You know, I mostly write these "Dear JB" posts to have some sort of "content" to post on Ye Old Blog, and because they're pretty darn easy to do: find someone who is suffering with their D&D (because they haven't been taught the proper way to play) and berate them/talk sense to them. Easy, easy blog fodder, which is good for a guy who's way too busy these days.
However, there's another reason why I write them: I have the feeling that there are SOME people who, despite being on the same page with Yours Truly, may be suffering through the same kinds of issues (to a greater or lesser degree), and I HOPE that those folks find something helpful in what I write. Something useful.
Because the sad fact is that a LOT of the gaming world, at least to judge by what's being written and video'd and podcasted about on-line, is INSANE these days. Modern D&D players are nuts. Their problems and issues are nuts...as in, they should not be happening and would not be happening if they took a different approach to the game. If I was a better writer and not some nutty hack myself, I'd put out a nice, clear essay succinctly explaining the proper mindset to run D&D competently...but I'm not.
If you're coming to this blog from a newer edition of the game...hell, if you didn't start playing D&D (or role-playing games) before 1983, you should probably read this essay. Just to make sure you have everything crystal clear in your head. It is, of course, POSSIBLE that you already play exactly as described...it is possible that you have developed a style over time that is, more-or-less, on the same page as what's been written here. But I'd still ask you to check it out...just in case.
I've read it twice myself...it's not terribly long. And it perfectly describes my approach to the game. The approach my friends and I took to the game back when we played the thing for long hours in early and mid-1980s. The way I still approach the game. When Prince reviews my style of running, writing:
Becker runs a good game, and his unpretentious matter of fact style, relentless pacing and sparse description keeps the game going...I highly enjoyed watching Becker in action, the economy of long practice, the workmanlike but functional dungeons, the expedient calls and no nonsense brutality. This was a fun game....
My reaction (besides 'glad you had fun' and 'thanks for the kind words') is I'M JUST RUNNING THE GAME, MAN. That's it. It's really, Really, REALLY not performative. As was said in Alexis's essay: that's just noise. People need not worry about the noise. Just worry about knowing how to use the rules.
It's not rocket science. It's not incredibly difficult or complex. It's just D&D.
Such a good essay. Does my job for me.
If it makes you feel better, I wrote four posts in a day and three the next, and a reader asked if there was a fire under my butt. I wrote this in my Patreon chat, which you never see because you're a skinflint:
ReplyDelete"Yeah, I know. Four yesterday and I'm just about done my third one today. For a long time I haven't felt like writing anything traditional about D&D. Then I got sick for ten days. Yesterday, I shook most of it off; there's a bit left today. Yet, even as I was casting around for something to write, I had nothing.
"Then I read JB's latest; no. 42. And he threw in that line, 'That you've since discovered his show, and think that's what D&D is supposed to be is a pity and a damn shame...' And I thought, 'How is traditional D&D different from Critical Role?' So I wrote that post. Then I felt, 'Well, that's a bit negative, and I still feel like writing, so...' I wrote the next post. And the next. And then, after a sleep, the fourth.
"Today, still felt like writing. Wrote the fifth post and was thinking, jeez... what was traditional D&D anyway? Went and found the white box set and thought, 'You've labasted this thing in the past. What if you defend it instead?' So here we are. Finished 01 and still felt like writing, so..."
There, that's what I wrote before going to write 02 on my blog. You threw out that "fodder" and I'm still on the track, following it. I can't "defend" the white box set without actively getting a lobotomy, but I am trying to do the best I can.
I am nothing if not a skinflint.
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If I had any part in inspiring your posts of the last month, well, I'm glad.
ALSO: I think your analysis of OD&D is quite fair...it's pretty amazing that something so sketchy has had such an impact on world culture over the last 50 years (and not just the RPG hobby). Truly, the Lord works in mysterious ways!
D&D was a truly amazing idea. We usually think of such ideas coming from geniuses, which tends to make us assume that anyone smart enough to think of an amazing this is also smart enough to carry it forward. But sometimes they just "Pull a Homer"... succeeding at something despite being an idiot.
DeleteSteamtunnel here - I don't know. Honestly, everything that he has said on October 14th and 15th was largely covered in the Principa Apocrypha.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me?
DeleteThat's a serious question: are you freaking pulling my leg?
The "Principia Apocrypha"...as I have written before...is a huge, steaming pile of nonsense. Has it been updated in the last four years? Because if it hasn't I doubt my opinion has changed about it since September 14th, 2021.
Please provide some parallel citations for me to check out. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing my thoughts with your "quality" readers, JB. Obviously, I've been coasting these last 18 years, without a single original thought of my own to stand on.
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