Let me first say I love the game. Why are there only white characters, with the possible exception of Minh Thi Phan? Please guys.

Rita Young is "kinda" black. People complain because her skin tone is inconsistent. I think it's a valid complaint, not to whitewash poc characters.

Oh boy, here we go...

I believe entirely in a diverse cast, but this is a particularly touchy subject with hardcore Lovecraft fans simply because the game and the author's works are set in the 1920's.

It is MY opinion that diversity among playable characters only enhances the hobby and invites new players. It is also my opinion that if you can suspend your disbelief for gateways to alternate dimensions, monsters so horribly indescribable that you go insane by looking at them, vampires, and spells that can fracture reality, you can surely suspend your disbelief for racial diversity and strong female investigators.

All this being said, the discussion usually is moved or locked due to distracting from questions about how to play the game and instead falls into more of a question regarding the social and moral responsibilities of creating/designing/publishing boardgames with a narrow cultural perspective.

You will never satisfy everyone no matter what make-up the roster includes, but it is, imo, important to try.

Rita Young is "kinda" black. People complain because her skin tone is inconsistent. I think it's a valid complaint, not to whitewash poc characters.

To be fair, Rita young isn't "kinda" black. She is black. And she appears to be a light-skinned black woman. Light skinned black people have their owns set of cultural hurdles to navigate, and imo, also deserve representation. There are challenges no matter who you are, but mixed race or light-skinned poc sometimes have trouble belonging to any group and often are mistaken for white (to some advantage, but also to some disadvantage and cognitive dissonance). I think it's very interesting that some people say that she's been whitewashed as, imo, her portrait was always hard to see as her AH image was always in a dark locker room.

Seriously? On a game forum. Seriously?

Strange topic. I first heard of Rita when I read Ghouls of the Miskatonic. She was described as having Creole skin which is light because of the intermingling in New Orleans where she came from, but still black according to the KKK. Seeing her picture in MoM, she's exactly how I expected and you can clearly tell she is black. "Kinda" black I guess you could say because she is mixed but it seems strange to be so picky about people and their skin color.

As for racial distribution, I looked up a census for Boston in 1920 and 97.7% of the population was white. 2.2% was black, and .2% were Asian. 2/8 of the investigators being non-white is a lot more than what's historical accurate.

Lots of games do this. Witcher 3 and other games with settings like medieval Europe are almost entirely made of white characters. Going to settings in games will give you the people of that place. If you go to Europe there will be white, Africa black, and Asia Asian. I don't see people complaining about a lack of white or black characters in games set in feudal Japan or ancient mesoamerica. I think representation is great but sometimes it just doesn't make sense. If we wanted to represent everyone there would be a white person, black person, native American, Asian, Pacific islander (plus many more), and then a male and female of each of those. Of course, not every game has to be 100% accurate to history. If Lovecraft designed the game there may be only white, male investigators. Diversity is nice but I don't get why these threads are made. America has a majority of white people, especially in 1920s New England.

There are so many combinations of races/religions/cultures/genders/whatever that no game, except a rpg, can please everyone.

Designers should be more inclusive but should not stray too far from the setting, although there is a little leeway.

1920s America should be a predominantly white setting, so I don't have an issue with the mansions investigators, but I think eldritch horror should have a far more culturally diverse cast.

I kickstarted the "This War of Mine" boardgame. One of the optional buys was a miniature of you, send them a photo and they'll put you as a character into your copy of the game. I think this method is the future of diversity in gaming, for serious gamers.

Buy a mini, there are plenty of suitable investigator models around, paint it whatever colour you want and Photoshop your name and image onto an existing investigator card.

Designers can't please everyone, the world is too complex, and if impacts your enjoyment of the game then some of the responsibility for "fixing" it falls to you. It's getting easier all the time to add your own components to games, or finding those other players have already created.

America actually isn't predominantly white anymore (there is no arguing that it used to be); children of color outnumber white kids in schools today. A generation or two from now, it's going to be very weird looking at all the artifact/pop-culture/books and magazines that feature predominantly white people when that isn't an actual reflection of America's population. A large problem is that generally those that do design work and work in publishing fields ARE white or are catering toward the idea that people are unable to handle protagonists that they can't identify with. This is particularly silly since this presumes that your demographic is and only SHOULD be white (and that demographic is getting smaller).

I can and will always get behind a publisher's attempt to diversify their gaming. You have to remember that, as gamers, you can't play games without people (unless you solo coop as a rule, :B ). It doesn't matter HOW accurate a game is if nobody is willing to play it with you. It may sound silly, but it is entirely understandable to me how a person of color, upon looking at a boardgame and seeing nobody who even looks like them, could turn away from the hobby with the thought or feeling, "Oh... this doesn't look like it's for me."

I don't feel like FFG is doing poorly at representation, but I wouldn't be upset if they stepped it up a bit (we did get a priest of Mexican decent in MoM 2E).
Not to "advertise" for other publishers, but if you want a game that is more accommodating in regards to diversity, check out Plaidhat Games' Dead of Winter and the upcoming expansion The Long Night. Both are very inclusive and also include nods to the GLBT community.

Also @ Goldenboy, good to know about Rita in the books. I haven't read that one, so wasn't aware of her Creole bloodline.

Seriously? On a game forum. Seriously?

Why not? People of color and women play boardgames too. I think it's time we try to make some space for them at the table, tbh. And that's not going to happen without conversation.

In a rules sub-forum, this would definitely not be the place to discuss it, but I don't think there are sub-forums for this game.

America actually isn't predominantly white anymore (there is no arguing that it used to be); children of color outnumber white kids in schools today.

Do you have a source for that? I suppose the second part could be true although I wouldn't know (the two towns I visit every day while going to school are roughly 98% white) but I haven't heard that first part before. I agree with what you said afterwards but that just seems strange. According to Wikipedia, " The majority of the more than 300 million people currently living in the United States consists of White Americans, who trace their ancestry to the original peoples of Europe." Additionally, 49 out of the 50 states have a white majority (Hawaii is the exception). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States#Racial_makeup_of_the_U.S._population I've heard that white people will be a minority in the coming decades, but what you said is different unless you mean predominantly in some other way.

I've heard that before about some people turning away from a game because it doesn't represent themself but I haven't talked to anyone who that's happened to. I believe it but, I don't know, it seems odd. When playing a Japanese game like Street Fighter or Final Fantasy I don't turn away from it because it lacks white characters (I tried to find a board game or video game with multiple characters to choose from in a place other than America but couldn't find many). If the racial make-up is close to the setting's then I'm not going to cry foul . With what appears to be a modern game like Dead of Winter I think it makes a lot of sense to represent many different people but when playing things like period pieces (the Arkham Horror files are obviously far from accurate, but the backdrop of the stories is not meant to conflict history) I believe it's a little different. What I didn't think about in my previous post was notable black musicians like Marie and Jim in the Arkham Horror files. Although black people were a minority they still had a lot of prominence in people's lives because of music so it makes sense that people like that would be included.

With that all aside, I think FFG has done a good job with representation so far in the Arkham Horror files and only commented on this thread because OP thought there were not enough non-white characters, not that I have any problem with the game's current make-up. So OP, I guess my question for you is what do you think the fair split in representation should be? How many white, how many non-white and of what kind?

I believe it IS predominantly white right now (my source comes from a podcast that features reports on diversity in literature; I don't have a direct source/study atm, but I could scoop up some tangential studies if I dug around) but what I mean is that certain communities are not predominantly white. In fact, there are entire inner-city neighborhoods that see almost no white people at all. Isn't it weird that there aren't really any boardgames (that I can think of, that don't use meeples and cubes) for them or featuring main characters that represent them? The margin of white to non-white in the U.S. isn't that large, and overall it's constantly shrinking.

As for your second paragraph, I'm not even talking about current gamers. I'm talking about people who are interested enough to see what it's about, but don't know if they want to invest in it (socially or financially). Usually if you are already a gamer, you're not going to walk away from a game unless it's just one you don't enjoy playing. But for gamers who focus on thematic or role-playing elements, or new people who would join in but instead just take one look and think "this is for nerdy white kids," it could be a turn-off or a deal breaker.

Here's a link to an article about the diversity growth in public schools: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/08/20/01demographics.h34.html

But yes, the point is that white people aren't going to be the majority for long.

I understand the reservations about the setting, but FFG has already rewritten Lovecraft canon by creating their own line of books etc. I just don't think there should be any hesitation of inclusion because of anachronism. You can have poc in believable roles with or without following the standard assumptions of the culture at the time. There are and always will be occasional people that step outside the box. It would not be unreasonable, for instance, to have a Japanese-American inventor or a black gravedigger or a latina dream-walker or a pakistani sci-fi/weird fiction writer.

I actually find it hard to believe that if FFG had already included these that anyone would be like, "WOAH, now wait a minute... black people did NOT write sci-fi in the 1920's, and Latina's weren't psychic!"

Rita Young is "kinda" black. People complain because her skin tone is inconsistent. I think it's a valid complaint, not to whitewash poc characters.

To be fair, Rita young isn't "kinda" black. She is black. And she appears to be a light-skinned black woman. Light skinned black people have their owns set of cultural hurdles to navigate, and imo, also deserve representation. There are challenges no matter who you are, but mixed race or light-skinned poc sometimes have trouble belonging to any group and often are mistaken for white (to some advantage, but also to some disadvantage and cognitive dissonance). I think it's very interesting that some people say that she's been whitewashed as, imo, her portrait was always hard to see as her AH image was always in a dark locker room.

Can't tell if you were willfully missing the point or what. I call her a poc in the next sentence and the quotes were facetious because my point was about the debate on it - which is, is she black or not? is she changing color or not? I wasn't picking a side except to say it was a valid concern for some. Now you can miss this point again and straw man it up, I'll leave you to it. But if you're going to attempt to explain the struggles of people of color to someone, you are REALLY talking to the wrong guy.

Rita Young is "kinda" black. People complain because her skin tone is inconsistent. I think it's a valid complaint, not to whitewash poc characters.

To be fair, Rita young isn't "kinda" black. She is black. And she appears to be a light-skinned black woman. Light skinned black people have their owns set of cultural hurdles to navigate, and imo, also deserve representation. There are challenges no matter who you are, but mixed race or light-skinned poc sometimes have trouble belonging to any group and often are mistaken for white (to some advantage, but also to some disadvantage and cognitive dissonance). I think it's very interesting that some people say that she's been whitewashed as, imo, her portrait was always hard to see as her AH image was always in a dark locker room.

Can't tell if you were willfully missing the point or what. I call her a poc in the next sentence and the quotes were facetious because my point was about the debate on it - which is, is she black or not? is she changing color or not? I wasn't picking a side except to say it was a valid concern for some. Now you can miss this point again and straw man it up, I'll leave you to it. But if you're going to attempt to explain the struggles of people of color to someone, you are REALLY talking to the wrong guy.

I'm not willfully missing the point at all. I read and heard exactly what you said. In my opinion, she isn't being whitewashed. Her background story clearly indicates that she is black. She definitely is not white now. Is she lighter? As I said, it is hard to say as her original portrait was in the dark and the artist has changed for all of the portraits. And as pointed out above, according to FFG's own fiction, she appears to be of creole descent.

I'm not trying to "explain" anything to anyone. I'm just stating an opinion, and in my opinion, I see value in her simply being light-skinned as well as dark. But maybe we'll see otherwise if Akachi or Jim ever make it to MoM 2E as there would be no reason to whitewash one and not all. If they all end up lighter, I think it becomes more concerning.

Akachi Onyele is my favorite Arkham Horror universe character, and I can't wait for her to be included. I am confident she will be, and she will not be whitewashed. Of the 8 characters for MoM2, 3 are individuals of color, 4 are women and there is a good mix of ages and societal classes. Far from being disappointed by a lack of diversity in the available characters, I'm very pleased with it. Kiddos to FFG.

My 2 cents on Rita: I simply think that the guy who approved the art didn't read the backstory, that's it. FFG usually is very good at representing both males and females, and people from different ethnicities in their games, so, I think this is a mere oversight. An unfortunate one, but here it ends

My 2 cents on Rita: I simply think that the guy who approved the art didn't read the backstory, that's it. FFG usually is very good at representing both males and females, and people from different ethnicities in their games, so, I think this is a mere oversight. An unfortunate one, but here it ends

It's also entirely possible that the artist was not given the backstory at all and simply told to create portrait art for a 1920's creole athlete (or maybe given the pre-painted miniature for a basis, which definitely seems light-skinned). I have a feeling if there is an issue at all, it was, at worst, a communications issue between the artist and the design team. At best, she was just always intended to be a lighter skinned poc.

Doesn't father Mateo count? he is hispanic.

Doesn't father Mateo count? he is hispanic.

He does. I mentioned him in an above post.

I painted some of my cultists dark, those guys are really inclusive.

So, the first thing that springs to mind on looking at the game is the colour of peoples skins? Nothing wrong with you lot at all is there.

So, the first thing that springs to mind on looking at the game is the colour of peoples skins? Nothing wrong with you lot at all is there.

Point is that it's important that everyone feels included in the game. Considering the game was thought to grant an RPG-like, immersive experience, it's nice if you find some character you can identify with. No harm has ever come from plurality

This game isn't just sold in the U.S. Something to keep in mind. The figures should be representative of the story behind the game and the characters themselves, not representative of population demographics in France, or the U.K. or Canada or the U.S. or which ever country it is being sold it.

Just to add some more clarity to this point, as I sorted my 1st edition investigators to include them in 2e (arriving today... Yay!!!) the mix of male to female is about 50/50.

While I agree that Pocs are probably in the minority across the Arkham Horror Files Roster, this would be historically correct for the period. I think FFG have done a pretty good job of trying to satisfy all schools of thought on this subject.

As for Rita Young, after reading Ghouls of the Miskatonic, I had an image of her in my mind that left no doubt as to her racial heritage. Both the original illustration from AH, and the new one in MoM 2e portray her as much fairer skinned than I had expected. I'll be painting her miniature with a skin colour that reflects on her backstory appropriately.

I actually find the new portrait images jar me somewhat. I'm used to grabbing standees/miniatures/character cards based on the original portraits. Now I have to stop and double check as to who is who.

My own thoughts on racial and gender mixes? I would have bought this game regardless of the investigator's respective origins. That has always been a 'non issue' as far as I'm concerned.

Lovecraft's own feelings regarding cultural mingling are both extreme (especially in our more enlightened times) and almost always taken out of context. Context is everything, and analysing the world view of anyone from the turn of the last century without including social and political ideologies from the same period is bound to produce speculative and erroneous conclusions.

I'm not saying he was right in his attitude at all. I'm just saying he was part of the ethnic majority at that time, and there were some very strong convictions amongst that group.