Similarly Warhammer & Helldivers.🤭

Reminds me of this awesome response to criticism of Shadowrun being inclusive.

There is a very good reason why Shadowrun has taken pains to be inclusive in its character options and in the universe that those of us currently writing have been lucky enough to work on in its nearly thirty year history. It’s not only because making the world inclusive is the right thing to do; and it’s not just because the Player Characters are presumed to be from the marginalized, downtrodden, and ignored parts of society that are now and are in the Sixth World reserved for or otherwise filled with racial, ethnic, gender, religious, and other minorities (or majorities—numerosity doesn’t necessarily translate to political power); but at the end of the day, being an inclusive and open world is the right business decision.

This criticism is the desperate cries of dinosaurs as they struggle against the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction. It’s loud and violent, and in the end it’s just as successful.

While this tumblr is supposed to represent the Shadowrun tabletop game, the entire universe and all of the properties share these same traits and considerations. Shadowrun, in video game or tabletop RPG or novel or any other format, will continue to move forward and I expect that D&D, Pathfinder, etc. and Beampod will also continue to move forward because the future is open and inclusive. And if you don’t like it, too bad.

UPDATE: To be clear, these negative comments are in no way “criticism” of the game. It’s whining by bigots trying to impose their own biases on commercial enterprises that have made their position on their fictional universes and in who they hire and promote to continue those universes. This whining does not deserve anything more than to be ignored.

If you don’t like it, you’re free not to buy the product.

Vampire the masquerade is basically a game designed to make conservativism look as ridiculous as possible.

From Lancer’s Core Rule Book:

In this book there are some fraught, difficult, or otherwise uncomfortable themes content discussed. Lancer takes place in a setting recovering from millennia of cruel anthrochauvinist - a fascist, imperial, Earth-first ideology that had little time, space, or care to acknowledge beings or perspectives that ran counter to their didactic tyranny.

We want to acknowledge that many phenomena and acts touched on in Lancer - slavery, exploitation, racism, directed hate, genocide, the stealing of indigenous land- are real phenomena, are ongoing acts of injustice and cruelty, and are not simply “fantasy" or “interesting devices” to use in a roleplaying game. Their inclusion in Lancer is by no means a flippant choice, intended to be read as endorsement or idle thought.

We think it important also to acknowledge that both Tom and I are writing from the perspective of straight, cis, able-bodied men. When writing Lancer, we wanted to create a setting where humanity is - in the narrative present — at once in a state of utopia and working to bring it about. We imagine that Union isn’t burdened by the same cultural definitions of gender that oppress and malign so many people who live under the umbrella of capitalism and empire and, as such, there is a wide spectrum of expression and identity in Union and among its constituent worlds.

At the risk of enacting further violence by depicting worlds and cultures where there are regressive or discriminatory stances on gender baked-in, we have decided not to codify in the rules how players may express themselves - please do note that this absence of canonical definition is absolutely not meant to be read as exclusion, but is meant instead to avoid flattening all possible stories into one “canon” definition of what it means to be gendered, transgender, nonbinary — to have a body in Lancer, encourage you to play your characters how you see them, and consider them to be in-canon.

We hope that you create narratives and characters that stand against terrible abuses and prejudices. Lancer features no easy aliens to pass these transgressions upon, only other human beings; humanity alone are the architects of terrible cruelties, but we can also be the architects of better, more just futures - and presents.

(…)

We believe that ideas of liberation, of radical antifascism and anti-hate, can begin around the table with friends and end in the streets, at the ballot box, and in all of our hearts. Sometimes around the table with friends is the only place where liberation- where fighting back- can happen. This does not diminish the impact that it can have.

That’s why we made Lancer, to help people fight back, if nowhere else then around the table with friends.

In solidarity,

Miguel Lopez and Tom Bloom

Edit: From the third party licence

You may not use the Lancer setting or system to publish content that directs hate towards protected groups.

Remember: Lancer believes in a future where a better world is possible, has been achieved, and is expanding. While we can’t look over your shoulder or edit your texts for you, we do encourage you to write in our house style: earnest, smart, aware of power and the dynamics between the oppressed and their oppressors, and with an aim towards clarity. Lancer is soft science fantasy that wears hard science fiction’s suits — write big, but keep people in mind.

Lancer thinks things can and should be better, and isn’t afraid to write stories exploring what that looks like. Cruel and evil events can happen, but they shouldn’t be celebrated — they should be stopped. You’re playing lancers— the cavalry. Write settings and situations that call for some big damn heroes to get in there and help the right people; even if they don’t save the galaxy, liberating the city is good work enough.

[…] we urge you to put this book down and grab a gun to shoot yourself.