The Hadozee lore cannot, in isolation, be racist. It either espouses racism, or it is written to be racist. Otherwise it's just a collection of ideas, the association of which evokes feelings or impressions of racism due to unfortunate coincidence.
You are forgetting that racism can very much be unintentional. If you accidentally paint a swastika without meaning to your art will still evoke pain and fear and it will still be a hate symbol even if you did not intend to make it so.
The distinction is important. For one, by calling it racist, you're calling the writers racist. I'm not WotC's biggest fan, but I'm hesitant to call them racism - or at least, I don't think they're particularly racist, we have our biases etc. It's also a really nasty insult and, like the word Nazi, gets thrown around far too lightly. It's also deeply hurtful - especially if there was no racist intent.
No. Calling out racism is not, first and foremost, an insult and you have to stop thinking about it that way. It is simply calling out things that have racist effects. Racism is a way of acting, talking and thinking about the world. I am racist, just by dint of having been raised steeped in modern society that is built on racism. We are all racist, it is an unfortunate thing, but it is a reality. Most people are not deliberately racist, most people are unintentionally racist because of the implicit biases we are raised with. Intent does not absolve.
The other part is, if it's that it invokes impressions of racism...then making an issue of it is part of the problem. The greater problem is the association of blacks with monkeys. This only gets reinforced when things like this get pushed into the public consciousness.
No, this is historically wrong. What ends up happening when the racist connotations of imagery and words gets shushed is that people who are legitimately hurt by them get silenced. Silencing people when they are in pain never works well.
A lot of the things brought up in the criticisms...are very American-centric. In Britain, flying monkeys just aren't associated with blacks or native Americans or whatever the accusation is. They're just evil critters that are sent by the evil queen to attack Dorothy. Big deal, no different to Tolkien's Uruk-Hai that are sent to capture the Hobbits.
By crying out that "monkeys that were enslaved! Must be a reference to blacks! Look, they can reduce damage, it must be a reference to the blacks being viewed as being able to be strong and resilient!", people aren't just reinforcing those tropes in American society, but also introducing it and spreading it in other countries too. That's the opposite of what needs to be done - what needs to be done is breaking the association of blacks with monkeys. You don't do that by proclaiming that a depiction of monkeys is actually a depiction of blacks.
I don't really know the answer to this, but associating monkeys with blacks isn't the way forward.
Ignoring history is not the way forward.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
A side note, Swastikas are actually a religious symbol in Asia. I am a jewish person, and I went to Indonesia, where the swastika is everywhere on shrines and in villages. To say that those shrines are showing a hate symbol is false. Actually, a Swastika and the "Hakenkraus" are 2 different and distinct things. One is a religious symbol of Dharmic faiths, and the other is a hate symbol. I think its unfair to equate the two, because there is so much context. Having a Swastika in your temple is not accidental antisemitism, its religious freedom that people ignore the context to. Thats all I will say about this over all, because I am not informed or smart enough to join a debate about racism.
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Puzzle:
3 times, I have played level 20 characters. These experiences normally lead my sanity to divide as my other 4 players square up out of annoyance. In addition, 172 people polled by Eris, resident eldritch evil, say their sanity was a fifth of what is was after tracking max level combat with Solanar and Atemos. A while ago, I was rooted in fear after my character was stabbed. But the time was around 8.91 seconds before the end, and I rounded the fight out with a bang.
A side note, Swastikas are actually a religious symbol in Asia. I am a jewish person, and I went to Indonesia, where the swastika is everywhere on shrines and in villages. To say that those shrines are showing a hate symbol is false. Actually, a Swastika and the "Hakenkraus" are 2 different and distinct things. One is a religious symbol of Dharmic faiths, and the other is a hate symbol. I think its unfair to equate the two, because there is so much context. Having a Swastika in your temple is not accidental antisemitism, its religious freedom that people ignore the context to. Thats all I will say about this over all, because I am not informed or smart enough to join a debate about racism.
Sigh ... there is an understandable context to those, but the greater context of an entire World War has tainted the image and indelibly etched it into the collective consciousness in a wider context. You have to do a lot of very conscious and deliberate work to make it not a symbol of hate. Is that unfair? Sure, but so was what happened to millions of innocent people. The takeaway is that care must be taken and sensitivity must be shown, not that there is a possible way to use swastikas non-offensively and therefore any imagery can be used by anyone without care for the effects they have.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
The section on hadozee history contains the "happy slave" trope. It originally stated that hadozee deck hands (they were referred to as "Deck Apes", but that language was removed) were common on the ships of astral elves. It also stated that the hadozee held the elves in high regard, but the elves considered them to be inferior.
The minstrel artwork appears nearly identical to an illustration that accompanied the sheet music to the song "Coal Black Rose". Feel free to Google it if you like.
As a final thought, you don't decide what is offensive to other people. You may want to consider why you think you can.
The section on hadozee history contains the "happy slave" trope. It originally stated that hadozee deck hands (they were referred to as "Deck Apes", but that language was removed) were common on the ships of astral elves. It also stated that the hadozee held the elves in high regard, but the elves considered them to be inferior.
The minstrel artwork appears nearly identical to an illustration that accompanied the sheet music to the song "Coal Black Rose". Feel free to Google it if you like.
As a final thought, you don't decide what is offensive to other people. You may want to consider why you think you can.
Can you click the quote button on posts to respond please? It makes it easier for everyone else to figure out who you are referencing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Puzzle:
3 times, I have played level 20 characters. These experiences normally lead my sanity to divide as my other 4 players square up out of annoyance. In addition, 172 people polled by Eris, resident eldritch evil, say their sanity was a fifth of what is was after tracking max level combat with Solanar and Atemos. A while ago, I was rooted in fear after my character was stabbed. But the time was around 8.91 seconds before the end, and I rounded the fight out with a bang.
Glide. When you fall at least 10 feet above the ground, you can use your reaction to extend your skin membranes to glide horizontally a number of feet equal to your walking speed, and you take 0 damage from the fall. You determine the direction of the glide.
So, they left open the "I'm going to drop on you from a gazillion feet up, and you'll take half damage but I'll take zero" interpretation using the Tasha's optional rule
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Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter) Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Glide. When you fall at least 10 feet above the ground, you can use your reaction to extend your skin membranes to glide horizontally a number of feet equal to your walking speed, and you take 0 damage from the fall. You determine the direction of the glide.
So, they left open the "I'm going to drop on you from a gazillion feet up, and you'll take half damage but I'll take zero" interpretation using the Tasha's optional rule
"Any damage resulting from the fall is divided evenly between them" so if you negate all fall damage, there is no damage to divide. Though I suppose you might still knock them prone.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
The section on hadozee history contains the "happy slave" trope. It originally stated that hadozee deck hands (they were referred to as "Deck Apes", but that language was removed) were common on the ships of astral elves. It also stated that the hadozee held the elves in high regard, but the elves considered them to be inferior.
The minstrel artwork appears nearly identical to an illustration that accompanied the sheet music to the song "Coal Black Rose". Feel free to Google it if you like.
As a final thought, you don't decide what is offensive to other people. You may want to consider why you think you can.
Can you click the quote button on posts to respond please? It makes it easier for everyone else to figure out who you are referencing.
This isn't a long thread, and I don't think the post in question is necessarily calling out a particular poster but addressing a comments that have dismissed "the happy slave trope" and the artwork that to many knowledgeable eyes is derivative of depictions of minstrel art. It's totally fine to post a global comment to trends in the discussion. Honestly, i think it's more effective than pretending a thread is collection of "debate me" duels.
If someone was being specifically replied to, it'd show up in their notifications.
Glide. When you fall at least 10 feet above the ground, you can use your reaction to extend your skin membranes to glide horizontally a number of feet equal to your walking speed, and you take 0 damage from the fall. You determine the direction of the glide.
So, they left open the "I'm going to drop on you from a gazillion feet up, and you'll take half damage but I'll take zero" interpretation using the Tasha's optional rule
"Any damage resulting from the fall is divided evenly between them" so if you negate all fall damage, there is no damage to divide. Though I suppose you might still knock them prone.
The interpretation is that because the feature says specifically that you take 0 damage, rather than that the fall damage is reduced to 0, that it's split first before your half gets negated. Monk Slow Fall is open to the same interpretation
Slow Fall
Beginning at 4th level, you can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level.
Honestly, I'm ambivalent about it and thematically can see both sides of the argument ('dope monk shit'/'cool gliding hadozee dropkick' versus 'you're reducing your momentum to nothing, so there's no damage to transfer'). Just thought it was interested that they didn't close off that interpretation too while they were eliminating the ridiculous "you can approach the speed of sound while gliding" argument people were making with the old wording on the feature
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Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter) Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
The section on hadozee history contains the "happy slave" trope. It originally stated that hadozee deck hands (they were referred to as "Deck Apes", but that language was removed) were common on the ships of astral elves. It also stated that the hadozee held the elves in high regard, but the elves considered them to be inferior.
So, to clarify what you're talking about re: the relationship between Hadozee and Astral elves and the "deck hands" wasn't in the 5e Spelljammer (at least not my hard copy). What you're discussing was circulated in the original social media complaints about the Hadozee, and seems to have been taken from something like the Forgotten Realms Wiki (I found it when those social media posts were circulating, but it seems to have been taken down or I can't retrace my steps). The wiki cited this anecdote as appearing in the 2e Spelljammer books, and I'm having trouble finding it there too. There apparently was another product called Stormwrack that's most likely where the "deck ape" trope came from.
What was in the 5e Hadozee was the wizard slave breeder/trader sentience endowment story with the assisted liberation, which has been excised for what I call the "low g / high tree" yazirian narrative which was how the Yazirians lifted from Star Frontiers and renamed Hadozee were described in the first place. If only they'd bring back the ski goggles to aid their dark vision in intense sunlight.
My guess is WotC wanted the Hadozee in the book, knew the prior lore had eventually deployed racist tropes, and tried to do a pre-emptive Volo's edit on the lore, and didn't realize or didn't give enough editorial passes to the wizard slaver story. This callous review is further indicated by:
The minstrel artwork appears nearly identical to an illustration that accompanied the sheet music to the song "Coal Black Rose". Feel free to Google it if you like.
Absolutely, I'd almost go further and say these may well have been done via that art style where you trace the form of a preexisting artwork and develop it more to the assignments specification (there's a word for this, it's done and derided a lot in comic books). And honestly, just speculating, but if that was the process an artist used to get the work in on deadline, there's further indication that Spelljammer was frankly produced in the TTRPG equivalent of "crunch mode" (for those who falling video game dev work) which explains a lot of the enemic design and editorial work.
As a final thought, you don't decide what is offensive to other people. You may want to consider why you think you can.
+1
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The style, pose, coloring and such are different. When comparing images there is a high standard for saying what is representative of the other. I have seen more European images that represent minstrels who are white that are similar in appearance. This seems very generic like a direct association between apothecaries and witches. (as in there is only if secondary factors prime you to think so.) It seems like if the Hazodee were just called flying squirrels there would be almost no footing to stand on.
This being the case I would need more to agree with the side that it(the image)was a insensitive approach/representation. Either way I prefer to treat lore as a suggestion/inspiration but not actual until I do incorporate it in my game.
I am glad about the limits on glide. I think they possibly could have gotten more distance and not been broken (2x speed or something like Harengon or tabaxi.) still restraint on Wotcs end never hurts. I never really liked the design/write big and pull back method.
The section on hadozee history contains the "happy slave" trope. It originally stated that hadozee deck hands (they were referred to as "Deck Apes", but that language was removed) were common on the ships of astral elves. It also stated that the hadozee held the elves in high regard, but the elves considered them to be inferior.
The minstrel artwork appears nearly identical to an illustration that accompanied the sheet music to the song "Coal Black Rose". Feel free to Google it if you like.
As a final thought, you don't decide what is offensive to other people. You may want to consider why you think you can.
Can you click the quote button on posts to respond please? It makes it easier for everyone else to figure out who you are referencing.
This isn't a long thread, and I don't think the post in question is necessarily calling out a particular poster but addressing a comments that have dismissed "the happy slave trope" and the artwork that to many knowledgeable eyes is derivative of depictions of minstrel art. It's totally fine to post a global comment to trends in the discussion. Honestly, i think it's more effective than pretending a thread is collection of "debate me" duels.
If someone was being specifically replied to, it'd show up in their notifications.
Good point, I retract my statement.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Puzzle:
3 times, I have played level 20 characters. These experiences normally lead my sanity to divide as my other 4 players square up out of annoyance. In addition, 172 people polled by Eris, resident eldritch evil, say their sanity was a fifth of what is was after tracking max level combat with Solanar and Atemos. A while ago, I was rooted in fear after my character was stabbed. But the time was around 8.91 seconds before the end, and I rounded the fight out with a bang.
Yeah, it's out on both WotC and DDB's Twitter, and presumably other social platforms.
I really think the findings here are going to point to process corner cutting. The Hadozee definitely puts an exclamation point on it, but I can say the physical Spelljammer package just seems to be an anemic product from what it could have been. Frankly, between the Hadozee gaff (which includes art I'm suspecting was produced from that "tracing" style that's reviled in comic books, I don't know if there's a word for it besides tracing) the mechanical lackings and even the packaging design, I'm wondering if this product, and more worrisomely future products in the new higher tempo product pipeline, are experiencing the ttrpg equivalent of "crunch."
While dnd has determined the lore to be insensitive, the "tracing style" comments are deliberately misleading to encourage offense.
Anyone can look up 16th century minstrels and see the offensive work and the current one are pulled from the same innocent designs not the otherwise round. Of course a bard would be in a pose that represents dancing. That's what they do. But it's completely on the opposite side.
Holding an apple is a common thing for representing passion, carefree action and self sustainability. Meanwhile a floppy sandle represents very different concepts.
Anyone can look up 16th century minstrels and see the offensive work and the current one are pulled from the same innocent designs
... which means that the entire design and anything that evokes it is tainted by the legacy of racism and extra care must be taken even if the design is meant to be innocent.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
How exactly does this work now, though? Say a Hadozee steps off a 100' cliff. They glide 30' horizonally but then suddenly drop the 100'? Or do they powerdive 30' out and 100' down at a steep angle? Approx 16.7° ? And then take 0 damage? Or the maximum, a 500' fall.... a 3.43° angle, essentially straight down, for no damage....
Or they pull out of the fall late on. Or circle. Whatever makes sense to the situation. The narrative can describe the mechanics.
I think the original version makes a lot more sense....
The original version was mechanically incoherent. One could absolutely figure out what it was meant to do, which leads to multiple different absurd scenarios, but it didn't actually say it.
And, since they don't seem to want to define a "glide" movement type, they have to use some kind of single-act mechanism. This one is clear and unambiguous.
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You are forgetting that racism can very much be unintentional. If you accidentally paint a swastika without meaning to your art will still evoke pain and fear and it will still be a hate symbol even if you did not intend to make it so.
No. Calling out racism is not, first and foremost, an insult and you have to stop thinking about it that way. It is simply calling out things that have racist effects. Racism is a way of acting, talking and thinking about the world. I am racist, just by dint of having been raised steeped in modern society that is built on racism. We are all racist, it is an unfortunate thing, but it is a reality. Most people are not deliberately racist, most people are unintentionally racist because of the implicit biases we are raised with. Intent does not absolve.
No, this is historically wrong. What ends up happening when the racist connotations of imagery and words gets shushed is that people who are legitimately hurt by them get silenced. Silencing people when they are in pain never works well.
Ignoring history is not the way forward.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
A side note, Swastikas are actually a religious symbol in Asia. I am a jewish person, and I went to Indonesia, where the swastika is everywhere on shrines and in villages. To say that those shrines are showing a hate symbol is false. Actually, a Swastika and the "Hakenkraus" are 2 different and distinct things. One is a religious symbol of Dharmic faiths, and the other is a hate symbol. I think its unfair to equate the two, because there is so much context. Having a Swastika in your temple is not accidental antisemitism, its religious freedom that people ignore the context to. Thats all I will say about this over all, because I am not informed or smart enough to join a debate about racism.
Puzzle:
3 times, I have played level 20 characters. These experiences normally lead my sanity to divide as my other 4 players square up out of annoyance. In addition, 172 people polled by Eris, resident eldritch evil, say their sanity was a fifth of what is was after tracking max level combat with Solanar and Atemos. A while ago, I was rooted in fear after my character was stabbed. But the time was around 8.91 seconds before the end, and I rounded the fight out with a bang.
Sigh ... there is an understandable context to those, but the greater context of an entire World War has tainted the image and indelibly etched it into the collective consciousness in a wider context. You have to do a lot of very conscious and deliberate work to make it not a symbol of hate. Is that unfair? Sure, but so was what happened to millions of innocent people. The takeaway is that care must be taken and sensitivity must be shown, not that there is a possible way to use swastikas non-offensively and therefore any imagery can be used by anyone without care for the effects they have.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
The section on hadozee history contains the "happy slave" trope. It originally stated that hadozee deck hands (they were referred to as "Deck Apes", but that language was removed) were common on the ships of astral elves. It also stated that the hadozee held the elves in high regard, but the elves considered them to be inferior.
The minstrel artwork appears nearly identical to an illustration that accompanied the sheet music to the song "Coal Black Rose". Feel free to Google it if you like.
As a final thought, you don't decide what is offensive to other people. You may want to consider why you think you can.
Can you click the quote button on posts to respond please? It makes it easier for everyone else to figure out who you are referencing.
Puzzle:
3 times, I have played level 20 characters. These experiences normally lead my sanity to divide as my other 4 players square up out of annoyance. In addition, 172 people polled by Eris, resident eldritch evil, say their sanity was a fifth of what is was after tracking max level combat with Solanar and Atemos. A while ago, I was rooted in fear after my character was stabbed. But the time was around 8.91 seconds before the end, and I rounded the fight out with a bang.
So, they left open the "I'm going to drop on you from a gazillion feet up, and you'll take half damage but I'll take zero" interpretation using the Tasha's optional rule
Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter)
Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
"Any damage resulting from the fall is divided evenly between them" so if you negate all fall damage, there is no damage to divide. Though I suppose you might still knock them prone.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
This isn't a long thread, and I don't think the post in question is necessarily calling out a particular poster but addressing a comments that have dismissed "the happy slave trope" and the artwork that to many knowledgeable eyes is derivative of depictions of minstrel art. It's totally fine to post a global comment to trends in the discussion. Honestly, i think it's more effective than pretending a thread is collection of "debate me" duels.
If someone was being specifically replied to, it'd show up in their notifications.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The interpretation is that because the feature says specifically that you take 0 damage, rather than that the fall damage is reduced to 0, that it's split first before your half gets negated. Monk Slow Fall is open to the same interpretation
Honestly, I'm ambivalent about it and thematically can see both sides of the argument ('dope monk shit'/'cool gliding hadozee dropkick' versus 'you're reducing your momentum to nothing, so there's no damage to transfer'). Just thought it was interested that they didn't close off that interpretation too while they were eliminating the ridiculous "you can approach the speed of sound while gliding" argument people were making with the old wording on the feature
Active characters:
Askatu, hyperfocused vedalken freedom fighter in Wildspace (Zealot barb/Swashbuckler rogue/Battle Master fighter)
Green Hill Sunrise, jaded tabaxi mercenary trapped in the Dark Domains (Battle Master fighter)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
So, to clarify what you're talking about re: the relationship between Hadozee and Astral elves and the "deck hands" wasn't in the 5e Spelljammer (at least not my hard copy). What you're discussing was circulated in the original social media complaints about the Hadozee, and seems to have been taken from something like the Forgotten Realms Wiki (I found it when those social media posts were circulating, but it seems to have been taken down or I can't retrace my steps). The wiki cited this anecdote as appearing in the 2e Spelljammer books, and I'm having trouble finding it there too. There apparently was another product called Stormwrack that's most likely where the "deck ape" trope came from.
What was in the 5e Hadozee was the wizard slave breeder/trader sentience endowment story with the assisted liberation, which has been excised for what I call the "low g / high tree" yazirian narrative which was how the Yazirians lifted from Star Frontiers and renamed Hadozee were described in the first place. If only they'd bring back the ski goggles to aid their dark vision in intense sunlight.
My guess is WotC wanted the Hadozee in the book, knew the prior lore had eventually deployed racist tropes, and tried to do a pre-emptive Volo's edit on the lore, and didn't realize or didn't give enough editorial passes to the wizard slaver story. This callous review is further indicated by:
Absolutely, I'd almost go further and say these may well have been done via that art style where you trace the form of a preexisting artwork and develop it more to the assignments specification (there's a word for this, it's done and derided a lot in comic books). And honestly, just speculating, but if that was the process an artist used to get the work in on deadline, there's further indication that Spelljammer was frankly produced in the TTRPG equivalent of "crunch mode" (for those who falling video game dev work) which explains a lot of the enemic design and editorial work.
+1
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I had only skimmed the lore and not picked up on the subtext at all. But it's not like I was invested in it, so I'm fine with it gone.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
The style, pose, coloring and such are different. When comparing images there is a high standard for saying what is representative of the other. I have seen more European images that represent minstrels who are white that are similar in appearance. This seems very generic like a direct association between apothecaries and witches. (as in there is only if secondary factors prime you to think so.) It seems like if the Hazodee were just called flying squirrels there would be almost no footing to stand on.
This being the case I would need more to agree with the side that it(the image)was a insensitive approach/representation. Either way I prefer to treat lore as a suggestion/inspiration but not actual until I do incorporate it in my game.
I am glad about the limits on glide. I think they possibly could have gotten more distance and not been broken (2x speed or something like Harengon or tabaxi.) still restraint on Wotcs end never hurts. I never really liked the design/write big and pull back method.
Good point, I retract my statement.
Puzzle:
3 times, I have played level 20 characters. These experiences normally lead my sanity to divide as my other 4 players square up out of annoyance. In addition, 172 people polled by Eris, resident eldritch evil, say their sanity was a fifth of what is was after tracking max level combat with Solanar and Atemos. A while ago, I was rooted in fear after my character was stabbed. But the time was around 8.91 seconds before the end, and I rounded the fight out with a bang.
WOTC (or the DDB staff at least?) has made a statement about the Hadozee lore: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1334-statement-on-the-hadozee
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Speaks of changing the digital product and the changes reflected in future print runs, that reads to me like the statement is being owned by WotC.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Plus the same statement is on the WotC site, and, to be fair, "DDB staff" and "WotC" are not separate entities at this point.
Yeah, it's out on both WotC and DDB's Twitter, and presumably other social platforms.
I really think the findings here are going to point to process corner cutting. The Hadozee definitely puts an exclamation point on it, but I can say the physical Spelljammer package just seems to be an anemic product from what it could have been. Frankly, between the Hadozee gaff (which includes art I'm suspecting was produced from that "tracing" style that's reviled in comic books, I don't know if there's a word for it besides tracing) the mechanical lackings and even the packaging design, I'm wondering if this product, and more worrisomely future products in the new higher tempo product pipeline, are experiencing the ttrpg equivalent of "crunch."
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
While dnd has determined the lore to be insensitive, the "tracing style" comments are deliberately misleading to encourage offense.
Anyone can look up 16th century minstrels and see the offensive work and the current one are pulled from the same innocent designs not the otherwise round. Of course a bard would be in a pose that represents dancing. That's what they do. But it's completely on the opposite side.
Holding an apple is a common thing for representing passion, carefree action and self sustainability. Meanwhile a floppy sandle represents very different concepts.
... which means that the entire design and anything that evokes it is tainted by the legacy of racism and extra care must be taken even if the design is meant to be innocent.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Or they pull out of the fall late on. Or circle. Whatever makes sense to the situation. The narrative can describe the mechanics.
The original version was mechanically incoherent. One could absolutely figure out what it was meant to do, which leads to multiple different absurd scenarios, but it didn't actually say it.
And, since they don't seem to want to define a "glide" movement type, they have to use some kind of single-act mechanism. This one is clear and unambiguous.