I'm so sorry

Yea I accidentally deleted my blog but i'm back now lol. A dnd sideblog.

[malcolmschmitz]

The Insider and Outsider Detectives

So there's a lot of discourse about detectives floating around, ever since 2020 shifted a lot of people's Views on the police. Everyone likes a good mystery story, but no one seems to know what to make of a detective protagonist- especially if they're a cop. And everyone who cares about this kind of thing likes to argue over whether detective stories hold up the existing order or subvert it. Are they inherently copaganda? Are they subversive commentary on the uselessness of the police?

I think they can be both. And I think there's a framework we can use to look at individual detectives, and their stories, that illuminates the space between "a show like LAPD straight-up exists to make the cops look good" and "Boy Detective is a gender to me, actually".

So. You can sort most detectives in fiction into two boxes, based on their role in society: the Insider Detective and the Outsider Detective.

The Insider Detective is a part of the society they're investigating in, and has access to at least some of the levers of power in that society. They can throw money at their problems, or call in reinforcements, and if they contact the authorities, those authorities will take them seriously. Even the people they're investigating usually treat them with respect. They're a nice normal person in a nice normal world, thank you very much; they're not particularly eccentric. You could describe them as "sensible". And crime is a threat to that normal world. It's an intrusion that they have to fight off. An Insider Detective solving a crime is restoring the way things ought to be.

Some clear-cut examples of Insider Detectives are the Hardy Boys (and their father Fenton), Soichiro "Light's Dad" Yagami, or Father Brown. Many police procedural detectives are Insider Detectives, though not all.

The Outsider Detective, in contrast, is not a part of the society they're investigating in. They're often a marginalized person- they're neurodivergent, or elderly, or foreign, or a woman in a historical setting, or a child. They don't have access to any of the levers of power in their world- the authorities may not believe them (and might harass them), the people they're investigating think they're a joke (and can often wave them off), and they're unlikely to have access to things like "a forensics lab". The Outsider Detective is not respectable, and not welcome here- and yet they persist and solve the crime anyway. A lot of the time, when an Outsider Detective solves a crime, it's less "restoring the world to its rightful state" and more "exposing the rot in the normal world, and forcing it to change."

Some clear-cut examples of Outsider Detectives are Dirk Gently, Philip Marlowe, Sammy Keyes, or Mello from Death Note.

Now, here's the catch: these aren't immutable categories, and they are almost never clear-cut. The same detective can be an Insider Detective in one setting and an Outsider Detective in another. A good writer will know this, and will balance the two to say something about power and society.

Tumblr's second-favourite detective Benoit Blanc is a great example of this. Theoretically, Mr. Blanc should be an Insider Detective- he's a world-famous detective, he collaborates with the police, he's odd but respectable. But because of the circumstances he's in- investigating the ultra-rich, who live in their own horrid little bubbles- he comes off as the Outsider Detective, exposing the rot and helping everyone get what they deserve. And that's deliberate. There is no world where a nice, slightly eccentric, mildly fruity, fairly privileged guy like Benoit Blanc should be an outsider. But the turbo-rich live in such an insular world, full of so much contempt for anyone who isn't Them, that even Benoit Blanc gets left out in the cold. It's a scathing political statement, if you think about it.

But even a writer who isn't trying to Say Something About The World will still often veer between making their detective an Insider Detective and an Outsider Detective, because you can tell different kinds of stories within those frameworks. Jessica Fletcher from Murder She Wrote is a really good example of this-- she's a respectable older lady, whose runaway success as a mystery novelist gives her access to some social cachet. Key word: some.

Within her hometown of Cabot Cove, Fletcher is an Insider Detective. She's good friends with the local sheriff, she's incredibly familiar with the town's social dynamics, she can call in a favour from basically anyone... but she's still a little old lady. The second she leaves town, she might run into someone who likes her books... but she's just as likely to run into a police officer who thinks she's crazy or a perp who thinks she's an easy target. She has the incredibly tenuous social power that belongs to a little old lady that everyone likes- and when that's gone, she's incredibly vulnerable.

This is also why a lot of Sherlock Holmes adaptations tend to be so... divisive. Holmes is all things to all people, and depending on which stories you choose to focus on, you can get a very different detective. If you focus on the stories where Holmes collaborates with the police, on the stories with that very special kind of Victorian racism, or the stories where Holmes is fighting Moriarty, you've got an Insider Detective. If you focus on the stories where Holmes is consulting for a Nice Young Lady, on the stories where Holmes' neurodivergence is most prominent, or on his addictions, you've got an Outsider Detective.

Finally, a lot of buddy detective stories have an Insider Detective and an Outsider Detective sharing the spotlight. Think Scully and Mulder, or Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. This lets the writer play with both pieces of the thematic puzzle at the same time, without sacrificing the consistency of their detective's character.

Back to my original point: if you like detective fiction, you probably like one kind of story better than the other. I know I personally really prefer Outsider Detective Stories to Insider Detective Stories- and while I can enjoy a good Insider Detective (I'd argue that Brother Cadfael, my beloved, is one most of the time), I seek out detectives who don't quite fit into the world they live in more often than not.

And if that's the vibe you're looking for... you're not going to run into a lot of police stories. It's absolutely possible to make a story where a cop (or, even better, an FBI agent) is an Outsider Detective-- Nick Angel from Hot Fuzz was originally going to be one of my 'clear-cut examples' until I remembered that he is, in fact, legally a cop! But a cop who's an Outsider Detective is going to be spending a lot of time butting heads with local law enforcement, to the point where he doesn't particularly feel like one. He's probably going to get fired at some point, and even if his badge gets reinstated, he's going to struggle with his place in the world. And a lot of Outsider Detective stories where the detective is a cop or an FBI agent are intensely political, and not in a conservative way- they have Things To Say about small towns, clannishness, and the injustice that can happen when a Pillar Of The Community does something wrong and everyone looks the other way. (Think Twin Peaks or The Wicker Man.)

Does this mean Insider Detective Stories are Bad Copaganda and Outsider Detective Stories are Good Revolutionary Stories? No. If you take one thing away from this post, please make it that these categories are morally neutral. There are Outsider Detective stories about cops who are Outsiders because they really, really want an excuse to shoot people. There are Insider Detective stories about little old people who are trying to keep misapplied justice from hurting the kids in their community. Neither of these types of stories are good or bad on their own. They're different kinds of storytelling framework and they serve different purposes.

But, if you find yourself really gravitating to certain kinds of mysteries and really put off by other kinds, and you're trying to express why, this might be a framework that's useful for you. If your gender is Boy Detective, but you absolutely loathe cop stories? This might be why.

(PS: @anim-ttrpgs was posting about their game Eureka again, and that got me to make this post- thank them if you're happy to finally see it. Eureka is designed as an Outsider Detective simulator, and so the rules actively forbid you from playing as a cop- they're trying to make it so that you have limited resources and have to rely on your own competence. It's a fantastic looking game and I can't recommend it enough.)

(PPS: I'm probably going to come back to this once I finish Psycho-Pass with my partner, because they said I'd probably have Thoughts.)

(PPPS: Encyclopedia Brown is an Insider Detective, and that's why no one likes him. This is my most controversial detective take.)

[brewerssupplies]

Hello! May I present: the Hexslinger! A half-caster who slings spells and magic as well as they sling guns, they are able to imbue their firearms and ammunition with their magic. They also know special magical rites known as hexcrafts which vary in type and usage. Some hexcrafts allow them to create potions, to curse their foes, to enchant their firearms, or to even summon a spectral train engine to run down your foes! Hope you enjoy my take on a gunslinger-type class!

[DRIVE]

[HOMEBREWERY]

[probablygoodrpgideas]

No Nuance (N)Friday: What's the best initiative system?

Static and based on a stat (e.g. Call of Cthulhu)

Rolling with a modifier (e.g. DnD 5e)

Rolling without a modifier

First all players go in any order, then all enemies go in any order (e.g. XCOM)

Players and enemies alternate their turns (e.g. LANCER)

Enemies act in response to player actions (e.g most PbtA)

Other

Voting ended onAug 19, 2023

[probablyfunrpgideas]

Card based initiative (Savage Worlds)

[theresattrpgforthat]

Do you have any recommendations for any combat-focused games? For example, I love the combat of D&D 5e and how players have to be resourceful with what moves they’ll use against enemies, and I like that there are a lot of chances for players to shine in combat. However, any recommendations does not need to be similar to 5e!

THEME: COMBAT

These games are about fighting monsters, fighting angels, and fighting your inner battles.

Infinite Revolution, by gwencie.

A LIGHTSPEED EXOSUIT DOGFIGHTER RPG

A TURBINE IN YOUR HEART, FOREVER SPINNING. 

A SOLAR SYSTEM—YOUR SYSTEM—UNDER THREAT.

YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS IN ARMOR MADE OF STARLIGHT AND DREAMS, AGAINST THE NASTIEST BASTARDS ENTROPY CAN MUSTER IN A BURNING KNIFE-EDGE DANCE ACROSS INFINITY—

This is INFINITE REVOLUTION.

In Infinite Revolution, you play as a Revolver—a human whose spirit burns so hot, quick, and bright it would reduce their atoms to ash if for not an implanted turbine called a Revolver Drive. A race of entropic predators called the Veil has swallowed most of your system, and now it's time to take it back—for yourself, for your friends, and for everyone back on Earth. They're counting on you.

The basic idea behind LUMEN games is not what kind of skill you are using to complete your objective, but rather how you attempt what you are trying to do. In Infinite Revolution, these three approaches are called Roar, Hiss, and Sing Players roll an amount of d6s based on the points they have in their chosen approach, and use the highest die rolled to determine what the outcome is. Each class option in LUMEN games tells you something about your character’s style of combat, and gives you guidance about how you might want to complete the missions you are sent out on.

Blazing Hymn, by Peach Garden Games.

At first, when we called them Angels, we meant it. Their flawless crystalline forms caught the sunlight in dazzling colors, and their radiance set our hearts at ease. These otherworldly creatures didn’t come from any planet we could identify, but we knew the second we set eyes on them that they came from somewhere beyond us. Then the slaughter began.

Now, we call them Angels literally. We know what they are. They have come from Heaven to massacre us.

We will not let them.

Inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion and Senki Zesshou Symphogear, this action-heavy TTRPG takes you to a future where music is humanity's only weapon against the armies of Heaven.

Will yours be a song of pride? Of violence? Of regret?

Build a Hymnal unit, a music-powered anti-Angel battlesuit, and take on missions to protect humanity from destruction. The songs you choose will change how you play, protect you from damage, help you build up power and protect your teammates.

Blazing Hymn is yet another LUMEN game, with a different premise but the same hunger for power-fantasy. Players will have a considerable amount of creative control over how their weapons manifest - and each class of weapon has its own arsenal of powers to choose from. What is interesting about this kind of game is that while you’re still engaging in combat, your weapons are based around music - and that might change how your table decides to describe combat. All of these chances for creativity give your players ample room to shine! There are two official supplements for Blazing Hymn: Rhinestone Revenge, a starting scenario, and Ashes to Ashes, an expansion for after your party has dealt with a major threat.

Boot Black, by Dagger Press.

Relive your favourite action movies and fiction! Be a fearless commando or a wasteland wanderer, and roll a whole bunch of dice. Boot Black delivers tense, gritty combat with minis on the tabletop (or your favourite VTT)!

This booklet contains everything you need to grab some friends and have an exciting cinematic adventure. Creating characters is fast and easy, and so is setting up the battlefield! Use d12s to test your skills--push through barbed wire with Grit, or crash a truck through a gate with Speed! Choose your weapons wisely, since they determine which dice you roll and how you'll engage the enemy. Choose perks to support your squad or go in guns blazing.

The game is designed for 1960’s-style warfare, but can be adapted for post-apocalyptic settings, futuristic settings, etc. The game uses a number of different polyhedral dice, depending on the kind of check you want to make and what weapon you’d like to use. While this game doesn’t require a dedicated hex map, it does recommend using index cards to sketch out how different areas are linked to each-other and map out courses of action. Much of the game is focused on gaining ground and finding advantages to use against the enemy - so if you’re mostly looking to set up obstacles for your players to overcome, Boot Black might be for you.

Steel Tempest, by mburnamfink. 

Tempest used to be an peaceful planet, another growing colony on the human frontier. Then a survey team found the Anomalies, artifacts of unknown provenance that violate the laws of physics. Every CorproState arrived looking to unlock the power of the Anomalies, and the Interstellar Confederation imposed a quarantine to prevent the Anomalies from getting out. Corporate rivalries turned into clashes turned into hostilities turned into war.

That’s where you arrived. You’re a jockey, an elite mercenary piloting a customized war machine called a frame. You take contracts from MercNet, fighting a fragmented war where strategy and objectives are secrets held by your paymasters. A contract may see you shooting at former allies or defending a fortress you once attacked. You fight for money, for pride, for escape from your ghosts, because you can’t imagine anything else.

Steel Tempest uses Charge, a stripped-down version of Blades in the Dark. Unlike Blades, however, it contains a resource called Momentum that your characters gain on successful action rolls, and can be used gain bonuses on future rolls, or mitigate consequences. The game comes with lists of weapons to wield and factions that your characters may be up against, allowing the group to flavour the combat scenario as they like. As mercenaries, the idea behind the missions is pretty standard: go in, complete the objective, return and get paid. Simplistic, with plenty of opportunities for weird enemies and supernatural problems for your characters to overcome.

Bloodstone, by Matteo Sciutteri.

The city of Heliwyr is damned. Decades ago, a mad priest officiated an ancient ritual, awakening a wicked force that branded every inhabitant, corrupting their blood. On nights with a blood moon, the curse awakens, depriving the inhabitants of their minds. Those who decide to follow the path of the priest, voluntarily feeding on the corrupt blood of people, become Apostles: almost immortal creatures, with bestial features, devoid of any humanity.

BLOODSTONE is an action-packed horror tabletop roleplaying game with a dark, gothic feel. The players are a group of hunters sent to the city of Heliwyr on a blood moon night to hunt down an Apostle attempting to ascend, opening a gateway to the realm of the Ancients.  The game has a high pace: the Hunt is a race against the clock.  BLOODSTONE is designed for one-shot games: every time we play, we play different Hunters, who will face new obstacles and challenges every time: the blood moon nights in Heliwyr never end.

This game takes much inspiration from Bloodborne, and contains the same gothic feel. Your characters will hunt monsters in the cursed city of Heliwyr, using resources such as Blood, Stamina, and Insight to weather Harm, fight with their weapons, and summon Ghosts. The game is Forged in the Dark, so you’ll roll dice pools with the goal of getting a 4 or higher - and even if you get a 4 or a 5, you’ll still be wrestling with a mixed success. The tiered success options make the game feel more brutal, and pushes your characters to their limits. 

Bloodstone also has a downtime mechanic called the Workshop, which is a place where your characters can rest, recover, and pray in front of the tomb of the first hunter. The cyclical nature of your quests is what makes this feel like a souls like rpg, so if you like the idea of grinding forward in a bloody hells cape, paying a heavy cost to make forward progress, this game might be for you.

Biocalypse, by Club Xero.

Biocalypse is a survival horror RPG for 2—6 players, inspired by Resident Evil. 

One of you is the Game. You control Parasol—the diabolical genetech corporation whose dangerous experiments are running wild throughout Civet City—plus their grotesque creations and everything else in the world besides the players. The players are members of special ops task force SAVIOR, or they’re ordinary people caught up in the chaos, or gifted civilians with a connection to Parasol and its evil plans (maybe trying to stop them, maybe they helped create them). 

Battle the monstrous creations of sinister genetech firm Parasol. Hunt for weapons and precious recovery items. Find an exit or saferoom before it's too late! There are three character types, each with a unique special ability:  SAVIOR task force members excel in combat. Average people have luck on their side but never know how much. Gifted civilians have inside info on the outbreak, which lets them ask the GM for hints. The game contains procedural level design that maps locations (like abandoned hospitals and secret laboratories) as you explore, plus populates them with NPC survivors, hazards, clues, lifesaving gear, and horrific monster encounters.

This game is steeped in a weird and horrific world where viruses threaten your character regularly. There’s regular monsters of course, which can whittle away at your hit boxes, but getting infected with a virus may change a character’s appearance, give them new powers, or whittle away at their humanity. The game has three modes: Story, Survival, and Puzzle. Story mode is for introducing new characters, and figuring out what the party wants to do next. Survival mode is akin to a dungeon crawl - characters move through a location, avoiding enemies and traps as they try to find the exit. Puzzle mode allows the GM to give their players a series of clues, called keys, to help them get past a complex obstacle. Solving Puzzles is likely to happen while the characters are trying to escape a Location, and thus interacts quite a bit with Survival Mode. If you really want to test your player’s wits, this might be the game for you!

Some other games that are heavy on combat that I've recommended in the past:

Blood Neon, by Radmad, a game about protecting your dimension from horrifying monsters.

Brinkwood, by Far Horizons Co-Op, a game about castlypunk revolution against vampire capitalism.

Disaster/Peace, by A Couple of Drakes, a game about magical girls fighting powerful villains while battling their own internal darkness.

Drifters, by Gila Rpgs, a game  about cursed gunslingers searching for purpose.

[basiliskonline]

I have some suggestions!

Black Hole Era by SolsRoles

Black Hole Era is a sci-fi shoot em up ship combat game that takes place at the end of time and space.

One by one the stars wink out of existence, your ancient civilization exists in purely digital form, massive structures that contain untold digital beings draw power from these black holes, allowing you to live in a period of near endless stability.

However, a new threat has appeared to challenge your stability, Extropians, threats from another dimension have begun to tear their way into our reality with an intent to reignite the stars causing the death of untold digitized beings and the collapse of trillions years of age.

You play kilometer long sentient warships sent to protect the galaxy, using what little physical resources remain in your world. As you destroy the enemy, you will salvage the scrap left in their wake and convert it into more powerful weapons and abilities to continue your fight.

Black Hole Era is a one shot game of space battles Illuminated by Lumen, and is one of my very favorite games.

One of the truly unique aspects of this game is the incredible and almost exponential scale of power through the session, in Dragon Game terms, you essentially go from Level 1 to 20 in a single session. I have never played this game, or ran it for new players, and not had every single one enamored and blown away by how it plays.

Immune by @basiliskonline (thats me!)

Immune is a high action zombie-splatter ttrpg that is illuminated by Lumen. It takes the zombie apocalypse as inspired by video games like Left 4 Dead and board games like Zombicide, where a good offense is often the best defense.

You play Immune, people who have been determined to be Immune to the zombie infection, and thus it is up to you to battle your way through the hordes to retrieve essential materials or other missions important to your safezones.

The game is quick to pick up and play, everything is contained within a scant 5 pages, giving you enough to really start playing right away.

If you want to imagine what a game might looks like, I direct you to Fake Tales of Real Adventure (volume 1) which provides an imagined text-based actual play complete with some basic rule explanation and illustration.

and if you want to QUICKLY get to playing i have an Immune Random Generator that will generate you entire characters, as well as allow you to generate a mission parameter, encounter or special drop.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Excellent!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Would very much recommend looking at Gubat Banwa

From the itch page;

“Violence for violence’s sake is not the rule of beasts but the nature of divinity.” Gubat Banwa is a game of rapid kinetic martial arts, violent sorcery, heartrending convictions and bouts of will. Warriors that channel gods face sorcerers that master black arts, martial artists who have unlocked a new form of cultivation clash swords with those that perfect the night alchemies. When the crocodile’s teeth are cast, convictions are unsheathed, and steel sparks: the Umalagad must declare that: “The river of life ever flows! Rejoice in the glory of combat!” and they enter violence.

Gubat Banwa First Edition by makapatag

Martial arts fantasy in the islands of revel and beauty.

[goblinmixtape]

ECO MOFOS is a a weird hope TTRPG in a post-apocalyptic world, about seeking a safe homestead to start a new community.

You can grab a free version of the demo here (scroll halfway down the page to the community copies!)

[goblinmixtape]

Here's a list of 2-player TTRPGs that will absolutely fuck you up.

Tether

Excommunicado

Signal to Noise

REL1CT

Whalesong

Last Year

A Long Night in the Mech Bay

Wickies

My games & links

[goblinmixtape]

I made a quick video about some cosy 2-player TTRPGs!

Badger + Coyote

Eyes on the Prize

Together Among the Stars

Star Crossed

My links

[leidensygdom]

A Working Conversation About the Open Game License (OGL)

These past days and weeks have been incredibly tough for everyone. As players, fans, and stewards of the game, we can't–and we won't–let thi...

So, WOTC has released a new announcement (again, through DnD Beyond instead of other channels), which is another PR attempt to diffuse tensions. All while not actually providing much. Let me explain why is this entire announcement does not provide much:

For starters, none of these statements mean anything as long as they have the clause that allows them to change the new OGL with a 30 days notice. They can make a seemingly friendly OGL 1.1 (or OGL 2.0, whatever they wanna call it), and change it when people stop paying attention. And if you already signed it, you are thoroughly screwed up. 

Yet, let’s also revise the statements one by one, because most of them are purposefully ambiguous:

[ID: An image with text that reads “Your video content. Whether you are a commentator, streamer, podcaster, liveplay cast member, or other video creator on platforms like YouTube and Twitch and TikTok, you have always been covered by the Wizards Fan Content Policy. The OGL doesn’t (and won’t) touch any of this.”]

I wonder how this one works with paywalled streamed content, like d20. This statement does not mention anything about it. Let’s also recall most streamers (small and big) don’t only survive on streaming, but also sell homebrewed content of their own, which is impacted by the new OGL.

[ID: An image with text that reads “Your accessories for your owned content. No changes to the OGL will affect your ability to sell minis, novels, apparel, dice, and other items related to your creations, characters, and worlds.”]

This one talks about “your characters or your world”, but not exactly about how this overlaps with terms that may be getting hit by the OGL. Is the 6-stat array getting included in the new OGL as WOTC’s, for example? Can you sell merch using these terms? Is “drow barbarian” something they may will try to argue as being their content, not yours?

You can absolutely make any content using your creations, but this statement does really not say anything about stuff made pulling terminology taken from DnD. 

[ID: An image with text that reads “Non-published works, for instance contracted services. You use the OGL if you want to publish your works that reference fifth edition content through the SRD. That means commissioned work, paid DM services, consulting, and so on aren’t affected by the OGL.”]

This one does specifically clear that 5e content is included and not getting affected by the OGL. But not taking a cut out of commissions and paid DM sessions is, well, the bare minimum. I don’t think the new OGL ever asked for a cut of that.

Also, be aware that this does talk about 5e, but not OneDnD. I don’t think many people are planning to move to the new edition once it’s out, but the fact it is not mentioned here is worrying.

[ID: An image with text that reads “VTT content. Any updates to the OGL will still allow any creator to publish content on VTTs and will still allow VTT publishers to use OGL content on their platform.”]

This means absolutely nothing. If the systems themselves can’t be hosted in VTTs, the homebrewed content sold on them won’t work. It doesn’t even specify DnD-related content here, again.

[ID: An image with text that reads “Your OGL 1.0a content. Nothing will impact any content you have published under OGL 1.0a. That will always be licensed under OGL 1.0a.”]

This is the bare minimum. Doesn’t say the old OGL won’t be revoked though (and it will absolutely get revoked if they can), which means that products and companies built on the old OGL suddenly have to change their entire business model.

[ID: An image with text that reads “Your revenue. There will be no royalty or financial reporting requirements.”]

This would be “nice” (not if they reserve the right to use the content you made themselves). But let’s recall they haven’t said if they’ll still have the “can change this license whenever we want” clause. They can suddenly ask for royalties anytime.

It doesn’t say whether you still will need to sign a specific license for it either, and if they can forbid you from going forwards, which was something the OGL 1.1 absolutely allowed WOTC to do. 

[ID: An image with text that reads “Your ownership of your content. You will continue to own your content with no license-back requirements.”]

The new OGL didn’t touch your ownership of the content. However, it gave them a non-revocable perpetual license to use, sell, re-license and do whatever they wanted with your content. And also allowed them to copy it for their own use. This means NOTHING.

This is, again, another PR strategy meant to calm down people with statements that sound nice at first glance that just don’t hold much value once you read them properly. This also comes amidst leaks about their plans to monetize DnD Beyond further, which included:

Subscriptions for players, up to $30 a month

Inability to use homebrewed content without paying for a subscription

“AI-DMs”, in an attempt to lure players in without the need of an actual DM

So, remember: Keep your Dnd Beyond subscription cancelled, and if you haven’t yet, cancel it. Boycott the movie. Don’t buy their products. If you want to, buy books second-hand, which won’t give them money. You don’t need to stop playing 5e if you enjoy it, but don’t actively feed them. Consider investing that money on other TTRPG systems or third party content creators, which always are in dire need of it. And always remain sceptical of whatever PR movement WOTC seeks to unleash next in order to pretend the new OGL is fine.

We don’t need a compromise. The old OGL needs to stay.

(Also since I know most people follow me for art, feel free to blacklist long post or ogl if you don’t want these posts in your dash, I know they get very lengthy!)

[vexwerewolf]

The thing is, D&D is not a game.

I know that sounds insane, but hear me out: D&D is not a game, it is a games console. You don't actually "play D&D." You play "Dragon Heist" or "Tomb of Annihilation" or "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" or "your GM's homebrew campaign" or "the plot of Critical Role Season 1 reconstructed from memory" on D&D.

For quite a long while now - possibly literal decades - D&D hasn't even been the best games console, but it's been "the one everyone knows about" and "the one my friends have" and in fact it's "the one whose name is almost synonymous with the entire medium of TTRPGs," like how "Nintendo" or "Playstation" could just mean "games console" to people who didn't understand games consoles. They might not have heard of a "tabletop roleplaying game," but most people have heard of "Dungeons & Dragons."

For this extended metaphor, D&D is Nintendo back in the 90s, or Playstation in the 2000s. Sometimes you say "oh let's go to my house and play Nintendo" or "c'mon dude I wanna play Playstation" but you're not actually playing Nintendo or Playstation, you're playing Resident Evil or Super Mario Bros or Jurassic Park or Metal Gear Solid or whatever on a Nintendo or a Playstation.

Now, this metaphor is going to get even more tortured, but remember how when the PS2 and the original X-Box came out, they used a standardised DVD format, but the Nintendo console in that generation, the Gamecube, used discs but they were this proprietary tiny little disc format that they had control over? That essentially meant that it was really difficult to make third party titles for the Gamecube that did literally anything that Nintendo didn't want them to do, and also essentially gave Nintendo an even greater ability to skim money off the top of any sales?

So that must've seemed like a smart business decision in their heads. But the PS2 and the X-Box used DVDs. This was a standardized format which gave Microsoft and Sony way less control over who made games for their consoles, but that actually turned out to be a good thing for gaming, because it meant that the breadth of games that you could play on their consoles was massively increased even if some of them were games Microsoft and Sony didn't really approve of. (Also it's worth nothing that the PS2 and the X-Box could just play DVDs, which meant if your household was on a budget, you didn't need a separate DVD player - your games console could do it for you! This was actually a huge selling point!)

What Wizards are currently trying to do now is kinda-sorta the equivalent of Sony suddenly announcing that the PS5 will only accept a proprietary cartridge format they hold the patent on, will control the content of and charge money for the construction of. This possibly seems like it could be a moneymaker in your head because you hold market dominance (apparently the PS5 has 30 million units shipped compared to X-Box Series X 20 million units) and so many people make games for your console, but what it actually means is game devs and publishers will abandon your product. If it takes so much more work, the scope of what they're allowed to do is so much more limited and they're going to make less money off of it, they just won't bother. They'll go make games for the X-Box or PC instead.

To use another computer metaphor, D&D is Windows - it might not be the best system but it's the system most people are familiar with and so it gets the most stuff made for it, but there's is an upper limit on the bullshit people will take before they decide fuck it and get an Apple or learn how Linux works.

TTRPG systems are a weird product because you're not selling people a game, you're selling people a method to play a game. All the actual games are created by the community - even prewritten campaigns needs to be executed via a game master. Trying to skim money off the community will mean they'll eventually give up on you.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Good riddance to the Open Gaming License

Last week, Gizmodo’s Linda Codega caught a fantastic scoop — a leaked report of Hasbro’s plan to revoke the decades-old Open Gaming License, which subsidiary Wizards Of the Coast promulgated as an allegedly open sandbox for people seeking to extend, remix or improve Dungeons and Dragons:

https://gizmodo.com/dnd-wizards-of-the-coast-ogl-1-1-open-gaming-license-1849950634

The report set off a shitstorm among D&D fans and the broader TTRPG community — not just because it was evidence of yet more enshittification of D&D by a faceless corporate monopolist, but because Hasbro was seemingly poised to take back the commons that RPG players and designers had built over decades, having taken WOTC and the OGL at their word.

Gamers were right to be worried. Giant companies love to rugpull their fans, tempting them into a commons with lofty promises of a system that we will all have a stake in, using the fans for unpaid creative labor, then enclosing the fans’ work and selling it back to them. It’s a tale as old as CDDB and Disgracenote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDB#History

(Disclosure: I am a long-serving volunteer board-member for MetaBrainz, which maintains MusicBrainz, a free, open, community-managed and transparent alternative to Gracenote, explicitly designed to resist the kind of commons-stealing enclosure that led to the CDDB debacle.)

https://musicbrainz.org/

Free/open licenses were invented specifically to prevent this kind of fuckery. First there was the GPL and its successor software licenses, then Creative Commons and its own successors. One important factor in these licenses: they contain the word “irrevocable.” That means that if you build on licensed content, you don’t have to worry about having the license yanked out from under you later. It’s rugproof.

Now, the OGL does not contain the word “irrevocable.” Rather, the OGL is “perpetual.” To a layperson, these two terms may seem interchangeable, but this is one of those fine lawerly distinctions that trip up normies all the time. In lawyerspeak, a “perpetual” license is one whose revocation doesn’t come automatically after a certain time (unlike, say, a one-year car-lease, which automatically terminates at the end of the year). Unless a license is “irrevocable,” the licensor can terminate it whenever they want to.

This is exactly the kind of thing that trips up people who roll their own licenses, and people who trust those licenses. The OGL predates the Creative Commons licenses, but it neatly illustrates the problem with letting corporate lawyers — rather than public-interest nonprofits — unleash “open” licenses on an unsuspecting, legally unsophisticated audience.

The perpetual/irrevocable switcheroo is the least of the problems with the OGL. As Rob Bodine— an actual lawyer, as well as a dice lawyer — wrote back in 2019, the OGL is a grossly defective instrument that is significantly worse than useless.

https://gsllcblog.com/2019/08/26/part3ogl/

The issue lies with what the OGL actually licenses. Decades of copyright maximalism has convinced millions of people that anything you can imagine is “intellectual property,” and that this is indistinguishable from real property, which means that no one can use it without your permission.

The copyrightpilling of the world sets people up for all kinds of scams, because copyright just doesn’t work like that. This wholly erroneous view of copyright grooms normies to be suckers for every sharp grifter who comes along promising that everything imaginable is property-in-waiting (remember SpiceDAO?):

https://onezero.medium.com/crypto-copyright-bdf24f48bf99

Copyright is a lot more complex than “anything you can imagine is your property and that means no one else can use it.” For starters, copyright draws a fundamental distinction between ideas and expression. Copyright does not apply to ideas — the idea, say, of elves and dwarves and such running around a dungeon, killing monsters. That is emphatically not copyrightable.

Copyright also doesn’t cover abstract systems or methods — like, say, a game whose dice-tables follow well-established mathematical formulae to create a “balanced” system for combat and adventuring. Anyone can make one of these, including by copying, improving or modifying an existing one that someone else made. That’s what “uncopyrightable” means.

Finally, there are the exceptions and limitations to copyright — things that you are allowed to do with copyrighted work, without first seeking permission from the creator or copyright’s proprietor. The best-known exception is US law is fair use, a complex doctrine that is often incorrectly characterized as turning on “four factors” that determine whether a use is fair or not.

In reality, the four factors are a starting point that courts are allowed and encouraged to consider when determining the fairness of a use, but some of the most consequential fair use cases in Supreme Court history flunk one, several, or even all of the four factors (for example, the Betamax decision that legalized VCRs in 1984, which fails all four).

Beyond fair use, there are other exceptions and limitations, like the di minimis exemption that allows for incidental uses of tiny fragments of copyrighted work without permission, even if those uses are not fair use. Copyright, in other words, is “fact-intensive,” and there are many ways you can legally use a copyrighted work without a license.

Which brings me back to the OGL, and what, specifically, it licenses. The OGL is a license that only grants you permission to use the things that WOTC can’t copyright — “the game mechanic [including] the methods, procedures, processes and routines.” In other words, the OGL gives you permission to use things you don’t need permission to use.

But maybe the OGL grants you permission to use more things, beyond those things you’re allowed to use anyway? Nope. The OGL specifically exempts:

Product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered trademark…

Now, there are places where the uncopyrightable parts of D&D mingle with the copyrightable parts, and there’s a legal term for this: merger. Merger came up for gamers in 2018, when the provocateur Robert Hovden got the US Copyright Office to certify copyright in a Magic: The Gathering deck:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/14/angels-and-demons/#owning-culture

If you want to learn more about merger, you need to study up on Kregos and Eckes, which are beautifully explained in the “Open Intellectual Property Casebook,” a free resource created by Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip/#q01

Jenkins and Boyle explicitly created their open casebook as an answer to another act of enclosure: a greedy textbook publisher cornered the market on IP textbook and charged every law student — and everyone curious about the law — $200 to learn about merger and other doctrines.

As EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kit Walsh writes in her must-read analysis of the OGL, this means “the only benefit that OGL offers, legally, is that you can copy verbatim some descriptions of some elements that otherwise might arguably rise to the level of copyrightability.”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/beware-gifts-dragons-how-dds-open-gaming-license-may-have-become-trap-creators

But like I said, it’s not just that the OGL fails to give you rights — it actually takes away rights you already have to D&D. That’s because — as Walsh points out — fair use and the other copyright limitations and exceptions give you rights to use D&D content, but the OGL is a contract whereby you surrender those rights, promising only to use D&D stuff according to WOTC’s explicit wishes.

“For example, absent this agreement, you have a legal right to create a work using noncopyrightable elements of D&D or making fair use of copyrightable elements and to say that that work is compatible with Dungeons and Dragons. In many contexts you also have the right to use the logo to name the game (something called “nominative fair use” in trademark law). You can certainly use some of the language, concepts, themes, descriptions, and so forth. Accepting this license almost certainly means signing away rights to use these elements. Like Sauron’s rings of power, the gift of the OGL came with strings attached.”

And here’s where it starts to get interesting. Since the OGL launched in 2000, a huge proportion of game designers have agreed to its terms, tricked into signing away their rights. If Hasbro does go through with canceling the OGL, it will release those game designers from the shitty, deceptive OGL.

According to the leaks, the new OGL is even worse than the original versions — but you don’t have to take those terms! Notwithstanding the fact that the OGL says that “using…Open Game Content” means that you accede to the license terms, that is just not how contracts work.

Walsh: “Contracts require an offer, acceptance, and some kind of value in exchange, called ‘consideration.’ If you sell a game, you are inviting the reader to play it, full stop. Any additional obligations require more than a rote assertion.”

“For someone who wants to make a game that is similar mechanically to Dungeons and Dragons, and even announce that the game is compatible with Dungeons and Dragons, it has always been more advantageous as a matter of law to ignore the OGL.”

Walsh finishes her analysis by pointing to some good licenses, like the GPL and Creative Commons, “written to serve the interests of creative communities, rather than a corporation.” Many open communities — like the programmers who created GNU/Linux, or the music fans who created Musicbrainz, were formed after outrageous acts of enclosure by greedy corporations.

If you’re a game designer who was pissed off because the OGL was getting ganked — and if you’re even more pissed off now that you’ve discovered that the OGL was a piece of shit all along — there’s a lesson there. The OGL tricked a generation of designers into thinking they were building on a commons. They weren’t — but they could.

This is a great moment to start — or contribute to — real open gaming content, licensed under standard, universal licenses like Creative Commons. Rolling your own license has always been a bad idea, comparable to rolling your own encryption in the annals of ways-to-fuck-up-your-own-life-and-the-lives-of-many-others. There is an opportunity here — Hasbro unintentionally proved that gamers want to collaborate on shared gaming systems.

That’s the true lesson here: if you want a commons, you’re not alone. You’ve got company, like Kit Walsh herself, who happens to be a brilliant game-designer who won a Nebula Award for her game “Thirsty Sword Lesbians”:

https://evilhat.com/product/thirsty-sword-lesbians/

[Image ID: A remixed version of David Trampier’s ‘Eye of Moloch,’ the cover of the first edition of the AD&D Player’s Handbook. It has been altered so the title reads ‘Advanced Copyright Fuckery. Unclear on the Concept. That’s Just Not How Licenses Work. No, Seriously.’ The eyes of the idol have been replaced by D20s displaying a critical fail ‘1.’ Its chest bears another D20 whose showing face is a copyright symbol.]

[beyond-a-name]

ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL READING IF YOU’VE MADE SOMETHING UNDER DND’S OGL

[sleepdeprivedsurgeon]

I’m building a dnd class rn called “Just Some Guy” and the whole thing is that they are just supremely bad at combat and ability checks the whole time. at level 20 u get an ability called “Fucking Finally” where u get the level 1 abilities of another class. ur hit dice are d4s and the only thing u have proficiency in is improvised weapons. this is the funniest thing I’ve done in a hot minute

[sleepdeprivedsurgeon]

update on the Just Some Guy class

[brewerssupplies]

Hello all! May I present volume 1 of Vyadere's Cantrip Miscellany! It contains 40+ cantrips which range across the whole spectrum of utility and damage cantrips. Hope you enjoy! (Sidenote: Only just now noticing I forgot to specify which classes get access to what, will put out an update when I get home!)

[PDF]

[imsobadatnicknames2]

One of the worst flaws of d20-era (a.k.a. post-3e) D&D is that despite its attempts to codify mechanics for SO MUCH shit that would just be adjudicated on the fly by the GM in previous editions, they lack codified mechanics for enemy morale and I think that’s a big reason why combat encounters tend to become so drawn-out and tedious.

Like, my first edition was 3.5e and I remember the Dungeon Mater’s book had this little section about how most creatures probably wouldn’t fight to the death unless they’re like mindless undead, but it lacked any sort of advice on WHEN it might be appropriate to make creatures surrender, flee, negotiate, etc. I think 5e has a weaksauce attempt at a morale roll using a wisdom saving throw, but it’s presented as an optional rule and most people ignore those. (Also like. Even when people do decide to use it. Using a wisdom saving throw means that creatures with higher wisdom are more likely to stay and fight to the death, which is just stupid)

All pre-3e editions (OD&D, B/X, BECMI, AD&D, etc) had this really simple but cool morale system that’s still used by A LOT of OSR games, where every creature’s stat block had a morale value between 2 and 12, measuring their courage and loyalty. In combat, the GM would test morale for every enemy:

The first time they see a creature on their side die

When 50% of their group has been defeated

(This isn’t in the original D&D morale rules but a lot of OSR games add it too) When their leader is defeated.

The GM would roll 2d6 for every enemy, and if the result was greater than their morale, they’d attempt to flee or surrender. It’s simple, it’s elegant, it takes the guesswork out of when it’s appropriate for monsters to flee, and it provides an easy way to characterize certain enemies as more or less likely to stay and fight to the death. 

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

cultural posturing elves with superiority complexes are way out, now we’re doing elves who literally cannot stop adopting other species and imparting elvish wisdom on them

because elves have a very low fertility rate to counterbalance their remarkable longevity, to the point that childbearing elves are lucky if they’re able to get pregnant, say, more than twice a century

but some elves just want to Nurture and they’ve noticed that adoption is a pretty sick deal, and that their human neighbors in particular always seem to have a veritable cornucopia of orphans sitting around in need of shelter and food and loving guidance and someone to teach them the finer points of communing with nature. 

elves reaching out to their human neighbors nervously for guidance because their beautiful adopted human son has decided he wants to get married but he’s only 25, he’s only completed one apprenticeship, he’s so young, is that really normal? are they sure? are they sure sure?

a 400 year old elf eagerly introducing her friends to her younger siblings: a 100 year old elf, 55 year old human, 27 year old tiefling, and 12 year old human. 

elf parents spending centuries proudly maintaining large and convoluted family trees where some of their great grand-kids are older than their most recently adopted children. elves highly prizing sprawling systems of family that span species and culture and share everything they can with each other. 

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

I’m just. I really charmed by the idea of elfin culture having the potential to be remarkably set in its ways, since they lack the relatively quick generational turnover of other species, but instead being almost infinitely open-minded and fluid to accommodate the needs of their many adopted community members. 

even elves who have left home to become professional adventurers aren’t immune to this; no wandering elfin bard or warrior is going to pass up a perfectly good opportunity for adoption. it’s relatively commonplace to run into adventuring parties followed by one or two or five wayward children in tow, on the way to the elf’s parents to deposit those kiddos for safekeeping. the rest of the party are a little confused about whether their elf friend is those kids’ parent now, or if their parents will be considered the parents and that makes the elf in question a big sibling now, or what. the elf shrugs it off. they’re family, what do the specifics matter? 

it’s a fantasy meme that elves will see an orphan sitting around and ask if anyone’s going to adopt them then not wait for an answer.   

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

and they’re all considered elves which means that within like. a generation or two? the word ‘elf’ starts to become more of a broad cultural descriptor than a specific species. there’s an orc on the elfin high council, and at first visiting dignitaries assume that, obviously, she was adopted by elves. but no, actually she was raised by a lovely human/lizardman couple, but both of them come from adopted elf families, which makes them elves by association, and obviously the grandparents would never allow anyone to imply that their cherished granddaughter isn’t an elf just because she happens to be an orc.

after a few centuries of this calling someone an “elf” means “someone somewhere in their family was probably an elf at some point, don’t worry about who it was.” 

[thatonenewdungeonmaster]

[randomencounters]

Encounter: Mimic that specializes in carrion

[bogleech]

Minion army where some of them are corpse mimics and some of them are just zombies.

But some of them are also hyper-realistic mannequins animated by magic, and some of them are mannequin mimics.

And some of them are dead bodies enchanted as animate objects, but some of them are undead mimics imitating mannequins.

[randomencounters]

Encounter: a variety of things that are some combination of Mimic, Undead, and Animated Objects; I encourage either a lot of perception checks or broad-spectrum attacks

[bogleech]

Regret to inform everyone that as soon as the players get used to this all the minions types are going to start showing up in full body armor which is either regular, animate or mimic but sometimes it's animate or mimic armor with a normal corpse, normal mannequin or nothing inside

[supreme-leader-stoat]

Stock fantasy species but their roles in the world are rotated one space over:

Halflings are the most populous and “mundane” race in the world. From their point of view, they’re normal and everyone else is some variant of giant.

Humans are traditionalist craftsmen and engineers, possessing the most advanced tech in the setting. Possibly a dying race; if so, they’re only found in their mountainous ancestral homelands with a rare few scattered out into the world.

Dwarves are short, hairy, reclusive hominids that make their homes in the forests. They reshape trees and terrain alike to suit their needs, make many beautiful things, and may be privy to many secrets about the world that other races are not.

You never want to meet an elf. Though few in number, they’re practically immortal, and a single elvish rider is fierce enough in battle to take on half an army all on its own.

Orcs are simple, salt of the earth folk with an emphasis on family and community (fitting, seeing as they populate so quickly). Most are content to simply mind their own business, but the more adventurous sorts spill out into halfling lands.

[urbanfantasyinspiration]

This. Your beautiful mind.

[supreme-leader-stoat]

Question is, what happens if you keep rotating.

[urbanfantasyinspiration]

Oh well it’s quite simple:

Dwarves are nothing if not clever, and quickly adapted to their forest environment. They combined many elements from their surroundings, bending trees into halls, taming giant deer and elk as beasts of burden. They even taught the squirrels and small game how to carry messages to and fro. Should any trespasser trample through their territory that have an ingenious network of spider-silk that can detect the origin of the slightest movement.

The Halflings value comfort above all else, so they hollowed out the mountains to be their homes. They built beautiful, indestructible automatons to tend to the day-to-day work, and the riches they found on their digs translate to lucrative trade.

Orcs make up most of the population, seeing as they procreate so quickly. Their empire spans from coast to coast and beyond: they find strength in their allies and through teamwork.

The Humans are the most savage of all the races. Though they lack the Orcs’ brute strength, or the elves long lives, they make up for it in sheer resiliency. One human is easily dealt with; an entire raiding party is practically a force of nature.

The Elves are hardy, simple folk. Their long lives afford them almost infinite opportunity to learn and grow, and therefore they have a true connection to the soil and the crops they grow. Because their children are so rare, they place great emphasis on the group, the community

[supreme-leader-stoat]

Since so far we’ve both only covered “dwarves as elves“…

Dwarves as Men: Dwarven hardiness, medical science, and seclusion allowed them to ride out a plague that decimated the other races. As such, they’re the ‘standard‘ race of the new world that’s risen from the ashes, and have begun settling in emigrating to the various depopulated lands throughout the setting, mingling with the other races in the process.

Dwarves as Orcs: Horrid monsters and raiders more at home in the earth than the fresh air and sunlight. They can wait for decades or even centuries, growing their numbers and building engines of war and invasion tunnels. Then, suddenly, they burst up from underground in the middle of cities in towns, tearing through the ranks of their unsuspecting foes.

Dwarves as Halflings: Diminutive folk who hide themselves away in the hills and mountains, but welcome those who stumble upon them so long as they are good company. They’ve turned their genius to agriculture and the making of wondrous automatons and musical instruments, and are seldom wanting for food or drink or merriment.

[urbanfantasyinspiration]

Imma be real I didn’t even realize we both did Dwarves as Elves. I think it was just an unconscious decision to make them their natural opposites

[pondofreflection]

Hey, how about Halflings-as-Orcs?

Stupendously resilient, frighteningly accurate with any ranged weapon (particularly slingshots!), incredibly good at remaining undetected when they so choose, voraciously hungry and unwilling to do any hard work. The little folk is like a plague of locusts that rides across the continent every century, demanding tribute to stay their wrath. The Elvish Clans, the Orcish Merchant-Princes and the Dwarven Nation have long learned the lesson. Alas, the Humans are newcomers, only recently founding their first colonies in the New World, and are in for a nasty surprise…

[supreme-leader-stoat]

I love it.

[supreme-leader-stoat]

@kansascity-elffriend​ Elves-as-Orcs is already in the original post, but I’ll take a crack at the other one!

Orcs-as-Elves: Originally engineered as the perfect warriors by a dark sorcerer, the orcs rebelled against him and stole the secrets of his magic. However, they were rejected by the rest of the world because of their past exploits and retreated to the deep forests, where they built their own scholarly, artistic, semi-monastic society as a final slight against their dead creator. While their ancestors’ treatment has left modern orcs somewhat cold and distant, they are not (as a general rule) needlessly cruel and are willing to help those in genuine need, provided they are approached with humility.

[pondofreflection]

“Ah, yes, I knew our athenaeum wouldn’t disappoint. Well then, according this particular tome, the creatures you saw were “Elves.” a variation of my own brethren. As these records go, a rival archsorceror stole samples of my earliest ancestors and decided to improve on the design, as it were, by making physiological changes to better suit their peculiar brand of aesthetics. Unlike us, however, the Elves embraced the despicable bloodlust they were intended for.

Amongst ourselves, I do believe they did so out of a sense of inadequacy. Overcompensating for the pitiable size of their fangs. Regrettable, really.”

Original artwork by Federico Lacelli

[starlinedsword-deactivated20240]

i think taking inspiration particularly from the GAME length of d20 seasons is something all dms should consider. we all fantasize about the game that will last three years, levels 1-20, but i think it's also well known that games like that often are a pipedream.

as a dm i've found that focusing on faster paced sessions and gameplay and smaller stories makes it infinitely easier to actually complete games and have fun.

oneshots sometimes are too short to get an 'arc' in for a character, but in shorter games it's perfectly reasonable to get in a good arc for your PC especially if you're working with your DM.

anyways. start dming shorter games and you'll experience actually finishing more games and get to try out more characters and genres and ideas. that's my hot take