Generationism in RPGs

Generationism* Sucks

I’m old, you’re young, so what.

Let’s just have fun.

I’ll play your in game, you play in mine. 

There are so many games out there that editions just don’t matter to me any more. The corporate entertainment world has flooded the market with so much so-called entertainment that I’m drowning in it. It’s getting more and more difficult sit still and use my imagination any more because I’m being told how and what to “play” every waking moment of my life. 

Editions shouldn’t matter to anyone except for the company masters. I could blame those masters for urging us to covet “the newest thing”, and to always be anxious about “the next big thing”, for the sole purpose of extracting precious dollars from our wallets. I could blame the masters for keeping  the lion share of the dough and feeding peanuts to their freelancer slaves.  I could point the finger at those who profit from exploiting new school vs old school flamewars, and from ruffling feathers about culture and race and gender and politics and what’s problematic with old people games.  You know what I say? I say “to hell with it.”

I don’t want to argue about new vs old.  I just want to set all of that aside, sit in a quite place and just create stuff for my own rpg adventure campaign. And then I want to play it with other people I like. 

Note to my 50 year old self:  Stop worrying about the “age, gender, sex and culture wars”.  For the company masters:  Pay your freelancers what they deserve. For the online agitators:  Stop fanning the flames about somebody’s rule book from the 80s not having a set of rules for combat wheelchairs, or for having an illustration of boob armor. For the game players of all generations: Stop arguing and start playing. Life’s too short.

I KNOW I KNOW, IT’S ALL A PIPE DREAM. FIGHT ON OSR! 

* the belief that a specific generation has inherent traits that make it inferior or superior to another generation. The term is usually applied to claims of superiority in the expressed values, valuations, lifestyles and general beliefs of one generation compared to those of another, where objectively verifiable criteria substantiating the claim of superiority in themselves are lacking.