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[List] TTRPG Guide to Woke Companies

Started by Ocule, August 03, 2021, 12:26:41 PM

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palaeomerus

Mongoose put a page about not being a dick in their newish edition of Paranoia which is...I mean Paranoia is ABOUT being a dick. It is a bunch of paramilitary thugs raised in a dystopia with a Demolition Man like idiot culture and these poor people are out busting heads and purging each other so the crazy computer won't purge them and every damned one is a mutant and in a secret society which is grounds to be purged.

How the hell you play that without being a dick is...what? WTF Mongoose? You used to be the 2000 AD people and the keepers of Stormbringer while Chaosium was having their bad times! You did Starship Troopers and helped ADB put out the Call To Arms Starfleet stuff. Now this?  PARANOIA 'DON'T BE A DICK' EDITION? And I can't even explain Paranoia to anyone born after the cold war ended. 
Emery

Klytus

Mork Borg is the work of Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell. Free League is their publisher.
Klytus, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?

An obscure body in the S-K System, Your Majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as the planet... "Earth".

Shawn Driscoll

The Design Mechanism should go in the red column.

Armchair Gamer

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll on August 03, 2021, 08:59:03 PM
The Design Mechanism should go in the red column.

I've seen you make statements like this several times, but I keep missing the details. Care to explain for us slow folks in the audience?  :)

Shasarak

Who da Drow?  U da drow! - hedgehobbit

There will be poor always,
pathetically struggling,
look at the good things you've got! -  Jesus

PonchoGoblin

Forever GM that owns way too many books.

ThatChrisGuy

Quote from: Godsmonkey on August 03, 2021, 02:28:52 PM
I would put Chaosium into the yellow:

They changed up the peoples of Dragon Pass making a Celt leaning people far more Mediterranean in the new edition of RuneQuest.

That's just Gregging.  You didn't think that would stop just because he passed, did you?
I made a blog: Southern Style GURPS

Armchair Gamer

Quote from: PonchoGoblin on August 03, 2021, 10:00:24 PM
Quote from: Shasarak on August 03, 2021, 09:54:46 PM
You could probably make a good start with the people signing this letter:

https://www.facebook.com/mike.selinker/posts/10154136089112309

Good on Mentzer for that reply, wow

Selinker's reply to Mentzer was not what I expected.

Zelen

Thank you for making this thread, very useful and deserves a sticky (also maybe clear out some of the other old sticky threads).

GriswaldTerrastone

These days wouldn't it be easier to make a list of "non-woke" companies?
I'm 55. My profile won't record this. It's only right younger members know how old I am.

Yeti Spaghetti

Quote from: GriswaldTerrastone on August 03, 2021, 10:11:10 PM
These days wouldn't it be easier to make a list of "non-woke" companies?

I'm hoping that Goblinoid Games makes that list.

Jam The MF

Quote from: Ocule on August 03, 2021, 12:26:41 PM
    I was thinking on the topic of fighting back and not giving money to people that hate you, so I decided the best thing to do is make a compilation list of companies and rpgs that are woke, those that sit on the fence and those that are not. It might be helpful when looking at various rpgs to know what you are getting into before you buy in. If there are any other companies that you know of just comment with the company or rpg line and why you think it is. I'm sure ill get some stuff wrong here but it might be a good thing to have around.

Green
Not Woke or Indifferent

  • RPG Pundit (Lion and Dragon, Arrows of Indra, Dark Albion): Historical fiction and stays true to the mindset of the times. See his YT channel. Might create a new category here for anti sjw.
  • Troll Lord Games Supports vets with big discounts, generally stays apolitical.
  • Studio Agate/Shadows of Esteren No indication of any affiliation. Decent game, takes forever to fill kickstarters though.
  • Precis Intermedia: "Makers of the Genre Diversion System and a publisher of any other games. Never seen anything woke from them, and the owner seems like a really cool, level-headed guy"
  • Autarch/ACKS no indication one way or the other
  • Necrotic Gnome Makes a point to be apolitical
  • Basic Fantasy Also keeps politics separate from products


Yellow
Sort of Woke or Panders- If it's there it's subtle. They "bend the knee" to the grifters, or maybe they themselves are woke


  • Fantasy Flight Games Hard to decide if it belongs here or just in the woke catagory. They gender and race swap characters, ban words that might be considered offensive like Banzai, and generally allow the woke mob to take over the forums and run away with their trade dress etc. They dont constantly harass potential customers and tell them how much they hate em at least.
  • Talsorian Games Mixed Bag imo, they lean really heavily into IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) it's on their page rules. Lots of pronouns in bios, They havn't gone full crazy just yet
  • Frog God Games/Swords and Wizardry Did a bit of pandering with an all female printing of Swords and Wizardry, suspect but worth noting.
  • Goodman Games - Tried to protect itself by distancing itself from Judges Guild and donating to ADL. Other than that can't really find anything else on them. Praised BLM for a time
  • Chaosium Changed in world lore to be more for Runequest, some censorship and bending to BLM/GLBT+ demands

Red
Woke,These people probably despise you if you don't fall in line and they aren't afraid to let you know it.

  • Wizards of the Coast - Harasses customers, diversity checkboxes, hires based on race, pedo judges, bans anyone they disagree with on social issues from all sanctioned events. True dumpster fire.
  • Paizo- Has whole pages in their books telling you how you must play there game and be inclusive. Harasses customers, aggressively moderates forums against anyone to the right of stalin, Retconned Golarion lore to be more inclusive, starfinder even had an adventure where you needed to get a professor at a university to apologize for being insensitive despite being factually correct. No lie, first adventure path. Another AP for Pathfinder showed all men as incompetent, read like a tumblr blog and all the women were super powerful and if you didnt bring the black, lesbian, disabled ranger with you then you automatically lost. Iron Gods or something like that.
  • Zweihander/Grim and Perilous Games- Freakin Dumpster Fire,
  • Cubicle 7 - Not as bad as the others on this list, they're definitely woke. Their art design generally shows it, having extremely odd choices for portraits in warhammer fantasy line and ignoring in world cultural practices like female dwarven artisans arent generally a thing. Ticks diversity checkboxes, pronouns in the bio. I havn't seen them harassing customers yet so that's a win.
  • Mophidious/Vampire the Masquerade 5e Not sure where to start with these guys, woke in their products and openly hate you
  • Onyx Path Publishing/Chronicles of Darkness
  • New White Wolf Publishing Not sure if they're still around, see Mophidious and Onyx Path they're all sister companies.
  • Green Ronin- Chris Pramas is a full-on member of ANTIFA, has a vitriolic hatred for white people, and his products reflect this. Publishes "Blue Rose", the gay RPG
  • Monkey House Games/Jeff Dee: Enormous asshole and activist. If you are republican or conservative or Christian this hates you.
  • Evil Hat Productions- Another poster child for woke gaming. Embedded in everything from their forums, to their products and staff. Openly tells you if you don't like their politics don't buy their games. Too easy
  • Free League - Uses OGL to shoot down authors they disagree with. Supports BLM and bailing out rioters


Unknown

  • GURPs/Steve Jackson Games
  • Palladium
  • Whitebox
  • For Gold and Glory
  • Immersive Ink (Delving Deeper)
  • OSRIC



[/list]


I don't think anyone can legitimately criticize the White Box FMAG rules as having a political or SJW leaning.  It's just a good fun game, that ignores that other crap.  It's my favorite D&D.  I have paired that game up with the 1E AD&D Monster Manual, and they are D&D to me.  I have dozens of other RPG books, but they are really just reading material now.
Let the Dice, Decide the Outcome.  Accept the Results.

Melichor

Steve Jackson Games is yellow. They definitely pander.

Sigil Stone Publishing (Five Torches Deep), definitely Red. Just read the last page in FTD Origins.
Titled: "BIOESSENTIALISM, RACISM, AND COLONIALISM" the ranting screed starts thusly:
QuoteClassic rpgs are rooted in colonialist, racist, and other bigoted concepts. Going into new areas, killing monsters, and stealing their stuff is largely based on the cruel realities of historical and modern colonial conquest.
This was very disappointing to me because discussion here about FTD intrigued me enough to buy the game and supplements.

palaeomerus

Reaper miniatures let one of their online community guys go for condemning Antifa in his social media beck when the Reaper Bones IV campaign was running, and later during the summer of Wisconsin burning they put a corporate support of BLM statement on their website.

They kept it up but never talked about it much openly probably realizing it was a stinker.  They don't babble about pulling the perky tits off of sirens and succubi to protect them from the male gaze or anything and I've never heard them cheer on Jeremy Hambley getting jumped at a bar near Gencon or anything like that. They also didn't join in the dogpiling on Menzter (SJG actually condemned the decision to de-invite him from a con).

So, that is a yellow. Pandering but no " we don't want your money and we hate you here are some queer high school/college slow dance minis with swappable heads and ambiguous gender coding, shit lords!" Not yet.
Emery

palaeomerus

CMON who seems to have joined or allied with Asmodee at least in their online store operations is yellow officially but they have a board game designer named  Eric M. Lang who is very vocal and hateful and shrill about stupid woke shit and anyone who won't sufficiently kowtow to it. He's the guy who ornaments/remakes Risk but with viking myths and Diplomacy but with Samurai myths. He did one about ancient Egypt that was sort of like that cults game only with giant mummies and shit.
Emery