raisel-the-riveter:

so the glow club post is very much still making the rounds and today someone reblogged it saying something like “but Bilbo’s sword in the Hobbit was supposed to glow to warn him of danger, so if an orc was using it, it would only glow if another orc came by who was dangerous to that person”

which is, a sweet and generous interpretation of the glowy weapon trope! it would also be a really overpowered item and I wouldn’t let one of my players have it but also, there isn’t really a way to know whether Bilbo’s sword glows in the presence of any orc or only dangerous orcs, because in Tolkien “orc” is synonymous with “threat you should stab on sight.”

I am, very not comfortable with that worldbuilding!! There are parts of the fantasy genre that come out of straight-up racism and bigotry and a desire to glorify some really fucking horrifying eras of history! and I don’t want putting up with that shit to be the price of admission for playing certain games or telling certain stories. The characters should take damage, the players should not, and if I get that wrong I’m not doing my job.

if we want, we are going to tell stories about violence. if we want, we are going to tell stories about marginalization. we are not going to tell stories where the bad guys are ugly caricatures of ourselves, our friends, our families, and the good guys look like the people who slaughtered our communities way back when. 

all of which is to say: Bagdurash’s club doesn’t glow in the presence of people who are dangerous. It glows in the presence of orcs. It was made as a tool of hate and exclusion. We’re using it for something else now.