https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-68315411
'
It's a world of mighty heroes and terrifying beasts, where the only
limitation is your imagination.
Dungeons & Dragons - or
D&D - the fantasy role-playing game has just turned
50 years old, but that doesn't mean it's stuck in the past.
After seeing a big surge in popularity online during the pandemic, an estimated
50 million people now take part.
Even Hollywood is getting involved, with a film adaptation and its own
D&D
club run by
Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello.
But as more people join, there is an effort by some to shape its future to make
it a more inclusive space.
One band of adventurers hoping to change the way we see the game is Jeremy
Cobb, Liv Kennedy and Jasper William Cartwright, known on their podcast as the
Three Black Halflings.
As well as playing the game, their show also looks at the intersection between
D&D and black culture.
"Representation is so important to make you feel like something is accessible,"
Jasper tells
BBC Newsbeat.
"People like us have shown others that there's a place within that space, which
typically a brown person wouldn't have looked at."
On their podcast and in most of the worlds they create,
Three Black Halflings
say every character is black, even if the person playing them isn't.
The hosts say it is to challenge some of the biases they've seen in traditional
D&D and fantasy storylines which tend to be based off Tolkien's more
Eurocentric visions of a fantasy world from
Lord of the Rings.
In that series, entire races can be aggressive and savage, which Jasper says
echoes racist views of the past.
He feels the podcast has helped him become more confident with himself, being
able to discover new parts of his identity as someone with mixed heritage.
"A big part of it was feeling like I hadn't been in contact with the black half
of my heritage.
"I've now been able to actually think about who I am and incorporate whole
sides to myself that I refused to let out as I felt a little bit ashamed,
because I didn't feel black enough," he says.
Wizards of the Coast - the company behind
D&D - has now mostly done away with
those traditional biases, with race no longer defining if a character is good
or evil, which Jasper says "makes the game more interesting and exciting".'
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
