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[List] TTRPG Guide to Woke Companies

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

Previous topic - Next topic

palaeomerus

#330
Larry is not at all shy about ripping into the people who annoy him online and making a laughingstock of them to his growing audience, so I very much doubt Mr. Nogueura would enjoy barking up that particular tree. Larry is also into gaming both tactical miniature stuff and roleplaying so he'd care enough to get involved if someone gave him a reason to by trying to shut him up or shame him. He's quite large, good with words, funny, used to train people in firearms use, rich from his books, and did some forensic accounting before that so he is well equipped to engage on any front with anyone trying to cancel him or make problems for him.
Emery

Ocule

Quote from: palaeomerus on August 18, 2021, 01:17:35 AM
Larry is not at all shy about ripping into the people who annoy him online and making a laughingstock of them to his growing audience, so I very much doubt Mr. Nogueura would enjoy barking up that particular tree. Larry is also into gaming both tactical miniature stuff and roleplaying so he'd care enough to get involved if someone gave him a reason to by trying to shut him up or shame him. He's quite large, good with words, funny, used to train people in firearms use, rich from his books, and did some forensic accounting before that so he is well equipped to engage on any front with anyone trying to cancel him or make problems for him.

He has been on the receiving end of the cancel mob for a while now
Read my Consumer's Guide to TTRPGs
here. This is a living document.

Forever GM

Now Running: Mystara (BECMI)

Ghostmaker

Quote from: Ocule on August 18, 2021, 07:22:05 AM
Quote from: palaeomerus on August 18, 2021, 01:17:35 AM
Larry is not at all shy about ripping into the people who annoy him online and making a laughingstock of them to his growing audience, so I very much doubt Mr. Nogueura would enjoy barking up that particular tree. Larry is also into gaming both tactical miniature stuff and roleplaying so he'd care enough to get involved if someone gave him a reason to by trying to shut him up or shame him. He's quite large, good with words, funny, used to train people in firearms use, rich from his books, and did some forensic accounting before that so he is well equipped to engage on any front with anyone trying to cancel him or make problems for him.

He has been on the receiving end of the cancel mob for a while now
With a sum total effect of... well, very little if not nil. He seems to draw consistent fans, and hasn't moderated himself much if at all.

(Full disclosure: I've met him a couple times at Dragoncon. Neat guy.)

Ocule

#333
I've heard Larry Correa is a really good guy, based on how GKG was acting about Venger i'm surprised they took up MHI considering that Mr. Correa is a more conservative author. I use the term loosely here, and a few of his anti woke posts. I can't find his posts on censorship atm since he moved his website from wordpress to monsterhunternation.com.  A more recent post shows stuff like this https://monsterhunternation.com/2021/01/12/it-is-all-about-controlling-the-public-square/ and i've seen some shit talking about him before about how his fans are "alt right" and stupid shit like that.

How do you have GKG who goes around threatening to punch "nazis" like Venger also hosting games like MHI. Only thing I can think of is that assaulting someone would just bring him attention, while MHI can be a cash cow. Though I will say I've flipped through the MHI book and the design team really didn't seem to understand Savage Worlds. It looks like it was written by someone who only knew savage worlds after being commissioned to design a setting for it.

Edited: Changed Jeremy to Venger, hard to keep up with all the threats of violence these days. I think someone punched jeremy hambley and their response was to ban jeremy from Gencon.
Read my Consumer's Guide to TTRPGs
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Forever GM

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Plotinus

Does anyone have the receipts on Nogueira threatening to punch Venger? I cannot find anything about it on the internet.

Ocule

Quote from: Plotinus on August 18, 2021, 11:08:39 AM
Does anyone have the receipts on Nogueira threatening to punch Venger? I cannot find anything about it on the internet.

I cant find it either, but Venger is on this message board i'm sure he probably can. I remember hearing about it though,
Read my Consumer's Guide to TTRPGs
here. This is a living document.

Forever GM

Now Running: Mystara (BECMI)

Armchair Gamer

Quote from: SirBercelak on August 17, 2021, 05:38:17 PM
Quote from: Ocule on August 10, 2021, 02:07:52 PM
...
Red
Woke,These people probably despise you if you don't fall in line and they aren't afraid to let you know it.

  • ...
  • Gallant Knight Games (Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, the Tiny RPGs Owner Diogo Nogueira threatening to punch Venger at a the next con he sees him at, also wanted to to get companies to put "game not for fascists" on the cover of every title.
  • ...

Huh, Gallant Knight Games being red, in both senses of the word, is unexpected. They published and still sell Larry Correia's "Monster Hunter International RPG: Savage World's Edition", so I would have figured they wouldn't be all that bad. Good to know going forward. And good for Larry managing to work with these guys.

   Diogo Nogueira's the founder of Old Skull Publishing, which partners with Gallant Knight Games for production/distribution, but he's not an owner of GKG per se.

SirBercelak

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on August 18, 2021, 11:34:07 AM
   Diogo Nogueira's the founder of Old Skull Publishing, which partners with Gallant Knight Games for production/distribution, but he's not an owner of GKG per se.

Ah, that makes much more sense. Thank you for the clarification.

Dropbear

#338
Quote from: Ocule on August 10, 2021, 02:07:52 PM
...
Red
Woke,These people probably despise you if you don't fall in line and they aren't afraid to let you know it.

  • ...
  • Gallant Knight Games (Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, the Tiny RPGs Owner Diogo Nogueira threatening to punch Venger at a the next con he sees him at, also wanted to to get companies to put "game not for fascists" on the cover of every title.
  • ...

I've got their Tiny Frontiers, Stranger Stuff, For Coin and Blood stuff as well as all of the SS&SS and SB&CS stuff. Not seeing a woke message in print in any of them.

Also, I don't keep up with the authors as far as their personal politics. So long as it's not embedded into the materials, I simply do not care what they believe politically.

Godsmonkey

OK. Here's an interesting one, Heroforge. It's pretty clear they are woke when you are on their site, but not in a in your face way. I've seen pictures of some of the team, who appear to be stereotypical SJW types. The company has a combat wheelchair as an option for a mount/vehicle, and every conceivable variation of alternate sexuality flags, many of which I didn't know were even a thing.

However, (and mind you, I killed my twitter account long ago) I've never seen any overt preachiness from the company.

Going to the site makes me feel like I am sneaking through a camp of sleeping goblins.

Yellow because of their obvious leanings?

Ghostmaker

Quote from: Godsmonkey on August 19, 2021, 08:09:12 AM
OK. Here's an interesting one, Heroforge. It's pretty clear they are woke when you are on their site, but not in a in your face way. I've seen pictures of some of the team, who appear to be stereotypical SJW types. The company has a combat wheelchair as an option for a mount/vehicle, and every conceivable variation of alternate sexuality flags, many of which I didn't know were even a thing.

However, (and mind you, I killed my twitter account long ago) I've never seen any overt preachiness from the company.

Going to the site makes me feel like I am sneaking through a camp of sleeping goblins.

Yellow because of their obvious leanings?
Hard to say if they have actual leanings or are just genuflecting or playing follow the leader.

Keep in mind Heroforge's schtick is custom figs. If there's enough demand for an option, chances are good they'll plug it in. Even if there's not a LOT of demand, it costs them very little to build the 3D render -- a customer who wants the option will pay for the fig.

I would say yellow and just wait and see.

Godsmonkey

Quote from: Ghostmaker on August 19, 2021, 08:15:49 AM
Quote from: Godsmonkey on August 19, 2021, 08:09:12 AM
OK. Here's an interesting one, Heroforge. It's pretty clear they are woke when you are on their site, but not in a in your face way. I've seen pictures of some of the team, who appear to be stereotypical SJW types. The company has a combat wheelchair as an option for a mount/vehicle, and every conceivable variation of alternate sexuality flags, many of which I didn't know were even a thing.

However, (and mind you, I killed my twitter account long ago) I've never seen any overt preachiness from the company.

Going to the site makes me feel like I am sneaking through a camp of sleeping goblins.

Yellow because of their obvious leanings?
Hard to say if they have actual leanings or are just genuflecting or playing follow the leader.

Keep in mind Heroforge's schtick is custom figs. If there's enough demand for an option, chances are good they'll plug it in. Even if there's not a LOT of demand, it costs them very little to build the 3D render -- a customer who wants the option will pay for the fig.

I would say yellow and just wait and see.

I guess the easy way to find out is to start requesting MAGA banners for minis, and see what happens.

Ghostmaker

Quote from: Godsmonkey on August 19, 2021, 08:19:48 AM
Quote from: Ghostmaker on August 19, 2021, 08:15:49 AM
Quote from: Godsmonkey on August 19, 2021, 08:09:12 AM
OK. Here's an interesting one, Heroforge. It's pretty clear they are woke when you are on their site, but not in a in your face way. I've seen pictures of some of the team, who appear to be stereotypical SJW types. The company has a combat wheelchair as an option for a mount/vehicle, and every conceivable variation of alternate sexuality flags, many of which I didn't know were even a thing.

However, (and mind you, I killed my twitter account long ago) I've never seen any overt preachiness from the company.

Going to the site makes me feel like I am sneaking through a camp of sleeping goblins.

Yellow because of their obvious leanings?
Hard to say if they have actual leanings or are just genuflecting or playing follow the leader.

Keep in mind Heroforge's schtick is custom figs. If there's enough demand for an option, chances are good they'll plug it in. Even if there's not a LOT of demand, it costs them very little to build the 3D render -- a customer who wants the option will pay for the fig.

I would say yellow and just wait and see.

I guess the easy way to find out is to start requesting MAGA banners for minis, and see what happens.
I'll be honest, I would want to look at their 'representation' flags to see how far down the rabbit hole they've gone, before testing the waters. But that's a pretty good idea; see what cakes they're willing to bake :)

Ocule

#343
Updated List

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 (Castles and Crusades/Siege Engine) 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 Definitely not woke
  • Necrotic Gnome (Old School Essentials) Makes a point to be apolitical
  • Basic Fantasy Also keeps politics separate from products
  • OSRIC Hasn't given any indication of getting political
  • Whitebox: FMAG No indication of getting poltical
  • Goblinoid Games (Labyrinth Lord) No indication of getting political
  • Frog God Games/Swords and Wizardry Did a bit of pandering with an all female printing of Swords and Wizardry, suspect but worth noting.
  • Post Mortem Studios (Tales of Gor, Punk RPG, Grimdark) Visit the storefront, can't imagine them giving a shit what people think
  • Palladium Does what they have always done, make gonzo worlds
  • North Wind Adventures (Astonishing Swordsman and Sorcerers of Hyperborea) Hired some woke artist, but otherwise seems faithful to AD&D. Doesnt Appear to get preachy
  • Kort'thalis Publishing/Venger Satanis (Alpha Blue, Cha'alt) Anti SJW
  • Peterson Games (Cthulhu Mythos among others) They tried to cancel him for thinking that men shouldn't compete in women's sports. Seems like a genuinely nice dude
  • Riot Minds (Trudvang, Lex Occultum) Does not appear to be political, you can get their proprietary system or the D&D adaptation or adopt the setting to your own system. It's a beautiful setting with outstanding artwork.
  • Lamentations of the Flame Princess Edgelords, cannot be contained. They were on the receiving end of the cancel mob and twiterati for a while.
  • For Gold and Glory Nothing to suggest going woke, seems indifferent.
  • Immersive Ink (Delving Deeper) Indifferent
  • Sine Nomine (Scarlet Heroes, Stars Without Number Indifferent
  • Symbaroum Haven't seen anything political from them
  • Schwalb Entertainment (Shadow of the Demon Lord) They bent the knee a while back and put a pro BLM message though it has been taken down since, so they get to be green for now. More information is needed



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


  • Catalyst Game Labs (Shadowrun) Giving them the benefit of the doubt for now unless someone shows otherwise but this was posted last year https://www.catalystgamelabs.com/2020/06/11/catalyst-game-labs-statement-on-social-justice/
  • 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
  • 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
  • Monte Cook Games Poor Monte, used to make some good stuff. Tends to push things like consent forms in gaming, some stuff on mental illness but otherwise panders
  • Mongoose Games Had a don't be a dick section in paranoia, recommended by poster. Open for debate whether yellow or green
  • Modiphious Publishes some woke products, but doesn't seem to only publish woke products
  • Pinnacle Entertainment (Savage Worlds/Deadlands) Removed the CSA from Deadlands and removed a lot of the old art that might offend anyone particuarly anything with partial nudity or more risque outfits. Also made sure there weren't "too many white guys" in their core rulebook. Still pretty solid but they pander or cave to demands occasionally
  • Hero Games Hires sensitivity readers
  • GURPs/Steve Jackson Games Banned by rpg net for not being woke, though some of the devs might be. Steven Jackson signed onto october surprise, so he did come down with a case of TDS
  • Free League Standard "Gaming is for everyone" spiel, could go either way. Published forbidden lands, which slips in some anti woke themes. Yellow leaning Green
  • Atlas Games (Ars Magica) President of Atlas-Games has total TDS and is another blue checkmark. Unsure of how badly it shows in there games. For now its yellow bordering on red.
  • Edge Studios Acquired all of FFG rpg line, they toe the standard line and employ quite a few hardcore sjws
  • Reaper Miniatures Had some drama about an employee getting into a fight with some antifa sympathizer. Read this and make up your own mind https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/6txuht/reaper_miniatures_may_have_fired_a_guy_for_shit/
  • Gallant Knight Games (Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, the Tiny RPGs Partnered with Diogo Nogueira. Moved here from red but has a strong relationship with Diogo as far as I know but I can't find examples of them actually doing anything wrong other than that.
  • Heroforge Miniatures They pander hard, are not overt about it but i'm sure they will do something stupid soon.

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.
  • Renegade Game Studios/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
  • Ockult Ortmastare Games/Stockholm Cartell (Mork Borg) - Uses OGL to shoot down authors they disagree with. Supports BLM and bailing out rioters
  • Sigil Stone Publishing (Five Torches Deep) Just read the last page in FTD Origins. Titled: "BIOESSENTIALISM, RACISM, AND COLONIALISM
  • Pelgraine Press (13th Age)  "The thing about SWGs (Straight White Guys) is that they make great punching bags. " Still need a citation for this but for now its going red. Also published #Feminism
  • Kobold Press Guide to game mastering has a whole section telling the reader to "check your privilege"
  • The Design Mechanism ( Released a video stating if you voted for a certain political candidate you're not welcome to buy their game. They since deleted the video 
  • Monte Cook Games (Numenera) Partners with Shanna Germain and wrote consent in gaming. Anything with Germain's fingers on it is automatically red
  • Arcanist Press Only make diversity products, they based their company on being woke
  • Gencon A convention, but honorary assholes none the less. They go a bit ban happy, see Jeremy Hambley and the whole thing with "nu-tsr" despite being short lived.
  • Coyote & Crow Bunch of actual racists making a racist game. Screeching about colonization and the whole premise of their game is what if white people didn't exist. One of the worst offenders on this list.
  • Magpie Games (Avatar Legends RPG) Way into BLM and "Diversity and Inclusion, also hired Daniel Kwan from Asians Represent Youtube channel. They tried to get Oriental Adventures banned from one bookshelf and other storefronts. Markets their game as non western storytelling.
  • Old Skull Publishing  Diogo Nogueira who threatened to punch Venger at a the next con he sees him at, also wanted to to get companies to put "game not for fascists" on the cover of every title.
  • Games Workshop (Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, Warhammer Fantasy) IP owners and miniature producers since we are including those for right now. Honorary Dingdong, crimes include general shittyness, going after people for copyright for material they themselves have stolen or "borrowed" and other scummy business practices. They drank the kool-aid a while ago and have actually attacked fans of the franchise for wrongthink. Cool universe, but don't give em money if you dont have to. Chinacast, 3d printing, etc
  • Wizkids Puts the pronouns of their models on the boxes now, also partnered with hasbro
  • Arc Knight Publishing (Delta Green) Delta Green Handlers guide has a whole section on Trump. They are actually more hostile to Trump than actual historical nazis.

This is so far the most up to date version of the list.
Read my Consumer's Guide to TTRPGs
here. This is a living document.

Forever GM

Now Running: Mystara (BECMI)

FingerRod

Quote from: Dropbear on August 19, 2021, 07:00:21 AM
Quote from: Ocule on August 10, 2021, 02:07:52 PM
...
Red
Woke,These people probably despise you if you don't fall in line and they aren't afraid to let you know it.

  • ...
  • Gallant Knight Games (Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, the Tiny RPGs Owner Diogo Nogueira threatening to punch Venger at a the next con he sees him at, also wanted to to get companies to put "game not for fascists" on the cover of every title.
  • ...

I've got their Tiny Frontiers, Stranger Stuff, For Coin and Blood stuff as well as all of the SS&SS and SB&CS stuff. Not seeing a woke message in print in any of them.

Also, I don't keep up with the authors as far as their personal politics. So long as it's not embedded into the materials, I simply do not care what they believe politically.

Quote
Lovecraft, The Mythos & Racism is a both a simple topic, and yet one fraught with complication.

H.P. Lovecraft was undeniably and factually racist. There is explicitly racist content, as well as racist overtones, in the Mythos texts he wrote.

Full stop.

Enjoying the Mythos, liking the Mythos, and wanting to tell your own stories in the Mythos does not make you a racist.

Full stop.

But it does present a necessary challenge to the GM and players. Our guiding rule at GKG is that no one should feel excluded, left out, insulted, or harmed by the content presented in our games, and we strongly hope that you feel the same way regarding the content at your table.

We'd encourage you to take a look at the material you are presenting, the parts of the Mythos you are drawing on, and consider how your game, stories, and characters impact others at your table (especially those already fighting in the real world for equal and fair treatment.)

Racist, misogynistic, discriminatory, or any other form of exclusionary behavior at your table is wrong. If you're engaging in that behavior at your table, you are in the wrong.

Full stop.

It's possible to take flawed art and flawed artists and build upon the valuable parts of what they created to make something new, better, and inclusionary.

We hope that Tiny Cthulhu will provide you with the tools you need to do so.

That is the extent of the politics inserted into the most recent Tiny franchise. I agree with you. While calling it out like this to start your book is a head scratcher, I wouldn't call it 'woke'.

The Full Stop stuff is a little cunty given that is literally what a period accomplishes, but whatever, I have seen him in other settings and he comes across as somebody I could easily get along with.