The Culture: The Normie Problem (Part Two)

Reminding you that all this is because Mearls spilled the tea.

As I left off, Wizards of the Coast (and TSR before them) suffer from a leadership problem. So does the commercial side on the whole, as it trickles down from the market leader.

Without the market leader telling the prospective customer how to use its product properly, that leaves the door open for malicious actors to fill that void.

This is the source of ALL the errors about what Tabletop Adventure Gaming is and how it works. This why we have people mistaking Critical Role for How To Play D&D Properly, and it is telling that even C-Suite remains blind to this need when their counterparts in other industries have neither qualms nor problems doing exactly this thing early, often, and repeatedly- as I have described.

The best time to have done this was 1975. The second-best is now.

Because the C-Suite cohort have failed to do their jobs, the Death Cultists in the lower ranks stepped up and began using that void to "instruct" in their stead. This is the opportunity that the Death Cult saw in the hobby. They did not manufacture the problem out of nothing; that is never how it works. Like any Chaos or Genestealer Cult, they used pre-existing issues to push through the Revolution.

That a clear observation on piss-poor Normies are at the hobby-

“Direct conflict” as opposed to “cross-purposes” conflict actually (usually) produces less drama because of its directness. If we’re playing chess, we both know going into it that someone will lose (or claw out a draw) and someone will win. We accepted that as part of the game. But games with slightly more subtle conflict don’t have that psychological acceptance built in to the decision to play the game. A kid might know that there’s only going to be one winner in Monopoly, but what he won’t have realized is that means that he’s going to be (potentially) screwed over by 3 other players at the same time. This is both a much more sportsmanship-taxing ask, and also not an explicit ask. That’s the core of the problem.

- Tenari

Read on Substack

-became an opportunity to turn it into Yet Another Propaganda Front for the Death Cult, mapping known habits and Cargo Cult practices to its Gay Race Bolshevism.

I will bold this for emphasis:

"Normal People are poor sports.

But Normal People want to have a relaxing evening with a mildly enjoyable diversion. So whenever they play a game with “fun” conflict it creates real drama and they either stop playing that game, or house-rule it to avoid conflict (which breaks the game)".

That's the crack in the damn that allows the Death Cult to attempt to use Known Issues to get their way. As always, the issue is never the issue- the issue is always the Revolution.

If you do not teach the Normies how to play the game properly, then they will default to their own piss-poor lazy-assed bullshit every single time. The Clubhouse reliably serves to kill this because there is leadership and enforcement mechanisms on station and in place to make this happen. No publisher is able to do this, try as TSR, WOTC, and Games Workshop might (and have, multiple times) because they do not commit as other industries do to erecting and maintaining a whole culture of proper practice where defection has teeth.

It is not enough to write it in the book; Normies don't read those as it is.

The minimum, therefore, is VIDEO. First a long-form one for the older prospects, then that one spliced up into smaller chunks for the younger ones and put into a playlist.

Following that up is LIVE VIDEO where people SHOW HOW IT'S DONE LIVE. You doubt this is needed? Again, I point to Critical Role and the Mercer Effect. Yes, one or more of you are going to need to get some media training so you can learn how to present to camera without boring people- that's what it takes to win, so DO IT.

No, this is not expensive. Tedious, yes; learning new skills and new tools is a bother. Expensive? No. A lot of this is learnable on YouTube, and the tools are either free or very cheap.

But, this pre-supposes that you want to attract and retain Normies. Tomorrow I will argue that you ought to reconsider this opinion.

The Culture: The Normie Problem (Part One)

Recall those Mearls videos that I posted yesterday--if not, go back and watch them--and then recall one of the persistent findings he reported.

What is that? "Most people just want to show up, say "I swing my sword", kill things, and level up. It's hangout time with the boys."

This is the Normie in the hobby. This is a problem.

Wizards of the Coast, being made up of MBA Brained executives, are long-accustomed to pacifying and accomodating Normies. This is a mistake and always has been. That same mistake trickles down the commercial side of the hobby, and always has, to the detriment of both commercial and hobbyist sides.

The Normie wants to show up, not engage with the game or its setting save in the most shallow and facile manner ("I hit him with my sword", "I don't know or care about the lore; I only want to kill things and take their stuff."), only engage with the game when at at the table (and not at all otherwise), spends no money whatsoever on the hobby, and has no attachment or commitment to it- it is purely a social activity, and thus it is 100% fungible for any other.

We have a perfect Tabletop alternative for this man.

And yes, that $100 (US) pricetag will pay for itself within a month or two of weekly boardgame nights; you'll be happy buying the expansions when the base game is exhausted.

This is what the Normie actually wants out of the hobby, as Revealed Preferences for over 50 years shows:

• No complex rules: roll dice, Hit With Sword, win or die, kill things, get stuff.
• No continuity needed: every game can be a discrete singular experience, with no ongoing commitment so if the Normie misses a week or so it's not a problem
• No Theater Kid crap: no lore to learn or remember, no complex plots to figure out, no relational webs, nothing to pay attention to that is not Hit With Sword
• Crystal Clear Conditions: go here, get/kill that, get out- fail to do that and you lose
• No need to buy: the Normie just needs to know someone that has it to play

Not going to lie; I will get a copy and keep it hereafter solely to do Fantastic Adventure Gaming on Tabletop with Normies and stop wasting their time and mine with the real thing- at least until I can get a copy of Orcs at the Gates (with its strict two hour time limit, so very Normie friendly).

Corporate, due to Dodge v. Ford, cannot get away from reflexively changing whatever it is that they own or control to accomodate Normies. This is why 4e became Analog WOW, and why Current Edition is Analog Baldur's Gate 3 (but worse, as Normies who tried Tabletop after BG3 and bounced off routinely say). Yet neither TSR nor WOTC ever thought to teach a damned thing about How To Play The Game; this is why so many, in error, take Critical Role as exactly this despite CR being fake and gay kayfabe performative bullshit.

The problem, as Mearls' videos (and Dancey's ancient posts before that) revealed is that NO ONE TEACHES THE NORMIES HOW TO USE THE GAME PROPERLY. This was tolerable--not acceptable, not sensible, not a Good Idea, merely tolerable--in an era before the Internet and social media made it piss-easy to cut videos showing how to play the game.

For fuck's sake, Battletech has that and it was done by a player--not the publisher--years ago.

Yeah, I added the guy with the app-based alternative because it works.

No, this is not just about the mechanics--that is NECESSARY BUT NOT SUFFICIENT--but also about PROPER GAMEPLAY BEHAVIOR.

Take a page from the American Firearms Industry. It's NOT ENOUGH to teach a new owner how to use his new firearm; he must be told--TRAINED--how to clean it, maintain it, carry it safely, not cause undue risk of harm to himself or (especially) to others, and this comes not only from the various advocacy organizations but also from the manufacturers, distrubutors, retailers, event organizers, etc.- Turtles all the way down. You can, and will, get shit on and even denied service or purchase for not conforming to the culture.

Only Games Workshop and WOTC even try this, and they do it wrong. You need to create and maintain a specific cultural norm for things to work as desired for C-Suite.

Normies can be trained, but they have to be bullied into it or they won't get on board; the Firearms Industry experience reveals this repeatedly. Corporate in the Firearms Industry is oh board with this due to it being a significant reduction in their liability exposure, legally and politically. This pressure does not yet exist in Tabletop, but it could- and I daresay it should.

This failure of leadership has opened the door to letting the Normies be used as stalking horses for the Death Cult.

Tomorrow.

The Culture: Normies Are What Drives Universes Beyond

(Admin Note: Daily Saving Time ends overnight. Most of your clocks, watches, etc. will adjust automatically. Remember to adjust the rest manually.)

This past week Roll For Combat showed that most in Tabletop are incompetent and incapable of becoming competent; the pattern of being able to perceive the pattern, and yet remain unable to deduce what that pattern means (aside from C-Suite at Wizards of the Coast, and then only partially so) and adjust accordingly, demonstrate this critical disability that disqualifies all of them from being taken seriously.

What is the persistent pattern over 50 years?

• "D&D" is the only brand name that has any Normiesphere penetration; everything Dancey said about Network Effects continue to be proven true daily
• All forms of adventure are achievable with D&D; the d20 System era proved this conclusively
• Players don't give any fucks about lore or anything else; they just want to kill shit and take it stuff (lorefags do video and read books' they don't play)
• Players hate Not-D&D, refuse to play anything else, and revolt if pushed- hence 50 years of "How do I get them to play Not-D&D?" articles, posts, and videos.
• WOTC, and TSR before that, had this data on hand all this time
• The vast majority of players are Normies who are dead weight boat anchors that should have been kicked out and kept out long before the Death Cult showed up and catering to them has been a colossal mistake

Mike Mearls has been independently confirming all of this.

Why does WOTC's C-Suite have better grasp on this than most Tabletop "designers" and publishers?

Because they see this as a business first. They can take decades of patterns, suss out the common elements, and draw conclusions that they can act upon. Universes Beyond (i.e. the Fortnite strategy) is one of them; throwing all the IPs together so players--Normies--can be whatever they want so long as they keep up their Beyond subscription and conform to platform rules without going outside WOTC's Walled Garden is one of those moves and it is (from their perspective) a smart one.

Why?

It conforms to the persistent pattern of Revealed Preference:

• Everything is "D&D" so everything might as well be officially branded as such and make rules-compliant
• Everything already is adventure by different product labels, so using the same structure for everything works just fine and conforms to Normie Revealed Preference for never going outside of D&D for love or money- Normies Don't Work For Their Entertainment
• Everything is an excuse to hang out, hack stuff, take their shit, and do cool shit for lulz (hence why All The IPs, All Together, All At Once, Everywhere, All The Time works)

We already saw this being successful with the other Normie-friendly IP, Magic.

From the Corporate point of view, which is still slaved to Dodge v. Ford, catering to these Normies and their Revealed Preferences is a no-brainer. The issue, alas, is that doing so means that Normies get used to cover for all sorts of far more pernicious predation and that's what I'll get into on Monday.

The Culture: Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween.

If you're handing out candy tonight, have good time and enjoy the kids' costumes.

Also, this is your reminder that the most horriffic game isn't Call of Cthulhu. If you know, you know. If you don't, it's not worth the SAN loss to find out. Take the hint.

The Culture: You Don't Need Drama Rules For Horror- Just Roguecraft

Last week we had the most boring takes.

The correct answer is "Yes, you can."

The problem is, as usual, incompetent execution born of NOT READING AND COMPREHENDING THE RULES.

But, above and beyond that, is this: Failure to treat the "monster" as an independant actor with their own aim to win against opposition. For most Cargo Cultists and Oldfags, it is more than enough to just play the OpFor as proper OpFor to achieve the effect, and that means approaching it as a PVP encounter.

You're using differential knowledge and power disparities to create advantages over the targets that you can then exploit.

Find their advantages, dismantle all you can. Find their fractures and widen them; split the party, lure them away one by one, and pounce. You never fight fair, you give no fucks about Muh Game Balance, but you do it all strictly by the book and you keep the reeipts to prove it.

Done correctly, you have the same effect as Vanilla WOW Rogues ganking people butt-naked with a starting zone dagger.

And boy do those soyboy theater kids hate it when you bring some game back to their RPG.

They'll cry. Fuck them. They wanted horror; they got it- just not the safe-edgy bullshit they thought they'd get.

The Business: Willfully Ignoring Reality Because Admitting It Is Ego Death

Copium from the Pundit.

He--and everyone else echoing this bullshit--are doing the meme.

Pundit knows that Beyond is all that matters.

Beyond is thriving.

As much as I would rather see Bob The World Sharter exiled to the Sun, his "D&D Killer" video showed conclusively that Wizards of the Coast IS UNTOUCHABLE. Credit where it's due; he brought the receipts proving that there is no competition within Tabletop for WOTC at all- not even close.

This is why I can dismiss Pundit's ponderings. The Network Effect in Tabletop is so dominant, and so solidly in WOTC's hands, that not only are they insurmountable now they are now PERMANENTLY untouchable. In order to threaten WOTC, someone bigger from another business niche has to step in and do to it what it has done to Tabletop. That isn't going to happen, not with Blizzard and Disney in their corner- and, via Magic, other major Brands making strategic alliances with WOTC for mutual benefit.

This is what Oldfags and Cargo Cultists confront daily: utter irrelevance, and with it the death of their egos due to over-investment in the idea that their plucky outsider band can make things happen in the Big Time. They think they're the Rebel Alliance, when--at best--they're this sad sack.

Most are not even that; they're the Faceless Wretches that (deservedly) got yeeted by the Empire.

That's not how Network Effects work. You can't fight and win from without on your own; you can only do so from within. From without, it's purely a matter of size; the biggest Network always wins because the bigger consumes the smaller and digests it into itself. WOTC doesn't fear the Oldfags or the Cargo Cult; it fears Fornite and Roblox- hence Universes Beyond, which is WOTC's attempt to work WITHIN THAT NETWORK EFFECT.

The sooner people comprehend this, the better they will be.

The Business: Come Get Your New Glitter Boy Book

In case you missed it, Uncle Kevin's got a new thing up on BackerKit.

Campaign link is here.

Yes, it's already funded, three times over as of this post, so it's a safe bet.

Best value is the $20 softover with the addon for the Mechanoid book to come later.

Yes, this does mean that even Palladium has to resort to begging these days. Deal with it. Christmas Grab Bag season is around the corner, by the way. Expect those to open up again in a few weeks.