We've had threads on how D&D itself has a colonial mindset, but I think that undersells how fucked up and racist players can be. I want this thread to be about players who go out of their way to make characters that break the fourth wall and ruin friendships outside of the game.
I'll start: I had a player come to me with their character: "Gucci, the rapping goblin bard". The details were what you would expect. Like he literally put a picture of Gucci Mane in the chat. I told him that this was blackface and I wouldn't allow it. He had a tantrum about being called racist, and now we no longer speak (lol).
Daenerys Targaryen /thread
Oh yeah, and all her enemies are Orientalist stereotypes and Qarth itself is just... offensive.
I haven't seen game of thrones, but..
Qarth straddles two worlds: a greedy and curious west and a rich and mysterious east.
Oh yeah, and literally slavery and pedophiliac slavery at that.
Like I said, lots of Arab and other such "Eastern" stereotypes here.
The totally not middle eastern slave traders sitting around in old buildings because their culture began stagnating 1000 years ago, and they're all imitating a superior roman greco-roman culture aren't problematic at all. Come on.
Story time. One of my gaming friends is a bit older than the rest of us, a single dad with young son, all around kind and wholesome dude. I'll call him Dad. He used to have a roommate who was a childhood friend, who was afflicted with very serious social deficits - he wasn't usually malicious, but constantly did or said the wrong things and was tolerated because our friend was incredibly patient and protective of him. And most weekends, this awkward friend would babysit so that Dad could come play DND with us - a nice arrangement.
A couple years back, Dad decided that his son was old enough to come to game night with us, and play Roblox or whatever in the back room while we rolled dice and played pretend. This also meant that awkward roommate was freed from his responsibilities, and could also come play with us!
We make our characters and start session one. Roommate described his character as a 6'6 drow woman in a silver chainmail bikini, and he immediately started aggressively flirting with the npcs. We probably should have ended things there but just told him to cut it out and tried to keep going.
He "jokingly" made a pass at my sorcerer and I "jokingly" cast invisibility to get away and told him to stop. Then he did it again. My boyfriend was sitting right next to me. I was getting annoyed cause we had hobgoblins to fight.
Then the killing blow - he asked how my character could resist a "Nubian goddess" like his character. He and I were the only White people at the table - Dad and most of the other players were Black. We called it for the night while Dad took him home and tried to explain why that was a super fucked up thing to do and say, and we never invited him back.
Dude moved out not long after. Apparently being disinvited from our game became a real sore point in their relationship and he never stopped bringing it up. Also accused Dad of keeping him in slavery, pretty wild.
Damn, that's fucked up and I'm sorry it happened. I hope Dad is doing good without him cause neither of you should have to tolerate that shit. I feel you on being "we should have ended it there" too cause I'm just collecting moments where I should have said "no, this is a line for me" and instead I say something semi-committal and then it's just worse later on.
Played DnD with this friend of a friend (once only). Constantly made rape jokes. Talked about one time when he was working in Waitrose and he told a breastfeeding mother to jog on as she was being "inappropriate". Generally just a horrible little misogynist. Colour me surprised when years later I found out he'd become a police officer. Perfect candidate, eh?
Honestly, Essos in general (in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels and in the Game of Thrones TV show that's based off those novels) is pretty, err, problematic.
There's no other way to put it.
Weakest part of the book series and just plain annoying in how stereotypical it is.
Damn, I'm lucky. The worst I got was a Kenku named cheese who got the party kicked out of almost every town they entered after stealing all their cheese. He would escape by being carried away by a swarm of bees.
He died in a tragic drinking competition mishap.
I'll start: I had a player come to me with their character: "Gucci, the rapping goblin bard". The details were what you would expect. Like he literally put a picture of Gucci Mane in the chat. I told him that this was blackface and I wouldn't allow it. He had a tantrum about being called racist, and now we no longer speak (lol).
Is this a bit? Did he do anything racist or did he just want to be Gucci Mane in a, you know, roleplaying game that - based on what you're saying - is text based and not in person with costumes? Like did he try to sound like a cartoonish black gangster or something?
No, I'm being genuine, and yeah in person. Not in costume thankfully, but yeah it was a pretty aggressive caricature. He had also been doing this kinda thing, but it was mostly cringe uncomfortable and less extreme.
Like did he try to sound like a cartoonish black gangster or something?
yeah, that was the premise and central 'joke' of the character.
Ah I see. That makes sense now. Initially I assumed he just had a picture and that was it. Yeah I’d definitely drop his ass
Nah lol, he had like half a page of 'disses' that he wanted to use with vicious mockery
Like a decade back I had a player make a character who was a South Park depiction of someone with a mental handicap for Shadowrun. I rejected it as inappropriate and didn't let him play. He showed up next session with an inoffensive PC.
