Newspeak Edition Rules

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

When games become politicized, and every word is offensive, they typically get overwritten and confusing.

https://boundingintocomics.com/2023/04/10/dungeons-dragons-to-replace-inherently-racist-half-species-system-with-new-children-of-different-humanoid-kinds-mechanic/

Half-elves are being supposedly replaced with "Children of Different Humanoid Kinds," or CD-HKs for short. And the paragraph describing them doesn't need a sensitivity reader; it needs an editor. What should be a simple "pick a background" is this vague, unclear, do-what-you-want mess of "half-isms" that will anger nobody and please the same amount of people. And the rules still use the word "race?" Okay, it needs both now.

Here? It is "pick one side or another - no mixing!" They managed to make the solution more problematic than the original rules.

If they make every stat modifier for background, "the player chooses," simply eliminate the concept of race and let players "be what they say they are."

This is where they are going anyway.

They might cut to the end result and take it all out; I can't recognize many Pokemon-humanoid crossbreeds that qualify for D&D races in the newer editions. Give all characters a stat bonus and a few special powers anyone can have, and let them decide on the shape. If a player really wants to be a Gumby with a clay horse, let them. Add a lightning bolt power as a character option, and you make everyone happy.

I get this feeling class is next. The answer is the same, give everyone a few stat bonuses and let them pick a few class power packages. Or just play Cypher System, which does both of the above and is the better 5E-style game these days.

Keep the rules simple and non-political, like Monopoly. Writing over a thousand pages for a new edition just for Newspeak wastes money and resources and causes further environmental damage. And when they waste time explaining themselves, you get less in the books, and the game becomes harder to play.

And apparently, it is still 5E?

More Newspeak.

The best thing to do is the most obvious and simple, but I get the feeling that isn't really the plan.

These people aren't game designers; they are social media marketers. They are changing things to cause "buzz" and "controversy." If you have nothing to sell, monetize the anger. Create sides and sell the right to be on the correct one.

The game is dead.