New Dungeons & Dragons Anthology Explores Real World Economic Issues

A new Dungeons & Dragons anthology contains nearly 20 different adventures that feature explicitly anticapitalist themes. While people don't commonly associate Dungeons & Dragons with politics, the truth is that the game is a storytelling medium and stories can contain any number of themes. And while some people enjoy simply slaying dragons in their Dungeons & Dragons games, other people look to Dungeons & Dragons as an avenue to explore real world issues ranging from climate change to class inequality. After all, the presence of magic or dragons doesn't automatically mean that a fantasy world doesn't face some of the same issues as the real world.

Recently, a group of Dungeons & Dragons creators organized the Eat the Rich anthology, a collection of D&D adventures with anticapitalist themes. Most of the adventures in the book deal with worker exploitation, corruption, and uprisings against the ruling class, and give players the opportunity to solve problems they might not be able to fix in the real world. Sure, corrupt officials might be hard to remove in the real world, but every Dungeons & Dragons adventure provides players with a bit of wish fulfillment, and why shouldn't players feel good about righting wrongs that feel an awful lot like problems we face in every day society?

Although Eat the Rich Vol. 1 is billed as "anticapitalist," a term that's sure to turn off a lot of potential readers, most of the adventures have a Robin Hood feel to them, where adventures help the poor and unfortunate by taking down corrupt rulers and other powerful groups who are pushing around those perceived as weak. And honestly, many of the adventures don't feel that much different than the sort of things we've already seen in Dungeons & Dragons adventures. Curse of Strahd , Dragon Heist, and Descent Into Avernus all have themes dealing with corrupt and wicked ruling classes, the only difference is that the bad guys in Eat the Rich aren't vampires or make deals with archdevils.

Eat the Rich is a fun collection of adventures that should appeal to players who enjoy liberating commoners and the oppressed from those who are holding them down using unfair means. The anthology is available on the DMs Guild for $19.95.