The Han Solo figure (there are pics above) is in what I would call an iconic pose that is clearly Han Solo. If he were painted differently, I believe it would read as an alternate take on that character, rather than a different person.
2 Likes
I started using X cards and ‘Lines and Veils’ conversations in the games I run, and it has had a net benefit. It does drastically change the tone of the initial setup session, but makes for a richer understanding between the players. In my experience, it’s especially helpful with new-to-RPG players, and new-to-group players.
2 Likes
Which is awesome. And fine 
Can I say too, to @Bengeile - I applaud the work and thought you’re putting into this. I remember being in school and there was no real thought to representation or what representation might mean or look like or feel like for folks. I grew up a cis-straight-white-male - i mean, I’m still those things - , so this representation usually just included me and didn’t require me to think critically about much, but introducing the idea of representation and why it matters early would have done positives for sure. Knowing that, as a teacher, you care enough to look at this and try to make sure you’re doing it right is so good to see, when so many teachers that I had just wouldn’t have bothered.
6 Likes
Thanks for the kind words, folks. I happen to work in a very diverse school on a not-particularly diverse state, and teachers that ignore issues of diversity and representation get eaten alive pretty quick by the horde of teenagers we work with.
In my conversations with other educators around the world, however, it seems that student led activities, diversified methods of engagement, and social-emotional learning are becoming more the norm. It’s a whole new world compared to my school experience.
10 Likes
For what it’s worth, thank you for taking an interest in this. It’s important that people are treated fairly and allowed to express themselves properly, especially children.
There is far to go, but so long as people attempt to progress our society, each generation can hopefully find it easier than the last.
9 Likes
Was watching Thor Ragnarok last night. Reading this thread regarding the pieces in colonial games that gather resources, this quote comes to mind.
11 Likes
Is it bad that I tried to scroll the right side scroll bar on your pic? 
5 Likes
On Saturday I played Endeavor: Age of Sail, which includes this in the rule book:
The “exploits” mentioned are these:
Do people have any opinions on this as a way to rehabilitate games about colonialism that previously ignored or trivialised the effects on enslaved people? We didn’t play with either the Haitian Revolution or the Underground Railroad modules, and I wouldn’t have seen the note in the rule book if I hadn’t been looking it up online (not being the owner of the game), so it’s still quite easy to avoid the issue of slavery past the basic choice of “abolish slavery? Y/N”.
Thoughts?
6 Likes
In this case, I think it comes down to how to abstractify a concept without trivialising it. Both abstraction and trivialisation rely upon reducing an issue down to its core ideas and how that is presented. In this setting, trivialisation could be loosely defined as perceiving an abstraction to focus on the incorrect core aspects of a concept (or at least losing a vital aspect in the abstraction).
With Endeavour, personally I think it works relatively well as the abstraction of slavery is a similar level of abstraction of the rest of the colonialisation mechanics. This isn’t a game with heavy mechanics into the minutiae of colonisation, with an over simplified side of slavery. The whole game is heavily abstract and the use of slavery sits within the game on the same plane. It recognises slavery happened (with benefits to the slaver nation), and it recognises slavery ended.
I can’t see how a game can comment much beyond that without imparting modern sensibilities. It’s fairly matter of fact in its presentation, but as a distant viewpoint it works in basic terms. There’s never going to be a nuanced argument in this level of abstraction.
I think it’s quite brave of the game to acknowledge the economic advantage of slavery to get an edge over rival nations. It’s such a taboo in modern day discussion on the subject, which rightly centres around the abject immorality. The intensity of slavery in this respect is neutered by the distant abstraction of the game.
How it reduces down to a Y/N option is a more nuanced debate than I have the education to participate in. With historical subjects I think it’s important to enable the viewpoint of that time, without revising history to fit with modern views or encouraging people to impart modern morality upon the issue. We learn nothing by presuming everything that has happened since was an inevitability. But that’s impossible within a game unless it was accompanied by a full companion book. So I’m at an impasse on that one! I do respect how the game allows all or none of the players to enter into slavery.
Compare that to Archipelago, where Slavery is one card that one player can take. It really sets an odd tone. Only one nation can commit slavery? The other players see that player as the bad guy as if the rest of colonialism was a party? I’ve played so many games where that one card completely changes the room - people often actively avoid taking that card despite its mechanical benefits. It’s interesting from a social standpoint, but from a game design is so odd.
Endeavour still runs into the same issues of how the audience may respond to the abstraction in an inappropriately light tone, but I don’t think it’s up to the medium to take responsibility for the behaviour of its audience.
2 Likes
I appreciate the big picture attempt to at least address the issue. Adding it into a game that was not about it is difficult and at least they made the effort. I’m not entirely certain the effort is successful. Just going off the two cards shown, for example, why would success on the Underground Railroad in the US cause abolition to happen? Why would the Underground Railroad, which in the form imagined in pop history largely only existed post 1850, and abolition in the US which came in the 1860s be a possible precondition for the Haitian Revolution (1790s to early 1800s)? It seems to be done just for the sake of centering the history of the US when that really isn’t the center of the story of the transAtlantic slave trade nor of the enslavement of Black peoples in the Americas.
2 Likes
In the game, the abolition of slavery is a general event that applies to all players, and isn’t specific to a particular region (it’s very abstracted). This is achieved by actions that the players take in Europe, so I hadn’t interpreted it as specifically referring to abolition in the USA, although I can see that the chosen events centre the history of that geographic region.
In terms of the Haitian Revolution event, my (admittedly very surface-level) understanding leads me to believe that the abolition of slavery in the French Republic was in part a response to the uprising in Haiti, as the French believed that was the only way they would be able to keep control of the colony. They did later try and re-establish slavery though, which did not go very well.
The game contains a number of different Exploits, with a selection focusing on each colonial power. There’s a lot of variety: the Jesuits, James Cook, Andres de Urdaneta, the South Sea Company & the Dutch East India Company. This is alongside more generic colonial topics, like Globalisation, Western Imperialism, Piracy, the accumulation of saltpeter for weaponry, the sun never setting on the empire (with reference notes to both the Spanish and English empires), and letters of Marque. So the game does focus heavily on colonialism, but much of it isn’t US centred.
Inclusion of the Underground Railways is odd to me, since this was more of an ‘domestic affairs’ event after independence, compared to the others which are more directly linked to colonialism. This seems to be a concession to include the option of more anti-slavery theming to the game.
It does treat historical events as an assortment of events outside of their respected chronology. I can see lots of games do this - many card based war games for example.
I was going off the Underground Railroad card that says if the last space on it is achieved then slavery is abolished.
Yes, that card does seem more as though it should be called “the gradual movement towards the abolition of slavery”.
1 Like
Yes, if that was the only way in the game to abolish slavery, it would be very US-centric, and the Haitian Revolution event would make much less sense! 
Underground Railroad may be too historically specific a term. There were runaway slaves in the Caribbean and on the South American mainland, such as the Maroons; they didn’t have Canada as a possible destination, and their existence was precarious, but it appears that on the larger islands they influenced the conflict over slavery, perhaps more than the Underground Railroad did.
1 Like
Not sure if this is the right thread, but for my next game* I hired a Cultural Consultant to help make sure there was nothing problematic in our use of the theme. That was the initial intent, but then they went on to make lots of key suggestions to help embed the theme and made the game a lot richer for it.
I think a simple rule should just be, if your game uses a theme or setting from a different culture than you’ve experienced first hand, hire somebody to check your work. They could even help you make it so much better.
*Die of the Dead- Dia de Muertos themed dice rolling game- shameless blog promotion- https://radical8games.com/die-of-the-dead/die-of-the-dead-designer-diary-2-theme-and-cultural-consistency/ shameless BGG link https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/292363/die-dead
3 Likes
This is good advice for developers absolutely.
You’re only going to enrich the work if you have someone come in and look at it from a cultural lens. Particularly if you’re developing a game with a cultural Mexican theme and are - for example - a team of mostly White, or mostly American/British/Canadian (not making assumptions about your team, by the way just as an example).
You reduce the risk of cultural appropriation, you reduce the risk of gamifying cultural practice, its only ever going to do good things.
People get really defensive and assume that their INTENT removes any problematic elements from a game, but intention only gets you so far.
2 Likes
No you’re spot on. One of the non-negotiables with the designer was hiring a cultural consultant for that very reason. I also specifically looked for a Mexican artist to work with.
7 Likes