>> The prohibition against "Two-Spirit" characters for non-natives would have me noping right out of it. I'm enby, and if the characters are members of uncolonized tribes, then I would literally be forced to play something I'm not - a cis-het normal. <<
That is precisely what I predicted. I'm sorry to hear it, but I really appreciate the validation of my prediction.
I wanted to talk about these issues here so readers could make an informed decision about whether they'd want to buy or play this. Since I have a lot of QUILTBAG folks in my audience, sadly I suspect I am now unselling about as many copies as I sold during the Kickstarter.
>> They probably don't allow non-natives to be magic users of any sort - which again would negate over 2/3 of my life experience.<<
Actually, no, the book says 99% of the population has the Adanadi, which grants some enhancements; and about 15-20% has a superhuman gift (which all the player characters do). That much is for everyone. Fortunately. But if I hadn't read that part yet, then yeah, I probably would've wondered exactly what you did.
>> Do I know the indigenous two-spirit experience? No, I know the American enby experience, and I'm willing to learn the indigenous perspective. <<
See, I think anyone from the QUILTBAG would know enough about being what they are, that if they wanted to play a character with the same trait in Makasing, they could figure out how their identity would fit into that world.
And it would lead to such interesting possibilities, because if I think about my metasexual morphlocked-shapeshifter self in a world where you can only pick one Path for biological reasons: "Do I want to morphlock myself even worse by boosting one animal affinity at the cost of locking out all the others?" No, probably not. I might well wind up playing an unenhanced character, or someone who'd come to the realization only too late and was then studying how to break the lock to allow multiple enhancements. (Surely someone must be.) As a gamer, I think that'd make a freaking awesome campaign. I also think other QUILTBAG gamers would have ideas just as interesting as mine, and gee, it would've been nice to see those without 20 minutes of "We paid for the game, we can do whatever we want with it."
>>Do I know the native American medicine practices? No, but I do have some experience with European shamanism (the word shaman comes from Finland, FFS!), and I can adapt for role play. <<
Yeah. The people most likely to be attracted to this game include a lot of folks who already know a fair bit about theme-relevant topics, and are going to get smacked down hard by all the "don't" rules.
Maybe I just have more faith in the existence of some sensible people who can do homework. Sure, I've seen asshole gamers. Tons of them. But if we assume everyone is an asshole gamer, we will have no gaming. I prefer to cherrypick people who are fun to play with. Even with hot topics like sex or religion, I've managed to find some folks who are fellow practitioners or at least tolerant enough to not cause problems.
>> After ll, D&D magic use does not resemble the real thing very much.<<
You should read Authentic Thaumaturgy by Isaac Bonewits, who analyzed game magic systems using his real magic knowledge, and explained how to design a system for your game (also works in fantasy fiction).
>>I understand that indigenous people have been colonized and shat on. <<
That's why I referenced temptation. It's super hard to resist stomping on someone else after you've been stomped on. Most people want to show them what it's like.
>>But making a game that just subtly turns the tables against a minority group of non-natives is not a solution.<<
I don't think I'd call it "subtle" when they hardwired it into the rules in multiple places. I just keep thinking of this. You know, like somebody told them they had to let everyone play, but the person who wrote some of the rules didn't want to, and the teacher wasn't paying close enough attention to see what happened.
So I have a fundamental disagreement in terms of how this is working. I just don't think that racially dividing players, let alone giving some more game options than others, is an effective way to promote tolerance or even a fun gaming session. I think it feeds into the problem we already have, and I don't want to see that getting worse than it already is. People have a right to try any solution they can think of, but I suspect this one will have some results they didn't mean and may not like -- if they even see those results. It's really hard to track people who didn't buy it or didn't play it because the rules are mean to them. You'd have to trawl the internet for scattered review-discussions like this one, or talk to game store owners. And most non-scientists don't look for ways to disprove their ideas, so that seems unlikely.
Of course, if the flaming activists see Chapter 2, it won't be hard at all, because you could just about hear San Francisco screaming from the east coast.
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dancing_serpent
Yes ...
Date: 2021-12-07 07:19 am (UTC)That is precisely what I predicted. I'm sorry to hear it, but I really appreciate the validation of my prediction.
I wanted to talk about these issues here so readers could make an informed decision about whether they'd want to buy or play this. Since I have a lot of QUILTBAG folks in my audience, sadly I suspect I am now unselling about as many copies as I sold during the Kickstarter.
>> They probably don't allow non-natives to be magic users of any sort - which again would negate over 2/3 of my life experience.<<
Actually, no, the book says 99% of the population has the Adanadi, which grants some enhancements; and about 15-20% has a superhuman gift (which all the player characters do). That much is for everyone. Fortunately. But if I hadn't read that part yet, then yeah, I probably would've wondered exactly what you did.
>> Do I know the indigenous two-spirit experience? No, I know the American enby experience, and I'm willing to learn the indigenous perspective. <<
See, I think anyone from the QUILTBAG would know enough about being what they are, that if they wanted to play a character with the same trait in Makasing, they could figure out how their identity would fit into that world.
And it would lead to such interesting possibilities, because if I think about my metasexual morphlocked-shapeshifter self in a world where you can only pick one Path for biological reasons: "Do I want to morphlock myself even worse by boosting one animal affinity at the cost of locking out all the others?" No, probably not. I might well wind up playing an unenhanced character, or someone who'd come to the realization only too late and was then studying how to break the lock to allow multiple enhancements. (Surely someone must be.) As a gamer, I think that'd make a freaking awesome campaign. I also think other QUILTBAG gamers would have ideas just as interesting as mine, and gee, it would've been nice to see those without 20 minutes of "We paid for the game, we can do whatever we want with it."
>>Do I know the native American medicine practices? No, but I do have some experience with European shamanism (the word shaman comes from Finland, FFS!), and I can adapt for role play. <<
Yeah. The people most likely to be attracted to this game include a lot of folks who already know a fair bit about theme-relevant topics, and are going to get smacked down hard by all the "don't" rules.
Maybe I just have more faith in the existence of some sensible people who can do homework. Sure, I've seen asshole gamers. Tons of them. But if we assume everyone is an asshole gamer, we will have no gaming. I prefer to cherrypick people who are fun to play with. Even with hot topics like sex or religion, I've managed to find some folks who are fellow practitioners or at least tolerant enough to not cause problems.
>> After ll, D&D magic use does not resemble the real thing very much.<<
You should read Authentic Thaumaturgy by Isaac Bonewits, who analyzed game magic systems using his real magic knowledge, and explained how to design a system for your game (also works in fantasy fiction).
>>I understand that indigenous people have been colonized and shat on. <<
That's why I referenced temptation. It's super hard to resist stomping on someone else after you've been stomped on. Most people want to show them what it's like.
>>But making a game that just subtly turns the tables against a minority group of non-natives is not a solution.<<
I don't think I'd call it "subtle" when they hardwired it into the rules in multiple places. I just keep thinking of this. You know, like somebody told them they had to let everyone play, but the person who wrote some of the rules didn't want to, and the teacher wasn't paying close enough attention to see what happened.
So I have a fundamental disagreement in terms of how this is working. I just don't think that racially dividing players, let alone giving some more game options than others, is an effective way to promote tolerance or even a fun gaming session. I think it feeds into the problem we already have, and I don't want to see that getting worse than it already is. People have a right to try any solution they can think of, but I suspect this one will have some results they didn't mean and may not like -- if they even see those results. It's really hard to track people who didn't buy it or didn't play it because the rules are mean to them. You'd have to trawl the internet for scattered review-discussions like this one, or talk to game store owners. And most non-scientists don't look for ways to disprove their ideas, so that seems unlikely.
Of course, if the flaming activists see Chapter 2, it won't be hard at all, because you could just about hear San Francisco screaming from the east coast.