Learning moment from gaming tonight: Don’t get wrapped up in creating an interesting character from a historical/mythological perspective and lose sight of whether the other players will actually be OK with it. There’s a lot of disturbing stuff that happened in the past and just because it may be setting-appropriate doesn’t make it passable. Doesn’t help that I am pretty tolerable of squicky stuff but I think I’ll be checking myself more on this in the future, especially playing online. Mature themes are perhaps best reserved for those you know well.
I’m worried I may have made a bad impression but I did my best to turn it around. I think even though these situations are uncomfortable it is good to talk about it and find another way. I think that helps build trust too.
I think talking things out is the important part. It sounds like it could certainly be an interesting character, but I like exploring some squicky stuff in the safety of an RPG.
I think talking things out is the important part. It sounds like it could certainly be an interesting character, but I like exploring some squicky stuff in the safety of an RPG.
RPGs can be a great vehicle for exploring tough issues, but you definitely have to make sure there is group buy-in before you push to those places.
On a somewhat-related note, I’m always interested in how the status of the person pushing the squicky stuff insulates them from pushback. A few years ago, there was a Kickstarter project called The Misery Index, put together by a pair of guys unknown in the hobby. It was a collection of games that dealt with very dark, uncomfortable themes, like rape, school shootings, and racial passing. It received a huge amount of pushback, to the point where the artists who were working on the project lost work because of their association with it. The KS didn’t do very well, and the guys who put it together seem to have disappeared from the hobby. Since then, a number of higher-profile game designers have put out games dealing with similar themes, and they have been praised by the same community that pilloried The Misery Index.
I continue to believe if Cartel had been created by someone other than Mark Diaz Truman, people would have been up in arms about it (although given Mark’s recent troubles, maybe some people will begin to reevaluate their opinion). When I pushed back on Cartel a couple of years ago, a lot of the people defending the game were the same people who were so upset about the rape game in The Misery Index, completely oblivious to the fact that violence against women is a central feature of the real-world narco stories Cartel is inspired by. I have since come around on Cartel, but at the time I found the hypocrisy glaring.
Everyone benefits from status to some degree. I myself can probably get away with a lot more at the table than other people can, but I try to be cognizant of that and keep as many lines of communication open as possible at all times.
RPGs can be a great vehicle for exploring tough issues, but you definitely have to make sure there is group buy-in before you push to those places.
On a somewhat-related note, I’m always interested in how the status of the person pushing the squicky stuff insulates them from pushback. A few years ago, there was a Kickstarter project called The Misery Index, put together by a pair of guys unknown in the hobby. It was a collection of games that dealt with very dark, uncomfortable themes, like rape, school shootings, and racial passing. It received a huge amount of pushback, to the point where the artists who were working on the project lost work because of their association with it. The KS didn’t do very well, and the guys who put it together seem to have disappeared from the hobby. Since then, a number of higher-profile game designers have put out games dealing with similar themes, and they have been praised by the same community that pilloried The Misery Index.
I continue to believe if Cartel had been created by someone other than Mark Diaz Truman, people would have been up in arms about it (although given Mark’s recent troubles, maybe some people will begin to reevaluate their opinion). When I pushed back on Cartel a couple of years ago, a lot of the people defending the game were the same people who were so upset about the rape game in The Misery Index, completely oblivious to the fact that violence against women is a central feature of the real-world narco stories Cartel is inspired by. I have since come around on Cartel, but at the time I found the hypocrisy glaring.
Everyone benefits from status to some degree. I myself can probably get away with a lot more at the table than other people can, but I try to be cognizant of that and keep as many lines of communication open as possible at all times.