Yeahhh. That sourcebook wasn't great. There were always dark seams of edgelord dumbfuckery at the edges of the canon, and some ill-informed takes that got run with.
But I think there was usually an attempt made to be progressive, inclusive, and to encourage marginalised folks into the spotlight. Worlds away from ideal but, for the tabletop RPG scene in the 90s, worlds away from the norm!
It's a small thing, and honestly kinda outdated by today's standards, but a lot of the old sourcebooks used 'she' as the generic pronoun for a hypothetical person - a player, a character, etc. etc. - instead of 'he'. And while like, okay, singular 'they' is very much a thing. But it sent a nice little message, and along with the number of cool women characters in the wider canon, it made an impression on me as a kid.
I really appreciate a lot of the lore changes made since the 2018 reboot, and the way the new rules really force you to remember your character is ultimately a monster. But I think pushing further and more unequivocally towards inclusivity, and providing tools to pull as few punches and include content as provocative as the genre kinda needs while still playing safely, is one of the better things about the new canon and its fandom.
Anyway, yeah: would recommend.
(P.S. You forgot "golden monster with a hideous heart."
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