Whenever you hear of the iconic table-top role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, you probably think of things like knights in shining armor or wizards atop towers shooting lightning from the skies, all set in medieval times.
But, you know what, it can be even weirder if you really want it to be: you can role-play a turtle-person who knows karate and moves like lightning because, get it? Turtles aren’t all that fast, yet… I’ll stop here.
Well, it only gets weirder from here (and the sky’s the limit) because Dungeons and Dragons allows for a lot of unorthodox decisions (all the more reason to give it a go, honestly) including things like vegan-friendly, cruelty-free campaigns because a player of yours is vegan and they asked, because, well, of course!
When you enter the world of Dungeons and Dragons, you're not really sure what you're gonna get because the sky's the limit when it comes to fantasy
Image credits: Clara_Sh (not the actual image)
Well, asking for a cruelty-free vegan-friendly world is also not the limit, and this one dungeon master (DM) recently asked the internet for help on it
Image credits: u/EmotionalMacaroon169
The story goes that a new vegan player joined the table, and soon started asking the DM to alter the game world to be more ethical regarding animal treatment
Image credits: u/EmotionalMacaroon169
It wasn't all that simple, mostly because that's not within the traditional spirit of medieval fantasy games, but also because it would mean less engaging roleplay
Image credits: light wizzi (not the actual image)
The story goes that Redditor u/EmotionalMacaroon169 (who later became SirMeatalot, and you’ll get why in a minute) turned to the r/DnD community for some perspective on a situation he found himself in.
You see, a new player joined the adventurer ranks, but it didn’t take long for an ethical problem to arise: the player is vegan, and the way animals and other worldly creatures are treated in most Dungeons and Dragons campaigns is something that doesn’t necessarily adhere to today’s standards for animal rights.
Following one particular pig scene, the vegan player approached the dungeon master (DM) about how it’s making her uncomfortable and how it ought to be changed—after all, the DM’s in full charge of it all, they can do it.
Heh, if only it was that simple. OP argued that food-related roleplay was kinda key in the overall setting, and the group also included one player who was a chef and enjoyed all the food talk. This is besides all of the minor or major changes that would have to happen in the world’s fauna, how different societies and cultures view it, and figuring out where to draw the line. He didn’t want to exclude the vegan player, but he also had no idea how or even if he wanted to change things.
The internet, however, was all in favor of having the DM sit everyone down for session zero and talk it over because that's the civil thing to do—nobody wanted to boot anyone from the game, after all
Image credits: u/EmotionalMacaroon169
Image credits: kathkarnowsi (not the actual image)
At this point, OP was stumped about the whole situation, and so he wanted some input from the people of Reddit. Incidentally, there was an attempt to hide it all from his players, but, this is the internet, and of course the most popular D&D subreddit will be the place where his players might also lurk. He got found very quickly and had a laugh about it in the follow-up post.
Speaking of which, it didn’t take long for OP to heed everyone’s advice and to simply sit down for another session zero—a session where everyone discusses the player characters, the setting and just coordinates things so that everyone can enjoy the game—and it turned out surprisingly well.
Many from the subreddit suggested simply talking it over, and that they did. It soon became clear how meat-based food roleplay can easily be turned into cruelty-free food talk, which is even more rewarding when the foodie at the table also gets to learn new recipes. Because learning is awesome.
But besides that, the DM found out where the line was drawn with specific examples that the vegan player provided, and even jokingly asked what her stance on cannibalism was, to which she replied “only if it's consensual.” You can guess what sort of contingent of jokes followed.
A session zero actually happened—in fact, it went extremely well, during which everyone worked together to make cruelty-free work as much as it can with the least amount of compromise
Image credits: u/EmotionalMacaroon169
The session went so well that the team was soon joking about it, inquiring about things like cannibalism, to which the vegan player wittily responded "only if it's consensual"
Image credits: Robertas Lisickis (not the actual photo)
Many people came back to the follow-up to highlight the importance of talking and being transparent when it comes to issues arising from the setting, the group dynamic, the DM and everything else. This is actually very applicable outside of Dungeons and Dragons too.
Sure, some did argue that it felt like a “please don’t curse” kind of situation that pushed the boundaries of political correctness, but both parties ended up handling the situation quite well, with all due respect and willing to compromise because it is what it is.
Both the original and the follow-up posts on Reddit were also followed by updates providing more context to the situation
Image credits: u/EmotionalMacaroon169
The two posts collectively garnered 18,000 upvotes, spawning quite a bit of discussion in the form of nearly 6,000 comments. You can check out the original post and the followup here and here respectively. But before you do that, be sure to roll a D20 performance check to see what kind of opinions and stories you can share about anything that you just read in the comment section below!