Something interesting came up the other day. Al Caynes, from Senyac Games, made a post about equality in his game El Luchador Fantastic Grande. You can read that post on his Tumblr. Eventually Al received some feedback about this post on Facebook, which he discusses in a later Tumblr post. There was some discussion about this on Facebook, as well as elsewhere on the internet.
Digital games are subject to moral, ethical and social discussions all the time, while tabletop games are often left to their own devices. Is this a subject that we, as tabletop gamers, should be talking about? We certainly have an obligation to ensure our games are inclusive and accessible. But what does equality on the tabletop mean? And can it be achieved in such an abstract medium as tabletop games? Is this a challenge that we are equipt to deal with, or do we need to pinpoint the issues that are causing this inequality first?
Adopting “he or she” or alternating between he and she (or they or even uncommon gender pronouns) when describing player actions in manuals and gameplay videos across the board would be great. Some publishers do this already, wish the others would catch up.