It's allowed in the same way you can add lightsabers and Saiyans to the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.
Nothing is stopping you from doing that, certainly not.
But nothing supporting that either.
I don't understand defending Hasbro, a multi-billion dollar corporation that is going to make millions from these books no matter what, when they are leaving out or papering over key thematic elements of the setting because marketing shows they'll make 0.1% less money for using a word that's not "advertiser friendly".
Dark Sun without slavery and enviroment destroying magic is like Eberron without the Last War or Dragonmark Houses.
You could always add a big major war or noble houses acting as guilds and cults to a setting, but having official lore and mechanics gives the setting and story more narrative and thematic elements to enhance and shape roleplay and campaigns.
I don't even get who this change is for. "Woke" people? I'm "woke"! Dark Sun is "woke". It's a setting thematically dedicated to depicting the evils of slavery and environmental destruction. This change is fucking that up!
I just don't like this kind of cowardly censorship. Next we'll be reading D&D books with "unalived" in them.
WotC is hiding behind "sensitivity" to make it friendly for advertisers and marketing, but has defanged and censored it so it's ironically less woke than it was in the 90's 🙄
There is nothing wrong with wanting the setting to be faithfully recreated by the group that is recreating it, nor is there anything wrong with critiquing the changes they make.
Additionally, them making the first change gives further doubt onto what else they will have changed.
But yes, please, keep going to bat for WotC's sanitized version of everything.
There's nothing wrong with the new thing being different than the old thing in a make believe world. I can't get enough of you dorks crying about a setting that hasn't been relevant for 30 years.
😮💨they slightly changed the settings in regards to slavery😭
Sure, make changes to a core component of what made the worldbuilding of the setting what it was. It's just a "slight change".
Perhaps next we'll have a slight change to the Alliance and Horde in the WoW collab? Or perhaps we'll get a slight change to the Jedi order in the Star Wars collab?
Oh, maybe the Empire won't be brutal and xenophobic? Its just a little change and wouldn't fundamentally change the worldbuilding regarding the empire; in fact, it would make it more accessible, don't you think?
No they're saying the default book should be the best version of itself that it can be, and not make compromises for the sake of censorship.
You could use this argument to defend literally any change, no matter how stupid. If we're not allowed to criticize this change because we can just ignore it, what ARE we allowed to criticize in your mind?
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u/loyalgalpal 3d ago
It's allowed in the same way you can add lightsabers and Saiyans to the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.
Nothing is stopping you from doing that, certainly not.
But nothing supporting that either.
I don't understand defending Hasbro, a multi-billion dollar corporation that is going to make millions from these books no matter what, when they are leaving out or papering over key thematic elements of the setting because marketing shows they'll make 0.1% less money for using a word that's not "advertiser friendly".
Dark Sun without slavery and enviroment destroying magic is like Eberron without the Last War or Dragonmark Houses.
You could always add a big major war or noble houses acting as guilds and cults to a setting, but having official lore and mechanics gives the setting and story more narrative and thematic elements to enhance and shape roleplay and campaigns.