aka The Article That Refused to Be Written (by me.)

Hey, Family. (#ttrpgfamily)

I’ve had an article brewing for two days now. It’s about this ongoing disaster in the TTRPG industry revolving around Goodman Games and BackerKit’s attempt at offering an Indie Creators’ Summit. Hey, I resemble that remark, right?

There’s been a lot of hollering about one particular image that was used to try to promote the summit. While I wasn’t shocked outright to see twelve Caucasian guys on a TTRPG panel, several people were. Back in the old days, we wouldn’t have batted an eye at this because, well, that was much of the industry back then, for better or worse. I’ll talk more about it in that future article if/when I finish it. Or will it be one of those “just for me” articles that gets made private/archived?

To keep the story up-to-date, Goodman Games issued a sincere apology. That post on X (Twitter) was received by a massive pushback from Goodman Games fans, Grognards, OSR, BroSR, and a lot of other disgruntled old white dudes. Unfortunately, I fall into the categories of Goodman Games fan and old white dude, but I actually appreciated the effort and wish no ill will on anyone whatsoever.

In fact, I’m looking forward to being at the summit. That’s my jam. My crowd. TTRPG creators, that is.

That’s how I ended up listening to rap music at 3:00 AM.

This whole topic of the way this Creators’ Summit was handled is racially charged from both directions. It’s hard for me. I wear a lot of hats. I have a lot of friends on both sides of this particular fence.

Maybe I should stay silent. That’s tough, too. Anyone who knows me will tell you my inner loudmouth never stays quiet for long. This subject deserves a lot of attention. Level heads and peace have yet to prevail.

That having been said, I’m still working through some things. I’m fighting the urge to pull out the Kyle Brink comment. You know the one about “guys like me…” I’m not leaving. You can’t make me. No one can.

I’m leaving it here for now. More to come. I want to get past this and get back to gaming. It’s a drain on my mental and emotional resources talking about racism. It’s exhausting.

Luckily, the majority of the serious voices in the TTRPG industry will be back from conventions; I don’t think a lot of them have gotten wind of what happened on social media over the weekend. Lucky them. I’ll be watching YouTube closely for updates from some folx.

Thanks for being here. I appreciate you. Going to try to sleep now.