hello! and, I really do have to ask: couldn't the rulebook be gender-inclusive??? please?
Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 1:25 pm
Hi! I'm a very wet-behind-the ears judge/DM (have run 1 D&D game, no DCC) and am trying to figure out if I'll run a DCC campaign for my group. I'm looking at DCC b/c a good friend in the group has run DCC but hasn't been able to play in it, 'cause nobody else in our group runs it. And I want to make him happy.
First, thanks so much to the folks at Goodman Games who've built this labor of love. The mechanics, the support for story- and world-building, the art, this forum. Thanks for making our world a more fun, more social, more adventurous place to be.
However.
I do -- believe me -- realize that bringing this up in my first post is so awkward as to venture into anti-social, but I just can't read another page in the rulebook with lodging a protest and a petition. It happens that not only do women play the system, but -- and I'm sure I'm not the first by any stretch of the imagination -- actually run the game. It is really alienating to find that the entire book assumes the reader is male. And that castles are managed by males. And that generic travelers will be male. And that villagers volunteering to adventure will be male.
You get the idea.
I don't care if it is old school. That kind of old school is latently sexist. I've spend my whole life reading books that assume I'm male, starting with Plato's stuff and going right up past Asimov with a nice little stop in Aurelius' "Meditations" where he doubles down on how morally weak it is to be "womanish". But when I hit modern stuff, something amazing happens! Authors begin to assume the reader might be female! They alternate pronouns! Sometimes -- wait for it, wait for it -- they use gender neutral language.
Okay, you all probably know this and even those who aren't male probably don't find it half as alienating as I do. But if Goodman will incorporate gender-neutral language going forward then I'll keep using their materials after I run this campaign for my buddy. And: thanks for the cool system, for this forum, and especially for any help people are still willing to give me with my game after I post this.
First, thanks so much to the folks at Goodman Games who've built this labor of love. The mechanics, the support for story- and world-building, the art, this forum. Thanks for making our world a more fun, more social, more adventurous place to be.
However.
I do -- believe me -- realize that bringing this up in my first post is so awkward as to venture into anti-social, but I just can't read another page in the rulebook with lodging a protest and a petition. It happens that not only do women play the system, but -- and I'm sure I'm not the first by any stretch of the imagination -- actually run the game. It is really alienating to find that the entire book assumes the reader is male. And that castles are managed by males. And that generic travelers will be male. And that villagers volunteering to adventure will be male.
You get the idea.
I don't care if it is old school. That kind of old school is latently sexist. I've spend my whole life reading books that assume I'm male, starting with Plato's stuff and going right up past Asimov with a nice little stop in Aurelius' "Meditations" where he doubles down on how morally weak it is to be "womanish". But when I hit modern stuff, something amazing happens! Authors begin to assume the reader might be female! They alternate pronouns! Sometimes -- wait for it, wait for it -- they use gender neutral language.
Okay, you all probably know this and even those who aren't male probably don't find it half as alienating as I do. But if Goodman will incorporate gender-neutral language going forward then I'll keep using their materials after I run this campaign for my buddy. And: thanks for the cool system, for this forum, and especially for any help people are still willing to give me with my game after I post this.