If you're going to call me out like that you can at least use my name.
At least you're having more fun than me!
I kind of disagree. I've mentioned HEMA guy before. He's one who's watched too many gun jesus and Shadiversity videos and complains constantly about things being "realistic" or not.
Oh, I was specifically talking about the opposite end of the spectrum: furries, fetishists, weebs, the IDPOL-obsessed, and other assorted autists that most Farms users would struggle to tolerate in their games. People like HEMA guy are exactly who I was referring to when I said simulationist systems tend to attract
other breeds of autism instead.
Personally, I'd much rather deal with a player whose disruptive behaviors stem from an overactive interest in military subjects, history, "realism", STEM fields, religion, and so on. I've had plenty of interactions with both sorts, and people like HEMA guy are much easier to placate and tard wrangle in my experience, because their complaints tend to come from what
they perceive to be discrepancies in immersion, verisimilitude, and a desire for accurate representation of real world phenomenon when it comes to rulings/rules. Often, many of these complaints are simply a means to an end: the desire to win at all costs, and they will argue anything in their favor that will help them achieve this (a lot of them tend to be powergamers, as well.) All of these things can be planned around from a GM perspective (especially if you're familiar with the individual in question), and often times a simple houserule or lengthy discussion concerning any rules or realism quibbles after the game can resolve any complaints they may have. I've also learned quite a bit from these types of players about a variety of subjects, both at the table and when bullshitting outside of it, though I've also had my eyes glaze over in boredom when being barraged with fun facts about Napoleonic-era warfare for 3 hours. Your mileage may vary.
On the other hand, people from the other end of the spectrum find their conflict in the philosophy and tone of the roleplay itself, and all of their complaints serve to advocate for one thing: themselves. They are only interested in the game if it serves their desires and puts the spotlight on them (and their character.) The realism autist will go out of his way, more often than not, to make a character that fits into the setting and tone of the game, because they view it as a simulation of the fiction. They may want to win at all costs, but they often want the group to share in this victory as well. Meanwhile, the furry will bitch and moan in your DMs about wanting to play a Kitsune in your historical Sengoku-era samurai campaign, will insists on 20 varieties of homebrew so that their character sheet matches their "artistic vision", and will be the first to pull out their phone when they aren't the center of attention. I will take Bob the Fighter (son of Bob the Fighter, brother of the same) any day of the week, over Scarlet Moonglitter the Kitsune Sorcerer whose achievements could fill ten volumes before level 1.
All that being said, there's a time and a place for every autist. I would never invite the ex-military grognard to play Maid RPG (though it would certainly be entertaining), but he has a permanent spot in my Delta Green campaigns. Conversely, the furry can stay the fuck away from my ACKS games, but if for whatever reason I wanted to try BESM, I'd probably give them a pity call. Were it a perfect world I wouldn't have to deal with any flavor of disruptive autism in my games, but this is not a perfect world, so I'll strategize about wrangling them and keeping them away from my games when they aren't wanted instead. I think my preference for HEMA guy flavors of autism probably comes from my own preferences (I mainly run OSR-adjacent games these days), but there was a time when I heavily dabbled in narrative games as well, and did find myself preferring the company of theater kids and fanfic writers at that time.
Given Catalyst's well-documented financial fiascos and malicious mismanagement of their IPs, I'd say odds are 50/50 on it being AI-generated, or the work of some bottom of the barrel freelancer that took having their OC inserted into a lore sidebar as payment.
It's filled with sidebars and passages about not letting realism and historical accuracy get in the way of what players want to be or are comfortable with. In fact, IIRC, one of the official pre-gens is an African American woman at University dating a White dude. Historical racism? Yeah, lets just pretend that was never a thing in the 1880s.
It's been a while since I've cracked open the books, but I'm fairly certain more recent Chaosium CoC products contain such sidebars and disclaimers as well. This sort of thing has been going on for quite a while when it comes to Lovecraft-adjacent tabletop properties (probably to compensate for the "revelation" that he was racist), especially in the board game sphere (which is where the Arkham Horror RPG has its origins.)
Another example of this historical hand-waving can be seen in the most current iteration of Deadlands, where the very existence of the Confederacy has been swept under the rug, despite it being one of the focal points of conflict within the setting in all previous iterations. This was purportedly done to make the idea of an African-American character (in late 19th century alt-history America) less uncomfortable for players. Anecdotally, every African-American individual that I've played Deadlands with has relished the opportunity to play a Django-esque badass that gets called racial slurs before shoving a six-shooter up some Texas Ranger's assless chaps, but I guess that wasn't the experience of the designers.
It's funny but there are multiple things that appeal about the RPG hobby. Imagination, number crunching, love of language, challenge and threat... and Escapism. Some people lean very, very heavily into the latter and have little interest in the rest. IMO, if that's all you're seeking, go watch your favourite anime or something.
This emphasis on escapism and narrativism in the hobby is a (relatively) recent phenomenon. Ignoring the popularization of D&D specifically in recent years, mainly among groups that wouldn't have touched the hobby with a 10-foot pole were it not now socially acceptable to do so, I think the problem now lies with how people are introduced to it.
Prior to this recent popularization, there were what I consider to be four primary "pipelines" into the hobby:
1) Other tabletop hobbies such as war games, board games, and miniatures games. Let us not forget that the entire foundation of this hobby is centered on this, with the collaborative and improvisational storytelling elements only emerging as a matter of due course. Those elements wouldn't become popular enough to form entire successful systems around until the 90's, and wouldn't really dominate until the 2010's.
2) An interest in Fantasy and Sci-fi media. Quite a few people have been introduced to the hobby because they saw Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Warhammer, or some other intellectual property gracing the cover of an RPG rulebook. Over the years this would evolve to include a wider range of IPs encompassing animation, video games, comics, etc.
3) Video games, mainly the obvious staples of the CRPG and dungeon crawling genres, such as Baldur's Gate, Wizardry, Gothic, Ultima, Elder Scrolls, and so on. The desire to play games like these, sans the artificial limits imposed on player agency by a game engine, has led many people into the hobby as well.
4) Freeform roleplay, the most reviled of the lot. A degenerate practice once found on all corners of IRC chat rooms, forums, message boards, and now Discord. This is where a lot of players from the furry/weeb/fetish/fanfic/mary sue side of the autism spectrum come from, and it's where they learned all their bad habits. Thinly veiled reference characters, meta-gaming, disregard for immersion and tone, overriding the actions of others (Cops & Robbers bullshit), etc. This practice once served as a containment zone or training grounds of sorts, and those who were worthy enough would eventually graduate and become either good tabletop roleplayers, or go on to be full-fledged That Guys.
The first three are still going strong, stronger than ever in fact. The last one however has seen a dramatic degradation since the days of the old Internet. I'll freely admit that I was once one of those kids that sat in chat rooms all day, playing pretend within the confines of whatever intellectual property had a stranglehold on my imagination that week. Given my modern day interest in lolcows and laughing at the truly exceptional, I'll sometimes dare to scope out these spaces for some cheap entertainment. While it may very well be the nostalgia goggles blinding me to the cringe of my own youth, I insist that
back in my day we did things differently, and the kind of shit that goes on in these spaces now is unfathomably primitive compared to what it once was. It also doesn't help that a lot of these activities have moved to platforms like Roblox, VR Chat, and Minecraft (which are also rife with predators putting in the bare minimum of effort, just to get some of that underaged booty.) Basically what I'm trying to get across is that this particular "pipeline" has been all but severed, and those who come out of it are not as prepared for the rigors of this hobby as they once were.
But there is a new "pipeline" into this hobby, one that does absolutely nothing to inform an individual on the decorum, culture, practices, or other behaviors that are to be expected of them. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it actively misinforms them, to the detriment of both their own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others. I speak of course of social media revolving around, and media that simply contains banal references to, the hobby itself.
I doubt I need to expound any further on what I mean by that, and in the interest of refraining from doomposting I'll avoid doing so (plus this post has gotten way too long!).
Suffice to say that I blame this new "pipeline", as well as certain companies and individuals within the hobby, for this focus on narrativist play and escapism in the modern day. Many of these people would have been better off sticking to freeform roleplay in the past, since many see the rules as a barrier to their enjoyment rather than as a tool to facilitate it, or playing different systems altogether. But they all play D&D 5e instead, and have never even heard of systems like PbtA, Fiasco, or Blades in the Dark. I'll just say that I've had to put way more effort into "deprogramming" players who have come through this "pipeline", when it comes to poor behaviors and expectations concerning this hobby, than I have with any of the others. Though, perhaps I'm just getting old and yelling at clouds. Time will tell!
