Do people of color play RPGs?

[nexus]

Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's get bak to the initial topic of this thread.

For all the people who have expressed dismay at the lack of cultural diversity in sci-fi and other genre fiction and films, how are you addressing this in your games? Is anyone on this thread expressly attempting to create games that expand the diversity of cultures addressed in their game world? If so, how?

I've never had to address it specifically. I mean, my players never end up on "Blackworld" or anything. I just try to present a realistic (or IMO, realistic) spread of people and idea. There blacks, hispanics, men, women, etc as the story deems appropriate. Including lopsided numbers if thats the setting. I feel putting in "diversity" for its own sake is just as artifical as having none.

[cyst13]

I wasn't suggesting "putting in diversity", whatever that means. I'm wondering whether anyone has set games in regions or cultures outside the norm for gaming. Example: anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, South America, SE or West Asia, Pre-Columbian America, the Arctic, or (shudder the thought) Canada?

[Theron]

On the original question: My first Champions group included an African-American guy named Charles Russell, who I deeply regret losing touch with.

Also, no one seems to have mentioned that Mike Pondsmith, the designer of Cyberpunk, Mekton, and Castle Falkenstein is black.

On the matter of Static Shock action figures, I was suddenly reminded of the toy commercial from "The Specials": "Now, there's a Special just for me!"

[Soulcatcher]

I wasn't suggesting "putting in diversity", whatever that means. I'm wondering whether anyone has set games in regions or cultures outside the norm for gaming. Example: anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, South America, SE or West Asia, Pre-Columbian America, the Arctic, or (shudder the thought) Canada?

Is Canada too cold for you?

I was once in a D&D campaign where it was placed in an alternate Earth located in the Indian sub-continent and we were of Indian heritage plus demi-humans and we worshiped Gods in the Indian pantheon plus Demi-human deities.

[bblackmoor]

My most recent fantasy game was set in a region like the Mediterranean. Local humans were olive-skinned with curly hair, northeners were pale and tall, easterners had straighter hair and larger noses, southerners had darker skin, and so on. There were some cultural differences, as well (primarily in religious interpretations and in how family obligations were perceived). It wan't out of any attempt to be "putting in diversity"; it was simply part of the setting as I envisioned it. I don't consider that to be an unusual practice.

[Magmarock]

For the last two sessions our world-spanning, hero group UNIT 1, has been stuck in Honduras fighting chemical-spitting, dividing & combining globs of goo that were sucking the energy out of car batteries and electical way-stations. None of our heroes speak Spanish, which has proved to make our heroics even more difficult (how do you tell people to "run and save themselves" if they don't understand you?).

Don't know if that counts or not.


We did finally win, in the end.


Mags

[Kirby]

Considering that four of the five movies you mentioned come from one director, I'd say there's a problem.

One Mexican directing sci-fi movies with Hispanic heroes, compared to how many Caucasian directors?

You're proving my point.

What ratio are you expecting? What would make you happy? Should 51% be female? Should only 50% be white? Would there need to be a quota filled to satisfy you of what you are calling stereotypes?

In the group I gamed with the longest (about 5 years or so) we had one black man and one white female (for a very short time two) and the rest were white males (though one kept chaning his "dominant heritage" trait about every month). The black male gamed with us not only because he was friends with us, but because none of his black friends cared to play RPGs. Is that us Americans sterotyping blacks because they don't *want* to play? No, it's their choice.

Instead of saying we're so stereotyped against blacks in Sci-fi and the like, why not write to or e-mail someone like Spike Lee and ask his opinions on making one? Maybe he doesn't because he chooses not to.

Also, for movies, the generally higher quality ones come from Hollywood, not mainstream America. Hollywood has its own perception of reality. Just because they make a movie, doesn't mean that's how Americans see America. Hollywood has a target audience in mind and then casts people to that audience. It isn't pretty, and quite often annoying, but that's Hollywood.

As for your comment "Why don't y'all [Canada] just join the U.S.? Ain't like you got anything going for you anyway,." I've never heard anyone say or suggest that. Granted, I've only lived in 10 cities in five states and one U.S. territory, but I've never heard that. Even in joking people have said more in lines of "Candada? Who cares? Let 'em be" or the Colen Mochrie/Canadian jokes referenced in "Whose Line is it Anyway?"

Finally, while I would *like* to see more "non-white men" in gaming, I'm not going suggest they play so as to not be stereotyped. Heck, if I had my way, my gaming groups would have at least six people, about half female with one being a sexy oriental. Unfortunately, wanting it that way doesn't make it that way.

[Kirby]

I wasn't suggesting "putting in diversity", whatever that means. I'm wondering whether anyone has set games in regions or cultures outside the norm for gaming. Example: anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, South America, SE or West Asia, Pre-Columbian America, the Arctic, or (shudder the thought) Canada?

Unfortunately, not for me. While we've made one-shot travels to foreign countries, we haven't had a setting there. The closest to a setting was in a Rifts game where we spent months in a South American jungle. But that *was* Rifts, and being in a jungle for months with no outside contacts other than dinosaurs and other creatures trying to eat you just doesn't count.

[Kirby]

For the last two sessions our world-spanning, hero group UNIT 1, has been stuck in Honduras fighting chemical-spitting, dividing & combining globs of goo that were sucking the energy out of car batteries and electical way-stations. None of our heroes speak Spanish, which has proved to make our heroics even more difficult (how do you tell people to "run and save themselves" if they don't understand you?).

Don't know if that counts or not.

Come to think of it, I did have my Golden Age character return to his home in France and I had a long adventure travelling across some spaces in Europe. That's the closest I can think of. It was a one-on-one with the GM and I would game for about an hour or two before the rest of the gang showed up.

[cyst13]

Kirby does raise an interesting point, I think. Anyone can start an RPG group. It doesn't require much in the way of financial resources. So it probably is largely a matter of choice if minorities decide not to play RPGs. I wonder, though, what the basis for that choice would be? An earlier poster on this thread, who is Black, said that he got a lot of negative flack from other Black people for playing RPGs. I wonder if there is something specifically about RPGs that doesn't appeal to minority cultures? Does anyone have any insights on this?

[Kirby]

An earlier poster on this thread, who is Black, said that he got a lot of negative flack from other Black people for playing RPGs. I wonder if there is something specifically about RPGs that doesn't appeal to minority cultures? Does anyone have any insights on this?

The only black person I've game with for a period of time never said anything about recieving flack, just that his black friends didn't game. Now you have me wondering if he might have, but didn't mention it for one reason or another. Of course, he was pretty open with us, so unless it was either truly embaressing or humiliating, it probably didn't happen (or just wasn't a big deal to him).

You made me start thinking though. Are there any black (and I guess Hispanic or [American] Indian) sci-fi/horror writers in the U.S.? Pretty much anyone can get published (having your books bought is different matter), so if anyone was interested, they have an outlet.

[BlackSword]

Kirby does raise an interesting point, I think. Anyone can start an RPG group. It doesn't require much in the way of financial resources. So it probably is largely a matter of choice if minorities decide not to play RPGs. I wonder, though, what the basis for that choice would be?

Part of it may be self-fulfilling prophecy. Most fantasy games are written from European myths with a bent towards anglo-saxon culture and history. Part of this is the obvious reason that most game designers fit in that category so they are writing with what they are familar with. Superheroes and sci-fi are primarily aimed at or written by caucasian maless so the scenarios and future historys tend to once again be based on European history (the Honor Harrington series is based on the Napoleanic Wars between Britain and France). Obviously this is not an insurmountable barrier as there are people who come from other cultures who play RPGs, but it is one more barrier.

[cyst13]

Octavia E. Butler is a Black female sci-fi writer. Philip Jose Farmer was Hispanic. They're both well respected in the genre.

[BlackSword]

Which I why I used the word primarily as opposed to all.

[cyst13]

Didn't mean that as a criticism, Blacksword, I was just offering an answer to Kirby's question.