During World War II, approximately 400,000 U.S. women served with the armed forcesSeveral hundred thousand women served in combat roles, especially in anti-aircraft units.Thousands of others joined defensive militias at home and there was a great increase in the number of women serving for the military itself, particularly in the Soviet Union's Red Army.
True, but I don't think your argument is "if even one woman was involved, they have to get equal representation", right? Those 400k women U.S. soldiers made up just 2.5% of the total 16.1 million U. S. soldiers in WW2. I'm sure their contribution was important, but 2.5% isn't a lot. And the percentage of actual female explorers/invaders in history had to be just a tiny, tiny fraction of that. Vanishingly small, I would imagine.Besides, as has been said here before, it's not like the invaders are our characters. We're not meant to empathize with them and they aren't meant to represent us. They're the scary, faceless, invading monsters of the game. It seems like making them inclusive in a 21st century way can only reduce their effectiveness as an icon of invading death.If they have to be flags, that seems like a reasonable compromise, but I don't feel like a compromise is called for here.
2.5% seems significant to me. It's significantly more than 0%, which is what you'd be claiming if you said that all WW2 soldiers were male. At what percentage point do we draw the line and say "below this, it's okay to negate the women involved"?
And really, it's not just about the characters that we actually play. That's a separate (and also important) issue, but a lot of people aren't getting that for me at least, the representation of the background is a big deal too. It's really not just a case of appropriate diversity in player options.
Eric's explained that since the explorers aren't "first contact" (remember the game's set years after the island was first "discovered") there will definitely be women amongst them. Mechanically and thematically the explorer groups are there to find appropriate places for new settlements, and to start building them, and a lot of this would have been done in extended family groups.
I think there might be a bit of a disconnect in our understanding of how the explorers work. You seem to be imagining more of a conquering army aggressively attacking the Dahan, and I'm seeing settlers colonising a new area and threatening the Dahan by claiming their land and obtaining resources and farming unsustainably.
Even sustainable farming, they are conquering nature.
Any town, any ploughed field, any irrigation ditch, secured shoreline, dug out harbor, cut down trees, dug wells. All of that IS the threat.
What does the forest care iF sdiers with guns march through? But when farmers start looking for more field, or wood for homes. Then the forest will care.
What does a river care if scouts follow its banks or trapse through, the animals do that. But when they divert its course to where they want it to go, when they take that free spirit and force it to serve them, then it will care.
The lore of the game isn't a conquering army, it is settlers moving in. Not explorers and soldiers, but families. They aren't just men or women, they are children too. The Spirits aren't fighting to protect the Dahan from an army, they are fighting the blight, the ploughed field, the river dam, the shoreline turned into a dock.
Nature is fighting for its freedom against the tyranny of everyday humans who subject nature to their aims.
Nature is fighting for its freedom against the tyranny of everyday humans who subject nature to their aims.
"And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is [insert Spirit name here] when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
Nature is fighting for its freedom against the tyranny of everyday humans who subject nature to their aims.
"And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is [insert Spirit name here] when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
As this game is set over a period of years/decades, are you all OK with the idea that some of the Meeples should be smaller than the rest to represent the children you are driving off the land?
Stop lurking, it makes you look like a villain target When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all
Hey, I'm gonna get some of those micro-meeples to represent the Babbas too. Then every turn, switch out every meeple for a slightly larger one? Mega Meeple die out and get replaced by micro-meeple and so the great circle of life carries on?
Necroing this thread because of the new Update. I just want to say that I really like the new design. I think that it hits everything we discussed here - threatening, gender non-specific, angular, and a flag. I also like the similarities I see between the explorer's faces and Grey Aliens. I think it's a good parallel for showing how the natives regard these invaders.
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
That does look pretty cool - very "unnatural" wih the pointy bits and the weird stick-arms, that will look suitably out-of-place in the Dahan-populated Island :).
2.5% seems significant to me. It's significantly more than 0%, which is what you'd be claiming if you said that all WW2 soldiers were male. At what percentage point do we draw the line and say "below this, it's okay to negate the women involved"?
And really, it's not just about the characters that we actually play. That's a separate (and also important) issue, but a lot of people aren't getting that for me at least, the representation of the background is a big deal too. It's really not just a case of appropriate diversity in player options.
Eric's explained that since the explorers aren't "first contact" (remember the game's set years after the island was first "discovered") there will definitely be women amongst them. Mechanically and thematically the explorer groups are there to find appropriate places for new settlements, and to start building them, and a lot of this would have been done in extended family groups.
I think there might be a bit of a disconnect in our understanding of how the explorers work. You seem to be imagining more of a conquering army aggressively attacking the Dahan, and I'm seeing settlers colonising a new area and threatening the Dahan by claiming their land and obtaining resources and farming unsustainably.
Just assume I'm always doing that.
Damn it, Ronway!
Even sustainable farming, they are conquering nature.
Any town, any ploughed field, any irrigation ditch, secured shoreline, dug out harbor, cut down trees, dug wells. All of that IS the threat.
What does the forest care iF sdiers with guns march through? But when farmers start looking for more field, or wood for homes. Then the forest will care.
What does a river care if scouts follow its banks or trapse through, the animals do that. But when they divert its course to where they want it to go, when they take that free spirit and force it to serve them, then it will care.
The lore of the game isn't a conquering army, it is settlers moving in. Not explorers and soldiers, but families. They aren't just men or women, they are children too. The Spirits aren't fighting to protect the Dahan from an army, they are fighting the blight, the ploughed field, the river dam, the shoreline turned into a dock.
Nature is fighting for its freedom against the tyranny of everyday humans who subject nature to their aims.
This. With added emphasis.
"And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is [insert Spirit name here] when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
Farmer's like "what?"
As this game is set over a period of years/decades, are you all OK with the idea that some of the Meeples should be smaller than the rest to represent the children you are driving off the land?
Stop lurking, it makes you look like a villain target
When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all
Temporary image until an H emoticon is added!
Hey, I'm gonna get some of those micro-meeples to represent the Babbas too. Then every turn, switch out every meeple for a slightly larger one? Mega Meeple die out and get replaced by micro-meeple and so the great circle of life carries on?
My explorers will all be made out of nitinol. Guess I'll need an electric board.
Incidentally, I have found the imps from Dungeon Lords to make excellent explorers.
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
Necroing this thread because of the new Update. I just want to say that I really like the new design. I think that it hits everything we discussed here - threatening, gender non-specific, angular, and a flag. I also like the similarities I see between the explorer's faces and Grey Aliens. I think it's a good parallel for showing how the natives regard these invaders.
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
That does look pretty cool - very "unnatural" wih the pointy bits and the weird stick-arms, that will look suitably out-of-place in the Dahan-populated Island :).
I am the Wordweaver...
Basically, I like writing stuff ;)
Agreed! It really conveys some alien-ness. Now I'm curious about the Towns and Cities.
The new Explorer design is excellent. It looks like a character who would battle my Dragoon dragons!
(And promptly lose, of course.)
Reminds me of Don Quixote.
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