Racial stereotypes exist firstly because they capture something true, and second because they're a convenient shorthand. This applies just as much in RPGs as it does IRL

Quote from: Valatar on July 20, 2022, 06:26:20 PM
Pundit being an unreliable source on account of quoting other people who turned out to be wrong is really not relevant in this situation, given that he seems to have access to the book in question this time.  And while people can certainly say, "Oh, Wizards is just providing helpful guidelines!", you can bet every dollar you own that if some streaming game shows the DM breaking one of those 'guidelines', they will immediately be pilloried for it.  It isn't just a guideline anymore if there's a person slapping a cudgel into their palm behind you.

To clarify, I had access to a photo of that page of the book, which had been spread around twitter.

Quote from: Omega on July 20, 2022, 08:18:34 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 20, 2022, 09:20:47 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 20, 2022, 07:37:35 AM

Quote from: jhkim on July 19, 2022, 04:30:46 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 19, 2022, 04:17:57 PM
If understand correctly, what they're telling you is that you're not allowed to be "racist." What is considered racist for this purpose and how do they intend to enforce this rule?

In general, what is the actual text talked about here? It's supposedly from Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, but I remember how Pundit previously claimed that Candlekeep Mysteries had an official combat wheelchair and that every dungeon from Candlekeep on was wheelchair-accessible - which were blatantly false.

Except that it wasn't "false", it was based on what leftist gaming media were reporting. So THEY were the liars.

Propagating a story without verifying it isn't any better.

At the time there was no way to tell it was not true. And WOTC themselves have more than once lied about book content through 5es run.
This is why every time WOTC or one of their staff make a claim. I wait and see what the actual product is because odds are it aint.

So yes in Pundits defense he got baited that time and fell for it. So did everyone else for a while. And the combat wheelchair did show up. Just not in mainstream D&D. It was added to Idle Champions round the same time. To "make D&D more welcoming". And that is exactly where I quit playing IC:FR and haven't touched it since.

Case in point, the new Radiant Citadel book has been promoted everywhere on social media with the emphasis on the book having been produced by 50 people of color, and no white people. Wizards itself has done this promotion, through spokespersons like Ajit George (the lead on this book, who until recently had practically no experience in game design).
And yet, I've now been told (note: might be inaccurate) that in the physical book itself, the one gamers will look at in stores, it doesn't mention this ANYWHERE. If true, that proves just how WoTC operates: their virtue signaling is to the Woke Twitter Mob, but then they desperately try to cover up the truth for actual customers, trying as hard as possible to pass this book off as just another great adventures book and not a piece of BLM / Defund the Police propaganda (note, by the way, the Radiant Citadel has "community policing" with restorative justice and treating crime as a mental health issue. In spite of this, and unlike everywhere in the real world where Defunding Police has been tried, the citadel supposedly has "very little crime".

Quote from: Valatar on July 20, 2022, 08:37:57 PM

Quote from: jhkim on July 20, 2022, 08:07:40 PM
OK, I've picked up Radiant Citadel. The quotes that Pundit is using are close to the text - but first of all, the missing context is that all of what he quotes is from a subsection clearly entitled "Online and Streamed Games". I take it this isn't advice for D&D games in general, but for D&D games made public over Youtube like Critical Role, Drunks & Dragons, and so forth. Those shows are a public face of the game, and a number of them do feature players in costume, doing make-up and/or accents, and so forth.

He has some minor misquotes at a few points. He skips over "take care to portray characters as three-dimensional people with relatable desires and fears" and instead jumps to the next paragraph. He quotes "Do not lean into stereotypes or clothing with real-world significance" - but the actual sentence is "Avoid leaning into stereotypes or clothing with real-world *religious* significance".

Here's the full subsection:

QuoteOnline and Streamed Games. Just as you don't have to breathe fire in real life to play a dragonborn in D&D, you don't need to be from the cultures that inspired the adventures in this book to play characters from them. However, take care to portray characters as three-dimensional people with relatable desires and fears.

One person's culture isn't another's costume. If you dress up, simple outfits are best. Avoid leaning into stereotypes or clothing with real-world religious significance. Instead, focus on "everyday wear" from the cultures you're exploring. Don't change your skin color, alter your features, or emulate hair styles you wouldn't normally have to appear like a different real-world ethnicity. Similarly, avoid mocking real-world accents in your role-play.

Thanks for the extra info, jhkim.  I'll grant that streamers are more likely to do some weird cosplay thing than the average tabletop player, but if they have to be told by a book to not show up in like a rabbi outfit and blackface, I think they have bigger issues at hand.  Also, Pundit expressed confusion about the hairstyle thing, but I know exactly what it is, it's the 'white people can't have dreadlocks' idiocy from a couple years back.  I'm confused why anyone would WANT a tangled mass of unwashed hair, but there were several incidents of insufficiently-black people being assaulted over 'appropriating' dreadlocks.  That's what that part of the sentence is about.

Black people did not invent dreadlocks and have no special claim over them. A wide variety of cultures all over the earth have had them at different times. As I pointed out in the video, Polish Peasants styled their hair in what could be called something akin to dreadlocks for several centuries.

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 21, 2022, 11:53:46 PM

Quote from: Omega on July 20, 2022, 08:18:34 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 20, 2022, 09:20:47 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 20, 2022, 07:37:35 AM

Quote from: jhkim on July 19, 2022, 04:30:46 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 19, 2022, 04:17:57 PM
If understand correctly, what they're telling you is that you're not allowed to be "racist." What is considered racist for this purpose and how do they intend to enforce this rule?

In general, what is the actual text talked about here? It's supposedly from Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, but I remember how Pundit previously claimed that Candlekeep Mysteries had an official combat wheelchair and that every dungeon from Candlekeep on was wheelchair-accessible - which were blatantly false.

Except that it wasn't "false", it was based on what leftist gaming media were reporting. So THEY were the liars.

Propagating a story without verifying it isn't any better.

At the time there was no way to tell it was not true. And WOTC themselves have more than once lied about book content through 5es run.
This is why every time WOTC or one of their staff make a claim. I wait and see what the actual product is because odds are it aint.

So yes in Pundits defense he got baited that time and fell for it. So did everyone else for a while. And the combat wheelchair did show up. Just not in mainstream D&D. It was added to Idle Champions round the same time. To "make D&D more welcoming". And that is exactly where I quit playing IC:FR and haven't touched it since.

Case in point, the new Radiant Citadel book has been promoted everywhere on social media with the emphasis on the book having been produced by 50 people of color, and no white people. Wizards itself has done this promotion, through spokespersons like Ajit George (the lead on this book, who until recently had practically no experience in game design).
And yet, I've now been told (note: might be inaccurate) that in the physical book itself, the one gamers will look at in stores, it doesn't mention this ANYWHERE. If true, that proves just how WoTC operates: their virtue signaling is to the Woke Twitter Mob, but then they desperately try to cover up the truth for actual customers, trying as hard as possible to pass this book off as just another great adventures book and not a piece of BLM / Defund the Police propaganda (note, by the way, the Radiant Citadel has "community policing" with restorative justice and treating crime as a mental health issue. In spite of this, and unlike everywhere in the real world where Defunding Police has been tried, the citadel supposedly has "very little crime".

And unlike everywhere in the real world, they have magic.

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 21, 2022, 11:53:46 PM
Case in point, the new Radiant Citadel book has been promoted everywhere on social media with the emphasis on the book having been produced by 50 people of color, and no white people. Wizards itself has done this promotion, through spokespersons like Ajit George (the lead on this book, who until recently had practically no experience in game design).
And yet, I've now been told (note: might be inaccurate) that in the physical book itself, the one gamers will look at in stores, it doesn't mention this ANYWHERE. If true, that proves just how WoTC operates: their virtue signaling is to the Woke Twitter Mob, but then they desperately try to cover up the truth for actual customers, trying as hard as possible to pass this book off as just another great adventures book and not a piece of BLM / Defund the Police propaganda

So what you're saying is that the real truth of the book can only be seen if one reads social media - and no one would guess that truth if they only read the book itself and use it in their D&D game.

I would say the opposite. The truth of the book is the content of the book itself. And if social media marketing gives a different impression than the book itself, then the social media marketing is being deceptive.

I have been kicked off of wizards' FB page (or was it the D&D page, I don't know anymore, anyhow, the official page) because I said that, even though I am interested in non-Western viewpoints, excluding people from collaborating on this or that project by the colour of their skin (if you allow ONLY this colour, then it stands to reason you exclude all others), is still racism. It may be well-intentioned racism but racism is racism. The shit I had to stomach after that...
- Racism is not about skin colour, it is about power. White people have the power, therefore, you cannot be racist against white people.
- I am a racist myself because I dare say that excluding whites (as well as other cultures) is also racism.
- Giving non-white people "a voice" does not mean excluding white people (even though that is exactly what they have done), therefore it isn't racist.
And so on... Which I could easily and respectfully parry with arguments of my own, so they kicked and banned me without warning.
That being said, I love the idea of the book, I really do. Even though the Radiant Citadel is a more (very) nice version of Sigil, the adventures and the artwork thereof are some of the nicest I've ever seen in a 5e book and I mean it. It is a shame that a product that potentially could be good, is buried in criticism and bullfighting like this.

But unfortunately, the Radiant Citadel will get a visit by my party...

Quote from: Kerstmanneke82 on July 22, 2022, 09:04:01 AM
I have been kicked off of wizards' FB page (or was it the D&D page, I don't know anymore, anyhow, the official page) because I said that, even though I am interested in non-Western viewpoints, excluding people from collaborating on this or that project by the colour of their skin (if you allow ONLY this colour, then it stands to reason you exclude all others), is still racism. It may be well-intentioned racism but racism is racism. The shit I had to stomach after that...
- Racism is not about skin colour, it is about power. White people have the power, therefore, you cannot be racist against white people.
- I am a racist myself because I dare say that excluding whites (as well as other cultures) is also racism.
- Giving non-white people "a voice" does not mean excluding white people (even though that is exactly what they have done), therefore it isn't racist.
And so on... Which I could easily and respectfully parry with arguments of my own, so they kicked and banned me without warning.
That being said, I love the idea of the book, I really do. Even though the Radiant Citadel is a more (very) nice version of Sigil, the adventures and the artwork thereof are some of the nicest I've ever seen in a 5e book and I mean it. It is a shame that a product that potentially could be good, is buried in criticism and bullfighting like this.

But unfortunately, the Radiant Citadel will get a visit by my party...

Welcome to modern leftist debate tactics.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on July 22, 2022, 09:14:46 AM

Quote from: Kerstmanneke82 on July 22, 2022, 09:04:01 AM
I have been kicked off of wizards' FB page (or was it the D&D page, I don't know anymore, anyhow, the official page) because I said that, even though I am interested in non-Western viewpoints, excluding people from collaborating on this or that project by the colour of their skin (if you allow ONLY this colour, then it stands to reason you exclude all others), is still racism. It may be well-intentioned racism but racism is racism. The shit I had to stomach after that...
- Racism is not about skin colour, it is about power. White people have the power, therefore, you cannot be racist against white people.
- I am a racist myself because I dare say that excluding whites (as well as other cultures) is also racism.
- Giving non-white people "a voice" does not mean excluding white people (even though that is exactly what they have done), therefore it isn't racist.
And so on... Which I could easily and respectfully parry with arguments of my own, so they kicked and banned me without warning.
That being said, I love the idea of the book, I really do. Even though the Radiant Citadel is a more (very) nice version of Sigil, the adventures and the artwork thereof are some of the nicest I've ever seen in a 5e book and I mean it. It is a shame that a product that potentially could be good, is buried in criticism and bullfighting like this.

But unfortunately, the Radiant Citadel will get a visit by my party...

Welcome to modern leftist debate tactics.

Thing is, I'm from Belgium and believe you me, I know racism when I see it - in both ways. For clarification: blacks (as in African people) once were exhibited in an Expo as little more than animals. Later, of course, it's no more the blacks that are lazy, it's the sons and daughters of the people we imported to do our dirty work we didn't want to do (coalmines come to mind). South Africa is often shown with Apartheid to be a racist country, Belgium in the seventies through nineties was no better (look up "geen vreemdelingen" which was a sign at some pubs and you'll know exactly what I mean) and even I may have made some, in hindsight, stupid racist remarks, but hey, dad says it so I have to do so too, right? Now I'm older and wiser and I see the veil of racism and I will fight it wherever I see it, in any direction I see it. Even though politically I would be left-leaning, I will not apologise for being either white or Belgian, because that's also a thing here. We must apologise for what rich people did in the colonies. No. Never. So the point I'm making is, leftist or not, racism is racism.

Quote from: Kerstmanneke82 on July 22, 2022, 09:22:53 AM

Quote from: Ghostmaker on July 22, 2022, 09:14:46 AM

Quote from: Kerstmanneke82 on July 22, 2022, 09:04:01 AM
I have been kicked off of wizards' FB page (or was it the D&D page, I don't know anymore, anyhow, the official page) because I said that, even though I am interested in non-Western viewpoints, excluding people from collaborating on this or that project by the colour of their skin (if you allow ONLY this colour, then it stands to reason you exclude all others), is still racism. It may be well-intentioned racism but racism is racism. The shit I had to stomach after that...
- Racism is not about skin colour, it is about power. White people have the power, therefore, you cannot be racist against white people.
- I am a racist myself because I dare say that excluding whites (as well as other cultures) is also racism.
- Giving non-white people "a voice" does not mean excluding white people (even though that is exactly what they have done), therefore it isn't racist.
And so on... Which I could easily and respectfully parry with arguments of my own, so they kicked and banned me without warning.
That being said, I love the idea of the book, I really do. Even though the Radiant Citadel is a more (very) nice version of Sigil, the adventures and the artwork thereof are some of the nicest I've ever seen in a 5e book and I mean it. It is a shame that a product that potentially could be good, is buried in criticism and bullfighting like this.

But unfortunately, the Radiant Citadel will get a visit by my party...

Welcome to modern leftist debate tactics.

Thing is, I'm from Belgium and believe you me, I know racism when I see it - in both ways. For clarification: blacks (as in African people) once were exhibited in an Expo as little more than animals. Later, of course, it's no more the blacks that are lazy, it's the sons and daughters of the people we imported to do our dirty work we didn't want to do (coalmines come to mind). South Africa is often shown with Apartheid to be a racist country, Belgium in the seventies through nineties was no better (look up "geen vreemdelingen" which was a sign at some pubs and you'll know exactly what I mean) and even I may have made some, in hindsight, stupid racist remarks, but hey, dad says it so I have to do so too, right? Now I'm older and wiser and I see the veil of racism and I will fight it wherever I see it, in any direction I see it. Even though politically I would be left-leaning, I will not apologise for being either white or Belgian, because that's also a thing here. We must apologise for what rich people did in the colonies. No. Never. So the point I'm making is, leftist or not, racism is racism.

Ah, but that's the thing, friend: you must pay for the actions of your forefathers, by their reckoning.

Sippenhaft, as the Germans say it. Blood guilt. Doesn't matter that you've disavowed such actions (and yeah, the Belgians were downright bestial in the Congo. Sheesh) or that you're trying to be a better person. You must pay for those sins, and keep paying. And it will not stop because it will never be enough for them.

So bluntly put, the solution you've come to is the correct one. Tell them to fuck off, and die mad.

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 22, 2022, 12:11:36 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 21, 2022, 11:53:46 PM

Quote from: Omega on July 20, 2022, 08:18:34 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 20, 2022, 09:20:47 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 20, 2022, 07:37:35 AM

Quote from: jhkim on July 19, 2022, 04:30:46 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 19, 2022, 04:17:57 PM
If understand correctly, what they're telling you is that you're not allowed to be "racist." What is considered racist for this purpose and how do they intend to enforce this rule?

In general, what is the actual text talked about here? It's supposedly from Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, but I remember how Pundit previously claimed that Candlekeep Mysteries had an official combat wheelchair and that every dungeon from Candlekeep on was wheelchair-accessible - which were blatantly false.

Except that it wasn't "false", it was based on what leftist gaming media were reporting. So THEY were the liars.

Propagating a story without verifying it isn't any better.

At the time there was no way to tell it was not true. And WOTC themselves have more than once lied about book content through 5es run.
This is why every time WOTC or one of their staff make a claim. I wait and see what the actual product is because odds are it aint.

So yes in Pundits defense he got baited that time and fell for it. So did everyone else for a while. And the combat wheelchair did show up. Just not in mainstream D&D. It was added to Idle Champions round the same time. To "make D&D more welcoming". And that is exactly where I quit playing IC:FR and haven't touched it since.

Case in point, the new Radiant Citadel book has been promoted everywhere on social media with the emphasis on the book having been produced by 50 people of color, and no white people. Wizards itself has done this promotion, through spokespersons like Ajit George (the lead on this book, who until recently had practically no experience in game design).
And yet, I've now been told (note: might be inaccurate) that in the physical book itself, the one gamers will look at in stores, it doesn't mention this ANYWHERE. If true, that proves just how WoTC operates: their virtue signaling is to the Woke Twitter Mob, but then they desperately try to cover up the truth for actual customers, trying as hard as possible to pass this book off as just another great adventures book and not a piece of BLM / Defund the Police propaganda (note, by the way, the Radiant Citadel has "community policing" with restorative justice and treating crime as a mental health issue. In spite of this, and unlike everywhere in the real world where Defunding Police has been tried, the citadel supposedly has "very little crime".

And unlike everywhere in the real world, they have magic.

The only context in which they mention magic in that section, however, is that in cases of severe offenses they magically mind-control a person to be unable to ever repeat the crime again. Which is quite Totalitarian and quite telling. 
I mean, saying "Defund the police works IF YOU HAVE MAGIC POWERS that you can use to BRAIN-WIPE anyone you want" is hardly what I'd call a victory for the Defund the Police movement.

I personally think it's fair for WoTC to legislate when one can and cannot do "drow face" or whatever. They own the IP after all, and there have to be at least SOME occasions or situations where it isn't appropriate.

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 22, 2022, 09:47:25 AM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 22, 2022, 12:11:36 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 21, 2022, 11:53:46 PM

Quote from: Omega on July 20, 2022, 08:18:34 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 20, 2022, 09:20:47 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 20, 2022, 07:37:35 AM

Quote from: jhkim on July 19, 2022, 04:30:46 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 19, 2022, 04:17:57 PM
If understand correctly, what they're telling you is that you're not allowed to be "racist." What is considered racist for this purpose and how do they intend to enforce this rule?

In general, what is the actual text talked about here? It's supposedly from Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, but I remember how Pundit previously claimed that Candlekeep Mysteries had an official combat wheelchair and that every dungeon from Candlekeep on was wheelchair-accessible - which were blatantly false.

Except that it wasn't "false", it was based on what leftist gaming media were reporting. So THEY were the liars.

Propagating a story without verifying it isn't any better.

At the time there was no way to tell it was not true. And WOTC themselves have more than once lied about book content through 5es run.
This is why every time WOTC or one of their staff make a claim. I wait and see what the actual product is because odds are it aint.

So yes in Pundits defense he got baited that time and fell for it. So did everyone else for a while. And the combat wheelchair did show up. Just not in mainstream D&D. It was added to Idle Champions round the same time. To "make D&D more welcoming". And that is exactly where I quit playing IC:FR and haven't touched it since.

Case in point, the new Radiant Citadel book has been promoted everywhere on social media with the emphasis on the book having been produced by 50 people of color, and no white people. Wizards itself has done this promotion, through spokespersons like Ajit George (the lead on this book, who until recently had practically no experience in game design).
And yet, I've now been told (note: might be inaccurate) that in the physical book itself, the one gamers will look at in stores, it doesn't mention this ANYWHERE. If true, that proves just how WoTC operates: their virtue signaling is to the Woke Twitter Mob, but then they desperately try to cover up the truth for actual customers, trying as hard as possible to pass this book off as just another great adventures book and not a piece of BLM / Defund the Police propaganda (note, by the way, the Radiant Citadel has "community policing" with restorative justice and treating crime as a mental health issue. In spite of this, and unlike everywhere in the real world where Defunding Police has been tried, the citadel supposedly has "very little crime".

And unlike everywhere in the real world, they have magic.

The only context in which they mention magic in that section, however, is that in cases of severe offenses they magically mind-control a person to be unable to ever repeat the crime again. Which is quite Totalitarian and quite telling. 
I mean, saying "Defund the police works IF YOU HAVE MAGIC POWERS that you can use to BRAIN-WIPE anyone you want" is hardly what I'd call a victory for the Defund the Police movement.

At the risk of moving the discussion too far afield, Pundit, we have that option too. It's called lobotomization.

Quote from: jhkim on July 22, 2022, 12:46:16 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 21, 2022, 11:53:46 PM
Case in point, the new Radiant Citadel book has been promoted everywhere on social media with the emphasis on the book having been produced by 50 people of color, and no white people. Wizards itself has done this promotion, through spokespersons like Ajit George (the lead on this book, who until recently had practically no experience in game design).
And yet, I've now been told (note: might be inaccurate) that in the physical book itself, the one gamers will look at in stores, it doesn't mention this ANYWHERE. If true, that proves just how WoTC operates: their virtue signaling is to the Woke Twitter Mob, but then they desperately try to cover up the truth for actual customers, trying as hard as possible to pass this book off as just another great adventures book and not a piece of BLM / Defund the Police propaganda

So what you're saying is that the real truth of the book can only be seen if one reads social media - and no one would guess that truth if they only read the book itself and use it in their D&D game.

I would say the opposite. The truth of the book is the content of the book itself. And if social media marketing gives a different impression than the book itself, then the social media marketing is being deceptive.

I'm saying that how they're selling the book is deceptive to what their real goals are. It's just like what has happened with countless other media. They tried to sell The Last Jedi as the greatest coolest real star wars ever, but instead it was just a ritual murdering of Star Wars and wearing its logo as a skin suit. It was directly intended to be a complete deconstruction of all the values of Star Wars.  Or how countless superhero and sci-fi shows and movies are promoted as being a cool series about a hero everyone loves, and then it turns out the titular character is presented as weak and incompetent compared to (insert demographic minority here; usually gender and race shifted) who is the real protagonist and the entire reason why they made the show, in order to actually end up being the character they want to replace the well-liked hero with.

This is being sold as "kind of like planescape" as if that was the point, when actually the point is promoting BLM, Police Defunding, and praising their new segregationist policy in the creation of the book.

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 22, 2022, 12:11:36 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 21, 2022, 11:53:46 PM

Quote from: Omega on July 20, 2022, 08:18:34 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on July 20, 2022, 09:20:47 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 20, 2022, 07:37:35 AM

Quote from: jhkim on July 19, 2022, 04:30:46 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 19, 2022, 04:17:57 PM
If understand correctly, what they're telling you is that you're not allowed to be "racist." What is considered racist for this purpose and how do they intend to enforce this rule?

In general, what is the actual text talked about here? It's supposedly from Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, but I remember how Pundit previously claimed that Candlekeep Mysteries had an official combat wheelchair and that every dungeon from Candlekeep on was wheelchair-accessible - which were blatantly false.

Except that it wasn't "false", it was based on what leftist gaming media were reporting. So THEY were the liars.

Propagating a story without verifying it isn't any better.

At the time there was no way to tell it was not true. And WOTC themselves have more than once lied about book content through 5es run.
This is why every time WOTC or one of their staff make a claim. I wait and see what the actual product is because odds are it aint.

So yes in Pundits defense he got baited that time and fell for it. So did everyone else for a while. And the combat wheelchair did show up. Just not in mainstream D&D. It was added to Idle Champions round the same time. To "make D&D more welcoming". And that is exactly where I quit playing IC:FR and haven't touched it since.

Case in point, the new Radiant Citadel book has been promoted everywhere on social media with the emphasis on the book having been produced by 50 people of color, and no white people. Wizards itself has done this promotion, through spokespersons like Ajit George (the lead on this book, who until recently had practically no experience in game design).
And yet, I've now been told (note: might be inaccurate) that in the physical book itself, the one gamers will look at in stores, it doesn't mention this ANYWHERE. If true, that proves just how WoTC operates: their virtue signaling is to the Woke Twitter Mob, but then they desperately try to cover up the truth for actual customers, trying as hard as possible to pass this book off as just another great adventures book and not a piece of BLM / Defund the Police propaganda (note, by the way, the Radiant Citadel has "community policing" with restorative justice and treating crime as a mental health issue. In spite of this, and unlike everywhere in the real world where Defunding Police has been tried, the citadel supposedly has "very little crime".

And unlike everywhere in the real world, they have magic.

So what you're saying is... people in the Radiant Citadel are mind-controlled into not committing crime? Cuz that's the only way that magic could interfere in this instance. Magic cannot "magically" make unworkable policies work, it can only change the the circumstances that prevent those policies from working and only in limited and specific ways.

So the question is: What about creatures immune to mind control? And what's the save DC for this mind-control effect? Where does it originate? What's the mind-controlling object's or creature's stats? These elements need to be defined if we're using "magic" to make these policies "work".