We Aren't Going To Take This Anymore

If you're "tired" of hearing about things that aren't geeky, you should probably skip this post. In fact you should probably just start skipping this blog altogether. We are who we are, and we aren't one-sided caricatures who only think and talk about certain things.

It just feels like things are on a downward slope here in the world, and it makes me sad. Bad things happened yesterday, and people of color were shown that they weren't important. It is weird that protests happened around the country, and yet the media decided to only cover the violence in Ferguson, as if that were the only thing happening.

This post is to archive some tweets that I made this morning, forgive the typo in one of them. I was typing on my phone. [Note: I added screenshots on November 6, 2022 just in case the Twitter problems cause my tweets to disappear. For now there are screenshots and tweets. If the tweets go away, I'll come back and edit again.]

If you think seeing reshares of the hateful things said online last night hurts, think about how the people they are directed at feel.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

We can't hide away and we can't pretend they aren't there.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

Some really horrible, terrible things were said last night by some hateful people online, and people like Wil Wheaton and Chris Kluwe were retweeting the things said to them by some of these people. Why, because we have to shine a spotlight on to this hate if we are ever going to make it go away. I have doubts about that sometimes, but it was even more disheartening that people were saying that they didn't want these things to be retweeted because they didn't want hate in their timelines.

We can't look away and we have to face these things. It is the only way that any sort of change will happen. It is easy to say that you don't want to see these things when they aren't directed at you, aren't part and parcel of your everyday life. But that doesn't take those things away, and that doesn't mean that we don't stare down these things in order to make a change in our world.

Then I tied it in with some geeky stuff, in a way, from my childhood, and a really good friend of mine from when I was growing up. His name was Marc Thomas, and in a lot of ways being his friend back then helped to make me into the adult that I am now. I don't often talk about these sorts of things because, well, mostly I think it isn't my job to justify who I am or where I have come from. All of us are on a journey through our lives, hopefully to get to a better place than where we used to be.

Something my mom told me recently hit home. When I was young, I made friends with the new kid in the neighborhood and his brothers.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

I didn't know that when we became friends his parents came to talk to my parents.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

His parents were worried there would be repercussions in a small Indiana town because of black kids playing with white kids.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

All I ever saw was another kid who liked comics and Star Wars.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

In fact, Marc introduced me to Matt Wagner, Grendel and indie comics. I still owe him for all of thatm
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

He died too young from illness, and I never really got to properly thank him.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

I'm glad that my parents talked his out of not letting us be friends. A lot of who I am came from that friendship.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

All right. I'm done for now.
— Christopher Helton (@dorkland) November 25, 2014

The thing is, that I guess that I'm not really done. Not by a long shot.

This stuff in Ferguson is just another piece of an enormous iceberg of hate that is trying so hard to break through the surface of the world. Just like GamerGate is another one.

We are at a crossroads culturally in our world right now. We are looking back into the past, at a world where casual and institutional hate of people because of the color of their skin, or their sexual preference, or their gender identity were a accepted as the norm. We are looking forward into a future where we can all treat each other as humans and not worry about labels or descriptors. We are seeing that there are a lot of people who are all of a sudden surprised that they are in the future, and that their hate is not okay. Not by any stretch of the imagination. They are angry at the world because they have been left behind. This is not the fault of the world.

We really should be better than this, but because we aren't we need to keep up the fight. We need to not casually mock people of color or gays or the transgendered or those with any of the multitude of disabilities. It isn't easy, and so many things are culturalized that it doesn't make it any easier. But it isn't supposed to be easy. Being better people isn't supposed to be an easy thing, but it is supposed to be the right thing.

So many of us were brought up on a steady stream of comics, science fiction, movies and other media where the moralities were clear cut. We should know better than this, and we need to stop being silent. When someone says something hateful about the LGBT we need to shout them down. Not because of our friends who are LGBT, who can fight their own fights, but because it is the right thing to do. The same when people say hateful things about people of color. The same when people say hateful things about the mentally or physically handicapped. Things aren't going to change until we let the world know that hate is unacceptable.

BRUTES -- A Fantasy Masterbook Game From Precis Intermedia

So, this filtered through my inbox:

Brett Bernstein is working on a new RPG, a fantasy game based on the Masterbook System and based upon the setting of his Brutes miniatures game. I'm sure that a dedicated Masterbook fantasy game will interest a lot of people. Click here for information as it develops.

20 Years of Daily Illumination -- Steve Jackson Games' Daily Illuminator

I've blogged here at the Dorkland! blog for just over ten years now. That's an accomplishment for sure. However, there's a blog that has been posting every day for twenty years now...and that blog is the Daily Illuminator from Steve Jackson Games. For twenty years the people over at Steve Jackson Games have been posting to the Daily Illuminator every day.

That is phenomenal and deserves some serious kudos from the folks at Steve Jackson Games.

If you haven't ever read the page you should do so now. They also have a convenient mailable version that will be delivered daily into your inbox as well.

Fantasy Gaming On The British Side: Pelinore

I meant to go live with this a week ago, and got wrapped up in some other things. Better late than never.

I've always been interested in the "British Arm" of the early days of British role-playing. Much like with the "US West Coast" style, they brought a different energy and style to that particularly Midwestern mode of fantasy role-playing and Dungeons & Dragons. The British, after all, are the ones who brought us The Fiend Folio and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying. Of course, they also brought us the Monstermark, so I guess that you take the bad with the good.

What has recently surfaced on the web is a netbook compiling the Pelinore campaign and adventures that were published in Imagine magazine. Imagine was started by Don Turnbull, who had written for White Dwarf (including creating the Monstermark system) and Games Workshop before working for TSR UK.

What makes this document so interesting is that it is a snapshot of an approach to fantasy RPGs that really doesn't exist any more. Some of it still exists in some forms in places like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying, but what you get in its current form is different from what you got as a game back then.

If I were starting a new game right now, I would probably dig into The Collected Pelinore as my setting. It is a realized world with interesting NPCs, maps, and some interesting rules variants for your old school D&D-ish fantasy games. One of the things that I found interesting was the section on capturing monsters (instead of killing them) for use in an arena, and how to calculate XP rewards for that. "The Arena doesn't want unfettered aerial monsters - who is going to pay to watch a harpie fly away?" That's just a great quote.

Ultimately the reason that I am spreading this around is because I think that we could use more diversity in our old school conversations. What people like Gygax and Arneson did to give us our hobby was a great thing, but getting to see the weird and wild directions that people take this hobby into is a great thing, too.

Update: Thanks to +Tim Huntley (in the comments), here is a link to a site that has scanned and compiled the original Pelinore into a PDF. I haven't read through this PDF yet, so I don't know how complete it is. The truth may lay somewhere in between this PDF and The Collected Pelinore. This is useful as much as an historical document, much like the Fiend Factory file below.

Update 2: +B. Scot Hoover, the architect of The Collected Pelinore is also archiving the Pelinore modules. Right now you can find two of them (In Search of the New Gods and The Awakening) on his Google drive. In Search of the New Gods is for characters 4-7th level, and The Awakening is for characters of 7-8th level. I'll leave this here for right now, but I will probably break these modules out into their own blog post once a few more of them come out.

A big thanks to +B. Scot Hoover for all of this hard work in preserving a piece of gaming history.

As an added bonus, I give you a compilation of the old Fiend Factory monster articles from the old days of White Dwarf. You may recognize many of these from when they ended up in the Fiend Folio, but these are the original versions of these monsters, as they were first published. Some are for D&D and some are for AD&D (the emphasis changed in the magazine when the new edition of the rules came out). This PDF is old and shop worn, and has been circulating the internet for a long, long time. I'm sure that most of you have seen it by now, but it is still a good artifact and for those few of you who haven't seen it...here it is.

Goblinoid Games' Cryptworld Hits Distribution

This is excellent news from the Goblinoid Games website:

I am proud to announce that CRYPTWORLD is the first Pacesetter title to be in distribution in 30 years! Now Pacesetter horror is available to you at your local game store, so if you have been waiting to support your local retailer pay them a visit and if they aren't stocking it yet place an order. The book is available through the usual channels, such as Alliance or ACD.

Goblinoid Games' Cryptworld is the spiritual successor to the old Pacesetter tabletop role-playing game Chill. Currently, you can get it in PDF or print from the RPGNow website, but being able to order it from your local gaming/comic store is very good new for the game, and for fans.

Classic Elric Comics Return From Titan Comics

Some of you may remember when the now sadly defunct comic company Eclipse Comics had the rights to do Elric in comic form. If you don't remember this, then you are lucky because you are going to get to experience them for the first time through an upcoming reprint series from Titan Comics.

"Unforgettable action and intrigue...a must-read for any fans of science fiction, sorcery or sword-and-sorcery epics!" - Comics Bulletin

"Richly deserves to be back in print...Can’t wait to return to the Dreaming City!" - SFX

"A terrific book." - Jeff Vaughn, Scoop

Collecting the first volume of the classic adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s bestselling fantasy saga, Elric of Melniboné marks the perfect introduction to the series’ iconic antihero, his fabled blade, Stormbringer, and his harrowing adventures across the Dragon Isle.

Adapted by former Marvel Comics editor, Roy Thomas, and beautifully rendered by longtime comics illustrator,Michael T. Gilbert, and the multiple Harvey and Eisner award-winning P. Craig Russell, this definitive collection marks an essential read for all fans of sword and sorcery and brings the Moorcock’s epic tales to life with luxuriant imagination.

The Michael Moorcock Library - Volume 1: Elric Of Melnibone hits comic stores February 18, 2015 and is available to order now from your local comic store using Diamond code NOV141648.

 

 

 

 

 

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: P. Craig Russell, Michael T. Gilbert
Format: 176pp – HC - FC
Volumes In Series: 1 (of 15)
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: $22.99/$25.95 CAN /£18.99 UK
ISBN: 9781782762881
Release Date: February 18, 2015
Diamond Order Code: NOV141648

To pre-order via Amazon visit:
http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Moorcock-Library-Vol-1-Melnibone/dp/1782762884/

For more information visit:
http://titan-comics.com/c/182-the-michael-moorcock-library-elric-vol-1-elric-of-/

Connect with Titan Comics
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Delta Green RPG Beta Playtest Files

Since I've been asked a couple of times for information about this (and since it seems a playtest announcement kind of day), Arc Dream Publishing announced a couple of weeks ago that they were doing open beta playtesting for the upcoming, standalone Delta Green Roleplaying Game. I have looked (briefly) over the playtest files, and I like what I see. The game (at this point) is still backwards compatible with the previous Delta Green material, as well as with other Call of Cthulhu material.

The file does mention that the final product will have open gaming content, so that looks promising as well.

Interested parties should check out the Dropbox folder that Arc Dream Publishing has set up, play some games, and check in with them about your feedback.

As a long, long time Delta Green fan, I am looking forward to this game now a lot more than I was a year or so ago, when it was first announced.

Paizo Announces Occult Adventures Open Playtest

Today Paizo announced the launch of an open playtest of their new Occult Adventures book:

Occult Adventures will feature six new classes for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and an entirely new system for psychic magic. The 256-page hardcover book will have details on occult concepts, such as séances, aura-reading, and occult rituals, as well as tons of new spells, magic items drawn from occult legends, and ways to add psychic and occult elements to existing Pathfinder classes. The new 20-level base classes included in Occult Adventures are the reality-warping kineticist, the spirit-infused medium, the manipulative mesmerist, the relic-wielding occultist, the mind-master psychic, and the phantom-bonded spiritualist.

If you are a member of the Paizo forums, you can go over there and pick up the playtest file and check it out.

Cultural Wars And Baggage

I wouldn't think it necessary, but just in case...what follows is a piece of opinion writing. Also, since I know that some will comment without reading this piece in its entirety I will say right now that the Thumper rule is in effect. There's plenty of places that will allow you to spread hate on the internet, this blog is not one of them. Hateful things will be removed, and I get to be the arbitrator of what is hateful.

Some would say that the "geeky past times" are embroiled in a cultural war. I would say they are actually engaging in a cultural catch up, fighting fights or trying to stave off perceived threats that have been hard fought for (and against) for decades now in the larger cultural world and that are making their way into the various sub-cultures orbiting the world.

Whether you talk about fake geek girls or someone not being a hardcore gamer or sex workers shouldn't game or gays being perverts or even just the umbrella not a true geek, you're missing out on an important truth: the world has changed, and if you aren't changing with it you will be left behind. This isn't a threat, it is a fact of life. The world has changed since the 1970s and 1980s and the idea that women should play or run games isn't something that we should think about considering, it is something that is here.

While there's a lot of volatility in video games right now, with plenty of good examples that we can use for how people are getting it wrong, I want to focus on tabletop gaming (and focus even more on RPGs) because that is what I play. I don't think that I've played a video game since the Playstation One was just called the Playstation.

I know that anecdotal isn't data, but I'm going to talk about some of the things that I know.

People talk about women in their gaming groups as if it were some sort of novelty. Back in the late 70s, when I started playing D&D, our group was more than half women. Every group that I have had since then has had women. It seems strange to me to have a gaming group without women. So, when a friend started organizing an online gaming convention where women had the leadership positions of running panels and games, I thought that this was a great thing. Some corners of the internet thought otherwise, saying that it was anti-male or misandry to make it so that men couldn't "be in charge" of things.

It would almost be as if they didn't know that there are conferences and seminars led by women out in the big, bad "real world," where women can help each other into leadership positions or something. No, it is a conspiracy to take away their games, or their game mastering.

We've all heard it being used: fake geek girls, because they're obviously not true geeks. They're in it to "trap" some man or "take over the hobby" or some other nonsense. I find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that someone would actually fake wanting to be seen as a geek. The idea that someone could think that someone would want to demonstrates how mainstream many "geek past times" have become. Super-hero movies are box office blockbusters. Video games are making millions of dollars.

Obviously someone would now want to co-opt the hard work of all the men who helped to make this popular. Yeah, I thought that was funny too.

Gatekeeping, whether you think that you're doing it for good reasons or not, is a bad thing. There is no canon of geekiness. There is no list of things that you like or do in order to be a geek. Playing games makes you a gamer. Reading comics makes you a comic fan. Being of fan of paranormal romance and sexier geeky things is fine too.

Sex work is a hot button issue, even in the most mainstream of discussions. To quote George Michael, who really should be an important part of "cultural discussion," "sex is natural, sex is good..." I'm not going to use the typical buzzwords to talk about the people are against sex workers being involved, or somehow representative, of geeky things.It is reductionist and also fairly stupid. I will say that there is a lot of ignorance about the hows and whys of people who are sex workers, or who make porn. Why do we see so many porn parodies of super-heroes? Well, yes the movies are popular, and that does help with sales, but also because so many of them are geeky people

A lot of this ties into something that I've talked against more than once, both here on the blog and via various social media...and even out in that big, bad scary thing we call real life. I place a lot of these problems at the feet of so-called GEEK CULTURE. This is the idea that there is somewhere a list of things that all geeks like, and that the things not on that list make you less geeky or a fake geek girl or someone who isn't a hardcore gamer. At its simplest, the idea of geek culture is an attempt at gatekeeping (these people get to be part of "the tribe" and those people get to be outcast), but it can also be a bit more complicated than that at the same time.

Geeks have been proud of their "outsider cred" because it helped to define them an their identities. There comes a time when you put aside letting outside influences identify you, and start figuring out who you are for yourself. If you spend all your time being a jerk to other people online, it just might not be the "geek" thing that identifies you.

However, any time you try to take divergent and varied sub-cultures (whether it be Star Trek fans, Star Wars fans, video gamers, board gamers, RPG players) and try to smash them together into one set of rules and guidelines you are going to have troubles. The things that make each of these groups fun and interesting get lost when you try to make them into a monoculture. We need to stop doing that. It is perfectly okay to not like Battlestar Galactica or Firefly or Supernatural, and you shouldn't need to permission of anyone in order to think that. It is okay to like the OSR and not storygames, and the other way around. It is also okay to like storygames and the OSR. No one is going to take away your geek card, even if we had such things.

This is why diversity is, and always will be, a good thing. Monocultures are bad and boring, and monocultures that lead to things like the misogyny of "movements" like Gamergate are terrible things. We aren't fighting a cultural war to "save geeky past times." You don't get it. The women and people of color and gays and lesbians and transgender people are already here. They're making the cultural artifacts that you enjoy, sometimes without your even realizing that are involved. I hate to break it to you, but while you were nose down in your "geeky past times," the world became a lot more diverse than you seem to have realized.

There have been a number of essays and opinion pieces lately talking about the death of the gamer. What I think these are talking about is really the death of the monocultures that so many took comfort from as once outsider past times are moving into the mainstream. People in tabletop RPGs have said for years that tabletop gaming is dying and if only more people would be interested in gaming again. Guess what? There are more people who are interested in gaming, or geekiness, but you don't get to vote them off of the island. Gamers who are afraid of woman or gay people "invading" their hobby are more than welcome to stay in the darkness of their basements and hide away from these people. You, however, don't get to speak for me. Speaking from a position of fear or hate is never a good thing, and it is time that we stopped listening to those people regardless of where they are on the political spectrum or if we think they will like us for agreeing with them.

The cultural war has ended. Women and gays and people of color and transgendered people are here. They are geeky and they are proud. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Steamscapes: Asia Kickstarter

Steamscapes: Asia is the "historical Asian steampunk" setting book for the Steamscapes RPG setting (which uses Savage Worlds). This particular setting book focuses largely on "China, Japan and the Indian subcontinent" with smaller sections providing some insight on other Asian nations. Some of the new rules and content include a new profession (the Apothecary), a new racial template (the Oni), and lots of other cool things like elephant cavalry. Who doesn't want to ride an elephant into battle?

Steamscapes: Asia is currently at the tail end of its Kickstarter project with just a couple days left to go, as of this writing, and is close to meeting its funding goal.

If you would like to learn more about the project or support its funding be sure to check out its Kickstarter page.