Topic: RPG Choices

I wrote this back in August (of 2024) in response to.. something? It was probably whatever antics WotC or some other rot-brained company was up to at the time. I came upon it today and thought to share it with some folks who have the same kind of nostalgic melancholy and disgust wih some modern trends in the RPG hobby that I do.

There's a lot of controversy today over what sells and why, whether it's a tabletop RPG or a streaming TV series.

This is going to be a long one. 👁🧵*

[*Actually, not super-duper long. I think I meant to post this on X and then added to it.]

"Picture it. (Not) Sicily, 198tysomething.."

- Sophia from Golden Girls, if she was an avid tabletop gamer.

Back in the day, your RPG books were whatever you could find in a local hobby store, the dusty shelf of a toy store or maybe a mail order catalog. There was no massive media push to tell you about them. These things hadn't hit mainstream yet and still marked you as a social pariah in some cases just for possessing them.

The choices were far more limited. Maybe you had some version of D&D that you or a friend bought. You learned to play by playing. Any advice might come from something like an issue of Dragon Magazine or someone else who played, but whatever you were doing at the time, this was YOUR D&D (or other game of the era.) The main questions were who was running and who was playing.

You would see plenty of D&D competitor ads in Dragon. Reviews of things in White Dwarf. There was more sense of it being a shared hobby at the end of the day. Fast forward to today, and we have two or more people making basically the same thing, fighting like it's a West Side Story rumble, or a WHOLE mess of people making things for what they see to be he hottest thing.

Maybe you had one or more games that were not D&D, whether it was Traveller, Palladium games, Talislanta, Villains & Vigilantes, etc. But again, the options were still limited compared to today. These games had to sell and justify print runs. There was no crowdfunding or digital copies. If a game tanked, those books sat in a warehouse. Worst case scenario: they were buried in the desert next to some E.T. Atari cartridges.

Today we have the glut and bloat of TOO MANY choices, whether it's the games we play or the streaming series we watch. We also have many people competing in the same space, either putting a spin on a classic or reinventing the wheel altogether (or claiming to, and rarely justifying that claim.)

We are very fortunate, but also swayed to follow certain leads when navigating this sea of possibilities.

Do we follow the ampersand or other brand logo, 'cause that's all we know? (Good God, no.) Do we buy what the cool kids are telling us is cool? Does someone's YouTube review equate to "Yeah, I play it and it's cool" or is it perhaps suspect because "Like, subscribe, I want revenue?"

As far as RPGs go, nothing will EVER beat picking up a physical book, leafing through it and saying, "This is RAD!" (or insert hip catchphrase here.) Failing that, you must buy the thing. You must run the thing. You must judge for yourself. The difference will also lie in HOW you run it, how the players play it and what you expect to get out of it. It really is that fucking cave on Dagobah. What's in it? Only what you bring with you. That's where imagination and ingenuity come in. Even a game loaded with THE SUCK™️ might be salvaged. A top tier game can be ruined by shitty play. "Results are not typical. Experiences may vary."

So how do you navigate the assault on your senses in deciding what to buy? Do you ignore people telling you something is shiny and new and worthy of your cash, cuz like, hey man, there's foil on the cover?

The real answer, as in every other aspect of life, is to treat every opinion as exactly that - an opinion, until you've made your own determination. Put these things on a mental shelf as well. Inform yourself about them, but don't be swayed ONLY by how many other people want it or who's telling you to buy it. What is this thing and why should I buy this thing? Is it the RPG equivalent of two-tone pants or Pony sneaker boots? Maybe you don't care and want the Pony boots anyway (The brand, not the animal.) That's fine, but it's a fad purchase.

Reasons that SHOULD NOT influence you to buy:

- The race, creed, gender, orientation, political party or favorite ice cream flavor of the author.

Absolutely not. It must stand on its own merit. If you need to tell me any of those things to make me buy it, odds are you made a hot, steaming pile of crap. If I want a book about pistachio ice cream, I'll buy a book about that.

Even telling me it doesn't contain a certain thing is a slippery slope. Although a game book should stick to the stated purpose and not deviate into something else or have hidden agendas. I should be reasonably assured that a book about kids dealing with strange robots doesn't turn into the final scene from Sleepaway Camp.

- X or Y person with eleventeen thousand subscribers says you should.

Nope. Only if you've liked something this person liked in the past for the reasons you did should you ever consider this. Even then, two humans will rarely agree 100% on everything. Take it with a grain of salt.

- It's made by the company/person/IP robber baron that made that other thing I liked for years!

No. Brand loyalty should only go as far as loyalty to consumers. If a publisher consistently drops the ball, don't drop the coin. A dip in profits is exactly what a company needs to let it know it can't rest on its laurels and/or shit on the fans.

- This edition is better because they FIXED THINGS!

Is it though? And were the things broken and in need of fixing in the first place? If you invent a problem, are you now a savior for solving it? Tearing down previous accomplishments of others to build oneself up is just about the shittiest thing someone can do in this hobby. It ranks up there with crowdfunding a thing and then never delivering, but that's a whole other rant.

If, after all is said and done, you end up buying something that turns out to be crap or didn't live up to expectations, don't beat yourself up about it. Now you know, and knowing is.. 50% of the struggle. You will also find some creators and publishers trying to market something to a wider audience and once they cash their checks, the masks slip. SURPRISE! You bought a piece of dookie, possibly filled with the author's hot takes on real world situations. Demand a refund if you can or.. throw that shit in the GAHhhbij. Even more importantly, let your friends and gaming associates know what it's about. Friends don't let friends buy junk. Or at least you can put it out there. You'll always know someone who gets 98% of their decision-making info from watching YouTube videos. That guy would probably buy sandpaper marketed as toilet paper based solely on an unboxing video.

I'm guilty of having bought too many things in the past I realized I didn't need or that turned out to be poor choices in hindsight. Then there were the real stinkers. There were also the disappointments, like one made by a company who wanted to allege that I went to my job at the time wanting to murder people and unfairly deprive them of their Fourth Amendment rights. But they'll take my money alright. People who feel the need to inject some kind of social commentary into everything they do so they can pat themselves on the backs also kill it for me. I want my escapist entertainment to be just that. If I wanted to roleplay real life drama in my imaginary worlds, I'd invent, "Get My Car Fixed, the RPG."

• Your Car Shield only protects vs. 50% of damage.

This is just one man's opinion on things. If you like your chainsaw-wielding prancing pony games written by Whomever of the Many Labels, you can keep your your chainsaw-wielding prancing pony games written by Whomever of the Many Labels You do you. But it's not a great thing simply because someone says it is. That's never true of anything. Investigate for yourself, otherwise be content to play whatever the Cool Kids in the Room say you should play.

TL/DR: Make your decision to purchase something based on what you KNOW or find something to be, not based on hype.

There is a whole WORLD of options out there. Be the person to tell someone about something they may not have heard of, instead of something they can't avoid hearing about.