My Heroes Have Always Been Paladins

While I had been working on a big deconstruction post of this article, he went ahead and put up this response. Which was something of a step in the right direction. But his list is overly detailed and misses the point.
What I think we need in the art direction for the next edition of D&D is heroes. And not just white, male heroes. I want to see heroes of all colors, genders, and orientations. Sure, characters of all descriptions have made it into D&D rulebooks, but not all of their depictions have necessarily been heroic. When a prospective D&D player looks at the pictures in the books, they're looking for inspiration for what their character can be and do. Unfortunately, what tends to happen is that male players are given lots of fodder for what they can be (lots of heroic male figures) and what they can do (lots of sexy female characters). What about female players? Where are their "role" models?

For example, compare Tisha (the character he mentions and shows in the first article) to the guy in the center of this image. Ask yourself one simple question: Which of these characters looks more heroic? More active? More capable of handing someone their own ass?

Now, my Flying Monkeys of the Interwebs, I have a mission for you: In the comments below, I want you to post links to images of women looking heroic. Genre or style is not important, and the image must not need context to represent heroism or other badassitude (If you want to post a pic of a female superhero, post an image of her doing something awesome, not simply a depiction of the character).

Adventures in Oz: An Inclusive RPG

While Heartbreak & Heroines seems to be cancelled, it has given us all some food for thought about the idea of inclusion in RPGs. Or at very least drawn attention to the fact that we're more exclusive than we think we are.

Like it or not, the typical gamer is male. So most of the marketing dollars spent in the RPG industry are reaching out to those men, playing on their desire to be badass fantasy heroes and be surrounded by nubile women. Although some of those nubile women are now fighting alongside the heroes rather than waiting to be rescued and claimed as a quest reward.

As soon as I set about writing an Oz RPG, I knew that I could not in good conscience cater specifically to this market. Because Oz really is a setting for everyone.

My first step came with the writing. While it is commonplace to use the pronoun "he" as a gender-neutral pronoun, I decided to avoid gendered language as much as possible. This does mean that "they" comes up a good bit. There are those who say that using "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun is bad grammar, which might be why I get a lot of knocks for my grammar in reviews. I only used gendered pronouns when I was referring to a specific, gendered character. (Chick the Cherub is going to get interesting when I do Beyond the Deadly Desert)

The next step was the art. While I did not make a point of asking for non-sexed-up art, I was very glad that I did not receive any. Many of the female Oz characters are frequently described as beautiful, but this is the sexiest piece of art I received. Notice that she is sexy without being sexed up. No revealing clothing. No distorted anatomy designed to show off T&A.

The Women of Oz

My original idea for this week's blog was to look at the strong female characters of the Oz stories. Heroines and villainesses, rulers and sorcerers. But then I thought of the gamers in my audience (all 3 of you) and wanted to give them something a little more concrete than a book review. So then I thought about the issue of gender at the gaming table.

Tabletop RPGs, like many other geek activities, is predominantly a male activity. (In fact, the only geek activity I can think of that is predominantly female is cosplaying). I'm male, though I have gamed with women (notably my wife). My Monday night OSRIC campaign has one female player. Since her character has the highest Strength score in the party, we all call her "Boots", as she's the one with the best chance to kick down doors. My Thursday night IronClaw game has two female players, one of whom is playing a female Rhinoceros Pit Fighter.

But I know I'm not typical. There are horror stories floating around the net about female players being sexually harassed by the other players or even the Game Master. Like the group that played the world of Gor (JFGI) and had the one female character that spent most of her time getting traded around by the male characters.

The other night, I found this interesting little item: Heartbreaks and Heroines, a feminist RPG. I found it via this great big honking thread on RPG.Net, which is probably still growing as this gets posted. What is a "feminist RPG"? Apparently one that puts women in the primary roles and focuses on the emotional journey of becoming a hero and finding your place in the world.

But wait, if all feminists really want is equality and parity with men, why have a game that emphasizes women? The answer seems to be to create a deliberate imbalance in one segment (the players of one game) in order to create parity in the gamer population at large.

While the project is fully funded, I'm sure the designers would appreciate an extra buck or two to help propel the project even further.