Gender equality in Dragonbane

This text briefly explains the Dragonbane game design view on gender issues in Dragonbane and Valenor.

In our world both genders are equal, legally and culturally.There are other solutions to the problems with gender bias, while still exploring gender differences, but we find them too difficult for this type of project.

The question is how to create tension and power structures in the fiction, without directly imposing bias and injustice on the players as well as the characters. In Dragonbane we have addressed this in two ways. One is to have no structures with one or a few privileged leaders and controlled masses - except for the Dragon. Another has been to not use separators of power that would automatically also separate players.

In short, all faction cultures are egalitarian, with limited hierarchies, and all causes for injustices are fictional in such a way that any participant could role-play them.

In the end the imperative themes of Dragonbane are about individual worth and structural oppression, and I¹ve strived to deal with other issues of general interest in a way that does not import real problems of our contemporary society to the larp.
        – Christopher Sandberg, Creative Director of Dragonbane

One example is how we dealt with the fact that Mike Pohjola had written the Exalted Tower to be a gender biased order. Instead of a large editing of The Age of the Storm we just deleted the reference to gender. Both Cinderhill and the Witches covenant accept all with the gift of magic. All participants regardless of gender can play Adepts, scroll makers, Witches and Dragontamers. Note that the original themes may remain in the translated excerpts - but in Dragonbane the Exalted Tower is not gender biased!

Another detail is that the dragons of Valenor are genderless, with relationships based on magical attraction, instead of those imposed by cultural dogma. The rather complex thinking behind this include the notion that having a female dragon would be to impose a "divine" label on women, rendering them detached from normal life. Also having a male dragon would make men symbols of power. A genderless dragon fuels no such stereotypes.

The feudal society of Valenor is also deliberately omitted from the focus of the drama, to give room for a discourse on the specific life of Cinderhill, under the shadow and rewards of the dragon. While it is a totally valid approach to deal with the issues of social hierarchy by depicting them directly in a larp, we have chosen other points of entry, which emphasise the underlying structures, rather than enacting existing problems from our world.

Also, we should remember there's no need to make Cinderhill a feudal-capitalist community where there is a need for marketplaces and inns and nobility and armies. In fact, I think it would be a grave mistake, if we went that way. 
       – Mike Pohjola, author of The Age of the Storm