I know an average short story doesn't even have time for 3 protagonists, as I'm still trying to see the duration of the story, if it was like a movie-length, a miniseries-length or a full-series-length, how much difference in detail is needed to not make the Black sibling ostracized into whiteness?

Ya know, I never thought about how there really aren't other goldfish around Darwin lmao. I don't really have an answer for that outside of "make more prominent Black coded characters in Gumball", but I admit I never was worried about that.

As for your question, I don't know if I'd say there's a "time amount", as much as a presence amount, if that makes sense. That's not something I can just answer 😅 Like, for me, as long as there are consistent moments of interaction with their Blackness, where we see that Black sibling is hanging out with Black friends before waving goodbye, or maybe listening to music, or going to the hair salon or barber shop, etc. SOMETHING that suggests that their entire life isn't "I only ever see white people and only interact with Whiteness".

I'm working on a fantasy project set in another world. A lot of my characters aren't white, and they come from a lot of different ethnic backgrounds and ages (immortal gods that travel the world). One of them is this glorious Black woman - Jana the Blacksmith of the fallen star

Before becoming a god, she was a travelling merchant on the "silk road" equivalent of my world, that happens to go all the way through the south pole (like it starts way higher, goes all the way down to change continent, and then back up, so she's from near the tropic)

Now she's a blacksmith goddess established near a fallen star, and her "godly Domain" is about the forging stuff, but also merchants and travellers in this difficult region and a figure of ingenuity, strength and organization. As of what she thinks of herself, she's an artist of the iron and a sort of ingenieur.

(Gods in my world have human bodies and often have a little region of theirs + their global influence)

Since it's a totally invented world, history was as bloody as ours but the presence of gods made massive scale invasion/slave/trade/etc impossible because you can't exactly invade a place and kidnap its people without being just flattened out by the gods. Local events did however happen.

I wanted to know, firstly, if you had anything to say/point out about her design that would be problematic. The keys in her hair comes from her native region where the separation of money/lands/etc is made like this : women have everything that can be locked (houses and fenced fields included), while men inherit the other things. So traditionally, women wear keys as a status symbol.

Secondly, I was wondering about the topic of racism in my world. It's not the main focus of my story, but since most gods have "human appearances", they are subjected to the same things as everyone else (as in, non gods of the same ethnicity/community/etc). This I wanted to discuss it.

I've been wanting to maybe introduce it by having Jana visit one of her temples in a different area, and find a representation of herself as white. Which would lead to her and her travelling group getting rightfully angry and destroying the temple after (lot of other gods destroy temples/villages/cities for far lesser reason so it's wouldn't be an instance of her being the only violent person in the room - most of my gods happen to be violent). But at the same time I'm afraid it would feed in the Angry Black Woman stereotype, so I don't know what to do exactly.

(if anything is weirdly worded, please let me know, English isn't my first language)

Thank you for your time 🙏

1) everything about the design is fine to me! I do think it's interesting, the key thing, because you could really pull some technicalities with that. Great time for a female trickster goddess, women in general, if you were interested in that.

Basically, Mara typically wears cornrows and I want to give her cool designs, but then it feels like Martin would easily figure out her identity (especially since they often talk to each other out of costume). Would it make sense for Mara to cover her hair someway, or is it fine? What options would she have that holds up in fight scenes?

I was wondering if you had anything to read/advice to follow about when you are being asked (in a professional environment) to create something that is, if not flat out racist, then at the LEAST a micro aggression?

I am working towards being a prop/set artist for movies and theatre, which is something I am really passionate about.

Unfortunately I have been made aware by many professionals that what the directors wants is what goes. As well as this, it's a very small world and if you get a reputation as 'difficult' I've been told it's hard to get work. Seeing your posts about Hamilton got me thinking about what I, and all my friends on the same pathway, might be asked to make.

I am White however I have a few friends on my course who are Black and I don't want there to be a situation to arise where we are asked to make something that will be harmful. (Either the creation of the prop, or the reason for the prop)

I also don't want any of us to gain a reputation so early in our careers that it prevents us from getting work.

If you know anything I could learn about this I would be so grateful, because I'm not really sure where to start.

Unfortunately this depends on what you're willing to risk. Because the most direct, integrity-motivated thing to do, if you are aware from jump that what you're being asked to make is racist (assuming that it's not purposeful, as in part of the scene and prop itself is meant to convey that), is to say "Mayhaps we should consider doing [another idea] instead! I think it would convey your intentions better. But I am not comfortable making this because it has racist connotations/is racist/has a history of racism." Or, start with the former, and then if they push back, eventually end with the latter.

NOW, keep in mind that most white people may have a defensive reaction to this. And that's the part where I say it depends on what you're willing to risk because yeah they may very well change their relationship with you, or negatively bias their peers about you. That's a very sad but real part of pushing against the status quo that is "racism is comfortable, talking about it is not." You risk losing things; jobs, friends, position in the social hierarchy, security. But it would be the right thing to do.

You could also just pull what that one post called "low level terrorism" (lmao!) and just accidentally mess up the racist prop or set in question. "Oops, I accidentally tore it!" That's what decent people call civil disobedience. Again, this may make them think that you're incompetent, but no one can call you complicit in racism or insubordinate 🤣

So my protagonist is an ace/aro Black woman, whereas my antagonist is a trans white girl (who is a ghost - it's complicated) + her partner who's a white nonbinary person.

I'm going for a thing about adults taking care of children in their communities + what happens if they don't, and it ends up resolving through talking and my protagonist convincing the ghost girl to move on

And then kind of is like. well I have a suicidal teenager who's in love with a ghost who's moved on. I don't really know what to do here. Uhhhh do you want pizza????

And idk, I'm kind of trying to figure out what needs to be tweaked so it doesn't feel like I'm Mammy-fying my protagonist, I guess. She's really not supposed to be a maternal character, she's just supposed to be connecting with the antagonists on the basis of struggling with isolation and things like that (she has a lot of pretty severe anxiety and depression and struggles with self-isolating/connecting to people), and then she lets the surviving antagonist stay with her because she is like well someone needs to watch you so you don't hurt yourself or anyone else and your parents aren't doing it and you haven't done anything I can report to anyone because most people don't know ghosts are real so uhhhh. Pizza? I don't know what teenagers want?

(if i continue this Wren wouldn't end up living with her full-time/being raised by her, mostly just coming over every so often to hide from their parents while she's like uhhh wanna pet my cat?)

Idk, what do you think? Is this one of those cases where it's more in the execution, do I need to change aspects of the idea as it is, or what?

This one's hard, I might be too biased. CAN it be done? Yes. You already know my resources on how to avoid writing a stereotype. I think my issue is that I would be irritated that the Black MC is the one that has to guide her two antagonists to the light. Like why would I let you come stay with me and feed you and do all that after you've treated me like the opposition the entire story? Why would I trust you with my safety?

Also, you're saying you're avoiding making her a mammy, but your story is about parents taking care of children and what happens when they don't... but you've got this Black woman who has no reason to do this, doing it... Because again, if they're antagonists, why would she be doing that? Are they actually antagonists, or are they just... Not her friends?

Just wondering

• how far up the forearm (if at all) does the colour difference go?

• how are finger tips affected by the colour difference?

• what are some tips on using the correct palm colour for your characters skin tone?

Again, apologies if this was asked before. Many thanks for your time.

There's a link in my lesson to @ami0amii 's lesson on coloring palms and skin tones and undertones!

he played the character as quite arrogant and aggressive which i thought was fine as his character is the captain of the crew and he told me he would be a little egotistical at the start. the campaign went on and it was all fine and at the end of the first part, a twist happens which traps the characters in an awful situation. i have 2 ways i could go about his story in between the 2 parts of the campaign, which i have been allowed to come up with. in one of them, he simply drifts away from his friends and heads off to a war. in the second, i expand on his relationship with another pc, who he has a very toxic and codependent relationship with, leading to his violent tendencies coming out and potentially abusing or hurting her otherwise.

im worried about leaning into some awful stereotypes about Black men being angry or overly masculine or abusive, i know it could be irrational but im very anxious and coming up with this campaign has been quite anxiety inducing for me.

other things to note about the character

his religious trauma is what largely drives his actions, as well as his awful father. his father was religious in order to try and counter-act a curse he had and thrust it upon his son, hurting him in the process

he ran away from his father and thats how he became a pirate captain, which is why hes so arrogant

the meta reason for him being aggressive could be that my friend is bad at roleplaying.

sorry if this ask is long or overly informative or anxious. im just a teen trying to come up with an interesting story for her friends and am trying to unlearn any biases i may have. thanks for reading this your blog is so cool

☕ Mr. CBC: Dming is hard mmkay? So give yourself some grace. If no one has left your table yet, you're doing a decent job, keep it up. For this player character, something that takes the anxiety out of DMing is remembering that this is COLLABORATIVE storytelling. Your players have just as much say as you. So I would consult with your players, the two that matter in this story arc, and see how they feel about the possible paths. You don't have to give all the details if you want some things to be a surprise, but their input may spark ideas for you to build off of.