The Ravens Nest

From An Actual Customer

Dear Goodman Games,

The books you see in the photo are mine. These are the ones I’ve purchased over the past couple of years after hearing about some of the mechanics and gameplay associated with them. These games came highly recommended to me and Temple of Elemental Evil was a monster to carry home. I grossly underestimated how much I’d have to constantly switch arms, not really used to carrying that much weight in paper around.

Let me tell you how this came about. I purchased First Time Fan Kits for both DCC and MCC, respectively. I know you’re thinking that these hardcovers weren’t included and you’re about to go looking for the poor fool who might have just lost you money, however, let me assure you, no such thing happened. In fact, the softcovers and PDFs did come with each of these. I have a lot more in softcover and was actually going to order more of the smaller, softcover books but I’m digressing. Later on, I purchased the hardcover versions of the core books and ended up giving the softcovers to a friend who seemed kinda interested in them at the time.

I also backed The Dark Tower by Jennel Jacquays on Kickstarter for both 5th Edition and DCC. I backed that one based on some of the recommendations of the people who got to play the original and they told me it was a blast.

Note that my buying decision was on quality and how unique your games were. These games did something that none of my other games did with the crit tables. I watched reviews, I did digging and research and then, after I’d already secured my copies and the dice and GM screens to go with it, I saw the ads in the books for the DCC Road Crew and thought “That’s a great idea!”

One of my local comic shops even wants to make the pivot to tabletop RPGs but right now, it’s kind of expensive to make that shift and what they carry is severely limited but I told the owner and proprietor that DCC and MCC were two games I know I could run and anyone who joins the table will have plenty of fun playing them. Also, I have everything players need to get involved.

In a previous article, I’ve detailed that your convention rules are one of the many reasons why I’d never run your games at a convention. You see, I’m paying airfare, hotel, admission, table rental, time, energy, etc. …that table is mine. Anyone who doesn’t like the game doesn’t have to sit at that table and I’m sure there will be no shortage of tables at which they can sit. That’s not for you to decide. Ever.

You write rulebooks for a game, a game I’ve enjoyed for many many years but you should bear in mind that even those rulebooks, if a rule isn’t to my or my table’s liking will go out the window with a swiftness. We may even alter it to suit our little gaggle of adventurers. What makes you think you can dictate how my table runs?

Had I known about these rules ahead of time, I probably wouldn’t have purchased the first book from you. I didn’t. You got my money. Fair. Fine. Whatever.

Also your public neutering of pronouns is more virtue-signaling that is just a solution in search of a problem.

Your PDFs and hard copies…they’ll never be upgraded. I’ll keep the typos as well. The only thing you’ve done is ensure that I can name my price for these books if I ever choose to resell them to someone who wants a previous printing of the books. I would have loved to have tried Sailors on The Starless Sea but I’m afraid you’re a bit lost.

GG, I want you to look around. WoTC tried to hamstring us. You were considered part of The Old-School Rennaisance. You were one of the sources we could turn to when we were called bad people for simply wanting games for the sake of gaming. People are done with this nonsense that these hysterical professional victims keep screeching. That’s exactly what they are, professional victims and nothing more.

You recently released a graphic of those who would be appearing at your creator’s summit but then you walked it back and took them off of your graphic because a few loud idiot screeched about white people and then you did this…

You mean to tell me that you put the most prominent people on there in order to attract people like myself only to walk it back and put people I’ve never heard of because of a few people who live in a perpetual state of victimhood whined on Twitter? How many of those people who whined incessantly are going? How much trouble would you have truly been in when these people have no power, no authority and are living, breathing, Karens?

None at all.

Now, let’s say I’ve made a contribution to your games (I’d say I have, however, probably not as prominently) and I were invited to speak. How much hostility would I be asked to endure? Keep in mind, I am of a religion that is a true minority in the world, would you be telling me that I couldn’t prominently display my Mjolnir pendant? I would think that, as someone with a minority religion, you wouldn’t tolerate such bigotry but when I put your recent actions and your convention rules up against what I would like to think, it’s not a stretch for me to assume you would stand idly by while some professional victim screams, heckles, becomes combative and abusive and that’s not something I think is inclusive.

GG, why not go ahead and say the quiet part out loud? You don’t answer to customers. Your game isn’t really for everyone. Conventions such as DragonCon, you’ll ask us to just sit your games out. Let’s face it, born white, something I really can’t control, we’re just not welcome. What I do in the bedroom is none of your fucking business and what someone else does in the bedroom is none of mine. Why don’t you just come out and tell white people that you honestly believe we’re all evil and we shouldn’t buy your games and that your games are for whatever crowd is going to issue the battle cry of “Perpetual Victimhood!” from this day forward.

Let’s face it, at this point, we’ll conclude on The Dark Tower. That’s where you and I will call it quits. With that being said, it won’t be making my pinned tweet as other books have. I won’t even feature it here.

There is one surefire way you can reverse this though. Stop all of this pandering. No one wants it anymore. If your games are for everyone then spit that the hell out and say it or say the quiet part out loud and, if you choose the pandering then I hope those to whom you’re pandering are going to sustain you because my wallet will be closed to you from this point forward. Stuff like this is why I never backed X-Crawl Classics and, to be honest, why would I need to? I’m perfectly capable of making that up between DCC and MCC myself.

GG it’s like this. I just posted another article awhile back about the things I saw during The Satanic Panic. It also included my own father’s advice. Here’s the summary of his advice. These professional victims have a vested interest in seeing you bend the knee to their new political religion. Nothing you ever do will be good enough. You will always be on the back foot. You will forever worried about saying one thing that will bring the entire house down on you. Look, in terms of business, this equation is simple. They’ll run me and many like me off. We’re gone. Now, for what few of them there are sustaining your business, you’ll now be subject to an ever-changing set of rules that you’ll never be able to fulfill perfectly. At some point, you’ll piss one of them off and then it will spread like wildfire. We won’t be there to catch you. We’ll watch as it all comes crashing down and we’ll look at our rulebooks, show them off and say “This is what they were before. Now there’s nothing left of them and we did try to warn them.”

Again, nothing you ever do will be good enough. Never in history have the people looking to exclude anyone based on race been “the good guys.” Ever. Get that clear in your minds. You will be made to be just as miserable as they are and, one day, you’ll realize your books…they don’t look anything like they once did. Your vision of the game will be forever wiped out and these people running this grift will do everything they can to make you nothing more than dogs and ponies to jump flaming hoops that constantly move.

If you’re not dogs or ponies, then you may want to rethink that.

With myself and those like me, we don’t care about race. We don’t care about whether you’re in a wheelchair or not. We don’t give a shit about what you do in the bedroom, the bathroom or anywhere else a closed door may be. We just want good games with good friends. Just make a great game, put it out there, sell it based on it being a great game. That’s literally the entire equation. Accept that the game doesn’t have to be perfect or for everyone. Some don’t like the weird crit mechanic, some don’t like that your core books are all-in-one, some don’t like the artwork. They don’t have to. I do. Others just like me do. That’s literally all it takes to make us happy. Shit, I bought each of the core books TWICE!!! That’s how cool I thought it was. I haven’t done that with many games. Also, yours was the first Kickstarter that I ever backed.

I don’t think Thirsty Sword Lesbians is for me but do you know what I do? I act like a sane, rational, mature adult…and I just don’t buy the fucking thing!

See how easy that is?

Is my word as a customer not enough? Well, if it’s not, you might want to buckle up because nothing you do for the professional victims ever will be. I know I’ve made that point but it bears repeating. These people do nothing but act like what they are, tourists. Not the kind that bring anything into a community but they come in to act entitled, leave their trash and, by the time it’s all said and done, that’s all they’ve left is a wake of destruction, garbage and ruin.

Let’s say I do attend a convention, which I normally don’t for a multitude of reasons, your rules for running a game primarily among them, if ever asked by one of your representatives if I wanna come by the booth and check out your merch, my response willl be “I don’t think I’m the diverse demographic you’re looking for.”

Goodman Games, there is a way out of this for you, one that I would highly suggest. Just go on record and tell these people to come to the summit for more or don’t. Stop twisting yourselves into pretzels to make these people happy. They’re not happy and they never will be happy. It’s easier to make actual gamers happy, though. Even easier to make customers happy.

You have a choice to make here and I’m not throwing down a Me Or Them type of ultimatum. It’s really a choice needed for you, your sanity and your bank accounts. Do you want to choose a life where your games sell? Let’s face it, you run Kickstarters, you’re not exactly Wizards of The Coast, here, are you? Or do you want to choose a life of never-ending stress?

That’s a choice I’ll leave to you but understand, if you choose the stress and drama, I’m not on board. I’m just going to mine the books that I currently have for ideas and I’ll never give you mention or money ever again.

Up to you. Choose Wisely.

Sincerely,

Raven Wulfgar.