Raptus Regaliter

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.

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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.

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