My Life As A Gamer: Tracking The Degeneracy Of RPGs Over Time

Talking with some of the bros private the other day revealed something that needs more attention:

What struck me was how little these types appreciate synthesis. What Gygax did with AD&D was synthesize a disparate set of existing stuff into a coherent set of self reinforcing game mechanisms and tools. That is, actual game design. What Urbanski and Avenger and that other dude do is create splat and, to a lesser degree, random tables. But, not random tables that work together as systems. They view rpgs as a smorgasbord whereas a game is interacting systems.

This was confirmed by a comparison of AD&D1 to AD&D2, where a lot of the synthesis between the various subsystems--minigames, if you will--went away because the people that did not comprehend what Gygax did with AD&D1 took over the company and set the agenda for AD&D2.

Those people are among those that ignored rules because they didn't like them, didn't comprehend them, or both.

This trend accelerated through the 1990s, and its culmination was D&D3 after Wankers By The Beach took over, where all of the commonly-ignored rules were officially written out and replaced with rules that reflected the majority opinion of that set.

There is a clear trend in each later edition.

That trend is a preference for immediate gratification, and a disdain for strategic planning and the necessary exercise of foresight.

This, in turn, exposed a childish whine about consequences. "Oh shit, I didn't pick healing spells!" turned into "Crap! Got to swap (X) for (Healing Spell)", and I already spent a post on how spellcaster preparation got neutered.

That whining about consequences continued, such that "If I die/get maimed/etc. then the game/GM is bad" took root online, and that strain of cancer reached Officialdom in Current Game.

Yes, you will see people say with sincerity that this is so.

If you are the DM, and you are the one populating the creatures they are fighting, and they die, you killed them off.

— Don (@donaldkoenig) December 20, 2022

Don is a faggot and a poseur. Know his ilk, and barr your gates to his kind.

The big reason for AD&D1's success is its wargame roots, wherein specific procedures handle specific operations and together they synergize into a complete and comprehensive game that covers all common gameplay situations as well as being good enough for many corner-case situations. All you need to do is play the game as-written and let the magic happen.

That comes at a cost. You have to play smart. You have to think ahead. You have to take calculated risks (and you cannot afford to be bad at math). You have to master the game to win it.

These poseurs don't like that. They presume success. They presume that everything will be easily handled if everyone just swords/magics/heals hard enough--i.e. just brute-forces their way through whatever--and they expect to get rewarded for doing what is expected of them.

They don't comprehend--and refuse to accept, as Don demonstrates--that There Is Any Alternative. If their expectations are not meant, they throw tantrums like spoiled brats and demand their toys. "Wah! I didn't know I needed to pick healing spells to heal!" "Wah! I didn't know I needed four hours to memorize just one high-level spell!" "Wah! I died!"

The only way back is to stop enabling this faggotry.

Do not enable their behaviors. Do not play their fake games. Do not give money to them. If they aren't willing to measure up, fuck them. RPGs are not for everyone; they are only for those willing and able to do what it takes to #winatRPGs.

For the #EliteLevel, a character's death is nothing. They shrug, take over a Henchman or move on to another PC in their roster, and move on. (Much easier to do when proper timekeeping is enforced, as it forces players to roll and play multiple PCs.)

For the #EliteLevel, the Game Master is their friend because they know he can be trusted to be disinterested in outcomes and therefore neutral in arbitration.

For the #EliteLevel, the rules of the game are not a smorgasboard to pick and choose from; they are a complex machine the mastery of which guarantees their entertainment and satisfaction.

The #EliteLevel enjoy the challenge of a real, open perpetual wargame campaign where today's conquests turn into tomorrow's rising powers and yet may cast down into ruin through no fault of their own due to consequences of others' actions, or just the whims of Fate.

This is the realization of the promise of RPGs, and hollow-chested men like Don cannot even conceive that this is how you get to be like Conan, like John Carter, like Elric, like Julius Caesar, like Oda Nobunaga, or the other great men that actually matter in Man's history.

Let us be as Conan, and tread their jeweled thrones under our sandaled feat.