Inequality

Our world is far from equal. Women's rights are quite new, despite younger generations having grown up with it in place (mine included), and slavery at least at face value is no longer present in the U.S. My recent writing has taken me to a location in Saratta that makes inequality glaringly apparent, and I am certain that one day someone is going to pull up my works and say, "Gosh, that Wiley must hate women", or they will find me to be a racist or whatever else people think they can infer from what a writer wrote (I never subscribed to the "close reading" thing in school for those of you who have endured it...).

I'll accept the ridicule at this point should it come my way, because a world is a dark place when you stop looking at the surface. Many fantasy worlds that I have taken played in usually tote equality as a strong point, where men and women are the same and flowers and sunshine fall from the heavens. The most difficult thing faced is some ancient evil rising up to destroy the world.

With Saratta I wanted to see a change, something that presented a challenge without being a physical beast that could be slain. In my DMing I know I don't quite reach the real world concept that I am pushing toward, but at least knowing of the inequality in a country helps to really push toward the feeling that the world is far from fair, and evil doesn't need to be a monster. It can be men putting down women, or slave trade, or other things that we put by the wayside or choose to ignore in life.

Roleplay requires strife to be a complete experience, which is a thing I feel many fantasy worlds lack when trying to immerse you into the world. Video games fall short on this as well. Take Dragon Age: Origins for instance; they took steps to make the elves an outcast race by adding in some racial conflict, but just calling an elf "knife-ears" never really made me want to side against the elves. When racism rears its head the emotional conflict should be powerful, or at least character reaction should portray how they really feel when an insult is hurled their way.

I had a player in one of my games who tried to pull the Dragon Age "knife ears" on an elf of Tyr. Elves in my world are far from your butterfly loving softies that seem to be common place in other worlds (you can add that one to your repertoire of insults to hurl at an elf, since Sarattese elves will loathe you for saying it even inferring it). Had it not been for the intervention of another player and racial treaties, my player would have been left in a pool of his own blood.

Inequality is a very powerful thing, and when used in a game provide another angle for conflicts that players must overcome. A woman might pose as a man in a country where women have few rights, rise to become their champions and then reveal her womanhood to the people in hope of winning rights. Just don't be surprised if things dont work out the way you imagined - womens rights took many knocks before becoming a more mainstream concept. Just don't be afraid to throw these concepts at your players; it forces them to grow (both character and player).