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TFTG - "Politics" don't belong at the Gaming Table...

Started by Koltar, November 26, 2024, 09:07:51 PM

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HappyDaze

Quote from: Eirikrautha on December 05, 2024, 12:36:23 AMI want to see your example of modern politics that is on the line of acceptable and make it a "tough balance."  If House Kurita invades a Davion world, no one other than the terminally woke would respond at the table with, "Man, we need to consider the Russia-Ukraine war in the context of this game."  There's no tough balance needed.  You are asserting a problem that doesn't seem to exist.

Consider the troubles experienced by the Republic of the Sphere in the 3130s. All of the Houses had ceded worlds to the nation's formation in the 3080s (except Cap Con, but many of those were captured too). Fifty-some years later, several of those houses back seperatist "splinter factions" with the intent of pulling back worlds that were formerly in their power. The most direct example is the Stormhammers, a Steiner-backed faction that was very much engaged in a hybrid warfare model of "soft takeover" of Republic territory much like Russian did with Crimea in 2014. At the same time, we have the Cap Com trying to reclaim territory from the Republic that has been "historically Capellan" and the Fed Suns throws in to prevent this, although this ends up with the Fed Suns getting their asses kicked (the Cap Con of the 3130s is not the weak state it was a century earlier). Meanwhile, a Fed Suns seperatist group, the Swordsworn, are fighting for the Republic...sort of...but really for Fed Suns recognition.

Anyway, there's a lot more I could type if you really want to have a conversation about it.

jeff37923

I think that Eirikrautha has a good point here. Let me expand upon mine some more so that we have better clarity.

Earlier I said that I do a lot of gaming in public places. What I neglected to say is that I always ask what the rules are for playing in that space. It is not my playground, so the owner has jurisdiction over the space and I will play by their rules or not use the venue. My personal limits as GM are no graphic sexual content and no graphic violence in game. I've had venues before include things like no bigotry or racism and I have to have a conversation about what if the bigotry/racism is against an alien race or robots, sometimes with interesting answers which led me to finding another venue. Regardless, if I am using their space, I go by their rules.

However, beyond common sense issues (like no pedophilia discussion or furry fetishes delving), if the owner of the space never tells us that we can't discuss something (like politics) at the table, then that owner has a tough time chastising us for violating a rule that was never stated.

In the OPs post, if Koltar had never told that player group that discussion of Real World politics was not allowed beforehand, then are they really in the wrong when they do discuss politics?

Also, in regards to the Battletech history being conflated with the Real World, it is obfuscation. However, I've used Real World historical events with a veneer of science fiction in my own games. The events are the same, but names are changed and locations moved around.
"Meh."

S'mon

Quote from: jeff37923 on December 05, 2024, 01:44:46 AMIn the OPs post, if Koltar had never told that player group that discussion of Real World politics was not allowed beforehand, then are they really in the wrong when they do discuss politics?

No, they only become wrong once they are told No Politics, and keep talking.
Shadowdark Wilderlands (Fridays 6pm UK/1pm EST)  https://smons.blogspot.com/2024/08/shadowdark.html

yosemitemike

Quote from: Eirikrautha on December 05, 2024, 12:36:23 AMI want to see your example of modern politics that is on the line of acceptable and make it a "tough balance."  If House Kurita invades a Davion world, no one other than the terminally woke would respond at the table with, "Man, we need to consider the Russia-Ukraine war in the context of this game."  There's no tough balance needed.  You are asserting a problem that doesn't seem to exist.

This is someone who really wants to tell everyone their opinion about the Russia-Ukraine war and is grabbing on to any excuse they can to do that.  People like this make every damn thing about whatever their pet issue of the moment is.  They will always have some excuse for doing it.  The only solution is to just ban discussion of real-world politics entirely.  Otherwise, people will come up with whatever flimsy pretense they to keep doing it.
"I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice."― Friedrich Hayek
Another former RPGnet member permanently banned for calling out the staff there on their abdication of their responsibilities as moderators and admins and their abject surrender to the whims of the shrillest and most self-righteous members of the community.

Steven Mitchell

#49
Quote from: yosemitemike on December 05, 2024, 04:17:48 AM
Quote from: Eirikrautha on December 05, 2024, 12:36:23 AMI want to see your example of modern politics that is on the line of acceptable and make it a "tough balance."  If House Kurita invades a Davion world, no one other than the terminally woke would respond at the table with, "Man, we need to consider the Russia-Ukraine war in the context of this game."  There's no tough balance needed.  You are asserting a problem that doesn't seem to exist.

This is someone who really wants to tell everyone their opinion about the Russia-Ukraine war and is grabbing on to any excuse they can to do that.  People like this make every damn thing about whatever their pet issue of the moment is.  They will always have some excuse for doing it.  The only solution is to just ban discussion of real-world politics entirely.  Otherwise, people will come up with whatever flimsy pretense they to keep doing it.

Yes, which is exactly back to a person who cannot navigate social cues or is an asshole pretending they can't.  Now, sometimes that is a distinction without a difference, and sometimes it isn't.  Which is why we tend to give people a certain amount of slack until they provide enough evidence that they fall heavily on the asshole pretense side of the equation.

See also some of the people who habitually troll their pet ideas on this very forum for a not unrelated phenomenon.

At the gaming table, where I can observe body language and other social cues missing here, it is an easier distinction to make. There comes a point with some people where you've judged that while they are not a deliberate asshole, their behavior will seem that way to others missing those cues.  For their own protection, it is then a good idea to limit topics of discussion.  Because the other option is they get booted.

tenbones

I wanted to say that I obey the rules of the public-sphere when I run in public. But the truth is I don't. I used to run a LOT at cons in Los Angeles. But even then I'd run those tournaments in a suites as a feature for Convention owners, so it was pretty private. I never allow non-players to "watch". I still don't even in my private games. My content was solely mine unless I was running something for the RPGA. And it would be usually be 80's fantasy violence soft-R rated.

Politics are never an issue for me since if you're there to talk about politics in the modern-sense where it has nothing to do with our game, I'll tell you to get the fuck out because I want people at my table that want to game. Politics is its own hobby, and you can't be doing your hobby in my hobby. Go do your hobby elsewhere.

Today I play with adults that want to play adult games. The problem with younger people whose lives have been propagandized into oblivion is that politics is now an inherent part of their identity, and frankly unless I really like you, I don't care enough to deprogram you. I especially won't spend my game-time doing it at my table. It's easier for me to just screen people before they join my group.

Riquez

Its refreshing to see that almost everyone agrees we are here to play the game & not get into politics/religion.

Lets continue doing that!

tenbones

Quote from: Riquez on December 05, 2024, 03:47:37 PMIts refreshing to see that almost everyone agrees we are here to play the game & not get into politics/religion.

Lets continue doing that!

amen on that. Welcome to Mos Eisley. Leave your "droids" outside.