best of the hand you’re dealt (because, well, that’s basically what life is like, and sometimes I want the encouragement). I like games with antiheroes – not baby-eating psychopaths or anything, I do have some standards, but antiheroes, people who might do good things or bad things depending on the situation and their specific priorities. I like setting the players up with a choice between two things that are wrong, or between two mutually exclusive things that are right.
But, you know, I’m not married to grimdark. Not only is it not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s not even the cup of tea I’m always in the mood for myself. Sometimes you don’t want a somber, bitter brew, you want a fizzy drink – something bright and bubbly and fun. And I’m at home for that too! I am deeply infatuated with Twilight Sword. I was a big My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic guy back when it was airing, and I own a copy of Equestrian Tails. I was big on Blue Rose for a long time for all its flaws, the foremost one actually being that it’s not soft and cuddly enough but just has a thin layer of softness and cuddliness on top of a standard D&D-ish hack fest. I have the same interest, and the same issues, with Pugmire. I even made my own mini-RPG that I set out to make as twee and kid-friendly as possible, and I’m still quite fond of how it turned out. We could do with more chicken-soup-for-the-soul type games, I feel, the market is definitely underserved with them.
You know what I can’t stand, though? Wishy-washy blandness. Creative cowardice. Taking something grimdark, removing anything that is in any way grim and/or dark, and then presenting it with a big, simpering smile: “there, I fixed it! Now it only has nice, wholesome, uplifting brutality and horror!”
This is offensive to me on a creative level, because it’s taking something I might have enjoyed and turned it into something bland and not worth bothering with. It means that I have been made poorer than I was. And yes, I am aware that the old material hasn’t gone away, but the new material is still what’s likely to get played, and thus what I may conceivably have the opportunity to play – I don’t always have the option of staying in the past because the present is moving in a direction I don’t like (much as you can tell from my obsessing over 90s games that I often try to). Let’s not pretend that there’s an infinite supply of players and GMs out there, especially not for the more niche games.
And you know what, it’s even kind of offensive to me on a moral level, because it supports the unspoken (but sadly omnipresent) assumption that there are some ways to hurt people that are okay and that there are some people that it’s okay to hurt. And, having spent much of my life being kicked around by the world and told that any harm I suffered didn’t quite count, wasn’t really important, was maybe kinda-sorta unfortunate but wasn’t something that was worth discussing… I have a big freaking problem with that.
Again, not because I think that you should never harm anyone, at all, under any circumstances! There is just no way to go through life without stepping on a few toes. And that goes double for harming people within the context of a game of make-believe, where no actual human being gets hurt. Kicking imaginary ass is fun, and fun is a good thing (and it’s a little depressing that I feel like I have to point that out). But people’s pain should either matter or not matter, should either be cause for regret or the sort of thing you callously shrug off. There should be no such thing as politically correct villainy, and if there is, then something is very wrong with our current definition of what’s politically correct.
So, am I livid about the Dark Sun thing, up in arms? Well… no, actually, not per se. Because I don’t actually care that much about Dark Sun. I’ve never been sufficiently into D&D to get invested in any particular setting, so while Dark Sun and Ravenloft are the ones that I like the look of the most – no surprise there – I can’t claim any particular attachment. Hasbro hasn’t lost a sale by alienating me, because I was never going to buy the new edition of Dark Sun in the first place. Which doesn’t give them a whole lot of incentive to care what my opinion is, I’ll freely admit.
But if you are one of the people who do care about Dark Sun, and you’re fuming right now? Yeah, I feel ya, man. I’ve been there. I support you in principle even if I don’t have a particular dog in the race. It sucks when they neuter something interesting to keep it from offending people who should – and probably do – play something else if the mere existence of anything with a sharp edge or a dark tone is going to depress them.
And the really insane thing is, of course, that this isn’t actually one of those games full of moral compromise and thoroughly stained protagonists that I’m a sucker for. In Dark Sun, the slavers are, y’know, the bad guys. The mobs. The people you’re supposed to run up to and hit with your sword until they run out of HP. They’re slavers because that makes them immediately unsympathetic – hey, I’m all for sympathy for the devil, and even I think that when you shackle and flog someone, you forfit any claim to mercy from him; the moment some heroic type launches a slave rebellion, you’ll be on the chopping block, and you honestly won’t be able to say it’s anything but the natural consequence of your actions. Surely, even in these divided times, one thing we can all agree on is that breaking shackles and overthrowing cruel taskmasters is cool?
But no, apparently they want to focus on “subtler” evils like… mandatory military service. Which sounds to me less like the sort of unambiguous evil that it’s fun to fight against, and more like something that’s maybe kind of bad, on balance, depending on the circumstances. Like, I’m not sure I want to pick up a sword and storm the dark citadels of the overlord to end the practice of general conscription. Writing a strongly worded letter of some sort seems like a more appropriate response. After I have done a cursory sociological study to make sure that the policy was genuinely flawed rather than just unpopoular, of course.
Like I said, I’m not the target group. But I’m honestly not sure who the target group for this is even supposed to be. If it fails dismally, it won’t change my life, but I’ll still consider it a victory for sanity and taste.