A while back there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the LJsphere over bigotry present in Spirit of the Century. The important post was Pulp, gender, genre. Essentially she says that the game is sexist, or at best unimaginative in character examples. I can certainly see that.

Then after that, John Kim wrote a post mentioning the issue, and Bruce Baugh popped up to say he'd love to write a supplement covering the types of characters shut out of traditional pulp stories. The EvilHat guys jumped up enthusiastically and said, "go for it!"

From Bruce Baugh's LJ. He tells us:

   This is my upcoming thing:

She is the strongest human being alive, her muscles super-charged by her own scientific processes. She’s fought dinosaurs barehanded and lived to tell the tale. But she can’t join any professional society for engineers, or even hold the patents for her inventions in her own name.

He is a supernaturally good poet. He can smell truth and lies from across the street. He’s saved the life of one president, two prime ministers, and a future pope. But if he goes out for a gourmet meal with friends, managers will insist he go in through the servants’ entrance.

Two men share a mystical union, pooling their health, knowledge, and magical essence. They bind demons and champion the falsely accused in courts on three continents. But if they ever once acknowledge the love they share along with their power, they’ll be disbarred and shunned by decent people everywhere.

The band of five fought in two wars for liberty, first against invading armies and then against tyrants at home. They free serfs, fight the architects of murder, and have twice stopped mad schemes of genocide. But they’re communists, and can't even get visas to visit other heroes and scholars in the US.

Brother and sister are heirs to a millennia-old family tradition of serving justice and knowledge. Their ancestors commanded armies, delved into ancient tombs to lay ghosts—and worse things—to rest, taught the founders of new schools of philosophy and military strategy. But in the New World, he's barely tolerated as a ditch digger—and she'll be deported if she teaches English to other immigrants.

These are the other heroes, the ones who must fight for their dignity and liberty just as fiercely as they take on the challenges all pulp heroes face.

New Horizons is a new supplement for Spirit of the Century. Each chapter addresses a marginalized group from the pulps, kept outside by their sex, their race, their lifestyle, or their beliefs. In New Horizons you’ll find information about real-life heroic individuals and teams, the challenges they face and some of the solutions they find to the problems of dealing with 1920s society. You’ll also find heroes and villains ready for use, plot hooks, and ties to the mysteries around the Century Club. The life of heroes outside the mainstream may seem as strange as the secret language of Atlantis, but can be as exciting and powerful in play as a zeppelin armada.

New Horizons comes to you from veteran author and developer Bruce Baugh in collaboration with the minds behind Evil Hat Productions. We aim to show some of the real failings of the pulp era when it comes to fairness and justice in order to provide rich and vibrant new possibilities for adventure roleplaying in a bygone era. The real world is full of surprises—dense, weird, and just plain cool—and the bright light of Spirit’s optimistic pulp heroism can shine on some difficult realities just where they need it most.

New Horizons is about adding truth without sacrificing adventure—about bringing the real world together with the fantastic. Change your game. Change the world.
Brand Robbins says he'll be editing.

On Baugh's LJ, I pointed out the irony that two middle-classed white straight guys will be the ones writing about "marginalised groups." Baugh's response to that was to ban me from commenting on his LJ. So I'm not optimistic about this project, since if you're going to write about stuff you have no experience of, then you've got to be willing to take criticism and other input to make it any good. I also wonder if the people at EvilHat know any members of "marginalised groups" who can string a sentence together about roleplaying.

I know a few of you are going to bitch about "political correctness!", since so many of you are oblivious even to the sexism on this site. But really I think this is a worthwhile project, the more kinds of characters and settings you can have in a game, the better! It's just that these guys aren't the ones to write it. I also share the concern noted by John Kim,

Quote from: John KimAt least, there's a strong danger of it just being a token ghetto, which is the usual result of segregated material. (Like how Macho Women With Guns and Best Friends don't balance out bias in other RPGs.)

which is essentially the same thing as I said about two white guys, etc - but he's a better writer than me, so he puts it much more tactfully.

What do you lot reckon?

I liked this approach:

Wild Wild West
Jim West, desperado, rough rider
(No you don't want nada)...

Edit: I just need to emphasize how much this movie KICKS ASS!

Quote from: JimBobOzWhat do you lot reckon?

I'm going to have to think about all of this and post a coherent reply, later. For now, I say the rpg scene/industry/whatever (I'm talking about the American context) really needs a designer like Spike Lee.

Regards,
David R

All I can say is...

Play SotC or die!

New Horizons sounds like "have fun playing poor oppressed people".

Movies like Wild Wild West, Shanghai Noon, and even Brotherhood of the Wolf are more about awesome heroes and adventures.  That's how I think you should approach this issue.

One way has you playing "the other" and you dwell on the oppression.  The other approach has you playing awesome heroes who you daydream about being, and doing awesome things.  Sure they're different from you, but that's part of what makes them cool.

I hope that makes sense.

Well, if all things were equal in a pulp game, it wouldn't be historically correct. So as long as people are not going to turn around bitch about that, I don't see any problem with it.

I think it's great, simple as that.

Hell, if he can do something new with pulp, especially something which might attract folk outside the normal gamer demographic, all the better.  Go Bruce.

What do you want?  There aren't a lot of 110 year old black women lining up to write this one.  What we have is some sensitive folk who will do their best as historians and writers to be accurate while producing an entertaining product.

Bruce is going out of his way to ask for comments and suggestions from folk.  There's a lengthy thread about it on RPG.net that Fred has been heavily involved in, and many folk have been commenting on Bruce's LJ.  I have difficulty imagining how they could be doing a better job at this extremely early stage.

For strong female characters in Pulp/Crime be sure to check out Chris Mill's Supernatural Crime.

I do think they could have found people of more diverse backgrounds than they did.

I wonder why they didn't just decide to a Spirit of the Century: Second Edition, and in that second edition, include the people they'd forgotten.

A couple of weeks back we played HEROES: Unlimited! (TM). There was a chart for rolling up where your character came from. They listed all these possibilities, but didn't mention South America or Africa. Apparently South Americans and Africans couldn't get superpowers. Palladium may have fixed this in later editions, I don't know. But anyway, it didn't seem like a malignant prejudice, just like they'd forgotten those two continents existed.

Should Palladium put out HEROES: Unlimted! - Africans and Latinos! (TM)? Should they get a whole supplement to themselves? Or would it be better to put them in the main book?

If you want to be inclusive, isn't it better to include them in the main book, rather than making a seperate book?

Quote from: JimBobOzI do think they could have found people of more diverse backgrounds than they did.

I wonder why they didn't just decide to a Spirit of the Century: Second Edition, and in that second edition, include the people they'd forgotten.

A couple of weeks back we played HEROES: Unlimited! (TM). There was a chart for rolling up where your character came from. They listed all these possibilities, but didn't mention South America or Africa. Apparently South Americans and Africans couldn't get superpowers. Palladium may have fixed this in later editions, I don't know. But anyway, it didn't seem like a malignant prejudice, just like they'd forgotten those two continents existed.

Should Palladium put out HEROES: Unlimted! - Africans and Latinos! (TM)? Should they get a whole supplement to themselves? Or would it be better to put them in the main book?

If you want to be inclusive, isn't it better to include them in the main book, rather than making a seperate book?

Possibly, but I'm pleased it's being done at all, I don't feel the need to criticise because there may be better ways of doing it.

I must be misunderstanding something here...  Is there something in Spirit of the Century that stops you from saying "My Scientist is Asian", or "My Ace Reporter is African American"?  Is there something stopping you from having any of your characters be female if you like?  Can't you give them whatever backstory you want to?

I'm honestly interested in this, as it's a topic I've been thinking about for my own game development.

Quote from: JimBobOzWhat do you lot reckon?

I reckon a few things;

a. I'm not really interested in this supplement, even though I like Spirit of the Century quite a lot.

b. I'll reserve judgement on Bruce Baugh's ability to write the supplement until he's actually completed it.  I don't subscribe to the theory that because Bruce isn't a member of an oppressed minority that he won't be able to write about those minorities.  Sure, without some personal experiences to draw upon, it might be more difficult.  But certainly not impossible.  

c. No, I don't think this material necessarily belongs in the core rules (second edition or otherwise).  The whole purpose of this supplement is to extend the parameters of the genre to include character archtypes not usually covered.  That, to me, screams supplement.

Quote from: StuartI must be misunderstanding something here...  Is there something in Spirit of the Century that stops you from saying "My Scientist is Asian", or "My Ace Reporter is African American"?  Is there something stopping you from having any of your characters be female if you like?  Can't you give them whatever backstory you want to?

Nope.  There is, however, a lack of discussion of the problems discriminated groups faced in the 1920s.

Quote from: JimBobOzI wonder why they didn't just decide to a Spirit of the Century: Second Edition, and in that second edition, include the people they'd forgotten.

My copy of SotC is complete, I don't see anyone being forgotten.