Normally, I wouldn’t post something not RPG related here, but there’s something to be said for the pure, unadulterated awesomeness of an independent musician gaining enough of a following to be included on a game like Rock Band.
So, last night was my usual Shadowrun game night. One of my players called me up early, asked for a ride, and said that he wanted to talk to Kristin and I before the game started, and before everyone else got there. We BSed for a while, and then, before we got ready to play, he explained to us that we had hurt him during Episode 8 of our podcast.
He was absolutely right to do so.
See, we didn’t really think about what it was we were doing when we brought up the situation in question during the show. It was relevant to the topic that we were covering, and we just thought of it as an illustration of the topic. We failed, however to consider how it would make him look, especially considering that he’s active on a number of forums - at least one of which has listeners of our show on it.
While it wasn’t our intention to cast anyone in a negative light, looking back on it, and re-listening to the audio, I realize that that is precisely what we did. And I completely blame myself for it. Fortunately, the player in question is a big enough guy to differentiate between intent and deed, and that is something to be appreciated in any friend. I’m glad that our fuck up didn’t ruin a good gaming group, much less a great friendship.
I could go forth with a sappy apology here, but I’ve done that in person. The real lesson here is for other podcasters, bloggers, and forum posters. Remember, you’re players aren’t just case-studies. They’re your friends, too. Consider their position before you talk about them. Get their side of the story. Most of all, think about how you’d feel if someone talked about you the way I talked about my friend, especially when you have the entirety of the Internet as a potential consumer of your content.
Don’t be an asshole like I was. Friends can only take so much before they decide it’s better to leave both your game and your life.
I think that the problem is that, with a few exceptions, RPG sessions tend to be boring for those of us who aren’t directly involved. The Game Master Show has a slight advantage in this area - after their games, they actually go through and critique the sessions. This is extremely valuable to me as a gamer. But most other AP podcasts simply go through their sessions, without taking the time for post-game editorial.
Coupled with this is the length of the average game session. I’d say most range between 4 and 8 hours. To conserve bandwidth and storage, most AP casts get broken down into bite sized chunks - 2 hours or so. That, however, seems to be the end of the editing process. We still get the long pauses while someone looks up a rule, the side conversations that get inadvertently picked up by the microphones, and all of the bumps, pops, and clicks from impacts on the table. That makes things very hard to listen to.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to edit those shows, either. 8 hours of audio to listen to? It’s not like an advice or talk podcast that you can slim down to carefully planned points of discussion. I really don’t blame anyone for not wanting to sit through a gaming session twice just to cut out the sound of someone’s dice-tower falling over when another gamer bumps the table en route to the fridge.
I suppose my real problem with AP casts is that, for the most part, I don’t get anything from them. The production is to distracting to really catch the great techniques that the GM’s are employing. The mic is too far away when a player cracks a joke, but plenty close enough for the subsequent peal of laughter to blow out my eardrums. I can’t hear what roll was called for, but I can damn sure hear the handful of dice clatter to the table.
I don’t bring these things up to discourage AP podcasters. And, as I said before, there are exceptions. But it would be both awesome and valuable to see if there are ways around these problems.
Hell, if there are, I’ll probably start recording my own sessions.
I listened to the latest episode of Sam Chupp’s The Bear’s Grove Podcast today, and I felt I had to comment on the topic. Bear in mind, of course, that I’m not all that used to blogging, so this may or may not be coherent. Also, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Sam, and this isn’t intended to be any kind of rant.
I think the thing that really bugged me is the idea that, somehow, portrayals of races and cultures in fantasy RPGs constitute actual racism. The most common example - taken from the Gamers of Color LiveJournal community - is LARPers or con-goers dressing like drow (dark elves from the Dungeons & Dragons RPG) being compared to performers wearing blackface. This is really an example of seeing racism where there is none.
I understand that people from certain groups are discriminated against. That doesn’t, however, give any given minority (of which I am one) the right to assume that the creators of shallow fantasy cultures are necessarily being racially insensitive. Sometimes, there just needs to be some bad guys. I mean, nobody accuses George Lucas of being anti-British just because every Imperial officer in Star Wars had a high-class British accent; everyone just realizes that it sounds cool.
To be honest, I think that an orc is just an orc. They get slaughtered in droves because that’s what they’re there for. Yeah, sometimes it may make it more interesting in a given story to humanize them in some way, but more often than not, it’s unnecessary. I’m pretty sure that it’s usually us who project our own flaws onto these nonexistent fantasy cultures and races. On the other hand, I don’t go around complaining that atheists aren’t well represented in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It’s better to accept the fact that people write things like evil, subterranean, black-skinned elves into RPGs because they’re cool. Not because they’re supposed to represent any real-life culture or human phenotype.
Then again, what the fuck do I know? I am, after all, only some poor, privileged honky.
My taste in gaming has matured over the years. When I got back into the hobby about two years ago, I found myself looking at my old standby RPG, Shadowrun, in its shiny new edition. It’s satisfied my for about two years now.
However, after listening to a lot of podcasts, and being exposed to new games, I’ve gotten it into my head to run a Burning Wheel campaign. Unfortunately, for some odd reason, my former glut of available players has all but dried up, and I’m having trouble finding a group to play with.
This is one of those things that will have to be updated as things progress. I have a feeling that when I finally get players for it, a BW campaign will be awesome. I’ll keep posting as updates come
