siofragames

[siofragames]

DECOLONISING D&D

In 2019, after seeing yet another round of alarmist discourse in Xwitter about how Dungeons & Dragons is FULL of COLONIALIST tropes and patterns, and needs to be revised, SCRUBBED of its PROBLEMATIC FILTH---I rage-tweeted this brainfart:

"Decolonising D&D"

I've seen this thread round the community, since. Humza K quotes it in Productive Scab-picking: On Oppressive Themes in Gaming. Prismatic Wasteland quotes it in Apolitical RPGs Don't Exist. Most recently, it was referenced in a 1999AD post about Western TTRPGs (an interesting discussion on its own merit; one that already has a counterpoint from Sandro / Fail Forward.)

If folks are still referring to it five years later, maybe I should give the thread a little more credit? Perhaps the fart miasma has crystalised into something concrete.

In the interest of record / saving this thought from the ephemerality of Xwitter, here is the text in full, properly paragraphed, and somewhat more cleanly expressed:

+++

"DECOLONISING D&D"

Firstly: saying "D&D is colonialist" is similar to saying: "the English language is colonialist".

If your method of decolonising RPGs is to abandon D&D---well, some folks abandon English; they don't want to work in the language of the coloniser. More power to them!

For those who want to continue using the "language" of D&D---

Going forth into the "wild hinterland" (as if this weren't somebody's homeland);

to "seek treasure" (as if this didn't belong to anybody);

and "slay monsters" (monsters to whom?)

Yeah. There's some problematic stuff here, and definitely these aspects should make more people uncomfortable.

But! I think it is an error to "decolonise D&D" by scrubbing such content from the game.

That feels like erasure; like an unwillingness to face history / context; like a way to appease one's own settler guilt.

Do you live in the West? Do you live in any Asian urban metropole? White or Person of Colour(tm)---you are already complicit in colonialist / capitalist (yes, of course they are inextricably linked) behaviour. (I can't speak for urban metropoles elsewhere, but I bet they are similar centres of extraction.)

Removing such patterns from the TTRPGs you play might let you feel better, at your game table. But won't change what you are.

I think it is more truthful and more useful NOT to avert one's eyes from D&D's colonialism.

The fact that going forth into the hinterland to seek treasure and slay monsters is a thing, and fucking fun, tells us valuable things about the shape and psychology of colonialism. Why conquistadors in the past did it; why liberal foreign policy, corporations, and post-colonial societies do it today.

Speaking personally:

I write stuff that evokes / deals with the context I'm in---Southeast Asia. An intrinsic part of that is looking at the ways colonial violence has happened to us---as well as the ways / reasons we now, supposedly free, perpetrate it on others.

A long chain of suffering. Heavy stuff.

I also write for people who want to have fun / kill monsters / pretend to be elves, of course. But for those people who want to consider serious stuff like colonialism: I offer no FIGHT THE POWER righteousness, no good feeling, no answers.

Only discomfort. Because the truth is uncomfortable.

Here's a screenshot of the Author's Note for Lorn Song of the Bachelor:

"Any text inspired by Southeast Asia has to reckon with colonialism ... This text presents a difficult situation; there are no easy solutions. "... If I offered a mechanical incentive for you to fight colonial invaders, you wouldn’t be making a moral decision, but a mercenary one. "The choice you face should echo ... the kind of calculus my grandparents faced."

I stand by that.

Also: might we be more precise and more careful about using the term "decolonising", please?

Here I quote Tuck and Yang's landmark and (sadly) still trenchant "Decolonization is not a metaphor":

"Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies ..."

+++

Further Reading

So this post isn't just me reheating a hot take, here are some touchstone writings from around the TTRPG community about colonialism as a subject and mode of play in games:

+

"Jim Corbett was called upon to hunt down another fifty maneaters over the course of the next 35 years. Together, those tigers had killed over 2000 people, for much the same reasons as the Champawat Tiger - injury, desperation, starvation, and habitat loss. Would you look at that. The root cause was British colonialism."

D&D Doesn't Understand What Monsters Are from Throne of Salt

+

"Another effect of having colonizers in my setting would be giving players the opportunity to drive them away from the islands, their home. This maybe just be for the catharsis. After all, isn’t catharsis a big part of why we play roleplaying games?"

I’m Adding Colonizers To My Setting from Goobernut's Blog

+

"When you have a slime boy and the other characters are a really fat lizard and one's playing Humpty Dumpty, it completely shatters the straight-faced serious authoritarian illusion of race, and replaces it with complete fucking nonsense. I love the idea of proliferating the number and types of "races" into absurdity, to the point where the entire logical structure of it collapses in on itself and race as a category ceases to become coherent or meaningful in any sense."

Interview with Ava Islam - Designer of the RPG Errant from Ava Islam / The Lost Bay

+

"Perhaps most critically, the fundamental basis of power is not land or even money but manpower. That’s what local rulers fight over, and what Chinese commercial networks export, in return for unique island products. It’s what the European colonists really need (even if it’s not what they most desire). There is rich loot to be grabbed in the form of spices, Spanish silver, Indian gold, sea cucumbers (the Chinese love ’em), perfumes, dyes, cloth etc. so there’s ample opportunity for piracy, trade and smuggling, but the key to long-term success – the key to independent survival – is nakedly and unquestionably uniting people."

Counter-colonial Heistcrawl: previous high scores from Richard's Dystopian Pokeverse

+

"They worked their own land—which they dispossessed from American Indians—or became small shop owners or opportunistic gold diggers or bounty hunters or itinerant ranchers. To me, substituting these situations for one ruled by industrial monopoly ignores that the Wild West is a perfect example of how capitalism operates outside of (or prior to) mass industry, instead being composed of self-employers and self-sustainers."

Fantastic Detours - Frontier Scum from Traverse Fantasy / Bones of Contention

+

"... using the Western framing and D&D's baked-in imperialist and capitalist structure to get people earnestly participating in the experience of forming imperial power structures and the early roots of regional capitalism ... The PCs aren't the drifters on the train or the townsfolk watching with apprehension - they're the railroad itself."

An Arrow for the General: Confronting D&D-as-Western in the Kalahari from A Most Majestic Fly Whisk

+++

[siofragames]

Throne-Lady Heniya of Dedēsne House relaxing with the youngest two of her sons.

Bonus Details

[siofragames]

Deep in the wastes of Vaarn, a Sourcerer bargains with a Quantum Daemon

[siofragames]

My Cairn jam entry is finally done! I'm really proud of it and I hope people play it.

[siofragames]

La portada de “Imperio Vestigial” una ambientación para juegos de rol que estoy desarrollando junto a José Carlos Domínguez del blog Un Paladín en el Infierno.

The cover of “Vestigial Empire”, a setting for role-playing games that I am developing with José Carlos Domínguez from the blog Un Paladín en el Infierno. 

[siofragames]

prince & jester

[siofragames]

A Gathering Storm for Cairn is out

Hopefully it works this time because I managed to crash the editor. A Gathering Storm is an adventure for Cairn. It probably takes about 2 sessions unless your players really don't like talking to people. There is a village that will have to be abandoned if nobody figures out why it won't stop raining, because the rains are flooding everything. There's a strange and isolated monastery with a famous library which is being weirdly unhelpful to anyone who comes around asking questions. There's a forest which is also a god. Most of the adventure takes place in this forest.

This is my first time doing not just all of the writing and layout but also the art. It took way too long but I'm pretty proud of the results. There's no dungeon crawling, but it is very exploration focused. There are also hooks to start a larger campaign based on these locations, a bunch of new bestiary entries, and tables of 36 books, 24 names, and 10 types of merchants.

You can find the pdf on #itchio https://seedling.itch.io/a-gathering-storm-cairn

or on #DriveThruRPG : https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/437505/A-Gathering-Storm--Cairn

You can also get physical copies from the Cairn store: https://store.cairnrpg.com/products/a-gathering-storm

Third Kingdom Games: https://www.thirdkingdomgames.com/product-page/a-gathering-storm

And (soon) Ratti Incantati, in Canada (will update when they're available there): https://rattiincantati.com/

[siofragames]

Nearly done with my module for the Cairn jam: A Town, A Forest, A Dungeon. Just a few more pieces of art to finish!

[siofragames]

Play Report: Lorn Song of the Bachelor x Mangayaw (Session 2)

The Binmanwa Party

Malakas, a shamanistic healer

Bantok, a bow hunter

Euminung-gud, an aswang (?)

Dumalapdap, a ratfolk musketeer

Alon, a textile weaver

Vartu Si Vartu

The party waited outside the Chief’s longhouse for his return, not wanting to insult him a second time. Vartu Si Vartu returns a few hours later.

Conversation with Vartu Si Vartu is sensitive business. He is a proud warrior, thinks every gesture is a challenge to his authority.

He tells the party of how he lost his left arm. The Bachelor claimed it after a great battle, one that Vartu Si Vartu lost.

If he was such a great warrior, how could he have lost to a crocodile? He wants the party to look for proof of the Bachelor’s divinity. If the Bachelor was a god, then there is no shame in his loss.

Bavu Si Bavu

The party heads back to the princess’ lover, to inform him of their mistake and that he is still loved. He bounced back from his heartbreak quickly.

They also informed him of their plan to raise his prestige by questing with them. He is delighted by the opportunity to prove Niti Si Niti wrong.

Hummu Si Hummu

Before the day ended, the party passed by Oppu Wa Oppu’s again. They are hoping see if one of her more annoying suitors was there, so they could earn their keep.

Sure enough, the village’s prestige singer, Hummu Si Hummu, was there.

Hummu Si Hummu shows off his tattoos: open maws and curling tusks. Identifies him as a singer of the village’s songs and histories. He has a tic, blinking uncontrollably. His loincloth has a weird movement to it, like something is flopping about inside it.

Alon chanted the Mentala sewed into his katana’s tassels. The words granted him a sight able to see beneath the loincloth. A ferocity weighed on his heart, but he also saw a catfish stuck to Hummu Si Hummu’s groin. Absurd.

Under the guise of concern, the party tries to uncover Hummu Si Hummu’s secret. He tried to run, but he was unable to. When his secret was uncovered, he was in panic. The catfish seemed to share his emotions.

The party sent him to Auntie Sati, hoping she would know how to remove it. They still have no idea what to make of this. Is it a parasite? A performance enhancer? A controller of the mind? A kink?

Re Wa Re’s Pepper Farm

The next morning, the party went aboard a boat, piloted by Bavu Si Bavu. They set out for the Old Ruin via the river.

They spotted a Skelephant fording the river. They let it pass.

They passed by some pepper farms along the river, spotted a group of men in Company uniform harassing an old farmer. She’s on her knees, begging.

The party decided to help diffuse the tension. As they land the boat, the situation changed. The farmer was shouting and swearing now.

A Company goon forbade the party from getting closer and the farmer bit his hand. The goons pulled out their pistols, but the party stood between the two parties.

The Company goons explained that they’re here to take Re Wa Re’s farm as payment for her gambling debt. She protested with expletives.

The party decided to be on Re Wa Re’s side on this matter. Alon loudly boasted about his swordsmanship, touting his colorfully tasseled katana as proof, both to discourage the goons and to relieve the ferocity in his heart. The goons are outnumbered and are not inclined to call Alon’s bluff.

In the middle of all this, Dumalapdap nicked a pistol from one of the goons, who was none the wiser.

The Company goons decide to leave, but not without threats of their return.

The party hired Re Wa Re to come with them to the Old Ruin. She brought a knife and some peppery jerky.

The Old Ruin

It was almost dusk when the party reached the Old Ruin. The opening to the cave was clearly not natural. It’s adorned with simian statues, posd as if diving in water.

They felt the murmur of waves, from inside. They felt a breeze, like breath.

The party felt a mixture of curiosity and a bit of fear. And with that, they entered the Old Ruin.

[siofragames]

maps i drew this spring

[siofragames]

PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST: Musks new tweet viewing limit might have fucked my only source of income right now

I am ordheist on all platforms, notably insta and bluesky so please follow me there!!!

[siofragames]

[siofragames]

I DOUBLE DOG dare you to draw a BIG FROG

Watch out! Froglodyte!

[siofragames]

I've been working on a bunch of art for my submission to the Cairn jam.

[siofragames]

Finally actually posting something!

Here's a mycomorph from Vaults Of Vaarn I made using blender.

[siofragames]

If you are working on a Dungeon23 project (or D23 adjacent) or if you are interested in exploring D23 projects created by the community you might want to check this:

The Dungeon23 Jam on itch.io

The Dungeon23 Tracker form on google docs

All the projects submitted to the D23 Tracker

It's super exciting to see the tabletop RPG community being so effervescent and creative. Social networks and discord servers are constantly filled with so many cool Dungeon23 posts and it's a bit hard to keep track of who is doing what. That's why I've published the jam and the tracker: to help creators share their projects and TTRPG enthusiasts find cool projects.

If you want to support this initiative you can lmk of useful resources that should be added to the jam page or share these links.

[siofragames]

New project, can you help sharing it?

Hey folks it’s a big day today. After weeks of work the Wicked Wanderers Winter Bundle is live.

It kind of started a looong time ago. When I was a kid, I grew up in a super boring place, a small secluded village in a French island, and before discovering RPGs, the thing that gave me the most joy was a thing called Pochettes Suprises: Surprise Bags. Small paper bags containing a dozen random cheap plastic and cardboard toys: a plane, a soldier, a doll, a dino. They cost just a buck and we all loved them because they were modular: we could invent stories and games for weeks with just a single Pochette.

This sparked the idea behind this bundle I’m releasing today: bring together a pack of cool and beautiful zines and gaming accessories to make a cool grown up TTRPG enthusiast version of the Pochettes. The bundle has a strong vibe and a super modular structure, with 2 full zines, NPCs, adventure hooks, dice drop map, solo oracles and even a solo prisoncrawl game and more. It contains 15 items made by mostly emergent designers: I'm trying to support new voices with the store. You might know several of them: Philipp Teich, Foresight Studio, Christian Sorrell/Meatcastle, Philip Jensen, Nyhur, Alfred Valley. There are some super interesting and diverse takes on Mörk Borg, even a few mini adventures with a Mythos vibe.

Right now social media is in a bit of a turmoil, so if you feel like it could you help us give some visibility to it?

Here's a link, you'll find more info on the bundle here https://www.thelostbaystudio.com/products/wicked-wanderers-winter-bundle

BTW This a pochette surprise, the original childhood thing that sparked the idea for this bundle