It has been just over a week since Wizards of the Coast released the 17 adventure anthology book Candlekeep Mysteries.
The 16-level-spanning module has been celebrated for its collaboration efforts, with a number of diverse voices being brought in as writers to add new perspectives to the stories.
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However, Canadian writer Graeme Barber, AKA POCGamer, has raised some questions about the way that editors at Wizards of the Coast cut out cultural information from his contribution, Book of Cylinders.
Engraved cylinders contained within a book tell a gripping tale when rolled across wet clay. This adventure updates the grippli (distant relatives to bullywugs) for fifth edition and sheds some light on grippli society.
Preorder #Candlekeep Mysteries: https://t.co/AFWE0KIWAM pic.twitter.com/jbKSh9vMVE
— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) March 1, 2021
Barber first brought up the issue on March 22, stating on Twitter that the final draft he had written of the adventure included “a much larger description of the Grippli, player race data for them, and location and items that were removed from the final version.”
He stated that nearly 1300 words were cut from his final draft, though that the descriptor “primitive” had been included — as it didn’t appear once in his draft.
“The worst part of this, THE WORST, is that I gave false impressions to interviewers leading up to the release of the adventure because I hadn’t seen it and assumed that most of the story and conceptualization made it through the process because I hadn’t heard anything otherwise,” Barber wrote.
“I literally talked up the connections to the Days of Thunder, to the deeper lore in the game. Then when it was released, I doubled down, not having fully read it. I feel like a fucking tool. Now my name is attached to something using the colonialist language I hate.”
My Adventure:
Ancient gods stirring from their slumber bring the ancient past to the modern day, imperiling the local Grippli village as factions of Yuan-ti battle.Edited/Developed Adventure:
Primitive frog people need rescue by players, Yuan-ti are evil because evil.— PanzerLion (@POCGamer) March 22, 2021
Barber has also noted that, while his interactions with Wizards “has been cordial throughout,” he has requested that his name be removed from future printings of the anthology.
My interactions with the team at Wizards has been cordial throughout, and I bear them no ill will. I also don’t want people to go after them. I’m chalking this up as a learning experience, and moving forwards.
An unfortunate side effect is that there will be no DM Guild content.
— PanzerLion (@POCGamer) March 22, 2021
Barber consolidated the situation into one Twitter thread on March 24 — two days after the initial tweets — stating that he was left “holding the bag” as he feels the he misled the public regarding what his adventure was all about.
The full thread can be found below:
2/? And this was done without any interaction with me, leaving me holding the bag as I misled the public on the contents and aspects of my adventure. Yes, it was work-for-hire freelance writing, but the whole purpose was to bring in fresh voices and new perspectives.
— PanzerLion (@POCGamer) March 24, 2021
4/? Then I moved onto processing what had happened. ~1300 words cut, and without the cut lore, the gravity of the adventure, and its connections to things are gravely watered down. Also “primitive” was inserted. https://t.co/ieMjsbRbk1
— PanzerLion (@POCGamer) March 24, 2021
6/? So then I wrote. Things don’t change unless people know what’s up and can engage with things in a prepared way. So I broke down the process of writing for Wizards I’d experienced, and developed some rules that can be used to avoid what happened to me.https://t.co/WEO7R4ZwaU
— PanzerLion (@POCGamer) March 24, 2021
8/? Since then, I’ve read my original and the published adventure a few more times, and the bones of my adventure’s original plot stand out all the more for the lack of context. And the critics are right. It’s flat and there’s some jarring points where cuts happened.
— PanzerLion (@POCGamer) March 24, 2021
9/? And that’s the end of it for now. If there’s any developments, I’ll let everyone know. I’d like to give a deep thank you to the people who have supported me through this, publicly and privately. It helped a lot. Regular programming commences again tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/pBM0nJ6zi9
— PanzerLion (@POCGamer) March 24, 2021
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