The designer is the enemy all good players must seek to slay
Well, perhaps the designer isn't technically the enemy, but I was thinking of this a bit while working on some community presentations and discussions to try in the upcoming months.
I'm running Metro: Otherscape at the moment. Let's say I have two hours on a lazy rainy weekend November afternoon (pictured: a normal rainy weekend where I live, thanks to Nicolas Diaz from Pexels ) and I want to improve my Metro: Otherscape game. Here are some options I have. Think about which ones will improve my game the most. I am listing them in order from which are most desirable/useful for a publisher to the least desirable/useful for a publisher:
- Purchase some Metro: Otherscape stuff that I haven't purchased before and read it (supplements, adventures, fiction, etc.)
- Watch a stream of some other group playing Metro: Otherscape.
- Post my thoughts about Metro: Otherscape to broadcast social media (Youtube, X The Everything App, Facebook, etc.)
- Participate in a live discussion with others in the community (a discord server either specifically for Metro: Otherscape, for the company's games in general, or for RPGs generally)
- Post my thoughts about Metro: Otherscape on RPG specific, public-facing but game-nonspecific discussion forums.
- Post my thoughts about Metro: Otherscape on public-facing forums that have a broader purpose (boardgames, video games, general chat)
- Post my thoughts about Metro: Otherscape here, to my blog.
- Discuss Metro: Otherscape in private live or near-live discussion spaces either about RPGs, games in general or just casual discussion (my own Discord, a mysterious Slack in the desert, etc.)
- Sit and think about my Metro: Otherscape game and write down ideas for it, highlight the good ones and cross out the bad ones.
- Go to the library (or my own shelf) and check out a cyberpunk or fantasy book (or check out a film, TV show, etc.)
- Go to the library (or my own shelf) and check out a history, culture or travel book (or film, TV show, etc.) about the area that we're adapting for the Metro: Otherscape game.
- Go to the library (or my own shelf) and check out a non-fiction book (or film, TV show, Great Courses, etc.) about the cyberpunk or fantasy literary or film genre
- Go to the library (or my own shelf) and check out a Western, noir mystery, romance or other genre book (or film, TV show, etc.) that has no direct connection with the Metro: Otherscape game.
It is extremely obvious to me that if I want to improve my Metro: Otherscape game in two hours on this rainy afternoon, my best bet cannot be found in 1-6. 7-8 might or might not pay off, there's often some insight to be found - better than 1-6 to be sure, but not necessarily a great chance. The real payoff, the real impact, and hell, the real fun lies in 9-13.
Arguably, the reason 5eD&D has been able to succeed so overwhelmingly in this environment is that there are enough people chasing money online via that brand's development that 1-6 actually become a bet that you might take. Like, you probably CAN, with enough effort, find someone on youtube playing D&D the way you want to play it and watch them for some good ideas, or someone close enough. Similarly, the volume of participants are such that 7-8 also become more effective options. See ENWorld or one of the many D&D discussion spaces which somehow still survive...
Yet arguably, it's 9-13, the personal development of me as a performer, artist, writer and thinker, that remain the most valuable for all other games and arguably even for 5eD&D.
13 in particular is crazy but after years of doing this, I stand by it. It's better for your cyberpunk RPG play to read a Western short story from 1928 on the Internet Archive than it is to read more or less anything published for any cyberpunk RPG, including the very one you're going to play!
What a hellish proposition for anyone trying to make money here! The most effective avenues for improvement are all internally motivated, internally driven by the non-game-related interests and considerations of the players, and connected more to the community and culture that I'm in than to anything they might try to offer me from where they are! No wonder so many designers try to elbow themselves in to the conversation, jump in front of cameras (or shove attractive 23 year olds in front of cameras) and otherwise try to drag players into 1-6. And no wonder that lingering too long in 1-6 will cause you to feel tired, sick, unimaginative, unable to proceed, unable to improve... It's because there's no money in the things that will actually improve your play: community support, literary, entertainment and educational experiences and consideration.
Now, all this is very obvious to anyone who's been here for a little while. The real hot take is that if it wasn't rainy, that would unlock option 14, where I drive to the local state park and take a 40 minute hike in the beautiful desert. That little hike would ALSO improve my Metro: Otherscape play more than watching a fucking Actual Play stream, but absolutely nobody is ready for that conversation.