A Statement of Mission
So, what’s the deal with this little spot on the internet?
It may seem merely the blog of a curmudgeonly game designer who you probably never heard of who lost his job in the last round of layoffs. I can see how you can get that impression, but it’s just our cover.
It’s our mission to subtly, sometimes subliminally, undermine the current RPG assumptions and create an army of NeoGrognards. Soon this revolution’s foot soldiers will be unleashed to wreak their geekish curiosity on the unsuspecting world. They’ll study the past of RPGs and boldly imagine their future. How will we create this army? By repetition, the most insidious of indoctrination.
Each week we will look at the past, present, and future of some aspect of RPGs. Sometimes the discussion will start obscurely. Sometimes you may think it will end obscurely, but that’s why you leave comments. There is just one rule: don’t be a jackass. And no, we are not going to define jackass. If you insist upon a definition, you’re being a jackass.
The vicious cycle of the jackass. If you have to ask if you’re one, you’re probably one, which then just makes you ask again. Oddly, this circular pattern is both a symptom and the cause of rampant jackassery.
Attacking ideas? Well that’s game. Using shitty language? As long as you’re not using it as punctuation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It just loses something on the Web. Just be articulate and civil enough…or at least make the attempt earnestly. We have no grandmothers over our shoulders watching this little spot as we type. Grandmothers just don’t come here…yet. And when they do, they will be NeoGrognards, so it will not matter.
On the other side of the coin, have a backbone. When someone disagrees with your views or your argument, don’t take it personally. It’s okay to be challenged. We know it can hurt, especially when you’re bested. That sting is pride. Let it go. This is the way of the NeoGrognard.
Oh, and that goes for everyone. No one represents anything here other than their own desire to be part of the movement. Feel free to argue your beliefs or argue for the sport of it, but be as sincere as you can in your argumentation and its motivations, and find the wisdom to realize when the argument is over or has become pedantic.
Opinion and its conflict is not the only thing offered by the NeoGrognard. For proper debate, one needs to be well informed. With an eye toward the future of RPGs, we have created a library that you can search, add to, and comment on. Our first database is for RPG digital tools and resources. As our revolution takes hold, more tools will follow, you can see we are making an analog tool and resource database, and one for shows and events. One of our secret goals is to construct a number of tools useful enough that even backward thinkers are tempted to visit NeoGrognard. Then our trap is sprung!
We are also interested in the news of NeoGrognard RPG gaming. We stream this news on the sidebar, and through Twitter and Facebook. Often the news we stream to you will be relevant to the conversations presented here.
Game products? NeoGrognard may have some aspirations toward that end. We are looking at some possibilities. We want to make good tools for RPGs that people like. We want to be driven by the product and its strengths not a release schedule. We also want to make products that live up to the NeoGrognard goals—products inspired by RPG’s pasts while pushing forward their future. We serve the revolution.
Yes, we know we will never get rich. Base materialism is not the goal of the revolution. The goal is toward the progress of RPGs.
Lastly, the “we” of Neogrognard is not a royal we. While I’m often the voice of Neogrognard…and maybe even its black little heart…we have a roll of revolutionaries, each adding their expertise to our fight. We hope this roll will increase in the coming weeks, months, and years, maybe your name will grace our list. We hope so.
Vive la revolution!
[...] again. As such, I’ve been strolling through the blogsphere again. Critical Hits posted an interesting link touching on my previous blog post, and written much more clearly and concisely than my own. So, [...]
[...] I don’t mean that you should be the type of player who opens a closed door in the middle of combat or pushes every shiny, red button. Don’t go your own way at everyone else’s expense, despite what a certain famous D&D-playing author has said to the contrary. That’s jackassery rather than boldness. (Rule X: Don’t be a jackass!) [...]
Game-slut is vulgar…but hey, we like vulgar. If you love RPGs, be that love eros, philia, or agape, the revolution welcomes you. Game on, revolutionary.
Maybe we are just more vulgar, but I’ve always referred to myself as a ‘game-slut’. Anyone throws it on the table, and I’ll sit down and play it with anyone. Because of it I’ve got an exhaustive gamer resume. It makes me appreciate a good game all the more.
I love Chatty’s Full-Spectrum thoughts. It’s a revelation. He is right. We have been infected with fans that are addicted to the divisions the drama of message board back-and-forth. It’s a cheap high, and creation is a better endeavor.
I dug the reference to logos. The philosophy geek in me is deeply in love with the idea of brining rational discourse back. Not that it did Socrates and Aristotle any practical good. It could be said that logos leads to poison and exile. Luckily it doesn’t get that nasty on the Web, even among the edition warriors.
Very interesting indeed. Count me in among the neo’s. I call them Full-Spectrum gamers but they are the same like Humans and Homo-Sapiens.
Great things will occur, I predict it.
I look forward to this revolution. Indeed, if you look at ChattyDM’s latest blog post (http://critical-hits.com/2010/04/06/full-spectrum-thoughts-the-traitors-among-us), you can see that he is expressing something very similar to this, but coming at it from a different direction.
People should play RPGs for the sake of playing. Far too many people see someone commenting negatively on a system that they like and see it not as a point for discussion to start, but as a direct attack on them personally. As if someone’s dislike of a system means that their personal like/love of the system in question is wrong.