The Ravens Nest

This is not the name of the game…

put together this article that I think you should all read. It’s about D&D going woke and he does bring up great points and I’d like to add to this discussion, if for nothing else than to show Tiefling Melissa that it’s not just one voice.

I’m going to start here:

…damn. Okay. Here we go. Let’s go back …AD&D First Edition, Page 8

Interesting how this, a game published in 1977, nearly 50 years ago, was this forward-thinking.

In 1989, we got this in AD&D Second Edition, Page 32

Melissa, I bring you these two examples from much older editions to prove that you’re pointing out something we already accepted decades ago. It in no way supports your rant. In fact, if anything, it supports out position that these games were always open to everyone. Just not anyone.

Now the PHB for 5th Edition goes on to say that you can break from traditional roles citing Tika Waylan as an example, a decent one, at that but here’s the full context of Page 121 from the Player’s Handbook.

Where AD&D (both editions) simply left it up to the player, there was something else…something Melissa didn’t bother showing you…

Here, I could cite an example, Jeanne d’Arc whom you might know as Joan of Arc who disguised herself as male and led armies due to her own ideology and her devotion to it but that’s not mentioned. In fact, another example could be Kitiara Uth Matar who led The Blue Dragon Armies in Dragonlance as well. Why not cite her? Granted, that’s a failing of Wizards of The Coast but you could have cited this character easily, Melissa…if you know anything about lore and we’re all well-aware that elves tend to exhibit delicate features and tend to be a little more pleasing to the eye. That’s something we’ve always known and implemented. In fact, the 80s were rife with androgyny if you watched any MTV.

Here’s the problem with what you’ve presented, albeit out of context, Melissa is that this was always something we just kinda rolled with or ignored altogether because, and this is really the key point. Look at how short those paragraphs are from the original editions prior to WoTC owning them. I’ll tell you what. Let me be fair here. Let me have a look at some past WoTC editions that I happen to have in my library.

Well I don’t have 3E, so I can’t speak to that but looking up Gender, Sex, etc in 3.5 turned up nothing at all. In fact, the one WoTC edition that’s actually pretty popular is just a straight-forward game. Could I still play a female character? Yeah.

In fact, Melissa, funny story. I know this may seem unrelated but in the late 90s/early 00s, I played Vampire: The Masquerade nearly every other weekend. In our group was a large black guy with whom I became friends because we worked in the same field. I was playing an aspiring but starving rocker who got turned. He played a female character. During a smoke break I asked him why and he said he did it because for a little while, he could let go of the responsibilities associated with being male. It was a release valve for him. Cool. Understandable. I let it sit right there and we had a lot of fun playing together. Melissa, that was a mere twenty-five years ago.

Now, let me have a look at 4E and remember, Player’s Handbook only. That’s what I’m sticking with…

Page 35.

This particular topic gets less than a paragraph and it encompasses height, weight and age.

Here’s the thing, Melissa, the PHB for 5E was printed and released ten years ago. I’ve just illustrated that for the past 40 to 50 years, this has been a thing but, we still get this, even when buying 4th Edition from places like DriveThruRPG.

There’s no reason to put this up other than to scare those that are easily-frightened by social ostracism. Personally, I grew up during the Satanic Panic. I’ve been through it, seen the tactics first-hand, still have some old injuries constantly nagging me these days.

I agree with Sigmundr that Ultra-American TTRPGer is absolutely right. When you look at something like The Combat Wheelchair, for example, Sara Thompson herself put this into her own work.

Okay, the rule is optional. Doesn’t need to be used in my games. Now, that means that I, as the DM here can tell anyone, “Yeah about the combat wheelchair thing, we’re not using that.” and my word on it is final.

However, DM’s like myself have had attempts at bullying, harassing, shaming, libelous claims made about us or how we are, including but not limited to we “Don’t Allow Disabled Players At Our Table.” That is patently untrue. As stated, it’s an optional rule and, the DM has the final say in all matters pertaining to the rules. As it is the DM who comes up with the setting, does the homework, places the monsters, draws the maps and puts in a ton of work for your character to be created in and exist, it’s the DM’s Table and The DM’s Rules.

Now, that being said, should a DM decide he or she is going to incorporate the Combat Wheelchair at their table and I’m a player, I truly don’t care. Would I opt for that? No. I’ll play someone I’m not. Much like my friend who played Vampire with me, I want to be able to get away from me for awhile and what anyone else thinks of it is none of my concern.

The thing is, when a DM decides that there will be certain rules at their table, I have options the same as any player.

First, I can sit down, accept the table as it is, roll up a character and play. I’m not doing checklists or any of that stuff and I’ll explain why in a moment but this is the table, the DM has worked on the setting and the rules. If I sit down and roll up a character, I accept those terms.

Second option, I can decide that it’s not for me, politely excuse myself, thank the DM for the opportunity and leave. I’ll discuss with the DM whether or not I can use them as a reference for the next table I join. Politely excusing myself and thanking them for their consideration will more than likely mean that we part on good terms, something I’d rather do.

Third option is the same as the option above but in this one, I’d simply start my own table. I’ve done it quite a bit in my time and most times, it’s worked out pretty well

There is always the fourth option of solo gaming which has become something I’ve done more and more of and it’s helped in my game mastering and learning new rule sets.

This goes back to simply having the one thing most these days that are the most loud and vocal have rejected on both sides; proper etiquette and manners.

I honestly don’t know if you’re reading this and considering the words I’m typing and I have so many more to type to really encapsulate what’s going on but I’m going to type them, if not for your benefit, then for someone else.

The thing that I’ve noticed with your tweet is that you’ve made some false assumptions. I’ve covered one which, by implication, covers so many more but let’s go back to the reason I’ll never do checklists.

I’ll share a little personal information with you. When I was a kid, I played tee-ball. I kept getting stuck out in centerfield and I didn’t care for it. Our practice fields was not great. During one practice session, my shirt crept up and left my lower back exposed. I felt something. Wasn’t sure what it was but it felt like a tickle. The field had been overgrown a multitude of times so I figured it was probably just a piece of really tall grass tickling me. When it happened again, I turned to look. I was face-to-face …with a rattlesnake. It had drawn up, licked my back with it’s forked tongue and when I turned to look, it began to rattle it’s tail. You’ve never seen a small child run so fast. I heard aluminum baseball bats pounding the ground and wondered what the hell it was. My teammates had come out of the dugout with baseball bats and began beating the brakes off the snake. The snake had struck but only got the hem of my jeans. I was essentially dragging it with me. It scared me to absolute death. Since then, the only good snake, to me, is a dead one. I refuse to engage even with non-venomous snakes and I am aware they exist but I won’t keep one as a pet, I won’t go near one and, if there’s on in the room in a tank, I’m fine but pull it out…yeah, don’t be in my way or I will issue many beatings to whomever is in my way to get away from that snake.

I could mark that off on a checklist. No snakes. Now what if the DM’s entire world is centered around some serpent cult, akin to G.I. Joe’s Cobra and everything about them is snake themed? Is the DM then required to take months to work on a new setting? That doesn’t seem right. In fact, if my trauma (I think that’s what we call it, am I right?) does negate that, the DM is going to be very frustrated with me when I constantly red-card or hold my arms up in an X. If I’m holding my arms up in an X, a D-Generation X Crotch Chop is coming next, but that comes after defeating snake cultists…but I digress.

So let’s think about this for a second, rationally and logically. Why would imaginary snakes, an imaginary cult that reveres them and and imaginary serpent lord with an imaginary snake god in an imaginary world…scare my character?

The short and brusque answer is, they wouldn’t. Unlike me, my character would probably become very pissed off if one of their pets bit him. That comes after the healing spells and potions, of course but the real issue here is that what if everyone else, including the DM really wants that and I keep negating it? Not only is this unfair to the players but also to the DM who is now going to be put into the position of having his entire campaign plans, if any, but adventure plans held hostage at my whims, for certain. Also, the DM is now thrust into the role of therapist and clairvoyant because the DM now absolutely must anticipate what he can possibly do to avoid it.

At this point, is it any wonder DMs have been burning out and having breakdowns? The other thing that needs to be separated? Therapy and RPGs. I’ll make an exception for when a trained psychiatrist is using them for group sessions but, outside of the halls of that expert, absolutely not. Separate fantasy from objective reality here.

The real problem is that the people in the hobby today, pounding this kind of thing chapter and verse like firebrand preachers have the same problem as those making claims during the Satanic Panic…there’s a propensity to intermingle fantasy and reality in a way that simply doesn’t work.

Servant of Shiloh at the channel RPGElite once pointed out that, for us, these RPGs are a mental vacation. It’s a chance for us to take a step back and then come back refreshed, renewed and with great stories to tell but the key to that is the separation of fantasy from reality and that is something parents should teach their children. That’s the key fact in all of this, separation of fantasy from reality, no matter what is being played out is important to maintain a healthy relationship with the hobby.

I know you may be concerned with players “seeing themselves” in the game. The solution is simple; make a character sheet.

I know this may not be what you want to hear but it’s fact.

Let’s bring this to Jason Tondro because that’s the real heart of the matter. His bloviating about how Original D&D wouldn’t get past the sensitivity readers is irrelevant. Why even include that as a statement?

I’ve already proven that what he, the sensitivity readers, the disclaimer and you have had to say was completely false. It equivocates to nothing more than vapid virtue-signaling that means absolutely nothing. The other common thread is that all of these “problematic” elements within the game were a product of overactive imaginations and the solutions were overcorrections that corrected nothing. In fact, these “solutions” have done nothing more than alienate the very people who made the game what it is by denigrating the creators of the game, without whom…this wouldn’t exist. You know it, we know it, the sensitivity readers know it and Jason Tondro especially knows it.

Sigmundr’s right in his assertion that this is nothing more than gaslighting, plain and simple. It is the imperative statement that tells us that we shall, under no uncertain terms, deny what our eyes can clearly read for ourselves and it’s out of the question.

So, getting to Tondro, I found something interesting in the preface and I think you should have a look…

Let me quote it in case you just breezed past it. “D&D…Has Always Been…A Game About People…Choosing To Be Someone…Unlike…Themselves.”

So if you want to “see yourself” in the game, make a character sheet but if I say the combat wheelchair is out, just hear me out because I may have better options. If none of the options I present agree with you, refer to the options above, but be forewarned, if you decide to act rude, condescending, belligerent, nasty, or like a child and throw a tantrum, you can count on it when another DM emails me or contacts me and asks about you. I’ll let them know exactly what happened and why you were kicked from my table. I’ll have witnesses who can attest to that as well.

Keep in mind, Sara Thompson created another chair as well. One for Cyberpunk RED and it’s a chair with legs and yes, even weapons but you’ll go into debt with a megacorp to get it. Honestly, I’d allow it. Why? It fits the setting. It’s style over substance and, since that’s what that game is all about, sure. I’m not without reason here but the reasoning is mine and, as always, my table, my rules. Refer to player options previously aforementioned.

None of this is new. We’ve been resisting this takeover of our hobby for at least the past ten years. Sadly, you don’t seem to have taken notice. You’re only noticing it now. Surely, you’re not assuming that this only came into effect with 5E? Or that D&D didn’t exist until ten years ago?

You’re right in one thing, we are under no obligation to play with those rules at our table but I think you’ve missed a very very important point…we’re also under no obligation, especially in this economy, to buy it.

See, Melissa, Wizards of The Coast has selected their audience and they’ve made it clear. People like me aren’t welcome. Ironically, that hasn’t stopped them from using Stranger Things as a promotional tool when those are the very people they’d happily kick to the curb today and let’s not pretend that’s not true, you and I both know it is.

For their sake, I hope it’s enough to sustain them. Others have tried the same thing. RadioShack, The Acolyte, Concord, so on and so forth. We’ve heard over and over again “This (insert thing here) isn’t for you.” only to hear the howls and screeches later when the project or company fails spectacularly.

Still, I want to provide a few examples of something.

Castles & Crusades has the same offer as D&D. $180 but you get the three core books, a GM screen (that’s actually pretty good), a starting adventure and PDF files that you own of everything. That’s a far better value for the money than what Wizards of The Coast is currently offering. Or you could try Castles & Crusades and Amazing Adventures for free.

Also look at those codex books. Celtarum is Celtic folklore, Slavorum is Slavic, Classicum is Greek, Nordica is Scandinavian, Germania is Germanic, Egyptium is pretty self-explanatory and Sinarum is Chinese. Gods & Legends is a brief overview of all the gods and legends from all of these different books as a quick-reference guide and you might have noticed Castle Zagyg by Gary Gygax.

That’s because Gygax did write stuff for Troll Lord Games and the Troll Den got permission from the Gygax Estate to publish his work again after the success of The Yggsburgh Setting. I have The Hermit coming pretty soon and I’m excited.

The only thing that I think Gary did wrong was screwing Dave Arneson out of D&D when he published AD&D and claimed it was a completely different game to the one he and Arneson created. That’s it. Karma got him on that one. I’m okay with that. He doesn’t need to have his name dragged through the mud. Which is what Wizards of The Coast is doing and continues to do. Meanwhile, Troll Lord Games and the people behind that company, they’ve done a better job of preserving his work and his legacy.

In terms of D&D History, you’ll find much better materials here. I should know, I have the Secrets of Blackmoor DVD and The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg. They’re absolutely great. One day I’ll order Blackmoor Secrets and perhaps a softcover version of Tonisborg as a beater copy to take to games and play. They don’t denigrate either Dave of Gary. They just interviewed the people that were there and played and whom continue to play to this day.

No one interviewed even the likes of Robert Kuntz for The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons or anyone else involved in the making of that game. Why? That doesn’t sound like something D&D Historians worth their salt would pass up. I know I wouldn’t.

Since I got my start with AD&D 2E, I’d always wondered what the older stuff was like and, thanks to the internet today, I know. Thanks to retro clones, I was able to get a decent look into what they were like before actually being able to see the originals in their entirety.

I know you may be scoffing (may be, not are) at the Eurocentric nature of Castles & Crusades but let me show you something else.

This game was created by my friend, . He researched his own ancestry, took the rules for Original D&D and made a historic fantasy game around The Aztec Empire, complete with all of it’s bloody and brutal history. He didn’t shy away from a single thing in this game. I was going to do a game myself called Greyhorn which would have delved into the Scandinavian ancestry in my lineage but Troll Lord Games did it for me. They also covered my Celtic ancestry and they did it well, but, again, I digress. The point is, it is entirely possible to create a game of your own with all the stuff that matters to you packed within those pages.

Many of us have done so only to have more “-ist” and “-phobe” slung at us. Doesn’t really mean anything at all at the end of the day because, we no longer care.

Melissa, what you need to fully grasp at this moment in time is that it won’t work anymore. If we’re to be the villains, we’re actually alright with that because we know who we are while others will make assumptions.

I should let you know now that all of this has only one endgame; to herd us into that digital walled garden where we will pay every month for a game we don’t own to be micro or even macrotransacted into oblivion. That, for many of us, is simply not anything we want or need.

You could argue that we could simply buy the books and not play with whatever rules to which we object and you’d be right. I’ll give you that, its a fair take, however, let me ask you something. If there were a game that cost $20. It’s a fantasy game and it’s written by someone of ill-repute in most circles that includes elements you really don’t like. Would you still buy that game if you found that it included material to which you absolutely objected? Would you still buy it and attempt to convince your friends to play it? I really want you to answer that question honestly, not to me but to yourself. If I showed you the cover of this game would you react based on what you were told or would you be able to cite specifically what it was about the game to which you objected?

Because if you wouldn’t do it, I doubt you have the standing to ask us to do the same.

I’m going to do the big reveal here and there’s a reason I’m doing it.

The game I’m mentioning is Myfarog by Varg Vikernes. If you immediately noped out, I wouldn’t blame you.

The difference is, I’ve read it and I can tell you what it is I find objectionable. I’ll cite one example in order to bring all of this full circle and close out.

On Page 123 under the heading of Justice you can find the crime of Homosexuality and it states and I quote;

Males having sexual interaction with other males are executed (i.e. sacrificed to Tyr), the bodies of executed homosexuals are not buried normally, but are instead thrown into bogs to ensure these ‘despicable degenerates’ are never reborn.

Reborn, meaning reincarnated, as disposal of a body in a bog somehow ensures that in some old Norse traditions. It’s what comes next that may be a bit on the surprising side.

Temporary close female companionships (common when women have lost their husbands but still need support) are tolerated, but this is usually looked down upon somewhat, although, there are no consequences for them.

I find this objectionable for the same reason that I find much about what’s in D&D 5E to be objectionable and more so with D&D 2024 because there’s been far too much focus on something I couldn’t care less about. I couldn’t care less about who a character fucks in the game. I’m about finding the threat to a town or kingdom and killing the threat at it’s root cause and gaining lots of treasure from it. That’s what D&D has always been about to me, Dungeons…and…Dragons. I find the same thing objectionable with Thirsty Sword Lesbians and Advanced Lesbians & Lovers. I mean, for the love of Pete, there are two games centered around the one thing I really don’t care for or have any consideration for.

But, Melissa, according to your own logic…we can just play without that being a part of it, right?

I’ve made more than my point here, Melissa, and honestly, RPG players and GMs like myself are at the point where we have been inclusive to a fault and it’s never been more evident than today where it’s all becoming political to the point where we’re saying, finally, “No.” We no longer care what we’re called, the exiled now far outnumber the exilers. It’s over, done.

We don’t need permission, consent or approval to object to the inclusion of elements that none of us want the same as you don’t need mine to object to playing Myfarog, with or without the one example I cited. As I don’t believe in taboos, I don’t care if someone wants to play either of those games. I just won’t. I have the D&D book that I can go back to numerous times both in original and reprint. I don’t need the permission of Wizards of The Coast and what they think of me is irrelevant as well. They can all hate my guts if like they like.

…they have still earned more of our ire by the day and they’ll hate us for free.