(UTGM): How to avoid racefail in a game world
I've been considering some of the lessons that can be learned from the Wolsung debacle, wherein the designers of a steampunk game apparently were unaware of just how racially insensitive the mixing of fantasy races with real world cultural stereotypes could be.
D&D and other fantasy games often do a lot of problematic conflating between physical and psychological and cultural attributes. Though at least D&D doesn't directly conflate real-world cultural stereotypes with its races. The question then is, can ewe avoid unfortunate racial stereotyping?
The Wolsung controversy has been valuable to me, since it gives me examples of how not to approach race and culture in the Under the Green Moon setting I'm working on. A few ideas on how to avoid the failure of Wolsung:
1. Separate physical elements of different breeds of humanity from psychological or cultural traits. It's acceptable to say "Feralin tend to be stronger and tougher than the human standard, and have excellent night vision"; it's not good to say "Feralin are less intelligent and have bad tempers."
2. Define cultural traits as tendencies or common values rather than universal absolutes. Say, "Stories written in the Ashurvalen Empire, celebrate modesty, honor, and House loyalty".
3. Write breed and cultural traits as stereotypes and reputations rather than facts: "The Feralin have a reputation in the Empire for ferocity and being close to nature."
4. Avoid making any breed inherently less intelligent our otherwise mentally handicapped. Duh.
5. Give examples of characters that break the stereotypes: "Despite the reputation Feralins have, Lord Dochatta is a cold and calculating warrior."
Does anyone have any other ideas?
D&D and other fantasy games often do a lot of problematic conflating between physical and psychological and cultural attributes. Though at least D&D doesn't directly conflate real-world cultural stereotypes with its races. The question then is, can ewe avoid unfortunate racial stereotyping?
The Wolsung controversy has been valuable to me, since it gives me examples of how not to approach race and culture in the Under the Green Moon setting I'm working on. A few ideas on how to avoid the failure of Wolsung:
1. Separate physical elements of different breeds of humanity from psychological or cultural traits. It's acceptable to say "Feralin tend to be stronger and tougher than the human standard, and have excellent night vision"; it's not good to say "Feralin are less intelligent and have bad tempers."
2. Define cultural traits as tendencies or common values rather than universal absolutes. Say, "Stories written in the Ashurvalen Empire, celebrate modesty, honor, and House loyalty".
3. Write breed and cultural traits as stereotypes and reputations rather than facts: "The Feralin have a reputation in the Empire for ferocity and being close to nature."
4. Avoid making any breed inherently less intelligent our otherwise mentally handicapped. Duh.
5. Give examples of characters that break the stereotypes: "Despite the reputation Feralins have, Lord Dochatta is a cold and calculating warrior."
Does anyone have any other ideas?