Friday, September 12, 2014

What you talkin bout Willis?

Coming Soon from Goodman Games- Dungeon Crawl Classics:Shanna's Weird Dice.
http://www.goodman-games.com/6041preview.html

from the copy on the page:
This set contains the very dice that Shanna Dahaka used to invoke Azi Dahaka and enchant her magical afro.
Using these dice in your game is guaranteed to bring good fortune, especially if you rub them on an afro prior to each session.
WHAT?  Did I just read this:
Using these dice in your game is guaranteed to bring good fortune, especially if you rub them on an afro prior to each session.

 Yup...

Having fun with and making fun of dumb pop-culture references of the past is fine, off color humor is fine. Ad copy that is tone deaf to hurtful idiocy of the past is in poor taste.


Here's how it could have been softened to not be as creepy and borderline awful as it is.

This set contains the very dice that Shanna Dahaka used to invoke Azi Dahaka and enchant her magical afro.
Using these dice in your game is guaranteed to bring good fortune, especially if you rub them on your afro prior to each session.
See, that's having fun with stupidity of the past, not wallowing in it.




6 comments:

  1. What's really sad is I had to stumble onto this on YDIS.

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  2. I don't get the apparent hurtful idocy I'm suppose to be wallowing in. Is rubbing someone elses afro (which btw I read as rub on my afro) an insulting thing? From that show(forget name) with Willis?

    Even it was. Holly nitpicking over reaction batman! If I can't get worked up over underage rape and murder in my fantasy sorcery instructions, rubbing someone's hair ain't doin it either.

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    Replies
    1. My mentioning it here on my blog is by no standard over reacting.

      It isnt a ficitonal evil ritual that is clearly an evil ritual it's using racism and bigotry of the past.

      Delete
  3. For those not aware of this, slave owners would rub the heads of their slaves for luck. (I had to look it up.)

    It's possible Goodman Games wasn't aware of this either, but it's definitely problematic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sort of stuff extended well into the 20th century enough so I recall people saying and doing it in the 70s. It was used as a challenge/dare among children and definetly based on the older B.S.

      Delete
  4. Well, FWIW I emailed the Goodman Games contact address (info@...) to mention that yeah, this is cringeworthy, and they replied 'Thanks and noted'. Whether that means they'll re-examine the ad copy, or they were just politely telling me to mind my own business, I don't know.

    ReplyDelete