Congratulations, you’re all my personal sounding board.

Mostly, I just need to vent. I’ve been seeing some things in the TTRPG space recently that I find somewhat off-putting? Not sure what the term I’m looking for is off the top of my head, but it’s been that kind of a day when words aren’t flowing very well. (*It’s called brain fog, and it’s no fun whatsoever.)

It just blows my mind that someone who just six months ago was decrying her “former employer” and telling everyone to cancel their D&D Beyond subscriptions in protest of the OGL debacle is now running D&D in a Castle. I’m sure we’ll get to hear how wonderful it is all over social media. So much for not being on WotC’s payroll, huh?

It’s appalling how many people said how they’d never do business with Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro, etc, and were supposedly done with Dungeons & Dragons completely are now right back to work selling the brand. I wasn’t going to write this article, but maybe someone should say something. It disgusts me when people take a fan community for granted. But, hey- I’m still a small fry in the social media ocean. What do I know?

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

Anybody remember #OpenDnD? It was only seven months ago. Where did the community fall off? Would you like me to explain it? I know what it was. It’s like WotC suddenly stopped being the bad guys back in April, but you don’t hear me though.

All of the names have been omitted to protect the innocent.

Wouldn’t want to call anyone a “shill” or anything. I won’t even use pseudonyms. Obviously no one is ever available for comment to my tiny little blog until I drop a name, so this will go by mostly unnoticed, I’m sure. No one could be reached for interviews, obviously.

I so want to call people out on the bullshit and the hypocrisy in this industry. Was this whole OGL debacle cooked up by WotC? To what end? To take our minds off the new edition? To justify their price increases? I don’t get it. Why cause the largest uproar in the history of the D&D fanbase in one month than the 49 years previous?

And then, we have all of these social media “influencers,” content creators, and fans running right back to WotC and their corporate shenanigans like nothing ever happened? How many people went from “I’ll never support WotC again” to “I had such a great time at the content creator summit in April. Look at what a great job they’re doing.” I can’t be the only one who sees the pretentious amount of bullshit involved can I?

The possibly worse part are some of the people who went from D&D over to Pathfinder 2E. Once we got mad at WotC and jumped ship, Paizo decides it’d be cool to release a remastered version of Pathfinder 2E. There goes another $250, right? Times how many disgruntled former 5E fans? Paizo might be the next company I just stop buying their stuff completely.

Something seems really off about the whole thing. I don’t trust WotC and I’m not entirely sure about Paizo at the moment. Kobold Press just raised over a million dollars for their Tales of the Valiant Kickstarter. Are they a company I want to trust right now? I just don’t know. Who do we trust any more?

Why I can’t just let it go.

By rights, I probably should just forget the whole thing. Here’s the catch- I have zero patience for large, slimy corporations doing large slimy corporate McShitz. I hate it when people are lied-to, stepped on, and just generally treated like garbage. We haven’t even gotten to how they treat consumers yet. Consumers are lower in their esteem at the end of the day, if that’s even possible.

For those who don’t know, I used to work for one of these Fortune 500 asshat corporations right up until they fired me about two years ago. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can say because of the hill of paperwork I had to sign. Needless to say, it left me with a really bad taste in my mouth for major name brand McAnything.

I just find it amazing with all of these social media and YouTube content creators that were practically screaming “vote with your dollars” at the top of their lungs are now telling us how great the 2024 5E revision is, and it’s okay that WotC is jacking up their prices even further. Yay. Let’s all run out and buy Bigby’s Grasping Fist in the Giant Glory Hole or whatever they’re calling it and pretend it won’t be obsolete after August of 2024.

Another thing while I’m ranting.

What happened to WotC’s promise of us being able to contact them? Remember Creators@Wizards.com? The email address we’re supposed to be able to use to get in touch with WotC about our questions. Yeah. That was sketchy. I got one email back saying they were super busy and they’d be in touch.

Okay guys, I’m still waiting. Meanwhile I see they’ve hired a new Emergency Crisis Bullshit Director or whatever their title was. It’s basically the position that’s supposed to be keeping them from another massive PR nightmare, or at least keeping their latest scandal quiet. Wouldn’t want the public to think WotC was doing shady shit, now would we?

I suppose I better call it a night before they send the Pinkertons to confiscate my computer or harass my neighbors.

All I’m saying is- be careful who you trust out there. The TTRPG “Community” has pretty much come unglued as far as I can tell. I’m going back to being immersed in #indiettrpgmonth after this. As a fanbase of any game, we deserve better than to be lied-to by content creators, social media pros, and large corporations.

If WotC ever shows signs of getting their heads out of their butts, I’ll go back to buying their books. (Assuming such a thing even exists at the rate they’re going.) Until then, I’m putting my money into smaller companies’ products. There are a lot of great TTRPGs out there. That hasn’t changed since January. Please go out and try them. D&D isn’t everything.

I might end up making this private along with some of my other epic rants. Thanks for being here. Hopefully you’re having a lovely day where you are. Back tomorrow, maybe sooner. Please email me or contact me on social media if you wish to talk. I’m usually around somewhere.