Perhaps you are aware that I experienced some hate from individuals affiliated with white supremacists about a year ago. However, that event did not have a significant impact on me, as I am currently facing more profound psychological challenges related to grief and other matters.
Nevertheless, I have recently realized the gravity of the situation and decided to reflect and educate myself to gain a deeper understanding of why these individuals are present within our hobby and other pop culture-related spheres.
Clearly, this issue is not specific to me, and it is not my sole responsibility to comprehend and address it. I do not hold any personal grudges against any particular individuals and, in fact, seek to dissociate myself from those who have previously targeted me.
However, the purpose of this post is to serve as an introduction or starting point for preventing these individuals from being drawn to or repelled by my content. Hopefully, this effort can also assist other creators in this regard.
Therefore, I intend to engage in self-reflection regarding the elements present in my content that may have inadvertently contained semiotics or dog whistles that may have attracted these individuals.
Frequently, we observe instances where the creator of a piece of work claims that white supremacist individuals with inadequate comprehension did not properly understand their work.
One notable illustration is Neil Gaiman's discussion of the Sandman series on Netflix, which you may have followed. While it is not my intention to dispute the notion that there are individuals with poor text interpretation skills, is this truly a pervasive issue and is it the only explanation for drawing these individuals towards inclusive, diverse and good content?I strongly believe that this issue of politics, aesthetics, and epistemology is more complex than this singular explanation.
I believe that I shouldn't have to explain myself so extensively, but due to my apprehension towards potential backlash, I feel compelled to include this disclaimer.
When playing role-playing games with my trusted friends in a secure environment, I often let go of my critical thinking and fail to notice any problematic elements in the non-public fantasy vanilla games that we play. It is important to note that this is only in the context of a safe environment with people I know will not act in a negative manner, by will.
Naturally, this suspension fails to provide me with a response or authorization to glorify fascism during my home games. It's worth noting that some individuals in our community are evidently drawn to this ideology? One explanation for this could be the use of semiotic traps.
Leni Riefenstahl was a German filmmaker and a motherfucker. She not only created propaganda but also gave form to the fixed pattern of Nazism. In her 1938 film Olympia, she portrayed the notion of superior Aryan standards (clearly erroneous) as an ideal.
She demonstrated a high level of technical skill, and while certain tools have gained widespread use, they remain tied to the underlying symbolic meanings. Rainer Rother suggests that the film Olympia has influenced the perception of athletic bodies, which became the modern ideal of beauty with a propaganda bias that glorifies Nazi Germany through ancient Greek aesthetics and politics.
The same aesthetic is present in the works that inspired tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) in Appendix N, with its narrative and symbolic aspects influenced by pulp culture. This has also affected the mechanical and gamification aspects of TTRPGs, with the six primary stats of Dungeons & Dragons resembling the requirements of a superior Olympic athlete.
The heroic and epic aspect of modern TTRPGs flirts with Greek epics and tales, featuring superior beings performing heroic deeds and surpassing themselves through their superiority or chosen status. However, these themes can also be associated with fascism, such as the Manichaean view of good versus evil, the association of good with beauty, power, and magic, and the religious justification of delusions and predestination.
While this may seem like a far-fetched perspective, it is an attempt to understand the appeal of TTRPGs to certain audiences.
Taking into account the aforementioned examples and recognizing that each TTRPG group is a unique universe, is it reasonable to believe that those drawn to the hobby are devoid of elements that could be seen as distorted, misunderstood, or even ignorant? Perhaps these elements are simply disregarded or overlooked due to our love for the hobby and desire to continue playing.
However, it is important to note that the answer to why certain individuals are attracted to TTRPGs cannot be simplistic and requires self-criticism from content creators. As someone who lives in a society that has suffered from political oppression for nearly 400 years, it is easy to overlook and ignore the colonialist elements present in our community's content, but this attitude must be reconsidered.
While I don't wish to become overly paranoid and prevent myself from enjoying something that brings me joy, it is crucial to recognize the problematic elements present in TTRPGs and work to address them.
This topic is undoubtedly one of the most challenging to address. However, when examining the themes of TTRPGs, such as the pursuit of wealth and treasures, conquests and genocide of ethnic groups or races, exploration of hostile environments, and depictions of so called evil religions and cults, one must consider whether they are elements of colonialism or medieval fantasy.
It is worth noting that colonialism is frequently reinterpreted, justified, and even celebrated by fascist groups. Our history is intertwined with colonialism, and fascists often exalt the salvation of indigenous peoples' souls, the revelation of truth, and other such ideas.
Personally, I have avoided discussing these themes in my content production due to personal triggers. Instead, I often reverse the logic so that the oppressed become the group of players attempting to save themselves and survive. While this may be a simple and perhaps insufficient gesture, I view it as a step towards subversion.
My initial thought is: subversion - not a mere superficial makeover or retelling, but a complete inversion of values, tropes, and intricacies.
To be honest, I personally find it challenging, and perhaps others may as well, to come up with more profound examples. It took me some time to reflect and come up with the relatively superficial ones I provided. While it would be ideal to have a game that is immediately subversive both in terms of its mechanics and world-building, I recognize that this may require more time and maturity to achieve.
My most realistic suggestion for now is to make small changes and approach game development with goodwill. The minor example I mentioned earlier seems like a step in the right direction. However, I believe that creators and producers should be receptive to constructive criticism and open to making changes. Additionally, openly licensed games can always be subverted in various ways.
Regarding MiniBX, I now realize that my intention was to bring about a mechanical paradigm shift, and I believe this objective was partially accomplished by the hate it received. Fascists were not affected by the disruptive or innovative game mechanics due to their resistance to change, but rather as a breach of the entire paradigm that is exposed in this text.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message. If you happen to be reading this in February, I would like to request your support for my Mork Borg Moonless Pestilence adventure funding. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. I hope that I was able to provide some value and insights, and I remain open to discussing any further questions or concerns.
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I've been turning this over in my head a lot since I initially read it a few days ago, since I've had thoughts about it also. I suspect some of the TTRPG appeal to conservatives/fascists/what have you comes from a mix of some of the below:
I'm really serious about the last one, because there's that saying about how if you don't chase a Nazi or two out of your bar, suddenly it's a Nazi bar? I think, essentially—the problem really is that a lot of gamers are kind of wishy-washy about icing people out—like, a lot of people were nerds who got excluded a lot growing up, so it's really hard to convince a lot of adult nerds that they should do that to someone else, even if the "someone else" genuinely sucks and is a literal fascist.
Like, don't get me wrong, I agree that there are absolutely ways in which this is a design problem insofar as I direly want to delete any reference to "race" as a mechanical concept, because that shit deserves to die off. I think TTRPGs could also stand to rethink the relationship they have to violence and colonialism and branch away from those things. But I'm not kidding about earnestly thinking the solution is to make facists feel incredibly unwelcome and unsafe in gamer spaces, which will probably need to involve convincing people in more "mainstream" TTRPG spaces to stop straddling the fence and help out.
First, thank you for writing!
You are right. Made me think a lot too.
I guess we have to make it clear that this kind of ppl are not welcome by telling and by game design!!
:)
muito bom o texto. Eu estou numa empreitada de criar um cenário (e um hack de BX junto) pra tentar decolonizar meu D&D usual, meu primeiro incomodo mesmo foi estético, estava cada vez mais atraído por pensar cenas de jogos em florestas tropicais e o fato de, majoritariamente, encontrar apenas referências pseudo-medievais de climas temperados e cultura européia foi me deixando louco. Daí em diante, os questionamentos foram se adensando em como pensar esse aspecto colonial no hobby, tanto na camada do metajogo quanto do intrajogo. To vendo se reúno forças pra colocar tudo isso num formato de blog, quem sabe entro nessa discussão com você e demais. Abraço
Muito obrigado pelas palavras! Tô curioso pra saber mais e sempre aberto a discussão. Um abraço.
parabéns brother foi muito bem pontuado, até compartilhei em alguns grupos. Além disso espero algum dia o SRD do MiniBX em português, amo seus jogos, abraços.
Muito obrigado! O texto tá livre, então se alguém quiser traduzir pode a vontade. Mais uma vez brigado demais pelo interesse. :)
Gostei muito do seu texto. Cada vez mais precisamos escovar a contrapelos nossas práticas. Parabéns.
Apenas um comentário: curiosamente, os heróis gregos também eram exemplo do que não fazer. Geralmente morrem em decorrência de sua própria desmedida. O heroico tinha um fim trágico, não épico.
Muito obrigado pela palavras! Sim, mas eu quis remeter a retomada aos épicos gregos do que eles de fato. :)
we don't have to, but we could. I know they are all around, but the reason why I'm short of among this ppl, sharing a hobby, really botters me. That's what I tried to understand.
your example is a rhetoric that can be used for anything, is better to look just to TTRPGs and ask yourself: is there problematic elements that convey an ideology in RPGs? Lucas's already listed some of them.
you said it yourself, it doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with ttrpgs. But there could be. Do you have to look for it? I don't think so, but I think it's probably worthwhile to do the investigating.
Fascism (for example) doesn't exist in isolation. The idea didn't spring fully formed from nothing. While it's fallacious to say that anything overlapping with it is automatically tainted, it's also fallacious to say that it automatically isn't.
Thanks for writing this. Many good points.
There is obviously something that draws right-wing peeps and racists, etc. to the, otherwise very cool hoppy of ours.
Probably one gigantic reason is how much DnD (which is a huge influence to many) has always been, more or less, a Power-Fantasy targeted at young white cis-het-males. Including colonialistic domination elements on its core. The group is meant to basically go and exploit other people who are dehumanized and painted as bad. So, that is a big "Yesh, let's play this!" to many cis-het-white-males with power fantasies. Nazies or not.
Of course, there are many other aspects to it, but in a nutshell, that is one of the big reasons, why there is so much problematic material in so many RPGs, in a way that it is baked into the RPG industry and hobby, and "how it should be". So people who are ideologically very toxic, have an easy entry point to our hobby.
And it is very important to constantly work to make your hobby more open for many kinds of people, and about inclusivity. Our hobby has always been meant to be for all of us. Not just to a small group of people, who can gatekeep us others away.
I could write so much more about the subject, but because I am not about the rant, but about having a conversation... I'll just, say in this point, thanks a lot, for making this point!
I'd like a follow up article reflecting on the subversion mentioned here. I feel there is a entire world to be explored by such ideas.
great idea! I will definitely try to go further!
another vote for follow-up(s)