-Loving the Avengers fan arts flowing around. As a fan of comics going back 25 years, I have to say…it’s aboot fookin time.
Another Artist trading card. Depicting 1960’s Canadian costumed hero (original creation). Copics, Faber-Castells and pencil crayons.
-A character in the ever growing super-hero story I have been writing in my head for the better part of 20 years.
This is what I want for a mount to travel on in our D&D session. They are just…perfect.
They are strange, odd, unique, fast, and more importantly, they are creepy as hell.
A fresh line of conversation and direction for Exalted
First, to establish some realities:
RPGs have serious gender issues. Our entire culture has serious gender issues (for the uninitiated, a good way to ease your brain open and begin to understand how deeply misogyny is baked into us at the cultural level, sit and think for a while about American profanity and the tone/use context of “dick” vs “bitch” “cunt” and “whore”), but all nerd media has it really bad. RPGs aren’t quite as bad as comic books on average, but they’re generally not a whole lot better.
There is an enormous disparity in illustrated portrayals of men and women in RPGs. Anyone who would like to argue to the contrary is wrong.
So, let’s just set that firmly in place. Are portrayals of women in RPGs sexist? Are women portrayed in a sexualized fashion more often than men, to a degree far greater than one standard statistical deviation? Yes, yes they are.
That said:
Is sexual depiction of characters inherently a problem?
Not inherently, no. It can be, though, and very often, it is. You see this in a lot of D&D art— grizzled dwarf cleric dude in heavy armor grimacing and brandishing a mace, strapping warrior dude in World of Warcraft armor swinging his sword with both hands, elf ranger dude in World of Warcraft leather-and-scale armor in a dynamic action pose shooting a bow, female tiefling warlock casting a spell in contorted pose that shows off her tits and ass at the same time, wearing robes that expose 70% of her breasts and one full butt cheek. That is a problem. It is the exact problem that comic books have.
So what does this mean for Exalted?
Exalted intentionally tried to set itself apart from other fantasy games with a more adult tone, and more adult content. That is to say, it dishes up a heavy helping of politics and philosophy, it’s rooted in a rather skeptical and cynical fantasy tradition, and yes, it means lots of decadence and sex. The setting will always contain very sexual characters.
However, in the beginning, it did not set off to do this mindlessly. The Solar sigs, for example, were very carefully designed and selected. The 1e corebook’s cover is very intentional in all ways—Grabowski wanted Exalted’s core book to present, as the first hero you saw, as your first introduction to the world of Exalted, a non-sexualized depiction of a woman of color.
So why all the bikini witches since then?
Some of it is intentional. Creation is a decadent world full of sex and violence and that’s supposed to come through in the art.
Sometimes the artists just go tearing off in their own direction and there’s no time to do anything but use what you’ve got.
And some of it is ill-considered and careless, I think. I don’t believe Chambers paid as much attention to what messages he was sending through the game’s art as Grabowski did, sometimes to the game’s detriment. When I finally got my author copy of Manual: Alchemicals, for example? One of the proudest days of my life. But I’ve never shown the book to anyone in my family because of Nelumbo on the cover. Sad.
So does this mean that going forward there will be no more bikini witches?
No. It doesn’t. I don’t think I could completely break our artists of the habit if I tried, for starters, and I’m not inclined to try. Some degree of sexiness in the artwork is proper for Exalted. What I want, going forward, includes a few things:
First, more equal opportunity pandering. Sexy artwork is not bad. Sexy artwork that only attempts to appeal to straight male customers is, though.
Second, and more important, artwork that is aware of what it’s trying to portray. If I call for an illustration of Arianna poring through a forbidden tome in the glass libraries of Malfeas, the focus needs to be on the exoticism of the demon realm and how badass Arianna is to be able to stride unconcerned through the vasty hordes of Hell to page through this book in a demon library—not on how she’s reading in a contorted stripper pose.
It’s not that Arianna’s not allowed to be attractive—most Exalts are attractive—but putting her in a dress with a cleavage window (for example) would distract from the point of the illustration, not add to the atmosphere. By contrast, if she’s sitting down to dine with the Fair Folk, sure, toss her in a dress that shows off lots of leg. Have her leaning forward in an aggressive pose. This is a scene where exoticism and deadly games of temptation are appropriate elements to evoke.
These are considerations I don’t feel have been handled very well in most of 2e. I’m hoping we’ll do better.Holden ShearerExalted co-developer.
Currently Writing: Shards of the Exalted Dream, Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniverary Edition
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I am and have been, a fan of White-Wolf and Exalted since I was a pimply faced 14 year old (roughly 20 years ago) and as I have grown, I have watched the company grow and evolve, with each edition of various games, growing more mature and aware of its own influence and prejudices. From the embarassing products like WoD: Gypsy (to which they are ashamed and no longer carry/run) and the first Assamite clanbook (wince inducing stereo-typing and prejudice), the company is slowly writing the games to be so much more. Re-writing what was filthy, racist, stupid or just poorly written. Acknowledging the past mistakes, and looking to make the games a part of a new generations psyche. This time with a little more integrity and appreciation for people other than white-males.
Holden is the kind of person you want helming games like Exalted and writing for a revised (again) Werewolf. He gets it.
Some of the best drawn hands, man.
GodDAMN I need to own these books!
Maybe I’ll pick up a copy at AC!
there’s only one book you need, and that’s the Dark Horse omnibus edition
I actually own it but my friend David “Toxic Toot Dick” Belton borrowed it over a year ago and STILL hasn’t returned it
When the Blacksad Omnibus came out, I just gave away my individual books and bought it. Partially because I hoped giving people the books would make them want to buy more, people really gotta spend money on European comics so they’ll translate more of them.
When I saw the Dark Horse Omnibus on my local comic store’s weekly release list I honestly thought it was just the first book, since that’s how I read it back in England. But when I picked it up and saw it was the first two books, and a third one that I had never read before I almost cried. And it’s well worth the price. One of my absolute favorite books I own. I’d also suggest fans to pick up the Blacksad ‘Sketch Files’ book. Lots of behind the scenes goodies.
thor meets pikachu
requested by nettumbles
OMG YES
-BAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.
Thank you internets. Thank you so very much.
XD
