I went to GenCon this weekend.  I've been out of the loop for about six years.

I sat down to rest and while sitting at a table, a man in a dress and red mohawk sat down.  His wife and he were interviewed by a black lady for an online blog.  I think he said he used to write for White Wolf and had released his own, independent game at this GenCon (missed the name, sorry). The topic, from what I could make of it, was some kind of "open letter to the gaming industry" that was posted on another forum (one that I refuse to frequent and shall forever remain nameless).

I didn't catch all of it, but it sounded like the age old bitch of feminazis lamenting scantily-clad women in RPGs and not enough "powerful women" being portrayed.  

Is this truly a "situation" that requires an "open letter" in public posting?  Or haven't we seen more leaps and strides in the gaming industry than the corporate or political world?

Is it a real problem?  Or is it only a real problem to those who are hyper-sensitive to it?  

...or did I roll a critical failure on my eavesdropping skill?

(Off-the-record, the interviewer and the wife/co-author lamented an event that had apparently occured at a previous GenCon where a female was accosted.  I don't know who that event occurred to, or in what context.)

Dude, I thought you were holed up in your bunker in the foothills, waiting for the Obama-nazis to kick down your door and yoke you into slave labor.  What the hell were you doing at GenCon?  A reconnaissance operation?

!i!

Ian,
I have, indeed, "holed up" a bit.  I moved from the RPG conventions to gun shows.  I established quite a successful little business, many thanks to the greatest gun salesman in history -- a Kenyan by the name of Barry Hussein Soetoro.  (You know him as "Barack Obama".)    In fact, it would make me several hundreds of dollars if he'd just say one disparaging remark about guns publicly. And if he put any kind of legislation forward? Oh, man, I'd make a killing!

Anyway, I've learned a lot.  I've never left my creativity behind.  Gun shows are not an entirely different animal than conventions--they're just a LOT more lucrative when your tables cost $60 instead of $1000.  I can put together a 5 table endcap for $375 at the most expensive show around and bring in $2500 - $3000 at a 50%+ margin with gun shows.  (Mind you, my sales are primarily knives, gun accessories and survival gear -- the only guns I actually sell are those that fall under the rules of "private transfers" in our state.  And I laugh my ass off whenever I hear the term "gun show loophole" because *there is no such thing*.)

I'm working with some others, now.  Gen Con was, indeed, a reconnaissance mission.  Next year we are releasing 4-6 settings.  Our generic mechanic (and the driver for all our settings) will be released in the next 3 months or so.  In fact, we're working on the last stages of artwork and tying up some final details, now.  We have a rather remarkable layout expert lined up.

We're also looking at getting some freelancers involved, but have run into the same little problems of how to afford it all.  

The game plan is to release the generic mechanic, let people put it through it's paces, then listen closely to their suggestions on improving it. Using all the suggestions we'll revise it to a 1.1 state and that's what shall be released with the settings at the next GenCon.  We'll be primarily PDF and we're exploring the possibility of some high-quality print copies, but a small run--just enough for those who pre-order and a few to sell at conventions.  So, our margins will be low, but as long as it pays for our table and hotel rooms, we'll consider it worthwhile.

I'm working with some of the team that brought out Promised Sands--so you might see that setting as well (or a version of it).

Not much else to say right now--but happy to share what I can if you have any questions.

Welcome back. If you need some words written, I'd be glad to dust off some samples and send 'em your way.

Watch out for Cylonophile - your post has enough catnip in it to send him into orbit.

I stopped reading at "Feminazis".

What is this, the 80s?

I don't post much (ever) but I felt like I had to step in here and say I think this is the first time I have ever agreed with J Arcane.

Think "smoking nazi's" or "too much fat and salt nazi's" and you get the general idea, I think.

I'm quite familiar with what it means and where it comes from.

If anything, that makes it's application more distasteful.

I always rather liked Promised Sands. Far from perfect as a game,  far too much needless jargon and funny words in the setting, and it was obviously well into "heartbreaker" mentality in the sense of how well the writers hoped it would be received, but it was quite a good little game and a clever setting.

RPGPundit

Is this guy real or some sort of attempt to be funny?

Quote from: Saphim;398310Is this guy real or some sort of attempt to be funny?

Quite real.  

J Arcane.  Yeah.  We got along about the same 'way back in the day.  Ah, memories.     (Actually, I think I bought some books from him at one point through eBay...)  If you stopped reading at "feminazi" then you didn't read the crux of the question. Too bad, really. I never took you for someone to jump to conclusions and make assumptions.  Ah well, I guess some things do change.

Werekoala, I am not the one in charge.  I'm just a contributing writer--but if you want me to pass along your email address, fire off an email to me: vellorian@gmail.com

Pundit, There's some rumblings about putting out Promised Sands in this new mechanic.  And I was privy to a discussion with some writers of material that never made it into the supplements--it seems that unpublished material may be in the offing.  Again, I'm a mere "contributing writer" so I can't claim to know anything of real meat or value. (In other words, I get the memos about a day before the press-releases...)

Some of my writing is slated for the base mechanic, the first setting (a fantasy with some interesting twists on the old tropes) and I know that there's supposed to be 4-6 settings released by GenCon next year.

QuoteJ Arcane. Yeah. We got along about the same 'way back in the day. Ah, memories.  (Actually, I think I bought some books from him at one point through eBay...) If you stopped reading at "feminazi" then you didn't read the crux of the question. Too bad, really. I never took you for someone to jump to conclusions and make assumptions. Ah well, I guess some things do change.

You know how there's some words you hear, and they tend to almost unilaterally indicate pure stupidity and distastefulness?  

That's one of them.  

And besides which, the rest of your question seemed a little too tied to the mindset exemplified by your use of terminology.

In the spirit of responding to rational responses with like, however, I will say that I don't think that gaming has made any particular strides in the area of gender representation, though I will grant some credit to Wizards here with their iconics from 3e, but other than that I can't give any particular props to anyone in the "female characters" department.  What little I've seen of 4e seems like a step down stylistically, and I can't think of any women characters in Dark Heresy that weren't clothed in leather bondage gear of some fashion, so they don't come out ahead either.  My main gaming these days is Drums of War, a game of my own devising, based on Warcraft, which is honestly pretty good about it these days.

However, while I do think some equality of presentation is nice in terms of what a core book illustrates, and I generally in my own writing try to alternate based on what I feel fits the situation (for example, Drums of War solves the gender generic pronoun issue by alternating between classes and examples), it is sort of weird to me to talk about "creating strong female characters" in a roleplaying game.

After all, isn't the point of an RPG to create your own bloody characters?  If the game doesn't present enough for your groups tastes, well, bloody make some!  I myself tend to split 50/50 gender wise when it comes to my own characters, it's all in how the inspiration fits you.  Short of encoding gender discrimination into the rules (LOL -4 STR, etc.), there's nothing stopping you from making interesting female characters as well as males.  

So while I think it's important for a creator to consider some balance in the presentation of the setting and rules as written, ultimately, this is a creative hobby, and it's always up to the players to make what they like with any game.

Quote from: J Arcane;398478After all, isn't the point of an RPG to create your own bloody characters?  If the game doesn't present enough for your groups tastes, well, bloody make some!  I myself tend to split 50/50 gender wise when it comes to my own characters, it's all in how the inspiration fits you.  Short of encoding gender discrimination into the rules (LOL -4 STR, etc.), there's nothing stopping you from making interesting female characters as well as males.

And even then, if you feel there's some gender discrimination encoded into the rules and that just rubs you the wrong way, then get that bit the fuck out of the rules and move on.

I'm of the opinion to let the author(s) of the game do what the hell they want with the writing. Then, as a reader and later, player or GM, I can make my own choices to run this thing as written or not, or at all.

Which is, by the way, how I tend to read all sorts of RPGs talking about "stories" and "narratives", on a completely unrelated, yet comparable, note.

Quote from: J Arcane;398478...for example, Drums of War solves the gender generic pronoun issue by alternating between classes and examples...

(Firstly, not meaning imply this is the most important element in your post, it's just the thing that I want to comment on specifically.)

I had this same discussion with the current group of people I'm working with--gender neutral pronouns, that is.  The writing was all gender neutral.  On a whim, the editor went through the entire document and changed it to gender masculine.  Saved 3 pages in a 150 page document.  Changing it to gender female saved 2 pages.

This sparked a large debate amongst the developers: Carried over to all their future games, was using a gender neutral position worth the added pages?  Was gender female?  They took it to their wives, girlfriends and female friends.  Out of something like two dozen women, only one said they didn't like gender masculine, but that if the examples included women and didn't turn them into "baubles to be won" that it was easily overlooked.

Do you think this was the wrong decision to make?

Quote from: Benoist;398478...if you feel there's some gender discrimination encoded into the rules and that just rubs you the wrong way, then get that bit the fuck out of the rules and move on

(Again, not trying to boil down all you had to say to this point--this is just want I wanted to address.)

This has always been my perspective.  Rather than bitch and moan to others about their choices--which I believe they should have the freedom to make--I interpret the world in my own light and present it based upon the choices I make for my life.

I find forcing any viewpoint down someone's throat equally distasteful.  Whether it's one I subscribe to or one that rubs me the wrong way.  

I consider that if my viewpoint is truly the right, true, just and correct viewpoint then it will win out in the end by nature of its virtue. I don't need to cram my viewpoints down others throats.  I just need to live my life according to my viewpoint and gently inform others of what I believe -- and give them the freedom to make their own choices.  

It's just not worth it to me to get verklempt over something that ultimately I cannot change in someone else--even if I wanted to.

That being said, I certainly enjoy turning tropes on their ear!  LOL  I recommended an image for the book with a beautiful queen, sitting on her throne while subservent male (leather bound) slaves catered to her wants.    We'll see if it makes it into the book...  

Quote from: Vellorian;398473Pundit, There's some rumblings about putting out Promised Sands in this new mechanic.  And I was privy to a discussion with some writers of material that never made it into the supplements--it seems that unpublished material may be in the offing.  Again, I'm a mere "contributing writer" so I can't claim to know anything of real meat or value. (In other words, I get the memos about a day before the press-releases...)

Well just have them keep in mind that the real issue wasn't the system, it was the gross excess of jargon and lingo in the setting. Don't call a spoon some kind of fancy ridiculous name when "spoon" will do nicely.

RPGPundit