Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Agent of Z.O.G.]

Did some searchign, Hard Wired Island

That was more of a sjw-ey cyberpunk book unless there was a specific bit about space being antifa controlled. Oh hey there's a writup in this thread...

Oh wait it IS set on a space station, not on an island. Huh, okay.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

Does anyone else just implement a no politics rule at the table. How well does it work for you? In most of the games I've played, the rule was that once the game starts, nothing woke, nothing based. It's been my experience that this takes away 90% of the tension at a table since most people who actually show up to a game are happy to let that shit go for a few hours. The people who can't do that are shut down by other players as often as by the DM, and they leave within a few sessions of realizing that their attention whoring is just seen as a distraction.

 

[AnOminous]

Does anyone else just implement a no politics rule at the table. How well does it work for you? In most of the games I've played, the rule was that once the game starts, nothing woke, nothing based. It's been my experience that this takes away 90% of the tension at a table since most people who actually show up to a game are happy to let that shit go for a few hours. The people who can't do that are shut down by other players as often as by the DM, and they leave within a few sessions of realizing that their attention whoring is just seen as a distraction.

I can't even imagine trying to run an RPG in current year. Back when I did, this wouldn't have even ever been a thing. It was just understood that you didn't do that shit, to the point nobody even had to say it. I never even encountered anyone who would try to act like that.

Now, the whole scene is infested with these cancerous vermin.

 

[King Dead]

Does anyone else just implement a no politics rule at the table. How well does it work for you? In most of the games I've played, the rule was that once the game starts, nothing woke, nothing based. It's been my experience that this takes away 90% of the tension at a table since most people who actually show up to a game are happy to let that shit go for a few hours. The people who can't do that are shut down by other players as often as by the DM, and they leave within a few sessions of realizing that their attention whoring is just seen as a distraction.

My table is just friends from high school and one of their wives, so that hasn't really been an issue. Politics comes up occasionally, but everyone's pretty level-headed so we don't really dwell on it, and it never messes with the game. It helps that none of us is a total politisperg on either end of the spectrum.

Echoing @AnOminous though, it's a sad state of affairs that you even need to address this. Anyone who unironically believes that "everything is political" will never be able to be an effective roleplayer.

 

[TheRedRanger]

Been trying to get an IRL game of WFRP 2e going. Got the first big adventure planned out too, revolving around a series of murders connected to a controversial play being staged in the city.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Does anyone else just implement a no politics rule at the table. How well does it work for you? In most of the games I've played, the rule was that once the game starts, nothing woke, nothing based. It's been my experience that this takes away 90% of the tension at a table since most people who actually show up to a game are happy to let that shit go for a few hours. The people who can't do that are shut down by other players as often as by the DM, and they leave within a few sessions of realizing that their attention whoring is just seen as a distraction.

The rule at the two tables I'm in is "if you're a political person, get the fuck out". It's worked pretty well for us. Both groups are long-running, but we usually get a new a player every couple of years and this vetting process works pretty well for us.

Yes, we're all extremely aware of how fucking lucky we are.

 

[Ghostse]

Does anyone else just implement a no politics rule at the table. How well does it work for you? In most of the games I've played, the rule was that once the game starts, nothing woke, nothing based. It's been my experience that this takes away 90% of the tension at a table since most people who actually show up to a game are happy to let that shit go for a few hours. The people who can't do that are shut down by other players as often as by the DM, and they leave within a few sessions of realizing that their attention whoring is just seen as a distraction.

the "no politics" rule, if you have to make it a rule, it usually means its too late.

I usually keep my game worlds grounded ,so if you try to go off spouting off about 32 genders or Racial Holy Wars against the Goblins, none of the NPCs are going to want to interact with you and you'll have a bad time and either self-select or be asked to not bring your fuckery to the table - if you can't separate yourself from it that means you stay away as well.

During especially the 2020 election I had to get more rigorous about "D&D has a start time and takes place in a fantasy world. You can socialize and talk current events if you show up early (LOL), or afterwards. Otherwise, play the game or leave. I don't want to hear about Vax/No Vax/Orange Man Bad/Biden Laptop."

I can't even imagine trying to run an RPG in current year. Back when I did, this wouldn't have even ever been a thing. It was just understood that you didn't do that shit, to the point nobody even had to say it. I never even encountered anyone who would try to act like that.

Now, the whole scene is infested with these cancerous vermin.

I blame it on a symptom of echo chambers of Twitter/Tumblr/Social Media. Millenials surround themself with only voices that agree with them on political issues; if fact being more vocal/histrionic and responding to anyone not on your side with "fuck off" and a block is encouraged. so they never encounter the need to not spout off their opinions 24/7.

One of the upsides to running a bunch of one-shots/short form is its usually easier to keep everyone on task, and you can vet from there. Just having your table be 21+ (or running things at 21+ events or in the 'adults' corner) weeds out most of the highschool edgelords.

I've been in one blue hellhole or another for a number of years so avoiding unironic 1488 gas the kikes hasn't been a problem. And in my experience those types are usually better about not having it permeate every aspect of their existence.

 

[Alabama Gamer]

Funny thing, I play at a table full of Literal Nazis and our characters are actually  less racist than we are. I've never understood the mindset of people who want to do political escapism in games.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Does anyone else just implement a no politics rule at the table. How well does it work for you? In most of the games I've played, the rule was that once the game starts, nothing woke, nothing based. It's been my experience that this takes away 90% of the tension at a table since most people who actually show up to a game are happy to let that shit go for a few hours. The people who can't do that are shut down by other players as often as by the DM, and they leave within a few sessions of realizing that their attention whoring is just seen as a distraction.

For my regular and semi regular groups there's no formal rule against it, but overtime we've come to a tacit agreement to avoid it. While we're all politically quite different, we're also all adult enough to accept that and know we're not gonna change anyone's minds sperging over it at the gaming table. I also end up running games for randos quite often and that's where I have a rule against it. I don't outright state it at the beginning of the game or anything, but I'll swiftly head it off if it starts. ironically the only time it's ever been a problem (and the reason I now have the rule) it was actually two Labour supporters who got into a tard fight.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

For my regular and semi regular groups there's no formal rule against it, but overtime we've come to a tacit agreement to avoid it. While we're all politically quite different, we're also all adult enough to accept that and know we're not gonna change anyone's minds sperging over it at the gaming table. I also end up running games for randos quite often and that's where I have a rule against it. I don't outright state it at the beginning of the game or anything, but I'll swiftly head it off if it starts. ironically the only time it's ever been a problem (and the reason I now have the rule) it was actually two Labour supporters who got into a tard fight.

Same. On at least one occasion I've short-circuited a burgeoning debate. The closest of late we've gotten to politics was to discuss the ramifications of WotC and Hasbro shitting the SRD bed, and hilariously enough we were ALL in agreement as to how stupid they were.

 

[AnOminous]

I usually keep my game worlds grounded ,so if you try to go off spouting off about 32 genders or Racial Holy Wars against the Goblins, none of the NPCs are going to want to interact with you and you'll have a bad time and either self-select or be asked to not bring your fuckery to the table - if you can't separate yourself from it that means you stay away as well.

I'd usually play Chaosium games like CoC and Stormbringer. In Stormbringer, the Melniboneans and Pan Tangians are both basically race supremacists with utter contempt for any other country's inhabitants (as well as each other). So it was really politically incorrect, I suppose, in that it was nearly always one of these two groups that were the party leader and they'd essentially treat anyone else like slaves.

Sometimes the others would get sick of it and frag the leader.

I had a running gag where they'd always have a pair of completely retarded NPC barbarians from Oin and Yu, and their names were always the same thing with a couple letters moved around, because they'd always get killed so soon there was no real point giving them personalities. Sometimes they'd even send them on suicide missions just for shits and giggles.

I think more party members died in those campaigns from being killed by other party members than by enemies. It was sort of Games of Thrones lightened up with Three Stooges antics to lighten up the grimderp setting.

I can't even imagine trying to have this kind of campaign outside of a fairly close friend group that you knew would be okay with it because it was brutally sadistic, racist (which in the context of the setting was completely in line with it), and backstabbing, with nearly every party having two or three factions that were constantly plotting against each other.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

Does anyone else just implement a no politics rule at the table. How well does it work for you? In most of the games I've played, the rule was that once the game starts, nothing woke, nothing based. It's been my experience that this takes away 90% of the tension at a table since most people who actually show up to a game are happy to let that shit go for a few hours. The people who can't do that are shut down by other players as often as by the DM, and they leave within a few sessions of realizing that their attention whoring is just seen as a distraction.

My table is just friends from high school and one of their wives,

My crew is similarly a mix of old friends and friends I made online; I admit, politics do get involved at our tables, though less of a "how can we make this woke?" and more of either a "how can we use this to enhance the setting?" or "how can we mock the terminally-online today?" kind of thing.

Bit autistic of me to say, but; sometimes, the woke really can come up with some interesting settings. I mean, they inevitably get ruined because the woke can't stop making literally everything political, but there are a few cool ideas in some settings; alternate history settings, potentially interesting political crises, mankind making a race of eldritch dragons and murdering furries with them... really, the focus on left-wing shit is seriously hampering some really good writing ideas.

 

[AnOminous]

My crew is similarly a mix of old friends and friends I made online; I admit, politics do get involved at our tables, though less of a "how can we make this woke?" and more of either a "how can we use this to enhance the setting?" or "how can we mock the terminally-online today?" kind of thing.

I had a Ringworld campaign like this when I was in college that was basically "political" in that it was almost entirely about politics (but in SPAAAACE). It wasn't really an analogue of U.S. politics or people fighting about it, though, but about the Known Space universe.

We could almost always never get together all at one time, so when we did, the people who were there usually conspired against whoever wasn't.

It went on for a couple years and the only time for a real hard pause was when there was a situation with combat involving everyone, where we had to wait for everyone to be able to show up somewhere at the same time and roll dice and shit.

 

[Agent of Z.O.G.]

I think my favorite counterexample to DG being wokeshit is the Tcho-Tcho, a semi-human race that assimilate the genomes of anything they eat, meaning that they engage in cannibalism to stay hidden among humans. They're also native to southeast Asia and can interbreed with humanity. In modern times they call themselves the Chauchua and decry anyone pointing out their history (and current status) of being cannibalistic horrors as being racist pseudoscientists, instead claiming to be an ethnic minority from a rich and complex culture that has been oppressed for centuries by regional Asian powers.

The idea that alien cannibals would hide behind wokeshit even got the DG subreddit upset and accusing the writers of racist dogwhistles, inadvertently proving that hiding your horrible nature behind wokeshit is a proven and valid tactic.

I listened to a podcast play a certain screnario that deals with the fallout of an op vs. Tcho-Tcho shit and at the end you're supposed to pick a guy who fucked up the most. The librul players picked the Final Solution to the Tcho-Tcho question guy as the fall guy. Shaking my head family.

Really the big political problem with modern DG is that it presents a positive outlook on the glowniggers,
Also that one recent not yet officially released campaign where the author bitches about how we're not locking down the children and the big bad in the final adventure is ICE.
Somehow I doubt they'll have new adventures with Tcho-Tcho adntags anytime soon...

 

[ZMOT]

since someone mentioned castles & crusades, this just launched:

Castles & Crusades from Troll Lord Games

We’ve teamed up with Troll Lord Games for a bundle of Castles & Crusades tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) books. Pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com

there's also this, and interestingly it's 5E. I get selling the old edition to generate hype for the new one, but 6E is a few years old by now...

Shadowrun 5e Mega Bundle

We’ve teamed up with Catalyst for our newest bundle of Shadowrun 5E tabletop role-playing books. Pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com

as always with humblebundle, adjust the donation on the right. this way you can legally buy the books without giving any money to CGL or the charity (which you can't change most of the time these days either). and of course minimum for the fucks at humble after they started taking a mandatory cut and made adjusting donos as annoying as possible.
EDIT: also check the amount, scumfucks tend to set a higher "suggested" price for what you'd actually need to pay ($18 bucks for each bundle).

Funny thing, I play at a table full of Literal Nazis and our characters are actually  less racist than we are. I've never understood the mindset of people who want to do political escapism in games.

one camp thinks it's own race is superior, the other thinks men can turn into women by cutting their dicks off. it's obvious who has a better grip on reality and fiction...

 

[Agent of Z.O.G.]

there's also this, and interestingly it's 5E. I get selling the old edition to generate hype for the new one, but 6E is a few years old by now...

If you buy this expect me to come to your house the next day with a minecraft.

 

[ZMOT]

If you buy this expect me to come to your house the next day with a minecraft.

isn't 5E supposed to be the best/least worst edition? and you can donate everything to a navy charity (not that I plan to buy it anyway since I probably will never be able to play or run it)

besides, I speak kraut, I already got access to the superior version.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Does anyone else just implement a no politics rule at the table. How well does it work for you?

As @Ghostse said, if you have to make it an explicit rule, it's already too late.

To date, I've been the biggest political sperg at the table, and even then it really only came up twice. Both in modern games. One an Indiana Jones type adventure where nazis and commies were racing against the PCs for some treasure. The other time was when I used Klaus Schwab as the image and template for my Bond villain, back when the WEF was just a thing terminally online political spergs talked about. I couldn't pull that off now, I think people would catch on.

I did have a player leave my Eberron campaign because he thought I was MAGA (despite me being British). I assume it was things said outside the game since I was mostly stringing together heavily revised one shot modules.

 

[Sayer of the N-Word]

As @Ghostse said, if you have to make it an explicit rule, it's already too late.

To date, I've been the biggest political sperg at the table, and even then it really only came up twice. Both in modern games. One an Indiana Jones type adventure where nazis and commies were racing against the PCs for some treasure. The other time was when I used Klaus Schwab as the image and template for my Bond villain, back when the WEF was just a thing terminally online political spergs talked about. I couldn't pull that off now, I think people would catch on.

I did have a player leave my Eberron campaign because he thought I was MAGA (despite me being British). I assume it was things said outside the game since I was mostly stringing together heavily revised one shot modules.

I played with a guy who was at the January 6 protest (he left before the riot), and no one at the table minded despite mostly being Sandernistas and the like. During most of his time with us he played a barbarian parody of Trump, but it wasn't distracting, and sometimes it was quite funny.

 

[East_Clintwood]

isn't 5E supposed to be the best/least worst edition?

3E is the best, the main problem is it has the combines the jankiness of early 90s RPGs and early 90s ideas of future technology, which isn't everyone's cup of tea. 5E is probably the most playable of the newer editions, but it still requires a ton of houseruling, and it has the absolute most dogshit metaplot in history (but 6E might beat it at this rate and it's not even that far into the plot yet) which should probably also just be ignored.