This Way Lies Pedantry

The “Preachy” Section Of the Game

I’m working on an RPG game called Myths of Uttarakuru. It’s a non-traditional fantasy setting inspired a lot by religious stuff I grew up with. My family are vaishnava (we’re all puertorican but my dad follows hinduism as his religion) and grew up with and really enjoy vedic culture. But that’s just one part of the stew of the game. It’s also got anime fox ears, magic rifles, anthro alligator pirates and a society with three fictional genders and other cool stuff. As such I can’t really call it an Indian Fantasy game. It’s a mix of a lot of stuff I like.

I did some writing for Uttarakuru today. One of the things I polished up was the start of the GMing section. It’s actually an extension of an old section I wrote some time ago for a prior iteration of the game. It was called derisively the “preachy” section of the game, and well, I don’t care that it’s called that.

It’s been expanded to two sections of the GM’s chapter, near the start of the chapter: Communication and Diversity. The project of both is simple. I want to communicate, if it’s not already obvious from the way the setting lore is constructed, that Uttarakuru is a game hopefully inclusive to all.

Part of that will be in the GMs who run it, so I instruct them to be empathetic to players’ real lives and identities, to add diversity to their game, and to avoid topics of misogyny, racism, homophobia, and etc, that just don’t exist in my game. They don’t – literally there’s no conception of it in that world.

I believe this is important because part of the project of Uttarakuru aside from being an inclusive fantasy is to be a roleplaying game that spells out the procedure of roleplaying for the reader. I assume, when I’m writing, that you’ve not come into contact with the hobby. You don’t know how to conduct yourself at a game, so I give tips. You’re not privy to how narratives might work in games so I give some personal frameworks.

I think if we have a section of a game that’s about what roleplaying games are, in the author’s opinion, then part of that has to be what the author conceives of as the communication standard for the game. And for me that’s inclusive, full stop. That means leaving some things behind and I won’t miss them. I think games without racism and homophobia and etc are far better.

Have I succeeded in doing this? Ehhh. Maybe. I’ve played a bunch of these games and it’s hard to write sections that break themselves down and lay bare how this stuff works for me. I’ve tried to do it and I hope I’ve succeeded. But if anything, I do want this section of the game to be the “preachy” section – I want it to be known what part of the project is, and what part of the project of Uttarakuru just isn’t, and won’t be.

I know I will catch no end of flak for having the GALL to write this section that assumes you don’t know how to avoid being awful to your players, but from real experience I know a lot of people who don’t know that. If it helps, the section is a lot more placid than it has ever been, and I really tried to get into the mindset of someone who just doesn’t know that they can offend and upset people through a game, and rather than yell, teach them what to do in those situations.

I’m also not perfect at this stuff myself. But I want to try.