Jaded Gamer Diary - Community of seething hate

Over on rpg.net there is a discussion about games that fundamentally changed your views on RPGs.  While I gave a few of my standard answers and the good happy things that changed my views at the end I had include something that didn't.  Although not because of the game itself but because of people. 

All the various editions of DnD changed my views but not in a good way. While I don't mind the actual games themselves, but it was the various edition wars and all around overwhelming amount of hate I saw getting tossed around. It changed the way I viewed the RPG community that the hobby had fostered. Making me see just how divided, petty and arrogant some people can be (even myself to some extent).

While lately I've been edition warring among a few other games myself it's usually been because of the cost of the new edition or how another is a cash grab, etc.  

But Dungeons and Dragons players, especially online, take it to a whole different level of stupid.  The amount of seething hate I've noticed just in discussions over various versions of the OD&D rules.  People verbally attacking (and threatening physical violence) because someone likes fourth edition DnD.  Others say you're an idiot for liking 3.0 over 3.5 over Pathfinder. 

Seriously what the fuck?

I've never gotten to the point of violent threats over what I do or do not like.  At my worst I may say that I will not be buying a new version of something with some colorful language.  But I have been threatened for supporting what I like or refusing to support what I don't.  My usual answer is basically telling the to come on down to Missouri where I live, I'm not that hard to find.  Nobody has ever taken me up on that though.

For the record my personal likes in DnD versions would have to be as follows: BECMI version first, D20 Modern second and 3.0 as a third. 

RPGers support your FLGS

The other day I was up at the local K and A Games (my local FLGS) and talking with one of the owners (Kevin).  Topic at hand was the resurrection of WEG and support of the D6 game line.  While he is happy to see one of his favorite systems coming back he was a bit bummed as well.  From everything he had heard it was going to be doing books through POD which doesn't allow him to really support them at a store level.  He understand the business reasons behind the move and that it makes sense to go that route when restarting a company back up.  But he can't really support it that much (or himself by doing so). 

This got me to thinking about how much of the smaller press game market has vanished from the brick and mortar scene.  Going with a model that has a much lower risk involved.  So for those who do like those games it becomes tougher for them to support their favorite store as well. 

Now as you may well know I'm a big supporter of supporting your local brick and mortar.  I try to buy what I can from the local shop even though it seems a bit sparse now days.  Most of what I pick up are odd ball out of print items that most have never heard of.  But I still spend some of my hard earned money there and I encourage others to do so as well.  Even if it's just a new set of dice every little bit will help.

Getting involved can be one of the bigger ways to show your support.  Drop in for a store ran game or volunteer to run one yourself.  If the shop carries drinks and snacks then buy them there and encourage other players to do the same.  See if there are any special events, panels or workshops that you can attend, I volunteered to help the local shop run GM and Player discussion groups.  This can help draw new people in and help both the shop with sales and you with new players.

So Dig Where You Stand and help your local shop survive and flourish a bit.  Well if the F in FLGS stands for 'friendly'.  I can firmly understand somebody not supporting a shop that isn't friendly or doesn't care about their customers.

That's my two cents for today.

Villians & Vigilantes is back!

Well it looks like an agreement has been reached in the lawsuit over the ownership of this game.  It's back in the hands of Jeff Dee who created it many years ago. 

Here is an article covering some basics of what happened:

villains-vigilantes-creators-win

So now the game is being released through Monkey House Games and you can get the pdf versions through OBS at the following sites:

Monkey House Games on Drivethru

Monkey House Games on RPGNow

So one of the best early superhero games is once again available and in production with new material coming out.  About damn time if you ask me.  I wish them all the best of luck on this.  Now while they didn't win the full lawsuit in court and a settlement of some sort has been released there are some fuzzy details we will most likely never know.  However Jeff Dee and associates seem very pleased with the outcome. 

Now I'm tempted to run a supers game again.  Last few times I have it didn't go so well as that genre, while one of my faves as a player, is a thorn in my side to run as a gamemaster.  It just doesn't work when I do it.  But still I may try again after hearing about this.

Masters Workshop - Books at the table.

At a local shop we have a monthly Gamemaster meet up called 'The Masters Council' in which we talk about various problems, ideas, solutions and rant about things.  One rule is that we don't tell anyone how they are supposed to run a game or tell them they are doing it wrong.  It's all about working together.  Here is one of the recent topics that came up.

How to deal with players bringing books to the table.  As in the folks who pull out a Monster Manual at every encounter and tell the party everything about the creature they are fighting.  Or the ones who pull out a copy of a module so they can 'go the right way'.  Here are a few solutions and thoughts that were brought up.

Easiest one off the top is to ban them from the table.  Especially copies of the module being ran currently, that one goes without a doubt.  But monster guides as well.  Now this will lead to some players having issues since they spent money on the books.  Usually these are the folks that don't see how it drags some of the fun out of the game.

Another was to simply change things up.  Change the creature stats on the fly, better armor, more damage with their attacks or even a special attack tossed in there.  With modules you could do the same adding in more bad guys, having special items they were searching after simply not being there and the dude that is supposed to be aiding them switches sides and does the big betrayal. 

One suggestion was, in the case of monster guides, was to never tell them the name of the monsters they are fighting.  Give a rough physical description of what they are seeing.  It's not like they are standing there as if they were in an airport waiting for somebody holding up a sign.  Now eventually some will pick up on what it is and may flip open a book.  But some of the lesser used things will leave them scratching their heads.

Could also be worth it to pick up some third party books if such a thing exists for the game you are running.  I've found books like Teratic Tome or Lusus Naturae to be perfect for this.  Some of their entries being completely horrific nightmare stuff that they may not be expecting.

Hope these help somebody out.

Jaded Gamer Diary seriously fuck these guys

Am I the only person who gets a bit pissed off at this?  A woman comes forth with a story about how she was mistreated or threatened by others in the gaming community.  Several guys come forward saying she can't substantiate the claim so she must be telling a lie or looking for attention. 

I swear this is how it goes every damned time. To make it even more obvious about their shitty attitude is that a lot of time it's the same people.  James Desborough and John Tarnowski (aka RPGPundit aka Kasimir Urbanski) are the first that seem to pop on almost every occasion.  Claiming that the woman making the accusation is out for attention when they themselves are the most obvious attention whores of all time. 

They seem to fail to notice, or simply don't care, that it's always a different person making these claims.  Or that several others chime in with their own incidents once the first speaks up.  Doesn't matter to them.  Women say they've been harassed and these white guys stand up and say that they haven't.  You see it's because jack asses like these guys evidently have this thought in their head that if you don't agree with everything they say then you must be some SJW wacko.  They don't see the broad swath of folks in between the extremes.

There have been a lot of people over the last few years talking about how women and people of differing ethnic backgrounds have been treated by a small selection of gamers.  Most of the people talking about this being women and folks of differing ethnic backgrounds.  Not to mention a good selection of other saying they have seen it as well, some may not have did anything about it at the time but now realize just how harmful it is. 

But don't worry a tiny handful of white guys along with the two mentioned will assure you that nothing is actually happening at all.  So just ignore all these people saying there is something wrong because there isn't, continue on. 

You know what?  Fuck those guys and their little stragglers and wanna be's that follow them.  I've seen it happen and I believe that others have seen it as well and I'm going to speak out about it.  They don't like?  Well they can go fuck themselves.

End of Line.

Jaded Gamer Diary shake off the scum

Just came across this Tumblr post and felt I needed to bring up some of the things on my mind about it.

tabletop-gaming-has-a-white-male-terrorism-problem

Nice title eh?  I'll agree it sounds a bit like clickbait right off the bat.  But it was shared over on G+ by somebodies whose opinion I respect (Lowell that would be you).  So I gave it a read and had to sit back and completely agree with her.  I even gave it a reblog over on my Tumblr page with a nice little bit of my opinion added in.  Here is what I said:

I count myself as a fortunate male gamer who fell into a group of gamers that included a good balance between male and females.  We fought, won and lost together at the game table.  There was a wonderful friendship among us, no veiled threats, no demeaning comments and everyone treated each other as an equal.  Most of my gaming time was spent among this group which had a long list of people involved over the years, some of the going and coming and returning.  Life would pull some away as others would find their way to us.

Once I started going out and trying to game with other folks did I ever encounter the dirtbags like those mentioned in this piece.  It made me uncomfortable to be there and usually I would walk away from those groups in short order.  Sometimes dropping a message to anyone who was there because they felt their was nothing else with some contact info for better groups. 

I don’t understand why treating somebody like shit because of their gender is even a thing among gamers.  Especially considering a large population of us come from various groups who have been targets for harassment ourselves.  For a while I even called myself a gamer who hates other gamers because of things like this. 

My advice to anyone wanting to change this.  Set up your own group and make it safe.  Enforce the fact that it’s safe.  Reward those who keep it this way.  Make an equal gaming table for those who believe in having fun together instead of at the expense of others.  Don’t be afraid to kick the asshats off to the side and tell them to get lost.  Stand together, work together, play together.  Make a damn difference.

My full out opinion right there.   Love it or hate it, doesn't matter much to me.

I would like to add in that I have the fortune of having a local game shop that strives to be family friendly and give everyone equal treatment.  One of the owners is a guy I've known for decades and wanted a game shop that he would feel comfortable for any of his four daughters to be at.  So he and his sister opened it up themselves. 

This shop would be K and A Games.

While the population of gamers in this area still tends to me mostly white males there is some diversity.  Especially in the area of having more female gamers than other places I have seen or seen at some other shops.  Now as for other ethic groups not so much, but then a lot of this has to do with the rural area where we live being made up of mainly Caucasian families.  There are some but just not many.

Also in this area is a small portion of gamers who claim they won't ever go to a game shop where they can't scream 'FUCK' as loud as they want.  Who view every female as nothing more than a potential bed mate or some one to be ridiculed and made fun of.  Homophobic and racist slurs spew from their mouths almost as if they use it like punctuation.  Harassing somebody until they leave or stop showing up is a badge of honor to them. 

Those fucks need to go. 

If you want a decent game group then don't let people like this in.  If you want to show your support of diversity among gamers then start at your own table, change things from the ground up.  You see one person being harassed by a group then get in between and ask them what their fucking problem is.  You see we need some people who can be assholes when it's necessary, when its standing up against those who are vile and useless to the hobby we love.

I may get up here on my soapbox and bitch a lot.  But I never bitch at or about somebody because of their gender or ethnic background.  I may raise some merry hell about a persons ideas or beliefs.   Tell them they are fucked in the head because of the way they think about something.  But I've never, and will never, complained about somebody simply because of the way they were born.  Those who do need to be shown the damned door.