#DnD

[@avan5352]

I’m a minority that has been playing D&D for over 30 years. I’ve never been excluded. We have always tried to get others into the games.

[@TchHry]

Amen, 32 years of gaming here. My first group: Gamers... all just gamers. 2 1st gen immigrants, 1 second gen. AND IT DIDN'T MATTER! We were 2 Humans, 1 Elf, 1 Dwarf and a DM fighting & storytelling our way up a tower to stop a wizard vandal who burnt down the mayors house. Edited for grammar

[@BillAllanWorld]

46 years here, never been excluded, and never excluded anyone else. I've run games in person, online, and at conventions. Never had any of these modern social issues arise.

[@Subcomandante73]

As the great sage Robin Williams once said whilst sitting on a bench..."Thought about what you said to me the other day, about my D&D games. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me, and I fell into a deep peaceful sleep, and haven't thought about you since. Do you know what occurred to me? You're just a kid, you don't have the faintest idea what you're talkin' about.". I started with Red Box Basic D&D in 1982. It was not 'cool' to play D&D. But we did it anyway. The people trashing the legacy of 50 years of D&D weren't there, so they really have nothing meaningful to say.

[@kevoreilly6557]

This literal Grimdark ….

[@BanjoSick]

The most legendary illustrator of the Dark Eye was a turkish immigrant to Germany. No one ever cared. This is so stupid. Turning the 80’s into this racist hellskape is so stupid. Especially RPG having been this nerdy pasttime was always super open to everyone.

[@trpdrspider8372]

4:24 I feel like I'm being called out here.

[@justinjones7506]

I'm old enough to remember the stigmatisms attached to playing games like DnD. Made the mistake of telling a class in middle school that it was one of my hobbies. I was more or less called a Satan worshipper. Back then it offended me, but I laugh at it now--given that I am an atheist and view insults like that as not even worth responding to. More importantly, I think that the destruction of the actual history of table-top role-playing games is a feature, not a bug. After all, it's easy to create your own narrative if the truth has been mutilated, garbled, and finally, excised from living memory. I expect that the bad-faith actors will, after all of us are gone, insist that pen-and-paper role-playing games were always the way they are now. If one of the old guard tries to argue otherwise, they can be dismissed as a far-right reactionary, attempting to "revise" history.

[@Fleaux866]

Very good points. I started playing with the Holmes edition in 1980 in sixth grade. Most kids made fun of kids that played DnD and read comic books, at least in my neck of the woods.

[@mercuriusaulicus]

A voice in the dark...

[@rodchanas461]

They aren’t interested in us at all. They are only interested in the message.

[@docnecrotic]

Thank you, distant shadowy voice. Honestly, if only more people made those so-called lukewarm takes.

[@illogicerr3769]

Pearls before swine, friend. Pearls before swine.

[@foreshame7370]

77 quid for a photo copy of an exercise book seems like a poor deal, especially since it's been touched by the blue haired land whale brigade. I'll celebrate oD&D by actually playing oD&D with friends I met 35 years ago in uni. FAQ LotC.

[@Eron_the_Relentless]

"Woke" is a shorthand. What the actual issue is with "Woke" is that creators are valuing diversity over quality, and in lieu of quality. Arcane, Blue Eye Samurai, even House of the Dragon prove you can generate a woke product that is, at the same time, very good. Excellent even. It's just the predominant majority (Marvel Phase 4, Current Star Wars other than maybe Andor and Mando Season 1, Current Star Trek other than Picard Season 3, Rings of Power, Willow, mainstream comics, mainstream video games, post-2018 WotC) are all completely devoid of quality and use their wokeness as both a crutch and bludgeon to any critics calling out this obvious void of quality. As I've said before, RPGs used to be for losers, outcasts, stoners, artists, and generally the less socially accepted. It was predominantly white male because of zeitgeist keeping it that way in multiple communities, not all of whom were white but also not all of whom were non-white. The real "problems" with diversity started when the normies invaded in 2015-2016. Slowly diversity of thought has become more and more scarce. A bigger percentage of the greater hobby was playing non-D&D games in 1994 than now in 2024. And that is harrowing because it centralizes the greater hobby around D&D even more than it was in the 80s and 90s. Even though we now have more access to other games and their fans than ever before.

[@aceupinasleeve5031]

We've had the satanic panic back in the days. Are we in the angelic panic now?

[@paulcooper6048]

Screw WOTC. Playing Old School Essentials now.

[@primafacie5029]

I'm full OSR now. OSE has so much stuff. Basic Fantasy Gaming is completely free as well

[@TobiasPatrick]

Agreed. I stopped spending money with them after the OGL debacle. They will never see another dime from me and that includes Hasbro. I went from apathy to actively wanting them to fail because of this bullcrap. OSE for me from here on it.

[@MrBluman999]

Im playing 3.5 again. Having a blast. So many options

[@bearnaff9387]

We could become an elite - dowsing in contempt those who are so gullible to believe these revisionists or so unlucky as to not have experienced the truth firsthand. It saves us the wasted effort of having to attempt to engage with those crybully imbeciles. They cannot comment on our motivations because we are beyond the scope of things they are allowed to participate in. Those of us who can run games are not beholden to anyone but ourselves and those we choose to admit to our inner circle. Everything said outside the space we bless with our presence exists only to amuse us, nothing more.

[@vldster]

There is a shortage of calm takes on things TTRPG.

[@tomkerruish2982]

The difference between upper limits for the strength of make and female characters is because the very strongest men are stronger than the very strongest women in real life. We're literally talking about Olympic-level athletes. The female pelvis is shaped differently than and cannot support as much weight as the male pelvis.

[@Snowie7826]

So? It's fantasy.

[@calvanoni5443]

Bravo Grim!

[@Donjon_keeper]

6:55 Strength differentials and physical reality fly in the face of the current Zeitgeist where some people believe that sex is a feeling rather than a binary immutable biological reality, therefore it cannot be abided in their new religion.

[@michaelradzichovsky9366]

I dislike revisionist history of any kind. However, I absolutely hate the revisionist history of the hobby that I love and have been an active participant in for 40 years. As you and others have stated, I was there and I lived it. This is the most inclusive hobby I have participated in over the course of my life. I lived through the Satanic Panic and attack on our hobby back then. This new attack is more insidious due to the narcissistic levels of gaslighting. My gaming group in 1986 was as diverse as it is today. The earlier games attempted verisimilitude rather than direct mapping of reality into a game, and, therefore the game mechanics reflected that desire. There are biological differences in a sexually dimorphic species. In closing I quote Picard, “THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!”

[@makkeiura8354]

Great commentary.

[@FlameForgedSoul]

Zang.

[@autisticallyaccurate]

7:05 Bravo, I love this, the hypocrisy!

[@theangrypiper]

I have nothing to add to this, as you pretty much said it all. However, I would like to say that I have heard you use the word "en-shitify" several times now, and it always makes me laugh, almost (at least once, anyway) to the point of a spit-take in my car as I was driving in Boston traffic. I could have died, Jim. But, I bear no grudge. I am officially stealing this word from you; but I will ensure you receive credit should anyone find me exceptionally witty for using it.

[@PostmortemVideo]

I believe it was actually Cory Doctorow, who is a bit of a shit, but was spot on with that idea.

[@PulpHerb]

The word is older, but Doctorow's usage is the one that caught the zeitgeist and he'll go down as the creator.

[@chriskirby9408]

Everything can't be super racist now, unless the old days were double super racist. So they have to rewrite the past

[@Wraithing]

Cheers Jim.

[@MercutioUK2006]

I am a grumpy git, so take this with that in mind; Never, in 42 years, did I ever encounter a group that was anything but inclusive. Being told that we now need to be more inclusive seems incredible to me........we never turned a player away and if the demographic was more sausage heavy, that was a reflection of society at the time rather than discrimination on our part. I have no intention of changing, nor would I change anything that has gone before......if you weren't there to experience the scene, if your only reference is through the lens of imperfect, second hand recollection then simply shut up. You literally have no idea what you're opining (whining) about and no concept of the travails of the hobby to arrive at this destination. Why other art forms are venerated unspoilt, and TTRPGs are singled out for such illiterate criticism is quite beyond me....

[@nowayjosedaniel]

Yea but you have to realize all the "woke" and equally the "anti-woke" counter are all performative virtue signaling entirely for self-interest. It's all about being a jerk, control, and being the master baiter.

[@BillAllanWorld]

I enjoy this channel's content, but please Jim, lower the audio levels on your opening music. I feel like I nearly blow out my speakers when I click on one of your videos.

[@PostmortemVideo]

I've been lowering the levels in recent videos. Is it noticeably better for you?

[@BillAllanWorld]

@@PostmortemVideo yes! Cheers mate!