Fantasy racism ("can't trust those elves...") or Earth-style skin-color racism?
I think Paizo mostly steers clear of those choppy waters. There may be some notes for GMs on how to handle that kind of stuff, but doubtful there's an AP that really focuses on it.
Curse of the Crimson Throne showcases some racism, though it's never a central topic. A varisian or shoanti might get into some trouble in the city, and some shoanti aren't exactly welcoming either. Later the party encounters someone who hunts shoanti.
Giantslayer has a bit in the backstory: The hardy people of the frontier town Trunau are not fond of orcs due to skirmishes with them, but they usually accept half-orcs.
I suspect it very much depends on how you interpret the adventures. there are several I can think of in which there are evil orcs/goblins/ other monsterous humanoid race, and depending on how you as the GM run things this could be seen as either "yay monsters to fight" or "why must we attack them just for being different?"
There are certainly parts of the world where the sourcebooks call out racism as a theme/issue, e.g. Sargarva, and it's possible that there are adventures or PFS scenarios set there that look at it a bit more deeply, though I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Out of interest, why are you asking?
I forgot about book 1 Giantslayer.
I too am interested in why you're asking. It's a difficult topic many tables avoid.
Carrion Crown starts out with Xenophobia...
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Interesting approach.
It is a topic I generally stray away from, overall. Sure, some settlements are mostly this or that, and may prefer to keep it that way (for whatever reasons). But if you are NOT this or that in those settlements, I don't suddenly have NPC's act racist against/towards you.
Diplomacy checks may have a higher DC, or you may have to haggle a bit to get fairer prices. But I don't have it in me to act that $#!+ out, or dive too deeply into the implications of it beyond adding a few to some DC's or prices or whatever.
You get the general feeling that you aren't very welcome here.
And that's really as far as I go with racism, usually. I don't want to allow people an avenue to exhibit real racism in my setting... and believe me, I don't hang out with or associate myself with real racists. But, I also don't have the ability (or desire) to background check everyone that plays at my table. So I avoid it, almost entirely, if I can.
I respect your willingness to tackle tough issues with young players in fantasy, hopefully controlled, environment. Tread with caution, is all I can say.
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Racial and ethnic ... conflicts happen quite often in my fantasy settings. They range from the innate suspicion of strangers of the same race/ethnicity/religion all the way out to outright fear and hostility. It all depends on the setting and background of each area/city/town/shire/etc. Larger cities that tend to see more traffic of strange or exotic races/ethnicities have a lower rate of open fear or hostility, and even have a higher rate of outright acceptance, but there are always some that have their own irrational (or very rational) reasons for feeling certain ways.
I try to keep the campaign worlds believable and reactive. I don't tend to play with players that have sensitivities to these things that would make them taboo topics, though who doesn't get a bit riled up when the local sheriff just doesn't like you or a group because of your race or ethnicity? These things are plot tools that make it useful to shape the player's reaction to certain NPCs and help steer the players without railroading them. When I want you to hate an NPC, I give you reasons for it.
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I suspect it very much depends on how you interpret the adventures. there are several I can think of in which there are evil orcs/goblins/ other monsterous humanoid race, and depending on how you as the GM run things this could be seen as either "yay monsters to fight" or "why must we attack them just for being different?"
Pretty much this. Many adventures touch on the subject. Whether it becomes a major campaign theme is dependent on the GM and your group though.
Nualia is kind of a victim of racism. She gets other'd in her community leaving her isolated and vulnerable to the wrath runewell pulse.
Are Goblins murderous pests who eat anything that they can get their hands on that should be exterminated wholesale or savage creatures abused by their own culture and taken advantage of by others?
There's the Molthuni/Nirmathas conflict.
Hobgoblins operate on a meritocracy. Even a slave can rise to the upper echelon of their society if they can prove their worth. Is Azaersi a ruthless warlord or someone who understands the corrupted origins of her people and is trying to wean them away from it? How do you interpret the Goblinblood Wars? Hobgoblins become ready to fight by age 4. How do you settle peaceably with a race that soon becomes the majority within a few years with an inclination towards evil? How do you feed everyone with limited resources?
Even if you win, unless you wipe them out, they'll be back in a few generations as the Goblinblood Wars show and in great enough numbers to challenge a nation.
Boy, everyone hates Cheliax. And for good reason. But even more importantly, the feud between Qadira and Taldor is a major plot point on why Maxillar doesn't just win instantly.
Azlant, Thassalon: Any stories that might bring up the Azlanti supremacy theme?
Azlantis were basically just the ancient humans. They drove off the serpentfolk and were pretty much uncontested. Most elves left the planet a long time prior and only came back after the Azlant got Earthfall'd. Dwarves hadn't quested for the sky yet.
Thassalonians were exiled Azlantis. Thassilon was a pretty nice place to live until Emperor Xin died, then the Runelords got really into enslaving giants and others in general.
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Hmm, after taking another look into the textbook definition of racism, I have to say that the subject in a game system such as Pathfinder (or any game that quantifies abilities) is uniquely different than what you find in the real world. Different races & ethnicities have quantifiable differences that can make them superior or inferior when compared to others on specific subjects. An average elf, for example is nowhere near as hardy as an average dwarf (4 point difference in CON scores). An average Azlanti Human is objectively BETTER than a normal human due to the +2 to every stat.
Personally, I believe that every race has something it can learn from another race, and offer something of value in return. That may have exceptions, of course, as no statement can really be universal. Sentience is all that really has any objective value to me.
That's really up the GM. It's not like an adventure says, "this module deals with racisim!" The problem with most folks is that they don't understand subtext, allegory, or symbolism. Well, I guess they don't have to, but a GM should try to understand those things.
You can take a series like Ironfang Invasion or Giantslayer that deals with great numbers of an opposing race such as hobgoblins or orcs and play up the prejudice that the humans and other more accepted races might have against them. Voila, you've made an adventure that deals with racism. Throw in a "kill the baby hobgoblin" dilemma for your party and you have hours of fun debating over racism in your d20 game!
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I was just going to favorite this, but I slipped, and I guess my tablet had other ideas. I really love your posts. I find you to be a clear, reasoned, and concise speaker, and I think I may have agreed with every one I've seen so far. Not a requirement (or even statistical possibility) that we agree on every point, but I appreciate the tenor you bring to the threads.
That is quite a compliment and I appreciate it. I am no where NEAR as accomplished a speaker as I am at communicating through the written medium. My brain simply runs away with itself and gets well ahead during verbal conversation, and writing forces me to slow down so that my ideas have time to solidify in a manner easily understood by others.
I can pretty much guarantee that you will NOT agree with me on every point that we ever discuss. But I'd never hold that against someone unless they are insistent at forcing compliance to their viewpoint. If I am correct, I will be correct regardless of how others believe, and only time will tell.
... The problem with most folks is that they don't understand subtext, allegory, or symbolism. ...
I believe 'nuance' would be an appropriate word to add to that list. People are becoming more and more polarized in the world at large and we are losing the shades of grey (illusions as they are, but they are pretty ones) that allow for different perspectives to co-exist peacefully.
The real tragedy is in that gray zone is where some of the most beautiful and expressive aspects of our imaginations and desires get to be played out. We get to experience the very real aspects of choice, for good or ill, and play out the repercussions of both. There very well might be a universal truth and a good standard out there. We will NEVER discover it if we are not FREE to choose.
As far as the whole racism thing goes... And this is very much my informed opinion on the matter, it stems from the very real human reaction to what is different. Fear of the unknown and the inability to trust in the actions of others that are not also equally constrained by a shared moral code. It is only natural to include it in the fantasy genre, where those differences are amplified by several factors.
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Cheliax, “Hell’s Vengeance”
I’ve found a reference to halflings as being “are one of the most common races of slaves in the Inner Sea region, especially in Cheliax, where they are seen as less-than-people.[2]”
Are there any stories that happen to highlight this by any chance that you might be aware of, folks? Hell’s Vengeance?
Halfling characters might experience this in Hell's Rebels.
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In Hell's Rebels, the PCs are trying to overthrow the government, so what to do about slavery is an issue they're likely to face. Do they compensate slave owners, like Great Britain did in 1833? The rebellion is presumably trying to build support with disaffected nobles. A prominent NPC is a member of the Bellflower Network, a secret society dedicated to freeing halfling slaves.
Followers of Milani play a prominent part in the AP, and are firmly opposed to slavery. My PC is a halfling Dawnflower Dervish Bard from Katapesh, trained by the Cult of the Dawnflower. In her backstory, one of the reasons for her transfer to the temple of Saranrae in Korvosa was disagreements over the cult's tolerance of slavery, particularly in Qadira.
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Followers of Milani play a prominent part in the AP, and are firmly opposed to slavery. My PC is a halfling Dawnflower Dervish Bard from Katapesh, trained by the Cult of the Dawnflower. In her backstory, one of the reasons for her transfer to the temple of Saranrae in Korvosa was disagreements over the cult's tolerance of slavery, particularly in Qadira.
I played a halfling Vigilante (Zealot) in that campaign who's secret identity was a professional valet (butler) to a noble (who was played by another player, a Vigilante (Teisatsu)). Pretty much the Alfred to Bruce Wayne, but Alfred was a devout follower of Milani, and Alfred would get almost DARK in his Zealot alter ego.
There was no promises of direct compensation to the nobles for getting rid of slavery. There was a simple statement: "It is going to be cheaper for you to have freed slaves, and hire them on as servants, than it is to keep them slaves. Cheaper in coin and loss of life." Alfred as the Vigilante known as "Blood Rose", was not into negotiation as much as he was for implied threats and direct action. He received several warnings from Milani about carrying out the darker of the threats he made, but thankfully, he never had to follow through.
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PFRPGrognard, DeathlessOne, I agree that symbols and allegories are powerful tools for dealing with this issue. At the same time, one of my groups is a Society game, so I feel that it might constrain artistic license and am looking for as many resources as possible.
Ah, well... The only advice I can give you there is this: create a handout that supplies a 'trigger warning' or a 'disclaimer' that some content might not appropriate for all audiences. If they cannot handle PG-13 level material, this might not be the game for them to join. Obviously, you won't be playing Hell's Vengeance or having an evil aligned party, so going beyond PG-13 level material is not necessary.
I have dealt with real racism and bigotry in my lifetime. Experiencing this kind of material through a fantasy game is a real useful method of exposure therapy to help prepare people for real experiences that they will likely go through first hand, or help them deal with any internal issues they might have about experiences in their past, giving them a way to respond and overcome that they were not able to before. They have a measure of power and control within the game. We can't avoid these experiences, not entirely. We have to grow stronger from them.
This isn't for Pathfinder, but Chaosiums's Call Of Cthulu has a supliment called HARLEM UNBOUND which is about adding racial tensions to the game. Since this is supposed to be a supliment (not an adventure) it's designed to be added to existing games, so it might have some elements you can add to your games without drastically changing things (obviously it would need to be adjusted to a d20 system).
I haven't actually read/played Harlem Unbound, so I can't recommend it personally, but I've heard good things. Also since I don't have personal experience I don't know how difficult it would be to translate to PF. But if you're interested it' something that moght give you ideas.
I'm running a Rise of the Drow campaign based on Golarion. No major spoilers here, but it is set against the backdrop of a battle between the Klavek Kingdom (out of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings) and the indigenous Vikmoredere tribe of Arcadia. There is hostility between the two countries and when there is an attack on the town (by Drow as stated in the adventure title), the townsfolk immediately blame the Vikmoredere.
This gave the players the opportunity to deal with racism to an extent, but it was not the primary focus of the game, just a piece of it and one that is neither heavy-handed nor overly self-righteous.
The first two (or three) books of Serpent Skull deal somewhat with colonialism.
Hells Rebels also has the tiefling slums. Tieflings might better resemble a more current form of racism, as they are poor second class citizens, but still citizens.
I was going to bring up the Tiefling thing in Hells Rebels. Melkiador beat me to it.
That example stood out to me more than any other I've seen in PF published, the slums there are almost exclusively Tiefling and they are (at best) ignored as, "a people," by those in power even before the Thrune takeover of Kintargo.
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Keep it to gaming please.
Some may agree with you, others may take issue and see other factors. Don't want to go kareening off into the boneyard of bad feels.
It’s open to be fluffed as much as you want. You’re expected deal with things in the slums. There’s been a rash of murders in the slums and the heroes are asked to look into it. By default you don’t have to play up the racism of the slums but the option is there if you and the players want to explore it.
I definitely played up discrimination against tieflings in my HR campaign, but I agree you should know your table.
My worry is that the aspects of racism and society that are worth being explored and delved into are the very nuances that might tend to ignite flames. We all agree that lynching is bad, no arguements there, but we won't grow our understanding of the issue by exploring that deeper.
If you look down a couple lines below the box you type your reply in you can find a link to the posting guidelines.
Also: don't take my cautions expressed here to mean that I am opposed to your ideas, not at all. I strongly believe in using my games to question my, and my players, ideas and views. But knowing your audience (here and at the gaming table) is important.