Erebus
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,763
A new Pathfinder adventure path will soon be released and... OH NO ! THE PCS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MEMBERS OF THE CITY WATCH AND THAT'S KINDA LIKE POLICEMEN AND ALL POLICEMEN ARE BAD WHAT ARE WE GONNA DOOOOO ???
tl;dr : most of our players are hypersensitive snowflakes unable to tell the difference between reality and fiction (possibly because their view of reality involves a lot of fiction). We don't really give a fuck, but we want their shekels so we're pandering to them like so many other companies.
We at Paizo strive to represent our company’s values of inclusivity through the content of our Pathfinder and Starfinder publications. Showcasing diversity in the stories of the cultures, races, sexualities, and gender identities of our characters is something we’ve tried to emphasize since the company’s inception 18 years ago. As we wrote in our public statement earlier this month about the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s an ongoing and vital process.
The murder of George Floyd by police and the resulting political actions, increased visibility around issues of police brutality, and ongoing conversation about the role of policing in our society casts a difficult light upon Agents of Edgewatch, our upcoming Pathfinder Adventure Path in which players take on the roles of members of the city watch in a vast fantasy metropolis. As Paizo’s publisher, I want to take this opportunity to address the situation directly.
When we began work early last year on Agents of Edgewatch, we conceived of the adventures as a pseudo-Victorian crime drama in which a party of Sherlock Holmeses would bring a cult of sinister murderers to justice against the backdrop of a World’s Fair-style celebration in Absalom, the huge city at the center of the Pathfinder world. Along the way, we’d dabble in some buddy cop movie tropes and use the players’ role as new and idealistic town guards as a framing device for a tour of the city as they attempt to thwart the evil cult’s machinations.
In our heads, this was a classic detective story, not a chance for players to act out power fantasies of being militarized police officers oppressing citizens. As publisher, I was confident that we could steer well clear of egregious parallels to modern police violence and handle the material responsibly.
But there’s more to it than that. What I hadn't realized—no doubt a result of my own privilege—is that the very concept of police, the idea of in fact taking on the role of police, makes some members of the Paizo community deeply uncomfortable, no matter how deftly we might try to pull off the execution.
tl;dr : most of our players are hypersensitive snowflakes unable to tell the difference between reality and fiction (possibly because their view of reality involves a lot of fiction). We don't really give a fuck, but we want their shekels so we're pandering to them like so many other companies.