https://youtu.be/aBnnC3-VSk0

There is something bitterly ironic when a game where you are incentivized to murder, then steal the victims possessions, would propagate a culture of protecting the player from being triggered during the murdering. Let's discuss triggering in Dragonlance and Dungeons & Dragons.

Episode Transcript

From the beginning TSR was trying to get Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman to lower the readability of their Dragons of Autumn Twilight novel so it could appeal to a younger audience. The authors were proven right by history to stand their ground and expect more out of a reader.

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about why Dragonlance and Dungeons & Dragons in general should trigger you. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to this channel, ring the bell, and you can further help this channel, by becoming a patron and pick up Dragonlance Gaming materials, using my Patreon and affiliate links in the description below. My goal with this video is to share my thoughts on our modern sensibilities and how we are avoiding personal responsibility and growth, rather than facing it head on.

Discussion

I was watching the live stream of Dungeons & Dragons, Black Dice Society’s Ravenloft campaign and I was struck by a note their Dungeon Master made. He stated that due to the nature of Ravenloft, some of the events may be disturbing and he has spoken with the cast about their lines, veils and boundaries. So that if the story stops or changes directions immediately, we all know someone was uncomfortable. All I could think of is to ask myself why someone would play a game world where they would be triggered? Then, why would someone be triggered at all by a game?

When did Dungeons & Dragons change from a game of adventure, growth and consequences, to a game of hand holding and pearl clutching? Make no mistake, that is what is being done here. This seemingly new approach to life and society in general is dangerous at worst and unnecessary at best. Let me explain.

I was reading Dragons of Autumn Twilight, again, and I never even flinched when topics of bigotry & racism, rape & sexual violence, murder & physical or emotional violence, even theivery are brought up. These are topics that a modern mind would consider trigger warnings for some readers. But when it was written, our society understood the difference between fantasy and reality. Let’s not forget that contextually, these topics are common in a fantasy game. And I need to break some news to you here, they are common in reality as well. 

Western society is veering into treating reality as its own fantasy world where ideas or actions that are not commonly accepted regionally or socially, are simply ignored in the spirit of protecting its members from being triggered. But is it truly protecting them at all?

In H.G. Wells’ Time Machine the protagonist of the book travels forward through time and meets the evolved human species called the Eloi. They are a peaceful, loving species who are tormented by the Morlocks who abduct and even consume them. The Eloi do nothing to prevent these abductions, going so far as to accept them as part of their reality and forgetting the abducted, rather than stand up to the villains themselves and stop the problem. They evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to this state. Simply by focusing on pleasures of life over the realities of it. I can’t help but see some small connection here.

We as a human species have evolved over time becaus...