TTRPG: The Woke List

I don't blog a whole heck of a lot once #RPGaDAY is over for the year, but it seems that another TTRPG controversy has been brewing over the last few days. There is a list out--no link provided. You can find it easy enough and those that know already know anyway--that breaks down some of the big name TTRPG companies down by how woke they are. Long post less long, TTRPG creator John Wick is angry because he didn't make the list. I responded on a YouTube discussion with the following...I liked it so much that I saved it below:

The first 7th Sea 2nd edition KS project--back in 2016 so only around five years ago--was great. It was the top backed project on KS for a long time, and I was among those backers. 

The follow-up has been a disappointing disaster to say the least. The KS for 7th Sea Khitai funded and the product was due for delivery way back in August 2018. That's pre-WuHan Flu by a couple of years. He got fat on all that sweet, sweet KS money and fell way behind. He is currently partnered with Chaosium to sell the existing products and for help in completing the outstanding ones, and--to his credit--he never "skipped town" and still updates us and shows the PDFs as the project slowly makes its way to completion. However, by this point any real interest I had in playing has fallen by the wayside. 

The list itself was not meant as an enemies list. It was used to make consumers--mostly conservatives--aware of what these companies and games represent. Most gamers want the game to be apolitical the WOKE SJW types see the hobby as a means of pushing their agenda, and many of us don't want anything to do with it. It's not a bad thing to support the companies that stand for what you believe in, and there's no reason to spend your money on a company or product line that hates you or pushes "morals" that you portend to disagree with. That said, I will be buying 'Witchlight'. I want it and it doesn't matter to me if Wizards of the Woke is the publisher or not. On the other hand, I will not be buying D&D "prom night" or similarly themed "snowflake/safe place" products and it wouldn't matter who published it--it just happens to be Wizards. At the end of the day everyone should vote for what they're interested in with their wallets, play with the people they like to play with and play the way they like to play--just as it's always been. 

One last thing, politically speaking, I don't care if the company is good, bad or indifferent. If they can't deliver their product in a timely manner, they will not get financial support from me--and thus is the fate of John Wick.

RPGaDAY2021--Day 31: THANK

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 31 it's all over but the Thanking.

I thank everyone behind the scenes at RPG a DAY and any and everyone who responded to the prompts and gave me something to think about or discuss.

My gaming experience was overall weak during the 2020-2021 season--that's a school year to you and me--but I'm hoping to get involved with more for the 2021-2022 season. I'm thankful for VTTs. I'm thankful for creative TTRPG enthusiasts that create the KS projects I'm interested in and thankful for others like myself that take the risk to back them.

I'm thankful that I have a wife that puts up with the hobby...not all gamers get that. I'm thankful that I have a daughter who is getting closer and closer to the age when I can play some TTRPGs with her. She's mastered UNO more of less already.

Finally, as much as I like responding, I'm thankful I get to go back to blogging sporadically for the next 12 months.

RPGaDAY2021:Day 30--Mention

As this year's venture comes to an end is there anything else I want to mention? Honestly, not much. I'll just fill-in my play experience since the last RPGaDAY ended

I ran an online one-shot last Halloween with the Heckna! play test rules. It was a very quick scenario wherein my two players managed to make it from the midway of the carnival to a haunted hotel before they had to go. It's one of the risks of playing with a younger teen because they have to go too bed when the parents tell them. It was fun, but I wanted more.

I played in a 5E campaign Spring 2021. It was a fun murder mystery type game with werewolves. I liked being able to be a player for a change. It was a pretty decent group for a Roll 20 pick-up game, but again players are flaky.

Upcoming? I'm planning a go with D&D Hardcore converting the classic 'Palace of the Silver Princess' and I'm hoping to accentuate all the non-PC/controversial parts that my PG-13 play style can muster. I'm also scheduled as a player in an upcoming Ryuutama game, but the group really seems to be dragging their feet on that one.

I'm planning to buy Viking Death Squad which I plugged in yesterday's prompt and The Wild Beyond the Witchlight box-set from WoTC. I really want to support the Wonderfilled Games project, GiantLands, #keepgamingfantasy but I'm waiting until it's gone to print. I hope I don't miss out, but if I do, I'm sure I'll gripe about it next year.

RPGaDAY Day 29: System

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 29 'System'

Running late today especially out in China, but in the spirit of not missing a single prompt, today I'll very quickly talk about my favorite system.

When it comes down to it, D&D5E is the best system for me warts and all. It's easy to play without being overly simplistic. There is a huge user base, so with a little looking you can usually find a group to play with. Since most people are familiar with the system and apps like D&D Beyond make character creation easy, it usually doesn't take long to get right to playing. Even when WotC isn't producing supplements that I want, I find that 3rd parties are constantly coming up with things that I do. Almost everything I like to play runs on the 5E engine either directly or with tweaks.

I have to mention Runehammer Games once again. I am crazy for Index Card Roleplaying Game which is stand alone, but also lets you plug several gimmicks in to make 5E better. Then there's D&D Hardcore Mode which makes 5E feel a little more oldskool.

There is a new product coming from Runehammer Games--which just partnered with Modiphius for distribution--called Viking Death Squad. It is a stand alone game with nothing to do with D&D as such but I can't wait to play it because the art and ideas from Runehammer have been great so far.

https://www.modiphius.net/collections/new-arrivals-1/products/viking-death-squad

#RPGaDAY2021:Day 28--DELVE

 #RPGaDAY2021 for day 28 I rolled a '4' and got 'Delve'.

From a quick Google search I get this:

"What does it mean to delve deeper?

to examine something carefully in order to discover more information about someone or something:

It's not always a good idea to delve too deeply into someone's past".

Depending on one's level of sensitivity that might be good advice. Sometimes one can look back on a person's life--particularly someone we admire--and find statements they may have said or beliefs they held that would be problematic--so called--in today's society. Even more tricky is when the person is no longer with us to defend themselves or clarify their statements. Of course my hope would be--in the case of most TTRPG pioneers--that they would double-down on the "offense" and tell the snowflakes to grow a pair, but I digress.

Notwithstanding the fact that I am far more offended by what is deemed, "acceptable, normal behavior" today, than what was common in the fairly recent past, it wouldn't take too much digging to find something published or said that one doesn't agree with. That doesn't mean you need to CANCEL the past or clutch your pearls and add disclaimers to the front of everything.

We're focused on TTRPGs here, but clearly this happens with all sorts of media. I'm not sure when people became so sensitive and started "straining on the gnats while swallowing the camels" to paraphrase another book from the past that people get offended by, but it certainly wasn't that way back in the 80's and 90's.

All that rambling and preambling to say that for those who are daring enough to delve deep into the dark past of Dungeons and Dragon, you should checkout 'Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History'. No doubt it has probably been sanitized for our consumption, but there is a lot of great artwork showing how D&D evolved from past to present--including some "spicy" advertising campaigns that will probably have snowflakes demanding the book come with a warning label. I'll give one myself.

WARNING: Product was produced in 2018 and the level of WOKENESS among the professionally offended grows exponentially with each passing year. BEWARE!

Side Note: If you never watched 'Song of the South' you should rectify that at your earliest convienence. While everything is subjective to the viewer's own tastes, I find it to be a sweet and gentle movie with a lot of classic animation and humor that only the flakiest snowflakes would find offensive in the least.

RPGaDay2020--Day 27--Fraction

#RPGaDAY2021 Day 27. I rolled another '1' and got 'fraction'. I'm not going into any depth at all for my responses during these final days.

I will say that I hate all forms of math including fractions and that way back when I took the S.A.T.s it was proof. I had a natural '20' in English but a '1' for the maths.

The other things that pops into my head about 'fractions' is that in spite of all the TTRPGs I own, I only play something different than D&D 5E a small fraction of the time, and in spite of what my wife may think, I only back a small fraction of the group funded projects that I wish I could support.

RPGaDAY: Day 26--Theory

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 26 and rolling a '1' means we're doing theory.

I will only respond with one of my favorite quotes from Sherlock Holmes:

“I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

I think we're all guilty of doing that from time to time both as characters in TTRPGS and IRL as well.

RPGaDAY 2021: Day 25--Tradition

 Day 25--Rolled a '2' which gives me the prompt 'Tradition'.

Another potentially 'spicy' prompt if I wanted to go for it. Luckily, we're in the death throes of #RPGaDAY2021 and I'm keeping all the remaining entries short and (fairly) sweet.

No matter where you stand in the geek hobby culture war--at least as it pertains to TTRPGs--I think there is one common ground we can agree on when we talk about tradition. What is viewed as tradition is largely going to be based on what the particular individual grew up playing.

Many of us stalwarts of the hobby are going to defend the traditions of alignment--including inherently 'evil' races, DM/GM caveat, and an overall combat heavy game with several elements the typical SJW player of today likely finds "problematic". However, a lot of us "old timers" aren't the oldest. A person like me--an 80's kid in his late 40's--is not a part of that first generation of TTRPG enthusiasts. We really aren't the so-called "grognards" although we probably have a lot more in common with them than the nu-players who want X-cards and safe spaces . Most of us won't be calling for a return to THAC0 or games that need 'callers' or rule-sets that are extra crunchy. We didn't grow up with it, so it isn't a tradition for us.

I wonder if those 'grognards' felt as bad as I often do about the hobby today back when their old systems were replaced by the newer ones came out in the 80's? I think the biggest difference is that the changes and revisions made to editions in the past--apart from removing demons and devils back in the "Satanic Panic" days--weren't made as a part of a political fringe movement and the goal wasn't to run the old folks out of the hobby.

To be honest--strictly looking at the game system and none of the super-WOKE policies of the companies--DND 5E is a great game engine. I think it was built keeping tradition in mind. It's only in recent years that WotC took the hard turn to the left. Hopefully, the pendulum will swing back again some day.

RPGaDAY2021:Day 24--Solve

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 24 and I roll another '4' for 'solve'. I need to check back at the end of the month and see how many times Roll*20 has actually given me a '4'. I think they need to solve the problem of making their dice roller more random.

As for the prompt, there is really only one problem I've yet to solve when it comes to playing TTRPGS...

RPGaDAY2021:Day23--Surprise

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 23 and yet again I rolled a '4' which means 'surprise' is the topic.

We're 23 days in, so no doubt about it my thoughts are starting to peter out, but I always try to make at least a short comment each day even if it's only as an exercise for myself.

So, what has surprised me most about the hobby in recent years? I have to again mention the popularity of the crowd funded indy projects.

I don't back every project that I want--I'm like a kid in the candy store and my wife would file for divorce if I did--but here is final tally on the recent projects I backed:

Adventures in Oz--$187,125

Anime 5E--$608,702

HECKNA!--$653,970

Some made more than others, but each one is a huge success in my mind. My most recents happen to be running on the 5E engine, but I have backed several other successful projects that had nothing to do with D&D...and now we have this one:

Avatar Legends $6,870,567 (as of this post 10 more days to go)

This one isn't for me, but in my mind this kind of money isn't being spent on a dying hobby. It's showing me that the sky is the limit even for imaginative independent creators...especially if they can get a hold of a well-loved IP.

RPGaDay:Day 22--Substitute

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 22:Substitute

This will be the shortest one yet. Here in no particular order are the RPG (related) activities that I enjoy: 

* Reading rulebooks and old modules

* Reading or listening to novels based on TTRPGs

* Watching TTRPG discussion or unboxing videos 

* Working on my VTT campaign

* Commenting on the hobby--just like here

* Watching streaming games

* Playing RPG style video games

* Playing non-RPG style video games

* Watching movies with RPG themes

* Playing on a VTT

* Running on a VTT

* Playing a one-off live table with strangers

* Playing a one-off live table with friends

* Collecting older RPG materials including: dice and toys

* Backing TTRPG crowd funding projects--much to the wife's chagrin. 

All of these activities and any I may have missed are fun for me and keep me in touch with the TTRPG hobby when I can't play, but each and everyone of them are just a substitute--and sometimes a poor one--for playing in a regular live table with a group of well-known, life-long friends.

RPGaDAY 2021: Day 21--Motive

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 21 and I'm running a little late out in my neck of the woods. I rolled the D4 and got a '4' again. That means I need to use daggers more when playing on Roll 20, but more importantly it means my topic is 'Motive'.

I think about motive IRL and when I'm playing the TTRPGs. 'What's the end game?' 'Why are you doing the things that you do?' 'What will you get out of what you're doing?' and a bit of a problem in my mind 'What motivates a non-human character...especially a powerful one?'

In fiction stories there are always villains who want to "rule the world". I guess I'm not motivated by power because that would seem like a lot of work for me. If you were a god what would motivate you to do anything? You don't have to eat, you're not going to die. I suppose you might want more power, followers, or a better place to reign. Maybe if you saw some cute gnome girl running around you might come around to see her Zeus style, but even then when you're that powerful does it make sense that you would even care.

IRL I'm a Christian and I believe that God is motivated by love, but I can't come up with a reason why He wants to have anything to do with a bunch of wicked minded gnats like us. However, I'm very grateful that He does.

RPGaDAY2021:Day 20--Ally

 #RPGaDAY2021 Rolled a '4' and got Ally for today.

That's definitely a buzzword that I could rant about, but I have vowed to be positive until the end of the month, so I'll let it go.

When I think about allies within the game I'm usually thinking of permanent NPC's that help the players out. It happened that I just talked about Ryuutama yesterday, but I'll mention it again as it is one of the few TTRPGs that I'm aware of wherein the DM/GM has his own character which is a dragon called a Ryujin they level up and everything right alongside the players. The color of this Ryujin also gives the players a hint about what kind of themes should be present in that particular campaign. It is an ally to the PCs with it's own special moves and goals. With any luck this character doesn't overshadow the PCs as one of it's goals is to record a good story about heroes.

After having a good time playing this character, I tried to create similar when using different systems. I had a media character I played in a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign named CoCo Lopez--as I represented her by some unkonwn cosplayer. She ended up being one of my favorite characters to play even though she was what some people call a DMPC. She really changed my mind about having a DMPC. If you keep them from turning into "Mary/Gary Sues" and let the PCs remain the focus, they can really be an additional voice and ally to the player without having to hit the them over the head over and over again with clues and whatnot using your DM authority.

RPGaDAY2021: Day 19--Style

#RPGaDAY2021 we're at day 19 and my vacation is ticking away. Today I rolled up 'style'.

Keeping these things extra short especially this deep into the month.

My favorite style of game is going to be rules light. Apart from 5E which I definitely think fits the description, I have fun with Ryuutama and ICRPG--and its spin-offs--because they are relatively easy. Most people have neither the time nor the desire to read through the rules. It turns them off right away. During play nowadays I have to look at a 3-hr max. I can go shorter...I might even go slightly longer...but the days of the epic session are long behind me. I don't play with the 'wild teen' tangent, but I do teach and I just don't think most of them have the attention spans to hang past a 3hr session even if they have the time.

RPGaDAY2021:Day18--Duel

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 18. With the roll of a '2' today's prompt is 'Duel'.

Short and sweet today. I will recommend one of my favorite old movies, 'Captain Kronus: Vampire Hunter' from Hammer. Looking at the picture alone you can imagine that a lot of dueling will take place in the movie...and it does. There is also a 'party' aspect to the whole thing with the protagonist himself, his hunchback side-kick, and even a fighting girl thrown in eventually. Almost all of the Hammer movies put me in the mood for some 'Ravenloft', but for whatever reason Captain Kronus always reminds me of 'Castlevania'.

I also have to mention 7th Sea 2nd edition--altough it's pirates and not vampires as such...unless you wanted it to be--and the dueling rules therein. This is a really fun sub-game within the game...maybe not so much for the other players, but between the GM and the duelist quite a lot of strategic fun to be had.

RPGaDAY 2021--Day 17: Trap

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 17. Rolling a '1' again today for the prompt 'Trap'. We'll go more for stars than mud today, but it won't be a long one.

I find that traps as a game mechanic are very often more deadly than the combat. Quite often the trap doesn't have to meet a number to hit a character. Either the damage is automatic or else it requires the character to roll a save to avoid or lessen the damage.

As far as D&D goes, traps have certainly lost some of their punch over the years. There seemed to be a lot more save vs. death traps in the older editions. Although I never played in an original D&D game, it seems like characters needed to use a 10ft pole a lot more than they do today. It might have been fun for players at the time, but I think I like the passive perception mechanic more than constantly saying 'check for traps' every few steps. One thing is for sure, no matter how good the roll seems to be the DM will always answer 'you don't find any traps'. Some funny and inventive traps came out of the Grimtooth's series.

RPGaDAY--DAY 16--Villain

#RPGaDAY2021 I rolled a 3 which means today's word is villain.

I'm sure this is a predictable response for those who have been following my comments this year.

A lot of well-meaning SJWs--if that isn't a complete contradiction in terms--may have started out as or were at least close to being heroes. They fought to bring people to the hobby. There were arguably real issues with women and the now popularly called POCs not feeling welcome at the table. With each passing year these "marginalized" people became more and more accepted into the TTRPG community such that is. Even to this day at peak popularity, TTRPGs are realatively small potatoes in the world of entertainment, so If these newly minted hobbyists were there to play the game and leave the politics at home, then most groups would be glad to have them. In other words, even the oldskool fans were willing to show tolerance--in the traditional sense of the word--to new players of every stripe. The more the merrier.

But somewhere along the line, rather than letting gaming be gaming, many of those same SJWs are by their own words pushing the original TTRPG fanbase away from the table. They don't want tolerance, they want celebration and anyone--player or gaming company--unwilling to 'take the knee' gets called a 'phobe' or an 'ist' and gets 'cancelled'. I can speak and write as I like, but I'm not trying to sell a product to anybody. It seems for the producers of TTRPGs if you don't bend over backward to appease the vocal minority WOKE crowd you'll never prosper. 

RPGaRPG-Day15--Supplement

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 15 and today's topic is supplement. It will be very short. My favorite supplement for D&D 5E is from Runehammer Games--creator of Index Card RPG--and is called D&D Hardcore Mode. It is almost a variant of the excellent ICRPG itself, but it is an easier sell for many players that refuse to move away from 5E. It takes the existing 5E material--which most players are familiar with--and tweaks it slightly. The magic system is overhauled, the character creation is…

See More

DRIVETHRURPG.COM

5e: HARDCORE MODE - RUNEHAMMER GAMES | DriveThruRPG.com

5e: HARDCORE MODE - In a game’s maturity, the chase of character evolution has limits. After a few life cycles, players are looking closer

RPGaDAY: Day 14--Momentum

 #RPGaDAY2021 and for day 14 I rolled a '4' for the 'momentum' prompt.

You know what's losing momentum? My summer vacation. I'm down to the last week off--with 7 week days additional planning time without students which counts as continued vacation for me. Nevertheless, when RPGaDay is over, so is my time away from the kids.

You know what's gaining momentum? The backlash to the WOKE. So many normal people are starting to realize that the companies that own the IPs that they used to love have no love for them, and that one doesn't have to support an inferior TV show, movie or dare I say TTRPG manufacturer just because they slap the name of a beloved franchise on it. I like that in short order we more or less said 'No!' to Masters of the Universe. I'm pleased that Mr. Potato Head gets to stay a Mister. I'm filled with joy that the ratings for all major awards shows and sporting events are in the toilet. I'm actually a little disappointed that 'The Suicide Squad' got caught in the backlash--it's a good movie, check it out! But momentum is clearly on the side of normal people.

Overall, apart from said collateral damage, I'm feeling better about the pop-culture community at large these past few months than I have in years. I think we--who support tradition--are voting with our wallets. Which for all their pandering and virtue signalling is all that really matters to these huge companies. The momentum is with us. If we want to be culture warriors and steer away from the SJW madness, then we should only spend money on products that speak to us and let the market decide. Wonderfilled (formerly part of TSR 3.0), for a recent example, has refused to take the knee in spite of the pressure, so we should support them--I'm afraid to because they haven't delivered their products yet, but still. Solarian Games (formerly TSR 2.0) is another company that wanted no part of controversy, but just produces small indy games wherein gaming is the focus, not politics. At the same time, don't support the stuff that you don't believe in. Just because a company's logo is slapped on it and you want to be a completionist, it doesn't mean you should buy-in--it sends the message to companies to make more of the same, and that's what you'll get.

RPGaDAY 2021: Day 13--Flood

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 13 Rolled a '1' for 'Flood'

Fortunately, I haven't experienced any real-life floods or other natural disasters to destroy my collection, but I work overseas, and have left my stuff all over the world.

I have had to leave a bunch of stuff at home in the States, some stuff left at my wife's home country in the Philippines, and luckily at least a precious few that I've been carrying with me around China. I would never have thought I would be an overseas teacher , let alone beginning my 13th year. Traveling with my books is expensive, but there's always something more that I'd like to have. With the flood of KS projects coming out these days, I am constantly wanting to buy more and more--let alone the releases from the main companies.

This 2020-2021 season I've backed:

* Heckna!

* Anime 5E

* Adventures in Oz 5E

There were several others I wanted to back and at least one more that I did back, but failed to fund. I wonder when the flood waters will recede for these indies jumping on the 5E engine?