Prejudice

Intimately entwined with the issue of morality (or lack thereof) is prejudice, a tradition which thrives in Gygaxia. Of course, the idea of prejudice based on gender, sex, sexual or relationship orientation, skin color, or real-life human facial variation would just confuse a Gygaxian, who would see such characteristics much like real world people usually regard hair color or ice cream preference. Running this can be more difficult than one might think; real world prejudices about such things run deep. For example, it may run counter to intuition to place women, gay and lesbian people, and real world racial minorities in positions of power. Showing all different kinds of people as vulnerable, comic, predatory, successful, and so on is difficult when the stories of our own cultures rarely portray such things. Making the effort, however, may sometimes be helpful in changing your thinking (or that of your players) such that the real world becomes just a little more just.

Still, it would be hard to imagine a fantasy world without discrimination on the basis of such characteristics as religion, age, size, national origin, disability, death status, intelligence, or similar characteristics. These prejudices can also often be a way of lampooning real world prejudice or other silly and dangerous notions. Thus, while skin color might be pretty irrelevant to a Gygaxian, racial prejudice is extremely common and not even especially politically incorrect; all Gygaxian races have far more biological differences and as many cultural differences from each other than any real life races do, and in most places, people aren’t shy about expressing their opinions about them. Similarly, people will probably laugh at those they perceive as having a funny religion or having been victims of terrible misfortune. In other words, Gygaxian prejudice is real, and it can be a part of an interesting story — just try to be conscious of when, and why, you’re using it.

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