D&D Next / 5th Edition - Sexism and Shadism

I was lucky enough to attend a pretty cool presentation a few months back on the distinction between racism and shadism, and how the latter is insidious in its tendency to affect people regardless of ethnic background.  A week ago, over at the Douchey DM, HyveMind raised a few points about the perceived ethnicity of demi-humans in D&D, specifically as it relates to the D&D Next playtest.

Vulnerability to sunlight comes as standard

As a white male, I'm lucky.  Part of that luck includes always having images I can relate to whenever I flick through my roleplaying books (not to mention when I watch TV or see adverts on billboards or look at the covers of boardgames).  But should I be alone in this?

Josh Fox doesn't think so, and I agree.  He's asking Wizards of the Coast to be more representative of their imagery in the new edition of D&D, showing a larger percentage of non-white and female characters depicted respectfully.  He's also hoping the demi-humans will not be described as an all-white club any longer.

So, dear readers, if you feel similarly, I suggest you pop on over to the online petition here to ask WotC to consider seeing things our way.

Meanwhile, on a more personal note, I'm all set to give that D&D Next playtest a first run tomorrow.  It'll also be my son's first chance to try roleplaying, and not just hear the noisy idiots downstairs whooping and making fools of themselves.  Me nervous?  You betcha.

D&D Next - Saving the Industry or Killing It?

I'm going to make three contradictory statements in a row.

• The pen and paper roleplaying industry is in decline.  It has been for a long time, since the release of Magic: the Gathering in '93 which thinned the number of people already in the roleplaying scene by providing an alternative, addictive hobby in the form of collectible card games.

• The pen and paper roleplaying industry is in decline.  It has been since the popularity of the internet spiked, and anyone with a scanner could upload an electronic version of a book, sharing it with the world, thus decimating book sales.

• The pen and paper roleplaying industry is in decline.  It has been since massively multiplayer online roleplaying games came on to the scene, and stole the hearts and minds of kids who find their monster-slaying needs more than fulfilled by a monthly subscription.

Which of those three is true?  To an extent, each of them.  Yet the roleplaying industry persists.

In understanding why that should be so, we're faced with an underlying truth of marketing and economics.  No matter how perfect a model we create to understand a market, it will still be innately less complex than the reality of a given situation.  There are multiple caveats and addendums to the above three statements, for example, and counters to all of them.

• The CCG market isn't what it used to be, and can be considered a complimentary element to the roleplaying hobby not an opposition.

• E-publishing is bringing fresh ideas into the hobby by allowing indie products to come to prominence as never before.

• MMORPGs are sparking an interest in fantasy gaming bringing it further into the mainstream and attracting an audience that the roleplaying industry alone never could have.

So, there we have put a different take on each of the three causes of decline in the industry.  Maybe you agree with one statement more than another, maybe you disagree with me entirely.  Hey, feel free, the comments are just down below all this text, all views are welcome and nothing will be deleted.

But, despite how each of us feels about the above, I think we can all pretty much agree with the following two statements.

• We need people buying roleplaying products, or there is no roleplaying industry.

• We need need people playing roleplaying games, or there is no roleplaying hobby.

With that in mind, I find it difficult to dislike what Wizards are currently doing with D&D Next.  Let me explain.

When Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition came out, opinion was divided, to say the least.  But it was clear that WotC were attempting to open up D&D, making it more accessible to a new generation of players who were more comfortable with the wargaming and MMORPG-like elements.  And that new generation of players is important to the industry, because nobody is immortal, and those of us who intend to roleplay and buy roleplaying products for the rest of our lives are not the only ones in the hobby.  It's true, people drop out of the hobby.  Sometimes to return later, sometimes not.  Real life gets in the way, people decide it's not the best use of their time or will never be as engaging as when they were young.  It's all very sad, but it's a fact, and we can't pretend otherwise.

So, did Wizards mess up by making 4th Edition something D&D wasn't?  Opinions are very divided.

Will Wizards mess up by making D&D Next different again?  All signs point to them not wanting to.  Whether or not crusty old grognards will loosen their steely grip on their Tunnels and Trolls First Edition, and nervously reach towards the new D&D book, eyes bright and alive like they haven't been since the mid-70s, the industry will plod on without them.  It pretty much has to.

Personally, I see the Forgotten Realms Sundering to be an attempt to make it so new people can get into that setting without reading eleventy-billion books (although the cynic in me does notice that Wizards are releasing eleventy-billion fiction books to get people up to speed on the new setting...).

It's a fine line, walking between pleasing the old crowd, and attracting a new one.

This post here is just the tip of the iceberg.  I could write about this at greater length*.  Instead, let's wrap up with a little slice of what the rest of the internet is saying about all this.

Erik Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern suggests that D&D Next is shaping the way for the whole industry.
http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2012/08/where-d-goes-so-goes-hobby-so-whats-next.html

Andrew of the Iron-Bound Tome contends that changes to D&D would be more readily accepted if not done as part of a continuation of the editions (and that it's kind of sad).
http://ironboundtome.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/if-dnd-next-was-branded-as-a-new-game-would-it-sell-better/

Timothy Brannan of The Other Side played the whole gamut of D&D editions with his family at Gen Con, and loved it.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/08/gen-con-recap-name-of-game-is-d.html

Share your thoughts below.

* But won't.  Breathe a sigh of relief, dear readers.

Sometimes It's Hard to be a Woman (Gamer)

Oh FFS, guys... REALLY?!

I'm a woman. And I'm a gamer. And usually that's just fine. I've been known to eulogise enthusiastically to non-gaming women about the benefits of the hobby - the strategy, the creativity, the great people you meet (guys and gals)... but the older I get, the more I've come to understand why a lot of women wouldn't touch the hobby with a nine-foot barge pole.

The reason can be summed up quite succinctly with a quick gander at Raging Hormones - sorry, Raging Heroes - background fluff on their Eleriel & Alaniel Anniversary edition miniature.  (Link)

I mean... WTF, guys?  REALLY?

I can wearily accept that, with a few honorable exceptions, female miniatures have breasts that would necessitate an ass-mounted counterweight in real life.

I can get over the fact that female magic users, unlike their male counterparts, wear nothing but sexy lingerie underneath their cerremonial robes. I agree that a saucy sorceress with a daring flash of nipple is much more aesthetically pleasing (and easier to sculpt) than a trouserless mage absent-mindedly letting his left bollock hang out front.

I can even, on a good day, roll my eyes and ignore the "female fighters wear chainmail bikinis to distract their enemies" argument, mostly because it's made by people I consider too stupid to be worth arguing with.

But beautiful elf twins being subjected to lesbian dominatrix rape and discovering they <gasp!> like it?  This is well over the line.  Believe it or not, fellas*, most girls don't aspire to be a mass-murderer's personal f'k-toy, along with their own sister.  In fact, most girls don't want to f'k their sisters AT ALL, even without a mass murderer getting in on the action, jewellery and drapes notwithstanding.  A nice pair of earings and good interior decorating just doesn't make up for that shit.

This is SO crass, SO insensitive and SO exploitative, it could be made into a Channel 5 documentary entitled "Victims or Whores? A Sympathetic Portrayal of Stockholm Syndrome in Hot Lesbian Elf-Twins". If this is your understanding of what female sexuality is, I dread to think what The Talk must've been like when your dad explained the Facts of Life to you.  But shying from the horrific is not my style, so here it is reimagined below, in a style you'll find familiar.

Elwin and Alan - The Talk - Anniversary Edition "Er... listen son, we need to have a chat about women" "I know..." Not for the first time did the father and son have this conversation. It kept resurfacing, incomplete, as if no possible resolution could be found. The two spoke softly, staring at the floor, as if lost in a daydream of hideous embarrassment. Bathed in the rich fragrance of a heady blend of cannabis and nicotine, their shed was a maze of nude calendars and pin-ups adorned with used tissues and half-bricks. Amidst a thousand vacant-eyed postergirls, the two lay on a huge stained mattress, languidly staring into space, impossible to tell apart other than by the age they were. One had laid his head on the other's chest, who played distractedly with his hair. "The thing is, son..." One swallowed hard, "I want you to know about women. REAL women" "Real women like Mum, Dad?" asked the other "No!" He pushed his hand away sharply, rising. "And not like your bloody schoolfriends, either, with their "feelings" and "personalities" and all that garbage, like men but without the nethers, no..." his voice trailed away, trembling.  "I'm talking about...REAL women. Like... them" He pointed to the walls. "Are they so different?" "Of course! Thing is... I've not met one. But I've read about them. Seen them in special films. And cousin Ned went out with a stripper once.  So I think I can tell you straight... they don't like to be treated like people.  Feel free to rape 'em once in a while. They don't mind after a bit, as long as your love-dungeon smells nice. It's a compliment." "Could I not just tell a girl she's interesting to talk to and ask her out for a coffee?" "Trust me, son." Outside arose the low rumblings of the 93 bus. They were ready to go out on the pull.  They would bear a well-thumbed copy of The Game by Neil Straus. They would lose themselves in endless forum chats about women with other delusional lowlifes. It was so f'ked up. Still hugging, they began to cry.

It's just a shame there were no clean tissues in the shed.  But I don't know why they're crying. I mean, I had to read the crappy original this was based on.  In fact, I had to read it twice, because the first time, my brain would not comprehend the sheer level of BLEURGH that was crawling along my optical nerves.

I should be f'king crying.

It may well suit some pathetic men to turn the hobby into a big-boy version of their old tree-house, where they could stick a "No Gurls Allowed!" sign on the door and show their willies off in private.  But my experience has been that the vast majority of male gamers are more than happy to see females getting in on the action and the novelty factor wears off pretty quick.  I hope I live to see the day when we're all just "Gamers", not "Gamers" and "Girl Gamers" - and the BBC don't run articles entitled "Why Do Grown Men Still Launch Tabletop War?"**

But with attitudes like this so easy to find, I fear it's gonna be a long time coming.


* When I say "fellas", I'm talking to the sub-human knuckle-draggers who wrote and/or enjoyed the atrocity my rant is based on, not the vast majority of sane male gamers who don't need this lecture (but hopefully still find it funny).


** That article could make for a whole different rant in itself, but I think CS Lewis says it best.


“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

FLGS not just LGS

There's an acronym I sometimes see thrown around various bits of the internet, and it's FLGS.   It stands for Friendly Local Game Store (or some minor variation thereof).

I'm going to take a minute to get on my soapbox about my local game store, and how the friendliness has been sucked out of it by the looming spectre of sales people.

This probably isn't going to be unfamiliar to anyone that's been in a Games Workshop in the last decade, since they've gained somewhat of a reputation for pushy sales people.  I'm not talking about them; the last thing I'll invite on myself at this point in my life is being cornered by an overenthusiastic redshirt demanding to know what army I collect.  Instead, this is a local, independent stockist of board, card and roleplaying games, which until quite recently held a fair chunk of my esteem.

This unnamed shop (I don't want to harm their sales, as if I actually wielded that ability) is the result of the closure of another that once stood close by a few years ago.  The old shop was everything the new one isn't — it was poorly lit, stock was piled on shelves to alarming capacity, you had to hunt for what you wanted, staff would ignore you as you entered (or at best grunted their acknowledgement of you).  Doesn't sound very inviting, and I'm sure it wasn't.   The shop that has sprung up to replace it is bright, stock is clearly visible, and you are always greeted upon entry.  So why do I long for the former establishment?

It's down to the way the staff view their customers.   Upon entering yesterday with two friends, the person on duty started inquiring after why we were there, and if there was anything we were looking for.  Perhaps this is good practice.  In this instance it felt like I had to justify my presence.  After we gingerly explained that we just wanted to look around, he insisted that he was there if we needed him.  It was a positive relief when two more people entered the shop so he could speak to them instead of monitoring our activities.

This isn't the first time I've felt doubtful there.  Before Christmas, my lady took me to the shop to see if there was anything I wanted for a present.  At that time, we were surprised to find out that the most geeky items had been removed from the shelves to make way for the mainstream Christmas-crowd-friendly boxes that would sell better.   I felt a bit abandoned.  Moreso when the staff member there (a different one from above, whom I thought would have remembered us from previous visits) issued the same line of inquiry into our purchasing needs.

A quick trip a little while before that saw yet another member of staff (how many people do they have working there?!) trying to insist on us buying a game suitable for 6 players instead of a 6-player expansion to a game we already owned.   In this case, the staff member may have had a point, but we had people visiting that all wanted to play that specific game, and the game without expansion was unable to cope with the numbers.

Anyway, back to yesterday.  Feeling like the pressure was off when the staff member was focused on others, I took the opportunity to browse in relative peace.   When I heard him pushing supplements on the two he was speaking to, I actually took a bit of interest... so, congratulations to him on that, at least.  He was suggesting two mini-supplements, both quite cheap, and knowing I had a very limited amount of cash on me I was pleased to think I could afford one.  Y'see, the aim of my visit was more speculative than anything — I suppose I was hoping something would catch my eye, and I could fantasize about purchasing it until I could afford it.  At the culmination of my visit, I picked up the cheaper of the two supplements (for those interested, it's the Great River expansion for Settlers of Catan).   No surprise, the staff member suggested I buy the other one as well.  Sadly, it was only upon me insisting that I had insufficient physical funds to buy both that his enthusiasm waned.

I feel quite let down by the place.  When they first opened, I undertook a quick round of texts to everyone I thought might be interested to promote the shop.   I now feel significantly less inclined to even visit it myself, even though I usually love the charm of bricks-and-mortar hobby shops compared to the stark, efficient designs of websites.  I'm very interested in promoting modern gaming, and I really wish I could feel confident that I could direct people to this shop and they'd have a positive experience.   I feel almost bad for those non-gamers I've already sent there.   Ultimately, I have no choice — there's no other game shop anywhere near as local.

Ah well, that's my rant.  Any suggestions (even if it's just "suck it up and cope") gratefully welcomed in the comments.