First, they came for Harry Potter ....

[johnofgwent]

This has been an ongoing topic in Fantasy media for quite a while, recently Wizards of the Coast made changes the the legality of cards in Magic:The Gathering that depicted racist connotations. I go back and forward on the issue, the case of 'where to draw the line' seems remarkably vague.

Oh I don't think it's THAT vague for me.

If someone feels there is a **DEMAND** for a women only room at a convention, I have no particular problem with them doing so. After all, too many years ago now I demoed "macho women with guns" to the University of the South West of England Ladies Rugby Team after a singularly strenuous drinking session (on their part) and I can well understand their wish to get down and dirty with no men present to get the wrong idea.

A fundamental requirement for my acceptance of the above however is a right to have a MEN only room at the same convention..... I failed to notice the establishment of the man-free area in time to make an application for a woman-free one...

On a more serious note then I can see a desire for - shall we say - a PG rated gaming area where some of the more lurid of Lovecraft's work may be a little over the top for the intended audience.

But anyone who SERIOUSLY expects me to consider a fantasy tabletop game environment in which unsheathing a longsword and using it to put down a warren of orcish vermin unarmed in their sleep as overly violent or racist to orcs is going to feel a ten foot pole placed right up their five foot arse with a size 12 boot.

[Nalaar]

This has been an ongoing topic in Fantasy media for quite a while, recently Wizards of the Coast made changes the the legality of cards in Magic:The Gathering that depicted racist connotations. I go back and forward on the issue, the case of 'where to draw the line' seems remarkably vague.

[papasmurf]

I didn't understand a word of that.

[johnofgwent]

This article is rather old. It was a press release for what became an annual day out to table top role playing games.

https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/the-games-people-used-to-play-6348505.html

The convention has grown and now takes over four floors of a Novotel hotel. I attended last year's event in early November and found one floor of the place a dedicated play testing area (come and try our new ideas and break them) another a dedicated dealer floor of course, and another dedicated to live streams, live recordings of discussions later edited for podcasting, and workshops advising the wannabe podcaster of how to go about it. The gods smiled upon us that day, we learned skills on THAT floor that we did not then know would become invaluable when the coming of the great pox caused the closure of the pubs at which most sensible RPG'ers practice their sport....

But there was a stirring in the force. And not in a good way.

The catalogue of dealers, events and discussions sent by email to all ticket holders required a degree of acceptance of behavioural wokery Owen Jones would have simpered over.  Game demonstrators were not to do anything that made anyone feel "uncomfortable". Persons accused of "offending" anyone risked ejection. And so on.  And I was sent a questionnaire so I could notify the organisers beforehand of issues that might make me "uncomfortable" ...

I responded that I was a venerable viking approaching retirement and seeking the opportunity to re-live the past of my youth and that of my ancestors. 

I understand the yellow wristband I was handed on entry tagged me as "no particular issues".

It was interesting to note that apart from one room I was not actually allowed into because they set it aside for women who felt uncomfortable playing RPG's in the company of men (yes, really, i shit you not, they actually had set up such a safe space and there were a few in there) I wandered the entire convention at leisure and spotted only yellow, red (traders) and blue (VIP game players, people who had paid extra to play a particular game today with the creators of it)

On the day I had a whale of a time.

But now it seems Black Lives Matter are coming for Gandalf the White.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/07/24/amid-pandemic-racial-reckoning-dd-finds-itself-an-inflection-point

Some prize woke pricks are trying to have the "Drow" (a tribe of elves who have turned to the dark side, live in caves instead of trees and embrace evil instead of good) eradicated from Dungeons and Dragons and  are after having the animosity shown to Goblins and Kobolds (a product of inter-species breeding) judged racial hatred.

Now, I have long maintained that certain works of pure fiction are unsuitable for children who have not yet mastered the art of distinguishing fact from fantasy. And to this day I recall the horror that struck me at the ending of "The Omen",  "Play Dirty" and a Bond Spoof I no longer know the name of, all of which I watched about age 14. By that time I'd already witnessed a decapitation for real, so Patrick Troughtton's demise in The Omen barely registered, but the endings in all those films where the good guys lost certainly did.

I suppose if people wish a "safe" space in which to indulge themselves, so be it. Although I like to think any boorish oaf trying to turn an RPG table I'm at "unsafe" is going head first into the nearest canal as surely as they would if they tried it on at my local during our Wednesday Night sessions...

But those who wish to prevent the six foot six 120 kilo of pure muscle barbarian Aegir Nils Otha from seeing the crushed bodies of his enemies and hearing the weeping of their women nest time we have a call out from the fighters guild are gonna have to do it by first flooring him in combat. ... and then taking on me ....

But I suppose one good thing will come of thsi ...

If one can no longer be nasty to Goblins, one is going to  have to throw out Melissa's Noddy Books and replace them with the versions of the same story books bought in the 1960's I keep have on *MY* bookshelf.