The Tabletop Role-Playing Game War: It’s A Thing

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Tabletop role-playing games have been a hobby of mine for over 35 years (more like 40 but I took a few year hiatus). However, in the past 20 years, I have seen elements that have crept in that seek to usurp and villainize all that has come before. There’s no doubt about it — there’s a war in the tabletop role-playing game community.

A Tabletop Role-Playing Game Civil War?

Let’s face it. We live in volatile times. Here in the United States, the polarization is thick. There are some people who see us on the brink of another civil war.

Yeah. It’s that serious.

Whether you agree with that sentiment or think it’s hyperbole, the idea it is suggested by competent people should make people pause and think.

This polarization hits us in every arena of life it appears. The sad, pathetic reality, is this is true for tabletop role-playing games today. We are in a civil war.

It has gotten to the point where we have tabletop role-playing game publishers telling us how we should play. They write entire sections on inclusivity and diversity. No longer are you allowed to work that out at your table like adults. Apparently, that era is long gone.

Some tabletop role-playing companies don’t suggest, but tell and insist on things like safety tools (a bane to the tabletop RPGs dressing itself up as something good), consent forms (now we have to ask for permission to play like we are on a date), and companies who openly vilify Caucasian (white, though the term is awful and inaccurate) men as if they are the plague, all the while those self-same companies are run by, you guessed it, Caucasian males and women.

The cope is real and the hypocrisy and double standards are off the charts.

This is the reality. There are tabletop role-playing game operations who hate you and everything you stand for. It’s no longer about playing the game. It has morphed into politics and cultic ideology they feel the need to push into your face.

Sadly, my friends, we are in a war, and we didn’t ask for it.

A Self-Limiting Reality

Imagine for a moment you go to a movie for the first time because someone invites you. As you watch it, you enjoy it, and so you go to another that is the same genre. Let’s say high fantasy and related type content.

So from that time onward, you only watch traditional fantasy movies because all of the people you know are going to those types of movies. So you all watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, arguably the best movie franchise in history. Still. Maybe next you watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Then you watch the Chronicles of Narnia. You are enjoying yourself, mostly…kind of…and you stay watching only that particular kind of movie because everyone else is watching that movie.

However, because of this self-limiting approach, you miss out on other movie franchises like Aliens, Star Wars, Jason Bourne, Raiders of the Lost Ark, John Wick, and the MCU when it was making decent movies.

But there’s something even more disturbing than that going on that flies under the radar for the majority of people.

The Subtlety of Programming

What’s more alarming is you believe you have made that decision when in fact, you have simply followed your programming. What do I mean by programming? You have made your decision not based on informed due diligence, interests, and reflection. You have made your decision based on group think. It’s what your group went to see, so you went to see it. You follow the group and what they do. It was a programmed decision, a decision made because of what outside forces have told you, and it was based on that alone.

Grant it, we often make decisions based on what others have recommended. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that if you can trust the source. But if that is how you make all of your decisions with no other factors added to the equation — like I said, informed due diligence, interests, and reflection — you are following your programming.

Many people approach tabletop RPGs as if there is only one game in town. They do so even misapplying the name of the game I refuse to mention by name on this channel as if it is synonymous with the term tabletop role-playing game. It isn’t.

The Blessed Truth

The truth — thank the Lord in heaven — is that there are scores of games out there to play and popular doesn’t mean best. It doesn’t even mean good. However, options are a good thing, and that’s especially true when it comes to indie role-playing game publishers.

I define indie tabletop role-playing game publishers as those game creators who have a small team of people or are putting it down by themselves with support through crowd-funding. There’s no corporate machine behind them (even though they may be an LLC. I get it). They just have a love of tabletop RPGs, great ideas, hard work, and a supportive community they don’t hate.

That last emphasized part is important in my definition.

Many who may fall into the category of an indie tabletop role-playing game company disqualify themselves based on that last detail alone. They actively hate their potential customers because of politics and ideology they have brought into their products, actively shunning those who do not agree or like that. You see this on Discord groups, forums, and Reddit, the cesspool of this kind of thing.

Let me encourage you with this reality — you don’t need them.

Let me say that again — you don’t need them.

You do not need any of them. You do not need to spend a dime with their companies. There are far too many tabletop role-playing game companies out there you can take your hard-earned money and spend it on a good game where that is the primary goal instead of spending it on a company that stands for everything you are against, or in the very least, can’t stand you because of the color of your skin and your gender.

And here’s another detail — they do not want you. They make videos saying how they do not want you or your money. It’s a stupid business practice, but it’s their business.

Quite simply, it should be about playing the game. That’s it. When it’s not, time to pack up and move on. I’m sure you don’t need the drama. Adult, mature folks never do.

Great Alternatives

I mentioned alternatives that are out there and there are plenty of them. My entire network focuses on tabletop role-playing game publishers who put out good content and are committed to just putting out an entertaining game. Below are three I suggest.

Kevin Crawford – Stars Without Number

This is such a fun tabletop role-playing game. Stars Without Number: Revised Edition is an old-school-inspired game of sci-fi adventure, built from the ground up to encourage sandbox play and simplify a GM’s job in providing it. Familiar mechanics are employed to forge new worlds and explore new possibilities, guidelines built on long experience used to help a group venture in wholly new directions.

Wade Dyer – Fragged 2 Empire

Your genetically engineered people are returning to the stars to usher in the dawn of a new age. Now is the time to reconnect with other forgotten species, explore war-torn worlds, combat ancient threats and forge new frontiers.

Sentinel Comics RPG – Greater Than Games

In Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game, you and your friends play as comic-book heroes – either from the pages of Sentinel Comics or from your own imagination! Join forces against terrible villains and fight in dangerous environments, all in a tabletop roleplaying game!

This is not even the tip of the iceberg. The options are copious.

Even if you are a traditional high fantasy buff, you still have options, arguably better ones.

You can choose to try to opt out of this war. But that’s…I’ll save that for another post. For now, you can do the simple thing to fight back — buy something else and support the tabletop role-playing publishers who support you. Win/win.