hello! and, I really do have to ask: couldn't the rulebook be gender-inclusive??? please?

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serendipitous
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hello! and, I really do have to ask: couldn't the rulebook be gender-inclusive??? please?

Post by serendipitous »

Hi! I'm a very wet-behind-the ears judge/DM (have run 1 D&D game, no DCC) and am trying to figure out if I'll run a DCC campaign for my group. I'm looking at DCC b/c a good friend in the group has run DCC but hasn't been able to play in it, 'cause nobody else in our group runs it. And I want to make him happy.

First, thanks so much to the folks at Goodman Games who've built this labor of love. The mechanics, the support for story- and world-building, the art, this forum. Thanks for making our world a more fun, more social, more adventurous place to be.

However.

I do -- believe me -- realize that bringing this up in my first post is so awkward as to venture into anti-social, but I just can't read another page in the rulebook with lodging a protest and a petition. It happens that not only do women play the system, but -- and I'm sure I'm not the first by any stretch of the imagination -- actually run the game. It is really alienating to find that the entire book assumes the reader is male. And that castles are managed by males. And that generic travelers will be male. And that villagers volunteering to adventure will be male.

You get the idea.

I don't care if it is old school. That kind of old school is latently sexist. I've spend my whole life reading books that assume I'm male, starting with Plato's stuff and going right up past Asimov with a nice little stop in Aurelius' "Meditations" where he doubles down on how morally weak it is to be "womanish". But when I hit modern stuff, something amazing happens! Authors begin to assume the reader might be female! They alternate pronouns! Sometimes -- wait for it, wait for it -- they use gender neutral language.

Okay, you all probably know this and even those who aren't male probably don't find it half as alienating as I do. But if Goodman will incorporate gender-neutral language going forward then I'll keep using their materials after I run this campaign for my buddy. And: thanks for the cool system, for this forum, and especially for any help people are still willing to give me with my game after I post this.
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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GnomeBoy
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Re: hello! and, I really do have to ask: couldn't the rulebook be gender-inclusive??? please?

Post by GnomeBoy »

I would send this in to the info@ address, and maybe future printings could be adjusted...
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Jim Skach
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Re: hello! and, I really do have to ask: couldn't the rulebook be gender-inclusive??? please?

Post by Jim Skach »

Ironic given that many of the most well-known names in our little community are females...
michaelcurtis
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Re: hello! and, I really do have to ask: couldn't the rulebook be gender-inclusive??? please?

Post by michaelcurtis »

I understand your concerns and they are valid. You may be pleased to learn that for the last several years, it has been my pattern to use both male and female gender when writing my DCC manuscripts. Usually, when referring to the judge, I use the female pronoun and when referring to a singular player I use the male. The party is always referred to as they. This stems from not only trying to be more inclusive in my writing, but my choice in using the female pronoun for the judge is a tribute to the fact that the DCC community has so many female judges who have done a tremendous job in both running excellent games but publicizing DCC RPG as a whole.
Scrivener of strange tales, part-time madman, and odd word aficionado.
serendipitous
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Posts: 88
Joined: Wed May 20, 2020 12:56 pm

Re: hello! and, I really do have to ask: couldn't the rulebook be gender-inclusive??? please?

Post by serendipitous »

Thanks, all y'all. :D
" ... the things I am going to say are true and I am a force for truth and goodness, dammit, and I will beat anyone unconscious if they say otherwise."
-- The Angry GM
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