I think the statements by WoTC about their product is terrific. I especially think that the statement by the Warhammer Community about GW's thing is especially terrific. Why? Well, for example 40K is rife with prose, visual art, and philosophy that glorifies violence, authoritarianism, bigotry, and hatred. So if you're a young lad not steeped in the traditions of Reagan and Thatcher and can't recall that Rogue Trader was a scifi/fantasy game deeply entrenched in anti-authoritarianism, you might get the impression that telegraphing those messages in the fiction is tacit endorsement of those philosophies. If you can't clearly delineate between reality and fantasy, you might think that the slaughter of The Other as depicted in the fiction is A Good Thing. Sure, we Old Fellers (listen I'm 45 and you should never ever ever trust anybody over 30 kids, especially not a charismatic clever artiste who has plenty of money and a fascination for half-his-age girls but I digress)
(remind me somebody to integrate my wargaming blog into Hapless Henchman)
Sure we Old Fellers clearly understand that NO no no! No people are inherently bad or good in the Real World. That nuance and those grey areas are of course what real life is like. That these great geniuses we hold dear who thought these things up whole cloth, like Gygax, like that guy Zak, like Ellis, they didn't STEAL those ideas so they could make money and get laid! No! They were in it for something else. Like the principle of the thing. Gary wanted you to question authority, home rule things, and definitely photocopy your books to share freely with other kids - the ideas were what mattered to Gary. He just wanted you to think for yourself. We don't give a fig where Arneson or that nice lady with the small-press ideas was taking things. For example.
I seen about 4 blog posts this AM linked from twitter that were direct responses to WoTC's statement. And you know what? I'm 45. I been doing DnD for about 80% of my life, give or take. Star Wars, too. You kids take it and run with it. Get rid of race. Get rid of racial bonuses. I find I prefer things like Into the Odd where those things aren't even posed in the text and if you want them, inject them, but you don't need to eject anything. it's not broken by design. It doesn't depend upon these old crusty Anglophile Middle-Class Country Gentleman ways. If DnD was a clever and funner offshoot of that old white guy's 'game of kriegspiel or whatever, GREAT. I remember when 5e was approaching I was like "ehhhhh, who cares, I got mine" and a couple of folks on G+ said "hahahaha old man! you protest too much!" and I was hurt then, but the reality is that DnD is no longer mine. It might have been a long time ago, but better things have come. They took me a long time to find. DnD is big, and it's for the kids. Let the woke kids have DnD. They will make it theirs and it'll be better in the grand scheme of things than what a controlling, patronizing, paternalistic authoritarian balding, reactionary, overweight, swindling white dude wanted you to play. I'm not saying the dude wasn't multifaceted - hey man the thing is more nuanced than that. He wasn't an Orc, for example. Nobody's all bad, right?
Stay woke, kids. Fuck these menopausal old guys and their pearl-clutching. Do crime/Be Gay. Burn it down and what you drag out of the ruins will be better than what (in their hubris) The Ancients made. Get suspicious of anybody that gets nervous if you don't spout off about how great the brand is.
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