I Know You Meant Well But Circumstances Force Me To Regulate On You

Warning: this will be boring and stupid. I hate the internet for making me do it. I will try never to do this again. As readers, I ask that you please never force me to do this again.

EDIT: The folks who did this (Judd, etc.) have since apologized and recorded a disclaimer onto the beginning of their show. Like I said way at the beginning, they meant well. They just made some mistakes. They've admitted them.

I'm leaving this post up because it clarifies why that disclaimer is up there.

To The People Who Did This About This:

First, thanks for noticing, thanks for reading sort-of carefully and kind-of having respect for it, and thanks for telling me about it.

Second, we all know that people are way better at listening to podcasts than reading, so your misinterpretation of what I said will get way more attention than what I actually wrote and so it's already over and you win and I lose (especially with your target audience), but, just for shits and giggles, let's fact-check your show:

-To Judd--I am not "lumping lot of different indie RPGs together". In the post I write very specifically about a certain kind of indie RPG. Thus the phrases: "The more interesting indie RPGs I've seen" and "the most interesting and original indie rpgs I've seen" "A lot of the innovative new games". Also note, I only talk about games I've seen. Re-read the post. That was not a post about all indie games, it was about the kinds of player-generated-content-heavy indie games I find interesting.

-To Judd-- I never said my players "don't want to make up worlds", I said they are moody and they sometimes want to do x and sometimes want to do y--and they often change their tack 7 or 8 times in 7 or 8 minutes. It is not the desire to tell the story that they lack, it's the desire to tell the story in the same way for three hours straight. You seem to have missed the main point of my post, which was that D&D supports multiple play styles simultaneously.

-To Judd--I have no interest in the "comfort" of having a few simple choices or a pre-generated premise. I have an interest in investing creativity in character creation (if I feel like it) or in strategy (if I feel like that instead) or in world-building (if I feel like that) or in role-playing (if I feel like that). I am not into D&D because it is limiting, I'm into it because if I choose to neglect one aspect of RPGing, the game swells to fill the gap, leaving me free to concentrate my energy wherever I want.

-All three of you seem to think I'm looking around for a new game and am frustrated that I can't find an indie RPG that I can play. That's not what I say. Here's what I actually say about the 2 games I mention "That sounds fun, I'd play that." Not "I'm dying to play a different game in addition to the one I'm already playing, but I just can't find one because of all my misconceptions."

-The notion that players don't "tell the story" in D&D is unique to people who don't have fun playing D&D. D&D and other traditional RPGs divide the storytelling and creativity duties in complex and interesting ways that all game designers would do well to study. For example: without creative problem solving and thinking up shit the DM didn't, you will die in any game I run.

-We don't play 4e. We also don't play a mishmash of 1 and 2e. If you want to know the rules we play with you can look around on the blog.

-Also, two minor gripes:

-As someone (sort of) points out on the show: nowhere do I suggest that my players couldn't intellectually handle the rules of the kinds of games I discuss, merely that they don't necessarily want to place their creative effort where a given game asks them to place it.

-Also, as someone points out on the show: when I say that the games in question "lower the creativity ante" for the publisher, I do indeed mean simply in the design of the setting. I know creating a game requires creativity. Yeah, despite your stated fear of taking things out of context, you totally did take it out of context.


To The Canon Puncture Guys And Several Other People In The Blogosphere Who Meant Well, I'm Sure, So Shall Remain Nameless:

Ever go to a restaurant with your grandparents and they keep saying "You could have ravioli, you like ravioli, right? Oh, and they have cheeseburgers here--want a cheeseburger?".

Remember how annoying that was?

But that was ok, they weren't being condescending, because they were too senile to remember that you already learned to read.

RPG bloggers, on the other hand, have no excuse. Please stop recommending that I, in my benighted ignorance, "should try" games everyone and their blind, deaf, incarcerated aunt has already heard of and has read all about on the web. I'm an adult, I can read the menu myself, I blog about RPGs every day, I know about Mouse Guard and Dogs In The Fucking Vineyard and Rolemaster and whatever game you think I will enjoy more than D&D. I have google, too.

Plus I'm having an awful lot of fun playing the game I happen to be playing now and am pretty busy what with playing that game, running a TV show about it, plus having a job and a life. When I say "Hey, I have no idea what to do today, someone recommend me a new game" THEN you can tell me all about how I "should try" whatever your favorite game is.

To Arnold, The Guy In The Comments Section Under The Canon Puncture Podcast, The Guy Who Said These Things About Me:

[Edit--I've removed this part of the post because "Arnold"'s comments have been removed from the page. Pretty much because and only because I wrote this.]

To All Other Indie Gamers:

I will do you the favor of assuming Arnold doesn't represent you.

To All Other Indie Gamers Who Read The Comments Under The Canon Puncture Podcast And Didn't Immediately Call Arnold Out On His Condescending Lunacy and Bar Him From Commenting Ever Again:

I will do you the favor of assuming there was an earthquake or tsunami wherever you live or your wife was giving birth and so that prevented you from doing that.

To Anyone Dumb

This is not an "indie gamer vs. old school thing", this is a "Zak vs. Some Guys Who Didn't Read Something Zak Wrote Very Closely" thing. It has no greater meaning and should not be interpreted as an excuse to start arguing some more.