You may have heard about the recent controversy over the depiction of native american culture in Monte Cook Games' The Strange RPG.

Well, something genuinely great came out of it:

Anthony Pastores, who does the wonderful Pacific Northwest-themed Straits of Anian blog got hired on to write new Native content.

Anthony not only knows his native folklore backwards and forwards, he writes great stuff…

If a Cannibal Bird is fated to appear and quick motivation is needed, a d20 may be thrown to determine what exactly the creature thinks it's up to:

1 Hunting humans to eat. It will likely attack.

2 Feasting on corpses. If the party was looking for someone, here they are.

3 Harassing a cannibal. The bird is tormenting a Cannibal Dancer or Untamed Wind for its own amusement.

4 Reminiscing. "I remember you, or perhaps an ancestor, hm... Tell me the story of when I last met you, man-thing."

5 Bored. Simply bored, the creature will banter until it gets hungry.

6 Acting out an ancient drama. The Wind that Bites from the Dark once instrumented a great calamity here, or slew a great hero. The bird wishes to reenact this, and you arrived just in time to facilitate. Roll reaction to determine how dangerous a role it has in mind.

7 Making war. There are two cannibal birds here either fighting each other or engaging in a contest (roll again to determine its character).

8 Witnessing savagery. The bird has heard of a great cruelty or tragedy, natural or man-made, occurring or about to occur, which it wishes to observe. If none manifests it will create one, figuring that it itself must be the cause, though it did not know this beforehand.

9 Destroying man-made objects. The bird is tearing down buildings, defacing sculptures, altering trail signs, or otherwise warping humanity's mark on the environment.

10 Dressing itself in grave goods. The beast is pulling clothing from a corpse or pile of refuse, which it will proceed to wear incorrectly. It solicits opinions on its aspect from any onlookers. Anything other than excessive flattery angers it.

11 Hiding and observing. You are being watched really obviously, but without interference. It is far too big to hide behind that bush, or far too humanoid to perch on that branch. It leaves after a few turns, but only if unacknowledged.

12 Pretending to be a human. The bird wants to play at being a headman; you will be the slaves. It wants you to construct a makeshift village out of found materials (or occupy an abandoned one) and go through the drudgery of daily life. In a day or two it will get bored and just wander off.

13 Telling a lie. There is a very specific thing it needs to tell to you and only you. This thing is absolutely untrue; assuming otherwise leads to catastrophe.

14 Building something. The bird is constructing a sculpture or effigy (d6: 1. giant spiky nest, 2. wicker man, 3. intricate maze, 4. wooden cages dangling from branches, 5. mosaic of many colors, 6. elaborate gauntlet of traps and snares) from detritus & human remains. It may ask a critique, or force intruders to assist in finding the perfect finishing piece.

15 Doesn't remember. "I have forgotten my purpose here. You tell me." It attacks if the answer is completely against its nature but otherwise follows the instruction exactly.

16 Asking questions. The bird has questions about the nature of humanity. It has no context whatsoever with which to understand the answer and will become frustrated and angry when it doesn't.

17 Learning to be a human. "Teach me to be like you." It copies the player's actions exactly, becoming angry if the player performs an action it cannot.

18 Collecting shinies. "You have many shiny objects. Give me all of them." All of these are immediately put to use as self-adornment, or littered on the ground (equal chance).

19 Starting fires. The bird starts a fire, fans it with its wings, watches it burn for a moment or a day, and then puts it out again, over and over and over. It only acknowledges intruders if interrupted.

20 Singing to the sky. Carrion birds circle overhead as the bird caws a semi-intelligible tune at the sky. Any human copying the song finds that it incites birds to attack them suddenly, which causes the Cannibal Bird to laugh. It attacks if any of these birds are injured, but does not otherwise do harm. The song continues to work long after the meeting but cannot be taught to others.


...so it's awesome that its getting a chance to be seen by a wider audience:

Man! A cursory glance of that blog shows some great content! Somehow I'd never caught wind of him.
Good stuff, a new blog to follow.

1. Cannibal Bird sounds utterly awesome.

2. Countdown to SJW outrage over Anthony Pastores in 3...2...1...

So y'know what'll happen? All the people who took advantage of the original situation with The Strange to post little "How I Would've Handle This So Much Better" posts and messages about how great and inclusive they are will have nothing to be outraged about and will probably, therefore, post nothing at all about this.

...so, following a depressing pattern, people who claim to be extremely exercised about minority representation in gaming will ignore the fact that an actual Native writer who writes about actual Native settings and characters is getting a shot at the big(ger) time because it's not a Hey Everyone Freak Out message that makes the outraged citizen themself look good.

So the obvious opportunity to encourage actual, undeniable progress along by supporting Anthony will be passed over because it doesn't provide an easy way to make them look good or smart or More Engaged Than Thou.

Quote from: Zak S;828571Well here's the thing: What's to get outraged about? He's native, he knows his shit, he's a good writer, he doesn't say any crazy right-wing bullshit.

Why couldn't they find a Native woman to write the setting? Monte Cook is obsessed with perpetuating the harmful patriarchal systems that dominate the roleplaying industry. Anyone who saw his misogynstic Nibovian "wives" could see this coming from a hundred miles away.

... controversy ta-da.

I'm pleased to learn that Monte Cook Games was able to make the best of a shitty situation (I was quite disgusted to read them called genocide profiteers ...).

But I'm somehow worrying that the decent reponse by decent people will prompt not so decent people to made libellous campaigns to change things in RPGs books that unpleased them. Time will tell ...

Regardless, there are lots of good ideas to plunder from his site

Quote from: fellowhoodlum;828594Regardless, there are lots of good ideas to plunder from his site

Definitely. I think he has classes and stuff to, so if you want to run a whole Pac Northwest campaign you could though I mostly plunder it for ideas for coastal and overland adventures.

And he makes ghosts interesting, which isn't easy.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;828589Why couldn't they find a Native woman to write the setting? Monte Cook is obsessed with perpetuating the harmful patriarchal systems that dominate the roleplaying industry. Anyone who saw his misogynstic Nibovian "wives" could see this coming from a hundred miles away.

... controversy ta-da.

Ah but they got that covered, too, Alina Pete is doing the art.

Our group recently began a Primeval Thule campaign, so all these mythic Pacific Northwest ideas would certainly add more flavour to the setting...

Hee~ey, now that's an interesting blog to me right now. Very Pac NW focused from what I've seen so far, but maybe more good stuff if I dig. Currently running Great Basin stuff and have been running several Native websites and an online Shoshone dictionary. Perhaps they have a few spirit legends worth incorporating. Already had to re-skin & hammer out new 5e NA-equivalent monsters before the MM published, but if I ever take this setting off RAW for another campaign...

By the way, welcome back!

great blog. i think that he has done some work for slumbering ursine dunes too.

Great news. I think his stuff is fantastic. Something genuinely cool will have come from all this.

Doesn't matter how authentic the writer is, people are going to gripe at any non-native GM who then tries to run it. I'm serious, I've seen that level of resistance to cultural appropriation.

This is fantastic news! I love, love, love his blog. This will, hopefully, give him some greater visibility and renown in the RPG community. He deserves it.

...and prompt him to write a full game set in the Pacific Northwest