Thread by @TheOtherTracy

Not sure how many of my opinions of controversial, but let's do it.

1. System *does* matter. Any group will only engage with the system as much as they want to, though, so group play culture will always trump system withing context of a given table.

2. The legacy of D&D will always ensure that fantasy RPGs sell better and have a greater impact than other genres.

3. The corollary to this is that if the D&D-based paradigm isn't broken, the most popular TTRPGs will always be colonialist, imperialist, and racist.

4. All games have a message. Every single one of them. If you don't design your game knowing that, you're fucking it up.

Your message may not be controversial or impactful, but it's there. Don't ignore it.

5. You don't have to make a game. The path isn't

Player -> GM -> Game Designer

You can just focus on the parts you like and be good at that Don't pressure yourself to be what you don't want to.

6. Remixing is vital.

There are so many times people think they have to be purely original. You don't.

Make your game, your way, and give credit where it's due. Be influenced and make good things because you got inspired.

7. There are no bad systems.

There are super-bad fits for any given group, maybe even for most groups.

But if it works for even one group, the system is fine within that context.

8. Whatever happens in a live stream or podcast, it has nothing to do with you, your table, or your game.

Be inspired by those things, but be confident in your own game.

9. Games do not have to be playtested to be good.

Sometimes you know enough about how you want something to work that you can put it out into the world as-is.

Be aware that's what you're doing, though.

10. If you stan a system, that's awesome.

If you tell someone else they're wrong for loving a wholly different system, that's awful.

Be awesome, no awful.

11. The best, most amazing moments in a TTRPG session will not be the ones you plan.

They'll be the ones that happen because you're open to the story going in ways you didn't expect.

12. Taking agency away from your players is bad if it's done without consent.

This is a weakness of mine. I hear a lot of APs doing this and its a habit I internalized. I need to stop it and so do you.

13. If you don't try to step out of your comfort zone *once in a while* when you're playing a TTRPG, you're doing it wrong.

A fantasy space, a fictional game, is where you can explore things you don't get to in real life. Every now and again, push yourself.

14. The "can it play "Star Wars: test is bogus, but also useful.

It's bogus because Star Wars is a particular kind of story and it doesn't map to all systems.

It's useful because it's a certain kind of litmus test.

Apply when useful.

15. If you don't have a group right now, listening to podcasts and watching APs can fill your tank for when you do.

Remember: inspiration, not appropriation

16. More games need to be based on hope. There are enough hopeless things in the world.

Stop marinating in post-apocalyptic hopelessness that confirms your worldview.

Start. Making. Games. That. Give. Hope.

17. We get tons of games that focus on white, male nostalgia.

Enough.

I want games that center other people. I'm gonna play them this year.

18. Games also need to de-center violence.

I love D&D, but the main way you advance is via murder. Like, why? Aren't there more interesting stories to tell?

Tell them.

19. If you write games, you're not going to love everything you write.

Sometimes you get work done because you're paid to do so. That doesn't make the work less valid.

20. There's a weird divide between hobbyist and professional TTRPG work.

That divide keeps people fro being paid and that sucks. If you write TTRPG content and you are serious about people seeing it, you're valid.

21. The way your resolve conflict in a TTRPG you make says a lot about your view of the world.

Not talking dice, cards, or tokens.

Talking about the framing, and the outcomes.

22. Games makes assumptions. Makes sure you've examined yours whether you're publishing, GMing, or playing.

23. If you try to make a game universal, you will always fail.

If you try to make a game accessible, you have a better chance of succeeding.

24. Play games that are fun.

"Any game is better than no game" is fallacious bullshit.

I know how it feels to not have a game. Dealing with that is better than toxic, demeaning asshattery.

25. That someone wants to live out a fantasy or portray their OC in a game is not ever a bad thing.

If they do that by ignoring the consent of other players, that's gross to the nth degree.

26 Recording an AP for a podcast is fundamentally different than playing a game with friends.

No one wants to hear you looking up rules and munching chips. A good AP takes a lot of work.

27. As a corollary, you can put out whatever kind of AP you want.

Just don't expect to become the next Adventure Zone. Campaign, or Friends at the Table without a lot of intentionality and a lot of work.

28. Characters in a given game can have vastly different power levels.

The players in the same game cannot.

29. If you're making a game just to promote yourself, you're fucking it up, bud.

You've got to engage with the community at large and work to lift other people up or your efforts are hollow.

30. You should make a game.

Even if you never show it to anyone, even if it's only an idea and a die roll, you should make a game.

31. If you don't want to make a game, ever, don't. Don't let anyone tell you what to do.

32. Hey.

Hey, hey, hey.

Your game/campaign/character might be racist. Take a look at it. Change it if you need to. Be better.

33. Your game is not innovative. It's not new. It's not unique.

That's fine! Everything created it a riff off of everything that came before. Don't be offended by that Lean into it.

34. Games aren't a competition. All you need to be is yourself.

35. Unless you've got the consent of your entire group, acting out a revenge fantasy or taking over the narrative is flat-out unacceptable.

Check in. Be responsible.

54. For all the narrative control D&D 5e give the DM, the best games are created collaboratively with the players.

36. (Misnumbered the last one, a lot).

Asking your players what they want is a strength, not a weakness.

37. If you don't care what your players want, go find another hobby.

If you don't care what your GM wants, go find another hobby.

Ifnyounsont care what your fellow players want, go find another hobby.

See the trend? This is a collaborative space, is games.

38. If you're not working to find games by marginalized creators, and working to play games by marginalized creators, I'm not sure what you're doing to advance to hobby or industry.

39. You'll never be perfect when it comes to how you present yourself in a game session, whether you're the GM, a player, or the creator of the game.

Best you can do it listen, internalize the lessons, and improve.

40. Systems that don't feature either a token spend to re-roll/change the outcome

-or-

That do not have success at a cost...

Those systems can die in a fire. Binary success/failure is boring.

41. D&D 5e has both of those previous things.

It needs to improve in other ways, mostly non-mechanical ones.

42. Systems that have a tarot-like deck you can draw from to influence or determine an action are on-trend right now.

Get those designs out fast or miss this boat.

43. If you're trying to mimic your favorite AP, you'll never been as good as it.

It's been edited, curated, and tailored.

You are just you and your friends. Don't compare yourselves. Enjoy yourselves.

44. You owe it to yourself to play a variety of games. Here are the games you should play, at least once.

First, Dogs in the Vineyard. Holy shit, this game. It makes you feel your faith is right, even when the world says it's not. Amazing system that I want to repurpose.

45. Play Apocalypse World.

The narrative structure is impeccable, and it makes you think about what you could do with it. So good.

46. Play Fall of Magic.

Holy. Shit.

This game I've only played once. It stuck with me. It shows you a way to tell stories that is as-of-yet unmatched.

There's a gorgeous cloth map and a print and play version. Do it.

47. Play Iron Edda Accelerated.

I'M SUPER BIASED ABOUT THIS ONE

But.

I haven't encountered a Fate game that gave you more agency in the setting and more tools to play your character within the setting you make.

48. If you're at a convention, you owe it to yourself and your table to go all in with your character, even as you keep an eye on the table and how everyone else is engaging.

Bring it, and know when to dial it back.

49. Do a voice for your character. Even if it's just a variation on how you sound, even if it's bad, it can help you live that character.

50. Welcome disabled people to your table with open arms.

Make what accommodations you need to for people who are different than you. Your game will be richer for it.

51. If you can't game with friends or other supportive people, you are wasting your time.

I know. I did it too.

You deserve to be happy. Game with people who make you happy.

52. There is such a thing as your dice being good or bad. Can't explain it, but it's true.

53. The best playtesters you can get for a design are the people who only sort of like the system you're working with

They'll find ways to get enjoyment. Their feedback is valuable. Looking at you, @jasonmflow.

54. You should play a system you think you'd hate, if only to remind you of what you love.

55. This shouldn't be controversial, but if you're writing a game that features a marginalized community, you need to pay someone from that community to make sure you're not fucking it up.

56. Sometimes, scrubbing game night to hang out with your friends/fellow players is the best decision.

57. You should absolutely be willing to pay or gift your GMs for running games. It's a lot of work that goes into a session.

The payment might be running a game in your own right. That counts.

58. Gaming conventions need to have alcohol-free networking events. This isn't just for those who don't drink.

If you get "we should work together!" from someone who's drunk, how trustworthy is that?

(see me at Metatopia 2013, offering Iron Edda stretch goals. Not a good look)

59. If you usually have silly game sessions, you need to have a serious one every now and again. Vice versa, too.

60. They, them, xe, xir, hir, etc. are completely valid pronouns and deserve to be used for individuals in TTRPGs.

To not use them is to deny that such people exist in the real world. Shame.

61. $0.05/word is a ridiculous standard for per-word payment for TTRPG writing.

62. Corollary: TRPG products generally need to both cost more, and to offer low-cost options for people who cannot afford to pay premium prices.

63. Games that encourage everyone to add to the story, setting, etc. are far superior to games where all of the metaplot comes from one person.

64. As a polyhedral used to determine random numbers, the d20 is the best.

A single d20 is a shitty randomizer.

Dice pools are the best.

65. Sharing a meal with the people you also game with is the best thing.

Fellowship is hard to come by in this world. Improve yours with food and story.

66. I perfer 'play to find out what happened' because it gives you a target to shoot for. I also love flashbacks. I'm super biased.

67. Your value as a player, GM, or creator isn't tied up in how you play, run game, or create.

This things are facets of who you are, not the totality. Don't let a bad experience tell you you're less than. You're not.

68. Competitive RPGs will only take off as a viewable medium because the players bring their characters to life through roleplaying.

69. This will never not be funny to me, I think. This is less of an opinion and more of a fact.

70. Games where characters romance each other (PCs or NPCs) are better than games without.

71. Big games aren't better or worse than small games. Every game is the sum of the care that went into designing and producing it.

Big games do tend to be less accessible, though.

72. Everything is better with the right constraints! A totally blank canvas world is too paralyzing and a sharply defined world demands memorization.

Both kinda suck.

73. Every single game is better when players are asked questions and the story, setting, session proceed from their answers.

74. Gaming groups are best when they're friends first and a gaming group second. I know that's not always possible, but it so much better when it happens.

75. Everything that goes into a game design is a choice. If you're not aware of the choices you're making, you've got a problem.

76. Every game is better with story and a narrative.

77. Working on designs in public so people can see how the sausage is made is super helpful.

(related, join me at 2pm EST at twitch.tv/theothertracy where I'll be writing a Blades in the Dark hack!)

78. The best gaming sessions are the ones that start with breakfast, cross over lunch, and end with dinner.

Haven't had one in a few years, now, but I want to.

79. If you're running a game and you're not leaning into and embracing the ridiculous things your players say and do, you're fucking it up, bud.

80. Related: As a GM/DM/whatever, you have to draw lines occasionally. Gaming is collaborative and no one person should have all the power.

81. Mechanics for player consent and safety need to be baked into every game system.

82. Inspiration in D&D 5e is a weak attempt at expressing non-mechanical character elements in a mechanical way.

They should have leaned in and made it more like Fate aspects. I'm biased, but still.

83. If you buy a PWYW or really inexpensive game and your group enjoys it, you should send the creator extra money.

84. You need to leave positive reviews on the things you like. We're all trapped in this capitalist hellscape and tHe aLGorIthMs rely on that to make sure other people see and buy your stuff.

If you don't leave reviews you've problem with me and I suggest you marinate on that.

85. Relentlessly quoting movies and TV shows while gaming or doing gaming-related things gets old.

(says the person who has quoted Letterkenny about seven times in this thread.)

86. Gaming conventions are the best and worst parts of the industry all tossed together.

Conventions done in insular groups, or alongside good organizations, those are the best.

It's hard for a massive con to be good to most everyone who attends.

87. If y'all get this list to 100 then you can use it as a random generator for your next game.

88. If you're a straight, white, cis male gamer and you're not actively looking to support people who don't have those pillars of privilege, you're not actually making games a better place.

89. The next game you make should have something weird or out there in it, especially mechanically.

Flip coins, tear up cards, do a tarot reading.

90. It's fine to play the same game all the time. Its fine to never branch out of a particular system or setting.

If you're that sheltered in every aspect of your life, that's a problem, friend.

91. If your internal imagining of your campaign setting is full of white people and just white people, you need to adjust the color settings on your imagination.

92. If you publish your games under a license that lets other people use your system and ideas to make their own games, you're doing the lord's work.

93. Magic items are the best things in roleplaying games, even in setting that aren't supposed to have magic, especially in those settings.

94. With your group's permission, record the audio of every session you play. Listening back to how things went is the best way to learn how to improve.

Yes, it means listening to your voice and mistakes.

(this doesn't apply if you can't listen to audio like that)

95. You've got to get your entire group onboard for the kind of game you want to play. If you don't things will grind to a halt.

96. Do after-session check-ins with your group. Y'all need to review how things went and where you want things to go.

This is an extension of 95.

97. As a player, you have two jobs:

- Know your shit and be true to your character

- Help spotlight the other players and the GM as you all work to tell a story together.

98. Pendragon is one of the only games to get the "landowner and also adventurer" thing right.

One of. There are others, but they're rare.

99. Games should cost waaaaaay more than they do.

And people with the means to should help support those who can't afford them. *Especially* marginalized folx who can't afford them.

100. Published adventures generally suck.

101. Games don't need to be clever. They just need to be solidly designed.

102. Games don't need to be balanced mechanically. Characters can be vastly different power levels and the narrative can bring them together.

Not enough games do this.

103. Iron Edda Accelerated is the best Fate game I've played. Is this a biased statement? Definitely. Do I think it's untrue? No.

104. Post-apocalyptic games need to focus more on recovery and less on wallowing in the badness.

105. Games where the characters are the 'chosen ones' and are the only ones who can save things are tired and played out.