I think it’s important that games are honest about what they’re meant to do. Have a clear and intentional focus. Likewise, the people playing that game should be honest about what it is they want from it. Whether it’s even the right fit for the type of story/genre/game they want to play.

This is a post about me wanting people to please play a different game. Different than the only one they know. The one that sucks all the air out of a room, because it has the weight of legacy and the power of cash behind it. Because it’s a brand that got so lucky, it thinks it’s actually good at what it sets out to do.

And what it sets out to do is …nothing? It’s about nothing. Most of the rules are about combat, and it’s really bad at that. What’s one of the most popular type of advice and 3rd-party content you find for that game? How to speed up or improve combat. It’s also not a game about exploring interesting stories. The rules barely give interesting decision points, mostly just a binary yes/no answer with a given roll. It’s not a game about dungeon crawling, despite it’s legacy. No systems to facilitate an interesting delve into forbidden depths. It’s a game that lies about what it can do. Yeah, there are great live plays of amazing storytellers playing fantastic games but, come on. They’re creating their amazing work in spite of the game they’re playing. They add so much weight and pathos into the rules, which is just not there organically. And it deceives their audiences, too. They think that game can make them be players like their heroes on the screen. But it can’t. The game does not, at all, facilitate deep and engaging gameplay. It’s bare and it’s boring and it’s lying about it.

And what really grinds my gears is, it convinced an entire community–the largest out there it seems–that it can do everything. Star Wars. Modern Noir. Cyberpunk. Seafaring pirates. Dread and Horror. All with that cute d20 and rules bloated with nostalgia and the baggage from an era of wargaming.

Listen. You like the d20 game, fine. It’s a fine game, all things considered. It’s superficial and uninterested in having mechanics with true intentionality, but it works if you don’t think about it too hard. I played it for many years.

But it’s lying to you. It’s a brand, a cash-cow for the H-Corp behind it. There are so, so many games better at any given thing the d20 game claims to be about. Draw Steel, Lancer, those are great for combat. Spire, Heart, Blades in the Dark, they can bring the deep, delicious drama. Shadowdark for when you must delve a dungeon. Alien RPG, Mothership for your space horror. Spectaculars, Masks for when superhero drama is your jam. The list is endless.

There’s this prevailing idea not to shit-talk the d20 game if you want its fans to try out something new. And being nice and polite is probably the right way. But, fuck, it’s frustrating sometimes. A lifetime worth of content devoted to “making the game better” and not one thought about why they’re fixing H-corp’s game for free, when they have all the cash in the world to do so themselves. To really care. To truly deliver an experience worthy of its legacy while also pushing the brand forward. Entire independent creators tying their entire brand and livelihood to that one game, and once disaster strikes (as it so happens with corporate interests and shareholders involved), they’re all panicking that they might lose everything they have worked for. And that sucks, it really fucking sucks.

The TTRPG community is so vibrant and sexy and diverse and creative. People making awesome games for awesome players, and yet, if they don’t tie themselves to that one big game, it’s a nearly impossible uphill battle to even get noticed. And when they do, people will compare it to the big guy. Even ask why an indie creator would “change this from how the d20 game did it,” as if that’s what happened. As if everything starts with that game as its foundation.

Somehow, they deceived us all.