In lieu of me seeing “wargamer” be used as an insult for like the fifteenth time in two weeks, being used as a derogatory term for people who want to engage with combat mechanics in TTRPGs, I feel I need to bring attention to the fact that there is an idiotic culture war being fought in the space of TTRPGs and has been for several years.
Hanging out in “progressive” spaces mostly, and talking to an audience who would mostly consider themselves “progressive” and mostly hang out in “progressive” spaces, I’m going to talk about this as it is framed from the “progressive” side, but rest assured, everything I’m about to talk about is stupid as hell from both sides.
There are two sides in this war, not all people even know they’re fighting in it. There’s the “Progressive” side and the “Conservative” side. Now, one would think that the points over which these battles are fought would be matters of, like, racism, sexism, etc., and to some degree they are, but it gets much stupider than that. There is a perception that these factions’ holdings go beyond political ideology, which is how and where this war is actually being fought.
Each of these factions has holdings associated with them which essentially “dogwhistle” you as being one side or the other.
Powered by the Apocalypse
Belonging Outside Belonging
Trad (as in the structure of TTRPG, not like virgin tradwife trad.)
(If any of the placements above seem like nonsense to you, it’s because they are, especially since I have argued many times “combat” and “rules” and “narrative” aren’t actually opposites, but those are the holdings on which you will be judged. I’ve personally been called an “OSR guy” several times as an insult for implying that TTRPG rules are something you’re not supposed to ignore, and I don’t even care that much for OSR games.)
Spending time in “progressive” spaces mostly I mostly bear the shots and venom from the “progressive” side who often ID me as a “conservative” from the stink of OSR and trad-TTRPGs and rules and Warhammer on me.
and however fucking dumb this is, it is incredibly pervasive, and I think everyone should be on the lookout for it so as to not perpetuate it, and to call it dumb whenever possible. Do not get swept up in this. Even if any of those holdings were based on reality, playing TTRPGs is not activism. Media consumption is not activism.
Because really all this is is jacked up bullying and rejection of media literacy. It’s just “roleplaying vs rollplaying” fart-sniffing pseudo-intellectual elitism from the 90s but dressed up in today's langage.
Worst of all for me and those like me, it is assigning moral failing to the notion that TTRPG rules matter, even (and perhaps especially) for “story” and that combat isn’t automatically bad and stupid gameplay. This is assigning moral failing to TTRPG design itself.
