The resurgence of tabletop RPGs, thanks to the queer community?

[Ruprecht]

I have not seen an influx in campaign settings that would suggest people of color are doing their part to pull the game away from Eurocentrism and I have to wonder why not if the theme of the link is in any way true.

[zircher]

What new GMing techniques do you use just because you are Black or Asian?

That's a great question, the mechanics of the game or the story telling are well known.  Sure, you can personalize the details, we all do, but the basic constructs are literally written down for everyone regardless of which horse they rode in on.

[jeff37923]

Last week or so I saw this article from the NYtimes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/21/style/dungeons-and-dragons.html

I'll paste some interesting points here, what do you think?

"It's the newer generation of players who make D&D — and tabletop role-playing games generally — what it is today.

Connie Chang, a 24-year-old game master who runs "a semi-Tumblr-famous D&D meme blog," is the G.M. of Transplanar, "a non-colonial, anti-Orientalist" livestreamed game consisting entirely of players who are transgender and people of color.

"I really feel like marginalized people are the vanguard of making D&D blow up again," Mx. Chang said. "People say 'Stranger Things,' but I'm like, 'Nah, it's the queer community.'"

"Within the community, it's the Black folks, right?" Mx. Chang continued. "It's the Asian folks. It's the Indigenous folks. It's the people of color who are really bringing cool, innovative, fresh, much needed new blood and air and perspectives and voices and ways of G.M.ing and ways of playing to the space that would shake up an otherwise stale play community, straight up."

For all its fantastical otherworldliness, Dungeons & Dragons — created by Mr. Gygax when he was 36, and Mr. Arneson, at 27 — is deeply rooted in Eurocentric ideals of the Middle and Dark Ages. In interviews, players pointed to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien for inspiring entire races and subclasses within the D&D game that were built on racist tropes and reinforced harmful stereotypes. Players of different races, gender identities and sexual orientations cited instances of feeling unwelcome by legacy D&D players, by the game itself and by its history of straight white maleness and overt colonialism."

They state that it is they who were shunned at the tables of legacy D&D-players. I myself have been playing TTRPGs since 2016. I did know since the beginning of the 90s of one such thing as D&D but the books were impossible to come by. However, I have always been a nerd (for better or, mostly, for worse) and what kind of grinds my gears is that those who make D&D popular, as they say themselves, are exactly the ones who would bully us for being geeks and nerds. And I was picked upon for such interests. If anyone was marginalised, it must have been the nerds and geeks, not them. Because no-one cared about their gender or colour or whatever, back in the day.

So yeah, I think the resurgence of RPGs is partly due to the internet, true, as stated in the article, but also videogames in general (think Bioware). I think the "queer community" has only jumped on it once it was already on the rise and have contributed nothing to the popularity of the game outside of that subculture's boundaries.

What do you think?

"Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan."

[Ghostmaker]

I just wanna fight some fuckin' dragons! Is that too much to ask?

Magic! That had me laughing out loud. Can I use that as a tag line?

Go for it.

Honestly, that's what burns me about the wokeist infection these days. It sucks all the fun, all the wonder out of the game. No derring-do, no clutch rolls or clever tactics. Just gray blobs.

Come on. Swing from that fuckin' chandelier and land on the brigand captain boots first. Weave a spell that blows that werewolf out the window; let's see if he can regenerate falling out of a skyscraper. Swap the bag of sand for the idol and DON'T set off the giant boulder trap. Or do set it off, and outrun it.

Let's have some fun, dammit.

[bromides]

As long as it is pre approved fun that properly includes marginalized peoples and does not reinforce settler colonialism, then you are allowed one unit of fun, citizen.

/There are some guilty ass, self hating white people out there who are suckers for all kinds of bull sht.

[Shrieking Banshee]

There are some guilty ass, self hating white people out there who are suckers for all kinds of bull sht.

Also the race grifters. If your black and have no dignity, you can make a pretty penny debasing yourself for cash.

[Trond]

"For all its fantastical otherworldliness, Dungeons & Dragons — created by Mr. Gygax when he was 36, and Mr. Arneson, at 27 — is deeply rooted in Eurocentric ideals of the Middle and Dark Ages. In interviews, players pointed to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien for inspiring entire races and subclasses within the D&D game that were built on racist tropes and reinforced harmful stereotypes. "

I have come to the conclusion that people who use "Eurocentric" as a bad thing are nuts. I find other cultures fascinating and enlightening, but it wasn't them who discovered antibiotics.

[Ratman_tf]

Last week or so I saw this article from the NYtimes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/21/style/dungeons-and-dragons.html

I'll paste some interesting points here, what do you think?

"It's the newer generation of players who make D&D — and tabletop role-playing games generally — what it is today.

Connie Chang, a 24-year-old game master who runs "a semi-Tumblr-famous D&D meme blog," is the G.M. of Transplanar, "a non-colonial, anti-Orientalist" livestreamed game consisting entirely of players who are transgender and people of color.

"I really feel like marginalized people are the vanguard of making D&D blow up again," Mx. Chang said. "People say 'Stranger Things,' but I'm like, 'Nah, it's the queer community.'"

"Within the community, it's the Black folks, right?" Mx. Chang continued. "It's the Asian folks. It's the Indigenous folks. It's the people of color who are really bringing cool, innovative, fresh, much needed new blood and air and perspectives and voices and ways of G.M.ing and ways of playing to the space that would shake up an otherwise stale play community, straight up."

I have not seen anything even mildly interesting out of the transasianpeopleofcolornoncolonialantiorientalismsocialistmarxistdobahdeeimbluedabadow community.
Frankly, I find their "persepctive" stale and tiresome.

[Ratman_tf]

"For all its fantastical otherworldliness, Dungeons & Dragons — created by Mr. Gygax when he was 36, and Mr. Arneson, at 27 — is deeply rooted in Eurocentric ideals of the Middle and Dark Ages. In interviews, players pointed to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien for inspiring entire races and subclasses within the D&D game that were built on racist tropes and reinforced harmful stereotypes. "

I have come to the conclusion that people who use "Eurocentric" as a bad thing are nuts. I find other cultures fascinating and enlightening, but it wasn't them who discovered antibiotics.

It's the narrow and myopic view of oppressor and oppressed identity politics. Every culture had it's share of sins and greatness and failures and foibiles.
But not to the activists...

[VisionStorm]

Last week or so I saw this article from the NYtimes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/21/style/dungeons-and-dragons.html

I'll paste some interesting points here, what do you think?

"It's the newer generation of players who make D&D — and tabletop role-playing games generally — what it is today.

Connie Chang, a 24-year-old game master who runs "a semi-Tumblr-famous D&D meme blog," is the G.M. of Transplanar, "a non-colonial, anti-Orientalist" livestreamed game consisting entirely of players who are transgender and people of color.

"I really feel like marginalized people are the vanguard of making D&D blow up again," Mx. Chang said. "People say 'Stranger Things,' but I'm like, 'Nah, it's the queer community.'"

"Within the community, it's the Black folks, right?" Mx. Chang continued. "It's the Asian folks. It's the Indigenous folks. It's the people of color who are really bringing cool, innovative, fresh, much needed new blood and air and perspectives and voices and ways of G.M.ing and ways of playing to the space that would shake up an otherwise stale play community, straight up."

I have not seen anything even mildly interesting out of the transasianpeopleofcolornoncolonialantiorientalismsocialistmarxistdobahdeeimbluedabadow community.
Frankly, I find their "persepctive" stale and tiresome.

Exactly. This shit just gets asserted into existence, just like every other claim coming from these critters. They have absolutely nothing of value to offer. This is 100% about pushing their dogma on other people and defining reality according to their whims. Not about identifying actual problems in society or in games, or proposing real solutions, but creating them and feeding their narcissistic neurosis.

[Omega]

In English, you can say "white" for both your skin colour and the colour of paper or snow.

I've seen people making faces whenever the word white comes up and theres been some nuts in colleges spouting how the word white is "racist" here as well.

You have to ever bear in mind that these people are not even remotely sane and will sooner or later hallucinate absolutely anything on earth as offensive. Up to and including demanding minorities no longer use any "offensive" words either. This cult mentality has increasingly infested RPGs to the current point.

It is also a power play by controlling language and creating traps that anyone can fall into and thus be accused.

Welcome to gaming under the new regime which is the old regime which was itself the older regime. This time its exponentially worse.

[Ghostmaker]

In English, you can say "white" for both your skin colour and the colour of paper or snow.

I've seen people making faces whenever the word white comes up and theres been some nuts in colleges spouting how the word white is "racist" here as well.

You have to ever bear in mind that these people are not even remotely sane and will sooner or later hallucinate absolutely anything on earth as offensive. Up to and including demanding minorities no longer use any "offensive" words either. This cult mentality has increasingly infested RPGs to the current point.

It is also a power play by controlling language and creating traps that anyone can fall into and thus be accused.

Welcome to gaming under the new regime which is the old regime which was itself the older regime. This time its exponentially worse.

I would like to add a codicil to this: sometimes it's not that they're insane, it's that they're grifting. They know the line is bullshit, but they use it because they're trying to get something out of it.

[Omega]

What new GMing techniques do you use just because you are Black or Asian?

Kefra, one of my old players from Africa, brought to the table as a DM some interesting insights into outdoor survival and melee combat, and just how lethal good ol mother nature can be even when you have a sword and a shield.

I think the better comparison is, "What life experiences do you bring to the table?" colour and race are irrelevant to that in some ways. But certainly not all.

[Ghostmaker]

What new GMing techniques do you use just because you are Black or Asian?

Kefra, one of my old players from Africa, brought to the table as a DM some interesting insights into outdoor survival and melee combat, and just how lethal good ol mother nature can be even when you have a sword and a shield.

I think the better comparison is, "What life experiences do you bring to the table?" colour and race are irrelevant to that in some ways. But certainly not all.

I'd be interested in that game. No tokenism, just 'here's a new way to look at it'.

[BoxCrayonTales]

I hate how the woke have replaced life experience (practical knowledge of particular cultures and environments you lived in and associated skills knowledge) with "lived experience" (of racism).