Thread by @GauntletRPG

Indie ttrpgs, a space I frequently to take to task (mind you, it comes from a place of love), suffers mightily from a syndrome I call the Same Five Dudes.

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Which is to say, no matter how diverse or woke or inclusive or anything else we aim to be, all of the benefits in terms of sales, social media love, convention appearances, etc., flow to the same small group of men, my “Same Five Dudes.”

Note: I’m not talking about a literal group of five men, but rather a fairly small group of men who entirely dominate in terms of ttrpg mindshare. It’s probably closer to around 15-20 men.

Now, to be perfectly fair, the Same Five Dudes have done a lot of work to earn this distinction. But, as in life outside ttrpgs, they have also greatly benefited from structural dynamics the rest of us don’t always enjoy.

One of the more interesting things about the Gauntlet Slack is how frequently and actively I try to break our members out of the kind of thinking and discussion that perpetuates the Same Five Dudes syndrome.

This usually comes in the form of someone talking about how groundbreaking a particular rule or mechanic in a Same Five Dudes game was, and then me explaining how some other game by a less well known designer either did it first or better.

Same goes for our podcast. We don’t really have the Same Five Dudes on our podcasts anymore, and we only cover their games if there is a genuine desire to do so (as opposed to the sort of automatic, fawning behavior of other podcasts in our lane).

(I should mention the above point is hugely detrimental to our podcast network, because the Same Five Dudes also love to engage in whisper campaigns that perpetuate their status. BUT, when I take a stand on something, I mean it).

Here is the regularly scheduled part of the thread where I note that white women are THE WORST when it comes to perpetuating stuff like this. When you look at the social media threads of the Same Five Dudes, you will always find twenty woke-ass white women praising their genius.

But Same Five Dudes is something we all suffer from. It took me several years to fully rid myself of it. When I listen to old episodes of me interviewing folks like Jason Morningstar, I want to puke from embarrassement.

(Or puke because I spelled “embarrassment” wrong in the above Tweet)

There is no easy answer to Same Five Dudes, because many of the Dudes occupy positions of social and financial power that make it really difficult to shift the conversation.

And many actors who are ostensibly working to create more space at the table for everyone are mostly working to bolster and perpetuate their own status within the hobby. They gobble up their crumbs from the Same Five Dudes as feverishly as anyone else (and maybe more so).

In addition to the mere fact that, with the exception of one or two of them, the Same Five Dudes are not bad dudes. They are good people, friendly people. It’s difficult to look a good, friendly person in the face and say “Your time needs to be over.”

Or, more accurately, “Your time as a dominant voice in the hobby needs to be over.”

I wish I knew what the answer was, I really do. I think the answer probably lies somewhere in the actions of different conventions and communities that are trying different things. I think Breakout Con does a nice job of expanding the definition of who counts as a special guest.

Our own convention, Gauntlet Con, purposely puts community members on panels with designers and podcasters. And the Same Five Dudes, while welcome to run games and hang out, are not invited to panels.

I think there are more and more communities, usually on Discord (and often modeled after the Gauntlet) that are focused on the love of play, which is VERY IMPORTANT to breaking the Same Five Dudes wheel.

When communities merely talk RPG theory and don’t actually play, the tendency to anoint a small number of individuals as genius standard bearers is very high indeed.

A niche concern, but something that would make a big difference, is if other podcasters understood (as we do) that they, the podcast hosts, are the stars of their show, not the high status game designer guest with a Kickstarter to promote.

I mean, look: I don't begrudge up-and-coming blogs, podcasts, Twitch streams, YT shows, etc. using the coattails of one of the Dudes as a way of building their audience. We did that, too, and it's bullshit for me to say no one else should.

BUT, find out what makes your thing great, and then emphasize it until YOU are the reason people are showing up, not them. Because when you achieve that, you are then free to expand your coverage to things beyond the Same Five Dudes. That's all I'm saying to media types here.

As for fans and consumers, it's a tricky problem to tackle, and I'm not even 100% convinced it's their responsibility. Should the consumer try to purchase and play games that aren't from the Same Five Dudes? Absolutely.

The problem is that the structures that benefit the Same Five Dudes in terms of social media exposure, convention appearances, etc., are REALLY effective at ensuring games from the Dudes are the ones most likely to be in the consumer's field of awareness.

And so it seems, to me, the very important actors here are the media types, the community organizers, the convention organizers, and so forth. We have to change our habits if the consumer is going to change theirs.

Long term, I believe the Same Five Dudes syndrome in indie ttrpgs will be cured. On the horizon, though, are a few other troubling syndromes that may need to be addressed in the future, or should possibly be addressed right the fuck now so they don't become syndromes:

Same Five White Women syndrome.
This Queer Is More Virtuous syndrome.
Everyone's Favorite POC syndrome.

And more, I'm sure.

I think there is a lot to be gained by interrogating your own behavior when it comes to conversations like this. In that spirit, I want to spend a minute looking at the Gauntlet.

The Gauntlet's platform and influence (and, by extension, my own) is entirely modest but perceivable. Something I think about quite a lot: are we using our platform and resources, such as they are, to help create a hobby that is less crystallized?

Are we elevating new voices? Are we engaging with new people? Are we looking at new games and new ideas?

The answer: kind of.

We hitched our wagon to Powered by the Apocalypse games because those are the games we like to play. And yet, I can't think of anyone who is more king of the Same Five Dudes than Vincent Baker.

(Possibly John Harper or Luke Crane)

But while PbtA is what we're widely known for, it's certainly not everything we do. In our zine, for example, we have made very purposeful decisions to seek out features that are not PbtA.

For Codex, we are trying to find work that is not only good, but that covers a wide variety of play experiences and is written by newer or less-established designers.

We have instituted systems that allow us to not only solicit work from such designers, but to also support them entirely in terms of feedback, dev editing, and play-testing. We are, essentially, fostering a new generation of RPG designers.

Outside of publishing, in our broader community spaces, we like to emphasize play. I said it earlier, but the joy of actually playing ttrpgs goes really far to grinding Same Five Dudes syndrome to little bits.

Because when your experience with ttrpgs exists outside of theoretical discussions on forums--when you actively, wholeheartedly embrace play--you start to be aware of the flaws of games written by your heroes.

This attitude carries over to our podcasts as well. Setting aside +1 Forward, which was created to be, in part, a promotional vehicle for game designers in the PbtA space, we almost never discuss a game on one of our shows unless at least one host has played it.

Now, the flip side of that, of course, is "Are we playing games that push back against Same Five Dudes?" Yes and no. Maybe not as much as I'd like. At the end of the day, we're still a community made up of roleplayers. We get excited about the same things as any other roleplayer.

If we don't have a steady stream of Blades in the Dark, Dungeon World, and Monsterhearts (not written by one of the Same Five Dudes, but Avery will almost certainly be the first of the Same Five White Women when that becomes a thing in our space), we're not meeting demand.

And so, yeah, we are subject to all the same forces and dynamics. It's something that is always on my mind.

And it's hard.

As I said when discussing Same Five Dudes syndrome with someone a couple of weeks ago, there is no "policy solution" the hobby can adopt here. The only way you make this change is by being thoughtful and introspective, and minding the space you create.

Anyway, thanks for hanging in there with this thread. I'm going to wrap it up for now. Will do my best to engage with the replies.

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