For the past nine years, Hasbro has been shamelessly profiting off a racism-laced Dungeons & Dragons game product: GAZ10 The Orcs of Thar. Though written in 1988 under a previous owner (TSR), in 2014 Hasbro turned this text into a digital product; and, based on sales-figures, has since made at least $20,000 off of this racist book.

For a thorough inventory of its hurtful contents, please see the complete research PDF here:

"Hasbro's Asian yellow orcs, Native American red orcs, and black orcs: A research document and a course of action"

In this Hasbro game:

1. Hasbro depicts a black-skinned orc woman with full lips and a modern-looking spandex-like chainmail bra, which appears to be a parody of a Black woman.  
2. Hasbro uses racial slurs—"yellow men" and "yellow loonies"—to refer to human beings with an explicitly Mongolian-inspired culture and East Asian physiognomy.
3. Hasbro features "yellow orcs" whose culture is explicitly based on Mongolian, Tibetan, Chinese, Bhutanese, and Nizari Ismāʿīli Shia Muslim motifs. The term "yellow orc" is based on the real-world racial slur "yellow man."
4. Hasbro describes those (East Asian) "yellow orcs" as having "dull yellow hides" and "ugly rat or pekingese faces." Note the word "pekingese" comes from the Chinese language; "Peking" is an archaic spelling for the city of "Beijing." The pekingese dog breed arose from China, and historically, it could only be owned by members of the Chinese Imperial Palace. The juxtaposition of these adjectives "ugly" and "pekingese" with "yellow orcs" is quite hateful. What is Hasbro saying about the physiognomy of Chinese and Mongolian humanity?
5. Hasbro's land of "Yellow Orkia" also includes "oriental" goblins with "yellow skin."
6. Hasbro refers to the "Khan" leader of these East Asian orcs as "the Yellow Demon." Which is insensitively close to the real-world phrase "the Yellow Peril" (aka Yellow Terror, Yellow Specter).
7. Hasbro describes Khan Hutai, the leader of the Mongolian-inspired Hobgoblin culture, as "a middle-aged hobgoblin with Asian features." Hasbro illustrates these "Asian-featured" hobgoblins with serrated teeth, viciously biting each other's faces.
8. Hasbro says that, from an in-world perspective, the human "Mongolian" culture gained their culture and religion by ignorantly imitating these "yellow orcs" and Asian hobgoblins.
9. Hasbro's product also features "red orcs" whose culture is explicitly based on Native American motifs. The term "red orc" is based on the real-world racial slur "red man."
10. These "red orcs" engage in "scalping," which Hasbro says they learned from a neighboring human nation, which is itself also based on real-world Native American culture.
11. Hasbro refers to those Native American "red orcs" as having "red hides and simian [=ape-like] features." The term "red hides" is based on the real-world racial slur "redskins."
12. In regard to the "simian features" of the Native American orcs, Hasbro says there are two varieties: "Orcus Rubeus Vulgaris" [=Vulgar/Common Red Orc] with "Simian features emulating many of the various monkey faces found in nature." and "Orcus Simius Terribilis" [=Terrible Ape-Like Orc]. What does this say about how Hasbro views the physiognomy of Indigenous American humanity?
13. Hasbro parodies the assassinated Lakota leader Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake as "Big Chief Sitting Drool."
14. Hasbro parodies the name of the Little Bighorn battle site—a Native American memorial site—as "Little-Big-Snout."
15. Hasbro insensitively applies the name of the real-world Nakota (Assiniboine and Stoney) nations as the name of a "notorious" red orc burial ground: "Nakota's Grave."
16. Hasbro hurtfully adapts the real-world racist proverb "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" as: "The golden rule: A Good Orc is a Dead Orc."
17. Hasbro parodies Indigenous Mexican culture as buffoonish "Oenkmar orcs." One illustration shows these orcs playing a parody of ōllamalīztli—the Indigenous Mexican ball game—with a decapitated orc head.
18. Hasbro parodies the Vodun religion of West Africa and the African diaspora, by referring to "gri-gri" (a Vodun religious talisman) in a buffoonish context.
19. Hasbro parodies South Asian / Indian cultures as the buffoonish ogres of Ogremoor, whose names appear to be in Sanskrit and other Indic languages.
20. Hasbro also parodies Arab, Persian, Turkish, and Islamic culture by applying those cultural motifs to the monstrous gnolls (hyena-persons) of "South Gnollistan." The leader of the gnolls is named "Nizam Pasha," whose name comes from a Turkish historical figure, Nazım Pasha, who was assassinated during WWI.
21. Hasbro slanders as "Desert Bums" a human culture which is explicitly based on real-world Arab, Egyptian, Syrian, Persian, and Uzbek cultures, and the Islamic religion.

I call on the Hasbro and WOTC leadership to:

1. Apologize for the hateful and hurtful depictions and racial slurs found in its GAZ10 PDF product.
2. Donate all of the past proceeds of this PDF—dating all the way back to July 29th, 2014, when the PDF was first offered for sale—to one or more appropriate cultural charities (Lakota, Mongolian, etc.)
3. From henceforth, make the PDF "pay what you will," with all proceeds going to such charities, in perpetuity.
4. Note: let it be known to all that I have never called for 'censorship.' Rather than divide the community by yanking and hiding this title in a vault (in the manner of Disney's Song of the South), I call on Hasbro to humbly unite the community in this way:
5. Commission one or more external cultural consultants with real academic credentials, to comb through the book and make a report of the exact nature of its wrongs. Hasbro's own boilerplate disclaimer claims that Hasbro "teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end." So, if Hasbro is here to "teach" us, then let's have the "teaching" done by real teachers with real credentials.
6. Henceforth, bundle this new scholarly report with the GAZ10 PDF, as an educational "teaching."
7. Also make amends from an "in-world" (fictional) perspective: by commissioning one or more culturally informed designers (who are either themselves experts in the World of Mystara, or in collaboration with aficionados of that world) to write at least a short (e.g. 1-to-3-page) re-imagining of the Broken Lands of Thar, whereby the racist crudities found in GAZ10 are revealed to be totally false propaganda by enemies of the peoples of Thar. There are any number of ways in which all of the problematic facets can be completely amended, while creatively preserving and enhancing the existence of the peoples of Thar within the fictional Known World of Mystara.
8. Note: GAZ10 is also advertised as being compatible with the Forgotten Realms and the World of Greyhawk, with a suggested placement in Faerûn's "region of Thar," and/or a magical portal to there, and also to the "WORLD OF GREYHAWK Goblins of the Pomarj, or to Iuz." And so these amendatory actions apply not only to the World of Mystara, but also secondarily to those two worlds as well.
9. Henceforth bundle this amended re-envisioning of the Land of Thar with the GAZ10 PDF, along with the academic/educational report.

I invite folks in the gaming community to 'sign' and share this entreaty on various message boards and social media.

I have written to a number of cultural advocacy organizations in regard to Hasbro's continued profiteering off of hateful and hurtful content. I intend to update this petition with any replies I receive from these organizations.

—Travis Henry

(About the Author of this Petition: ·I have done graduate-level work in Native American Studies at Montana State University under the guidance of Dr. Walter Fleming (Blackfoot Nation). For a more extensive bio, please see the PDF at the top of the page.)

[Edit: 2/22/23: Changed the two instances of the word "hire" to read "commission." To clarify that the petition isn't calling on Hasbro to hire new permanent staff in order to make these amends.]

[Edit: 2/24/23: Added mention of TSR's authorship in the intro (instead of only addressing it in the linked PDF): "Though written in 1988 under a previous owner (TSR), in 2014 Hasbro turned this text into a digital product; and, based on sales-figures, has made at least $20,000 off of this racist book."

[Edit: 2/24/23: Removed the example charity (Lakota Waldorf School) to say: "one or more appropriate cultural charities (Lakota, Mongolian, etc.)"

[Edit: 2/24/23: Clarified "at least a short re-imagining" to say "at least a short (1-to-3-page) re-imagining."]