The Ravens Nest

Remaining Vigilant In A Post #Cancelgate World

“At the very least we need people who are willing to take on a vigil and hold the gates closed. To keep these kinds of people and this type of ideologies from entering the games we ourselves create or enjoy. Not to different from The Black Watch and their wall in A Game of Thrones.”

That was a quote from my friend, Marcus. I swear if we weren’t separated at birth, the guy taps in to a wavelength that I’m either already on or want to be on at times. A few comments on my previous article have been there and, honestly, they were good ones.

is right, nothing quiets the rage of wanting your enemies crushed, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women. Before you start crushing my comments section, I’m aware that some are same-sex oriented but, as Nicholson’s character in the movie The Departed states, “Cop, criminal, when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?”

In the cancel cult, that’s exactly what it is. When you join them, you’ll be expected to follow every insane plot point set forward or face a sort of social execution. All that will be said at the end of it all is “Oh look, he fell funny.” Meanwhile, you’re still murdered on the beach, all figuratively speaking of course.

Couldn’t get those images out of my mind last night but, juxtaposing against scenes from The Karate Kid pt II, you realize only one of these movies has a happy ending.

In the meantime, there’s a lotta conflict, fallout and nothing ever wraps up so neatly but, if I have to pick an ending, rather, I get to pick an ending. I’ll take the happy one everytime. I know, you can call me sappy and sentimental but, damn, people, aren’t you tired of the lukewarm to This Is Complete Suck Endings yet?

I am. Maybe I don’t get to pick, but, as I’m fond of saying “I’m a-gonna…”

So, yeah, that means doing the thing and taking the stance that I would rather not.

They’re gonna get away with it, these activists. They’ll be protected, bailed out and covered by their faceless cancel cultists. They’ll get away with it. They’ll face no consequences for the results of their actions against others who didn’t deserve it, whether minor or catastrophic.

That’s the bad news and it’s the bad news we’re all aware of. Welcome to the core conflict of our story.

I’ll admit that the temptation exists to lean more Raistlin Majere than Sturm Brightblade in this story because of my own mystical practices for which I do constantly seek improvement.

It’s another point that Marcus brought up in our conversation the night before last. Is there a spiritual component to this battle? A component, perhaps, yes. The spiritual or magical component to this is really down to the individual. The individual makes their own decisions, they think and act for themselves. The person spouting vague generalities and doing their works against someone when they don’t know that person or even understand, specifically why, isn’t doing any of that.

To give an example, someone who works a binding ceremony with one of our president’s policies, past or present, but can tell you why this restricts or even eliminates the right of the individual to be an individual and can cite specifics that are solid, whether I agree with them or not, at least has my respect. I’ve done so myself against Biden’s “No Jab, No Job” mandates. While I won’t get into specifics here, because this would take far longer than this needs to be, I will upon request but only to those who are willing to listen to reason.

Same president used in the example. If I started working destruction spells against him because “He’s Destroying Our Country” without giving you specific reasons and examples how, then I’m just following some collective narrative.

You can see how this works though. In one, I’m working against his policies, not him. In the other, I’m trying to destroy him, specifically for reasons I can’t articulate intelligently. I can’t make that make sense and, to a Biden voter, I’ll end up galvanizing their position. I’ll come across as hysterical and I won’t be winning any hearts and minds. I hope that’s a clear contrast between the two situations. I also defend the right to be wrong as long as you’re not subjecting someone else to the same.

In any case, it’s really down to the person and their reasons. As much as I prize individuality, there’s also a responsibility that comes with it and, being responsible, sometimes means doing very rough things for the individual, themselves at times. Sometimes, it means accepting that which may be unacceptable. Life ain’t always fair, as they say.

The cancel cult seems to be in free-fall collapse. Most are telling them these days that their cries of “X-ism” and “X-Phobe” no longer work, that they no longer have any authority and what they believe is authority is merely illusion and it’s crumbling to the point that it seems like controlled demolition. If you see more panic from them and those that supported them, it’s not a surprise. It’s been on the way for a long time now. Make no mistake, this pendulum isn’t some small thing that you can hold in your hand and tell it to show you “yes.” This one is the size of a wrecking ball and stopping it is going to require people to stand in it’s way. Grim Jim and James Raggi IV have done so.

Stopping it at Zero Point won’t be easy but necessary. Forgiving these people doesn’t mean letting them work for you or purchasing the things they’ve worked on. It’s being big enough to say, “I do forgive you” while withholding, “but I’m not stupid enough to ever trust you again with so much as an unsharpened pencil” but always keeping that in mind.

The thing that we should also keep in mind is that there are those that talk about gatekeeping and how awful it is.

There are two types of gatekeeping. The first is at your table. That means now, because of all of this, the game master hosting and running the game will now have to set and manage expectations of the players and more so now than ever. None of us are new to telling someone with Main Character Syndrome to cease trying to be the main character and relax or find a table where their style of play is acceptable. These days, many of us look fondly upon that player because we’re realizing that we had it pretty easy if that was the worst we had to deal with. Now, when we tell a player that insists that your NPC King doing terrible things makes you a “fascist” to leave, that’s a right of every GM without exception and should be exercised, judiciously. Likewise, it’s the player’s right to leave a game if their GM is a creep.

Adam Koebel was someone mentioned by Raggi but I need to bring something up. Like Zak Smith, he was a terrible example to bring in. Koebel was the man who pounded the pulpit about Safety Tools, Lines & Veils and X-Cards and failed to practice what he preached. Remember well that, when you side with a political ideology, the first slip, no matter how minor will result in your destruction. Again, lie with dogs, wake up with fleas. It’s not surprising. It’s important to have that context. Even without it, the point still stands. The cultists are unprincipled, unreasonable and if it weren’t for double standards, well, you know the rest…

The second type of gatekeeping is the one that is most unreasonable and unrealistic and that is to gatekeep the entire hobby. There are no bouncers at the game store. You’ll not be interrogated about your political or social leanings there. You also won’t be subject to background checks before buying books, paper, pencils or dice. That’s absolutely ridiculous. If, at any time, a company decides that they want to do something that makes no sense in order to virtue-signal, then you have every right to stop buying and stick with the books you currently have. You have every right to stop going to conventions. In short, you snap that Bad Motherfucker wallet shut, stick it back in your pocket, don’t bother with conventions or tournaments and deny the company your dollars.

When I worked in corrections, we were annually taking courses on use of force. We studied The Use of Force Continuum which meant that when force was applied to you, you met like with like and always tried to de-escalate, not escalate. The officers that wanted to escalate because they were so miserable that they had to make others miserable, no one wanted to work with them.

My own use of force consisted of running a dorm with the mindset of firmly establishing that if the inmates were cool, I was as well. I was still there to do my job but if they made me do paperwork, I’d make sure that paperwork stuck because my hand cramps up and I don’t like hand cramps. Don’t make my hand cramp up and we’re pretty much solid. Do…and you’d regret it. Setting that expectation and remaining vigilant, it kept my dorms clean, quiet and uneventful which is what I wanted. I’d ensure the inmates got a good night of sleep and I’d go home unharmed at the end of my shift which was really my ultimate goal the entire time.

Always de-escalate when you’re able to do so, people. Those that escalate rarely if ever come out on the other side unscathed.

All that being said, the first order of business is stopping that damned pendulum from swinging to either extreme. Keeping it at Zero Point means that the decentralized nature of this business stays that way. Your table won’t run the same as mine. You may even play in a socialist revolution in Castles & Crusades or a fascist regime in WWII: Operation Whitebox and I accept that. Now others have to accept that may never be the case at my table. I don’t worry about how the BrOSR are running their tables or what they think about mine. I’m not even concerned with how Gary Gygax played the game at his tables. If one of his rules doesn’t fit our table or bogs down the game, we’re modifying it or throwing it out entirely. That’s the nature of it all.

That’s where the second part of this comes in, keeping the pendulum at Zero Point. For some of us, we’ll have to remain vigilant, reasoned and logical about it. If you don’t feel like a game is for you, then it’s simple in terms of solutions; don’t purchase the thing but leave it alone. When you try to get the game banned, guess what? Those people will become embittered and they’ll come for yours next with reasons that are every bit as spurious.

The Order of The Pendulum may sound a bit dramatic and grandiose, but, I assure you, it’s anything but. It will be thankless work and largely unappreciated. It won’t be glorious or, if you become famous, you probably won’t be around to enjoy it. What we’ve seen Sturm Brightblade go through in order to become and remain an honored Knight of Solamnia will most likely happen to the person who takes on this mantle and it won’t be for everyone, to be certain. Still, it will be necessary and probably border on Game of Thrones-level brutality more so than the fairy-tale setting of Dragonlance or Lord of The Rings’s Rohirrim. It won’t be glorious or, if you become famous, you probably won’t be around to enjoy it.

As dark as that news is, it does have a happy ending. The pendulum will not swing in favor of the next set of jerks who will act progressively worse. Likewise, it won’t swing back in favor of the ones we’ve been under the perceived thumb of for the last ten years. Eye for an eye making the world blind, and all that.

It’s time we have the insistence that we have a hobby that has always been welcoming, inclusive and diverse. It means that the core rulebooks and supplements remain neutral, the companies remain neutral and just create quality products that we, as discerning customers, can choose for ourselves whether or not we’ll consume. If any company is not sure how to go about that, I suggest asking Troll Lord Games or just to cite two examples. The company policy moving forward should be that of “Once this book is out of our hands, it’s in yours. Have fun.” If the cult mob mentality and action against others based on nebulous bumper-sticker quotes, lies, rumors, spite, covetous jealousy or for fun is wrong, then it is wrong, no matter who commits it.

That’s what this is truly about as my friend Angelique said, having fun. Whether you’re a Roll-player, role-player or storygamer (I can be a mix of all of them, but that’s just the Libra in me looking for balance again) that’s the happy ending I’m choosing. Wrecking ball-size though this pendulum may be, it’s one I’m willing to get in front of if it means we all get to return to that.

I’m choosing that happy ending.

Any further decisions, final or not, belong to you.