hi mods! posting this from a sock since anon is disabled, and it's a bit of a sensitive issue.
someone in the game posted to wankgate that they felt the "mountain people" section of the event hit on some racist tropes, and i agree with them, so i wanted to see if you wouldn't mind editing these npcs a bit?
the mountain people read to me as similar to wendigo. they're specifically creatures, not humans, with "long black tongues" and other monstrous features. they're cannibals that "might have once been humans but have become corrupt by their own appetite." all of that is not racist and is good horror. love it!
unlike the other anon, i don't think them being covered in mud and making bird noises and clicking sounds to each other is necessarily racist, because zombies are often covered in mud and it's a common horror trope that monsters can imitate birds or people to lure in victims or make clicking or hissing sounds to communicate. but it depends on the context. the problem i see here is that these creatures are specifically called "mountain people" instead of by some horror creature name. they wear clothes from animal skins and use tools they made post-monster transformation including sleep darts, and outside of their supernatural appearance, they're generally described more like people than monsters.
i think it walks a racist line, so i wanted to see if you'd be willing to change the name "mountain people" to a creature name instead (like wendigo or one-eyed-one-horned-flying-purple-people-eaters or whatever!). And to make sure they're more monstrous and less like people, have the bark/mud/fur be their skin not clothing (tough skin, no animal skins needed?), and the sleep darts be a poison in their teeth/claws instead. they could still be "hunting for survival" since wendigo are always starving in the stories to the point of eating themselves if they can't eat other people.
if you were going for more of a "hills have eyes" vibe instead, you could specify that the sleep darts are fired from shotguns, change the animal skins to denim overalls, and just have imitating bird calls, no clicking, to cut out racist tropes resembling "violent society of killers wearing animal skins and using weapons made from nature." whatever is more what you were going for, or other ideas if you have them!
re the new event https://soddersays.dreamwidth.org/73713.html
someone in the game posted to wankgate that they felt the "mountain people" section of the event hit on some racist tropes, and i agree with them, so i wanted to see if you wouldn't mind editing these npcs a bit?
the mountain people read to me as similar to wendigo. they're specifically creatures, not humans, with "long black tongues" and other monstrous features. they're cannibals that "might have once been humans but have become corrupt by their own appetite." all of that is not racist and is good horror. love it!
unlike the other anon, i don't think them being covered in mud and making bird noises and clicking sounds to each other is necessarily racist, because zombies are often covered in mud and it's a common horror trope that monsters can imitate birds or people to lure in victims or make clicking or hissing sounds to communicate. but it depends on the context. the problem i see here is that these creatures are specifically called "mountain people" instead of by some horror creature name. they wear clothes from animal skins and use tools they made post-monster transformation including sleep darts, and outside of their supernatural appearance, they're generally described more like people than monsters.
i think it walks a racist line, so i wanted to see if you'd be willing to change the name "mountain people" to a creature name instead (like wendigo or one-eyed-one-horned-flying-purple-people-eaters or whatever!). And to make sure they're more monstrous and less like people, have the bark/mud/fur be their skin not clothing (tough skin, no animal skins needed?), and the sleep darts be a poison in their teeth/claws instead. they could still be "hunting for survival" since wendigo are always starving in the stories to the point of eating themselves if they can't eat other people.
if you were going for more of a "hills have eyes" vibe instead, you could specify that the sleep darts are fired from shotguns, change the animal skins to denim overalls, and just have imitating bird calls, no clicking, to cut out racist tropes resembling "violent society of killers wearing animal skins and using weapons made from nature." whatever is more what you were going for, or other ideas if you have them!
thanks for listening!