Forum Guidelines, Sensitive Topics, & WhiteWolf's One World of Darkness

Maybe this violates the forum guidelines, but what does VEKN and community think about WhiteWolf's policy on the One World of Darkness?

For those of you unaware, WhiteWolf is basically doubling-down on subjects that are potentially offensive to certain groups of people: they're directly referencing current government administrations (Trump), the rise of fascism in US and Europe, the migrant crisis and mass immigration, the wars in the Middle East Arabic countries, domestic terrorism, etc. etc. etc. Of course, WhiteWolf spins everything to be related to vampires or werewolves or mages. For instance, when they finally do mention China and North Korea, it's going to be "the Kindred of the East scheming and plotting", etc.

Without arguing about any of those things in particular, what is VEKN going to do when so much of WhiteWolf's new material is laced with those sensitive topics? Just ignore those things and not print cards that reference sensitive subjects? I'd be OK with that.

Reason I'm asking is because WhiteWolf just did damage control after someone discovered "nazi messages" in one of their books, (the numbers 1,4,8,8, were used in a dice roll example) and WhiteWolf historically (as we've already discussed) has made the very odd decision IMO of making their vampire clans (and werewolf breeds, to a lesser extent) based on a fusion of racial, geographical, social-class, religious, and cultural attitudes.

And I've been thinking about the idea: why not project the World of Darkness into the future? Make it a quasi-cyberpunk gothic setting, borrowing ideas from Bladerunner, Shadow Run, Netrunner, Judge Dredd, etc. Avoid potentially upsetting anyone by making it an abstract, undefined future.

There are lots of cool potential cards dealing with "Sleeper Cells", "Surveillance State", "Armed Forces", "Corporate Takeover", "Media Propaganda", etc. but setting the time-period in the present makes those things... touchy. And frankly I'm doubtful WhiteWolf can handle navigating the current political environment without offending someone, because they are hellbent on:

WhiteWolf wrote:

"Explore difficult and disturbing subjects maturely [...] Contemporary, real-world horrors and atrocities are an important part of the setting and by extension – its characters [...] will include many relevant, timely story elements like the global migrant and refugee crises, drug abuse, human trafficking, urban decay, homelessness, government corruption, ecological crises and political instability."[/i]

I know that a lot of those are universal and timeless themes, but I highly doubt WW can or will handle it with depth and nuance. It's just a feeling, but I think that politicized messaging will find its way into their material. Their writers have political leanings one way or another, and the very nature of writing about current affairs and events is going to reveal it. And then someone is going to be offended, because they're talking about real-world issues. And then WhiteWolf will apologize and say all the appropriate things. And then they'll offend someone again, because it is [current year] and they're talking about contemporary issues.

I think the problem is with their mission statement. They're not trying to explore character relationships or group dynamics or the struggle of being less evil monster so you don't become a more evil monster. They're explicitly trying to address contemporary events and issues through the lens of Vampire. Don't believe me?

WhiteWolf wrote:

"V5 characters will have the opportunity to interact with these topics through scenarios designed to prompt insight and critical thinking, while also being exciting, dramatic, and thrilling, as each Storyteller deems appropriate. Our goal is to allow our players to use these elements to explore tough topics through the lens of roleplaying, to the extent they are interested in exploring such ideas."

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SelfBiased wrote:

Technically, Heinrich Himmler is a canon Tremere.

It's this kind of thing that makes me roll my eyes. How many other historic figures were secretly vampires? Wouldn't it make infinitely more sense for vampires to remain in the shadows, working behind the scenes, pulling strings, completely unknown to the world? Isn't that the entire concept of the Masquerade?

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IDK, maybe this whole thing isn't as relevant to VTES as I thought. Guess I just wanted to express my concerns.

For the time being this thread will be closed for it's political focus and turn for the personal (posts which have been deleted).

The thread will not be deleted however, for the game designers may wish to have a say in the original question.