black.crystal.ball

There’s a subreddit for CR (an unofficial one) that I never followed but get notifs from all the time for some weird reason and the amount of posts hating on the most recent campaign (not criticizing in a constructive way, hating) is crazy. It was very mild during the overture, kinda went away during the soldiers table but during the seekers table holy fuck has it gotten nuts.

Most obvious one to start with: the amount of misogyny and ESPECIALLY misogynoir in some of these “fans” is nuts. I don’t know if Aabria hasn’t gone to many cons because of this or if it’s just a coincidence but tbh if she actively chooses to not go to cons because of the behavior of these assholes I would not blame her. So many “fans” of the show simply will not stop talking bad about her and it is ALWAYS THE SAME SHIT! “oh she plays the same character every time” (but they have no problem with Liam and his sad boys, let’s be clear I don’t either but still). “she’s spotlight hogging” (Brennan and Matt have said multiple times in interviews how valuable and loved she is as a DM AND as a player). “she’s always bending the rules of the game” (if Brennan had any problem with it, he’d say so). And when the few people on this subreddit call them out on their double standards, not mentioning race or gender, they jump immediately to “don’t play the race card” or “don’t play the woman card” which is clear, CLEAR projection on their part. If you don’t vibe with a player’s particular playstyle that’s fine. But it’s literally so much easier to say that rather than making them out to be some kind of problem player (I’ve seen people on this same subreddit compare Aabria to Or*on Ac**a. Had to take a walk outside after that one).

Secondly, it seems like so many of these same “fans” were not paying attention when the cast said this campaign and its three separate tables would have three separate tones.

Soldiers: more combat focused, closest to a “traditional home game”

Seekers: more world building, lore and RP focused (hence the name ‘seekers’)

Schemers: more espionage and sociopolitical RP focused (again, hence the name)

Both on Reddit and on TikTok I’ve seen people call the Seekers episodes “boring” and “sleepy” only to compare them to the Soldiers episodes which clearly have an opposite tone. Like duh these episodes are different from the soldiers? Obviously with a darker toned story and players that prefer heavy RP in their gameplay there’s gonna be slower pacing and longer, more serious scenes of dialogue?!

I’m calling it right now. When we get to the Schemers table (which I’m predicting will have the least combat of the three due to them staying in the city and all having a job and an image to uphold) these same fans are gonna diss the schemers by comparing it to the seekers.

“At least the seekers had some combat”

“Why are the players and Brennan talking so quietly and for so long”

“Literally nothing happens”

I don’t know it just makes me really sad. I don’t have a lot of IRL friends that watch the show so online is the only place I can really discuss it and to see this much negativity when I feel so positively about the show almost makes me feel stupid for liking it?

Now I’m not saying you have to love every moment of every episode. But surely there were SOME moments during the Seekers arc that interested you? Or that you found cool? Or at the very least made you laugh? Usually if there’s something I dislike in a piece of media I try my best to find something that I enjoyed, even something small. And if I can’t find one?

Guess what?

I STOP CONSUMING THAT PIECE OF MEDIA

Anyways.

There’s a subreddit for CR (an unofficial one) that I never followed but get notifs from all the time for some weird reason and the amount of posts hating on the most recent campaign (not criticizing in a constructive way, hating) is crazy. It was very mild during the overture, kinda went away during the soldiers table but during the seekers table holy fuck has it gotten nuts.

Most obvious one to start with: the amount of misogyny and ESPECIALLY misogynoir in some of these “fans” is nuts. I don’t know if Aabria hasn’t gone to many cons because of this or if it’s just a coincidence but tbh if she actively chooses to not go to cons because of the behavior of these assholes I would not blame her. So many “fans” of the show simply will not stop talking bad about her and it is ALWAYS THE SAME SHIT! “oh she plays the same character every time” (but they have no problem with Liam and his sad boys, let’s be clear I don’t either but still). “she’s spotlight hogging” (Brennan and Matt have said multiple times in interviews how valuable and loved she is as a DM AND as a player). “she’s always bending the rules of the game” (if Brennan had any problem with it, he’d say so). And when the few people on this subreddit call them out on their double standards, not mentioning race or gender, they jump immediately to “don’t play the race card” or “don’t play the woman card” which is clear, CLEAR projection on their part. If you don’t vibe with a player’s particular playstyle that’s fine. But it’s literally so much easier to say that rather than making them out to be some kind of problem player (I’ve seen people on this same subreddit compare Aabria to Or*on Ac**a. Had to take a walk outside after that one).

Secondly, it seems like so many of these same “fans” were not paying attention when the cast said this campaign and its three separate tables would have three separate tones.

Soldiers: more combat focused, closest to a “traditional home game”

Seekers: more world building, lore and RP focused (hence the name ‘seekers’)

Schemers: more espionage and sociopolitical RP focused (again, hence the name)

Both on Reddit and on TikTok I’ve seen people call the Seekers episodes “boring” and “sleepy” only to compare them to the Soldiers episodes which clearly have an opposite tone. Like duh these episodes are different from the soldiers? Obviously with a darker toned story and players that prefer heavy RP in their gameplay there’s gonna be slower pacing and longer, more serious scenes of dialogue?!

I’m calling it right now. When we get to the Schemers table (which I’m predicting will have the least combat of the three due to them staying in the city and all having a job and an image to uphold) these same fans are gonna diss the schemers by comparing it to the seekers.

“At least the seekers had some combat”

“Why are the players and Brennan talking so quietly and for so long”

“Literally nothing happens”

I don’t know it just makes me really sad. I don’t have a lot of IRL friends that watch the show so online is the only place I can really discuss it and to see this much negativity when I feel so positively about the show almost makes me feel stupid for liking it?

Now I’m not saying you have to love every moment of every episode. But surely there were SOME moments during the Seekers arc that interested you? Or that you found cool? Or at the very least made you laugh? Usually if there’s something I dislike in a piece of media I try my best to find something that I enjoyed, even something small. And if I can’t find one?

Guess what?

I STOP CONSUMING THAT PIECE OF MEDIA

Anyways.