I want to address some things that came to light over the past few days.

First, TTRPG Industry/Communities have a new news outlet looking out for us thanks in part to Lin Codega. It’s called Rascal. Here’s the link. I’m excited about this because it answers my question of, “What if the Great OGL Debacle of 2023 happened today.” Thankfully, the Universe was listening.

Second, I want to address a much more difficult topic again. That is the one of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the TTRPG space. Now, please hear me out before you jump up to cancel me on social media or start typing fan mail to tell me how stupid I am.

The hard pill to swallow.

I was saddened to hear someone say, “We need to gatekeep to keep these guys out.” Unfortunately, the person in question was African American, Pro LGBTQIA, and on YouTube. What’s worse is the same person was also talking heavily about GM-less games because “one person having all that authority” is too much for them to handle.

I know I get accused of transference, but this was an all-new level. I say this all the time, usually to the Caucasian male Anti-LGBTQIA people- perhaps some introspection is needed. I still have a hard time believing what I was hearing, but I guess I’m not surprised either.

I see more ads on social media looking for LGBTQIA and BIPOC creators for Actual Plays, collaboration in the writing or art space, and games in general. It’s obvious to me I wouldn’t be welcome at the door unless I was dropping off four pizzas and a couple of 2 Liters. That’s fine. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s no fun being excluded, but it also sucks showing up where I’m clearly not going to be welcome, either. It’s cool.

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.

The harder pill to swallow.

I’ll fight for the rights of Game Masters everywhere. We’re kind of a necessary component to the TTRPG experience. I’ll die on that hill, but not the anti-gatekeeping hill.

See, I turned around five minutes later and watched a video by someone who probably should have been kept at the proverbial gates years ago. Again, I won’t name him other than to say he’s a Caucasian male and has spouted anti-LGBTQIA values in the past. The same guy may have also made some pretty bigoted comments on YouTube in the past as well. I’m low key praying he never comes back to the USA ever again.

Yeah, so this guy was going off on how bad the new Dungeons & Dragons 50th Anniversary book is supposedly going to be based on a video from D&D Beyond put out a few days ago. Apparently it’s incredibly upsetting to him because Wizards of the Coast had their inclusivity readers take a pass at it and despite the fact that the book isn’t in front of the public, that’s a bad thing. Somehow the “woke agenda” has ruined another book from that awful “woke company” about their “woke game.”

The one think I’ll say about the “woke” mob is they might not like me because I’m a Caucasian male, but at least they don’t want to exterminate anyone. Can the far right wingnuts in the USA say the same? I happen to fear for the safety of my LGBTQIA friends and family members because of certain outspoken parts of the anti-woke mob.

I mean, say what you like about inclusivity readers, but they’re not going to round anyone up and put them in camps over their beliefs or appearance. They can only edit a historical document so much anyway before it becomes 500 pages of meaningless text and crusty old photos. We haven’t seen the inside of this book yet, so we don’t know what they added or subtracted.

In fairness, I wasn’t going anywhere near the book before all this.

I could care less about much of the stuff Wizards of the Coast does or doesn’t do for the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. Why? Because as far as I’m concerned the historical significance of D&D died the day T$R was sold to Wizards of the Coast. Kyle Brink, Jeremy Crawford and whoever is still left seem to think that D&D begins and ends in 2000 when WotC took over the game. Crawford especially seems fully delusional that there is no canon prior to 2014. 2023? He can’t seem to remember.

Oh, but wait, Crawford is the same guy who told us Planescape, originally an AD&D 2E product, was always the default setting for D&D. Before that it was Forgotten Realms was the default 5E setting, not that WotC seems to acknowledge Ed Greenwood much these days. I think Crawford might want to start writing down what he says so he can remember from one fake interview to the next. Todd Kenreck can’t be expected to remember it for him.

I had given up on D&D 5E right around the time the new/not-new edition was announced. I’ve seen what usually happens when new editions are announced too soon. The people at Wizards of the Coast would as well, but apparently they haven’t been paying attention for more than ten years. I lost all faith when Cynthia Williams, formerly of Microsoft now CEO of WotC, said the player base for D&D was “under monetized.”

I’m sorry, Cindy. I’m more than an obstacle between you and my money. See, I don’t have to spend money on your cute little “lifestyle brand.” See, some of us remember D&D the tabletop roleplaying game. Not that she and her friends would have ever played. They’re wayyy too busy holding corporate meetings and deciding what to ruin next. “D and D? Oh, that video game? Whatever.”

There’s a chasm growing between distinct groups of role-players these days.

I can’t even call it a schism anymore. We’ve developed our differences into an ever-growing canyon of disagreement and disenfranchisement. On the one hand, there’s the OG, Grognard, veteran player and GM community who remember D&D before WotC got their grubby claws into it. Some of us were around when Mike Merls, RPG Pundit, and so many others created 5E. (Wanna bet Crawford still remembers how Merls takes his coffee?)

Sure, 5E had the longest run of any D&D edition. Good for it. Lots of players came in under that banner. Well, under the Critical Role banner, anyway. I think WotC is banking on the Critical Rollers* to get them over the next financial hill in 2024. I banked on an old Ford Escort to get me over that hill once and it died, too. (*I refuse to call them “Critters” here for various personal reasons.)

Then there’s the other crowd. Now, let’s not drag the whole “woke” liberal vs “anti-woke” conservative thing into this. WotC is determined to rope in a demographic of young adults with no children. They’re counting on technology savvy kids with access to disposable income for microtransactions. WotC has completely abandoned any hope of reaching a 30 and older D&D demographic. WotC wants to sell D&D the video game, like Baldur’s Gate 3. (Wait. What happened with Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2? Cynthia Williams probably has no idea.)

The good news is police barricades won’t be necessary at Gen Con.

The crowd WotC is looking to sell D&D to is going to have their noses down in their phone, tablet or computer screens. Those kids aren’t going to go to Gen Con. They’ll be too broke from all of the microtransactions on D&D Beyond and paying for their Player’s Handbook subscriptions.

The sad fact of the matter is I don’t think this upcoming crowd of kids knows what they’re heading into. That’s part of the reason WotC is doing their best to shut all of us older folx out of D&D these days. Sure, there are a lot of anti-woke people in the OSR crowd. It’s sad for a company that only wants money to be completely ignoring a large source of it. WotC doesn’t want fans, they just want a steady stream of income.

Meanwhile, there’s the rest of the TTRPG Industry.

It sounds like I’ve only been paying attention to D&D this whole time. The truth is, the next biggest companies up on the TTRPG company pecking order only make a fraction of what WotC makes on D&D in a given year. I’ve been in denial of this for a while now. It helps me sleep better at night.

There’s also the fact that no other company in the TTRPG industry has as many shills and as much free advertising as WotC does for D&D. This past year has shown us WotC could foul up a wet dream if given half a chance and people still push their product like there’s no other option. YouTubers that were fully against WotC last year are all pretending nothing ever happened and that their livelihood was never threatened by the OGL Debacle of 2023.

I don’t think the divide between hardcore D&D fanatics and the rest of the industry is all that bad. I don’t think the “woke vs anti-woke” argument is as dire as it is within the D&D crowds. Most of us have played or even enjoyed a version of D&D at some point.

In terms of consumer power, we’re like fleas on WotC’s butts at this point. I think that’s why they figure we’ll all just buy into 2024 D&D without question. I think some WotC execs, and their Reptilian Overlords at Hasbro are going to be in for a rude awakening. Someone at WotC had better ask what happens if the preorders for the new books come up short of expectations. What happens if the Virtual Table Turd fails? (*I mean Virtual Table Top. Oops.)

Wizards of the Coast leadership screwed up.

Two and a half years ago, I would have bought a new edition of D&D without a second thought. Now? I’ll take that same money and spend it on ICONS, Shadowdark RPG, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Monster of the Week, or Fabula Ultima. I’ll maybe take a look at the new Monster Manual when it comes out in 2025 provided it’s not just a coffee table art book.

My guess is that 2027 will see this neat, boxed board game come out called “Dungeons & Dragons.” It will have all the fanfare of another version of Monopoly or Clue. It might last all of one holiday season before lapsing back into obscurity while several video games carry the logo.

To anyone trying to actively gatekeep others from the hobby based on race, sexual preferences, religion, or appearance- please don’t.

If someone shows up and wants to just play in a TTRPG and not cause trouble, please let them? Keeping people out of the hobby is just going to kill it faster. The only exception I would make to this is if someone is being disruptive, rude, assanine, insensitive… Kick them out of your game if they’re being assholes, okay? No one has to tolerate rude, obnoxious, disruptive, toxic players or GMs.

It’s hard to officially codify, “Don’t be a jerk.” That’s basically what I’m trying to say. It turns out there are jerks on both sides of the chasm. There’s a massive Venn diagram of overlapping preferences in the TTRPG community as well as some glaring differences. My point is that there is a group out there for pretty much everyone.

Thank you for stopping by. Hopefully back to Fantasy TTRPG February tomorrow assuming nothing stupid comes up. I’m going to try to stick to Ufology and ET YouTube videos tomorrow. I appreciate you. Embrace the things that bring you the most joy.