Call of Cthulhu: Racism, Sexism, Homophobia and the 1920s

So, I GMed a short Call of Cthulhu scenario yesterday after a long hiatus from RPGs (work sucks). It was just great ... I have an awesome group and Roll20 is a great place to play. But as I GMed, I realized I was starting to get uncomfortable simulating the racism, sexism, and homophobia prevalent in the 1920s. The setting was 1925 San Francisco and many of the servants and lower class NPCs were Chinese-Amercian. The gangsters were first generation European immigrants ... I researched organized crime at that time and it really was run by immigrants in this one instance, in this one place. Some of the NPCs said awful things ... and they used my mouth to say it! Worse yet, I just met my players and they have no idea who I really am ... worried me that that I would take the rap for my NPCs awful activities. Now, I could just leave this material out but the 6th edition core rulebook from Chaosium (on page 26) makes a very good argument for leaving this material in! Simulating racism is "in the rules". But the rules for C of C were written over 30 years ago (WOW) ... are they still right? How do other GMs handle these subjects in Call of Cthulhu and other systems? Cheers!

If you're sticking to the spirit of HPL the racism is mandatory. :P There should be an up-front notice that these themes occur in your campaign. If it makes you uncomfortable just tone it down. You can get the point across without slurs if you want. Or just leave the themes out... it's not like anyone's medieval campaign is accurately reflecting the social norms of dark ages Europe either.

The few times I've run CoC games (which always devolved into comedy anyway) I set the story in a parallel earth where those issues didn't exist, or didn't exist in the same fashion.

Three choices here, usually that you cannot control: 1) Go with it and embrace the disconnect. Actors can use the worst and most offensive language you could imagine, that doesn't make "them" actually mean it. Writers who set stories in such times also have to go through this disconnect. You need to be able to do it, as a GM, and you need your players to be able to handle it as well. There can be no doubt about it whatsoever or things might degenerate, badly, and you'll lose your setting cohesion, which makes the whole thing not even worth doing. 2) Go with Agnes O and set things in a parallel earth, re-work some of the social changes to have already happened, with the laws that came with it and the like. Write up a quick list of things different to present to the players. Done. 3) Play in 2014. Problem solved...right? :)

It is a good conversation to have with your group, ideally before starting. Set those comfort thresholds early and try to let everyone know where you are coming from as your research indicates. As a group you can decide if including elements like period appropriate "social norms" add to the campaign in a meaningful way or if you would rather play with certain historical anachronisms.

This is a great topic. Roleplaying games deal with sexism and racism ALL the time. For example, look at Dragon Age, the video game. Elves are looked down on and enslaved. Allegory in your face. How many overweight women do you find in fantasy art? I'll bet not many. Our gaming hobby is wrought with these issues, though they are dealt with in softer voices. My IRL table is an all-like-me table. So we generally wouldn't have these concerns. However, 20 years ago, one of our good/best friends and role players was dealing with his sexuality in a very reserved and quiet way. We, his good friends, didn't know he was going through that. We made disparaging comments about his then unknown preference with the abandon of youth. Now, it pains us all to think about the pain we were likely causing him. I guess my point is, I would do as these fine folk have suggested, talk about it with your group. If they are mature adults, chances are they can deal. But, if it makes you uncomfortable, then the flavored roleplaying doesn't pass a litmus test. One thing to remember, people often say awful things and our language rarely depicts what we actually think.

Short answer: Stop playing or change the setting Long answer: As a GM you should be able to "empathize" with all your NPCs, and I do mean all of them. If you cannot find a reason to empathize with a person than you should probably start reading more books, be them journals, history books and even fantasy books. People are not racist because "X", people are racist/sexist because of their education and how they associate things that they see with things that they learnt while ignoring the facts that do not match up with what they know about other sexes/races. It's basically the same as the current prejudices against homosexuality or drug users... so why not try reading into those ? Do you have some "redneck"-ish friends ? Or maybe a local church with a priest that is "into" talking with people ( I find some priests are persons very open to discussion about their faith ) ? Well, ask them about their views on certain "modern" subjects whereby uneducated/slightly indoctrinated people would have the same kind of twisted view as they had about black people or women 50-something years ago. However if you cannot empathize with your NPCs, and even worse... you feel "bad" for playing them, than just change the setting or the game. You cannot make a believable character unless you understand why his opinions and words are the way they are, if you do it any other way you end up with only black and white characters, so I suggest changing the setting/system to one whereby you feel like you understand the actions of the NPCs better.