Animal Crossing New Horizons

GWJ Conference Call Episode 716

Path of Exile: Harvest (PC), Animal Crossing (Switch), Age of Wonders: Planetfall (PC), Self-Made Spaces: Games and the queer experience, and listener messages.

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Amanda and Karla are joined by guest GWJ Twitch Streamer Josh (SeuGWJ) to talk about creating and experiencing LGBTQIA+ content in gaming.

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind.

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Comments

00:01:52 Path of Exile
00:08:45 Animal Crossing: New Horizons
00:12:35 Age of Wonders: Planetfall
00:20:27 Games and the Queer Experience
00:49:15 Listener Messages

Really good discussion this week. As a cishet male WASP, I don't get to hear conversations like that very often. I've been trying to learn more about perspectives outside my "bubble" of late, and if 2020 has the tiniest, most tarnished silver lining inside its apocalyptic storm cloud, for me, at least, it's that a lot of those opportunities and perspectives have been more accessible to me than they ever were before. So thank you for sharing.

Also, while I can't speak to the LGBTQI relevance of Ancestry and Culture, I definitely agree with Pyxistyx that it's an absolutely awesome RPG product and will be replacing the standard "race" rules in all future 5e games I run. It's one of my favorite things I've ever backed on Kickstarter.

I think this is probably the most important episode the show's ever done.

Seriously though why did nobody warn me i sound So. Frickin'. Scottish.

Timespike wrote:

Also, while I can't speak to the LGBTQI relevance of Ancestry and Culture, I definitely agree with Pyxistyx that it's an absolutely awesome RPG product and will be replacing the standard "race" rules in all future 5e games I run. It's one of my favorite things I've ever backed on Kickstarter.

It was an important one to highlight I think, given the recent developments around race in D&D (especially the horrible backlash people have been getting to daring to suggest Orcs, Drow and Vistani are updated in official material). I've got a POD copy ordered, but with everything going on it'll take a couple of weeks to show up I think. Definitely something i'm going to try integrating into future campaigns as soon as i figure out how to implement it in DNDBeyond.

pyxistyx wrote:

Seriously though why did nobody warn me i sound So. Frickin'. Scottish.

Timespike wrote:

Also, while I can't speak to the LGBTQI relevance of Ancestry and Culture, I definitely agree with Pyxistyx that it's an absolutely awesome RPG product and will be replacing the standard "race" rules in all future 5e games I run. It's one of my favorite things I've ever backed on Kickstarter.

It was an important one to highlight I think, given the recent developments around race in D&D (especially the horrible backlash people have been getting to daring to suggest Orcs, Drow and Vistani are updated in official material). I've got a POD copy ordered, but with everything going on it'll take a couple of weeks to show up I think. Definitely something i'm going to try integrating into future campaigns as soon as i figure out how to implement it in DNDBeyond.

Yeah, the hue and cry over getting rid of racist stereotypes in D&D has really been frustrating. Even if the original source material was more nuanced or the intention wasn't malicious, it's still upsetting real people in large numbers and needs to be fixed. The comfort of the BIPOC and LGBTQI people in the hobby should supersede "we've always done it this way."

I don't know DNDBeyond very well, but I know in Roll20 you can drop custom content in if you're willing to do some typing. Fortunately, the "race" mechanics usually aren't too text-intensive.

you can quite easily fiddle around with stat bonuses and penalties in DNDB, it'll just take a bit of playing around with.

* * *

Oh, and FYI, in case anyone is keen to try Age of Wonders: Planetfall, it's part of this months humble monthly pack!

This was an amazing episode. Thank you

I really enjoyed this episode and discussion.

One thing I want to add is that diversity and representation in games doesn't just help the groups involved, I think it helps everyone. I'm male, white and straight but I was really confused about myself growing up and felt I didn't really fit in and wasn't like most other people. I also found the characters in games just often didn't represent who I was. Having much more varied, real and deeper characters helps you consider other views and also makes you realise just how varied and interesting the world and people can be.

I've also found that the people writing characters that most connect with me are often not like me at all.