tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post3665242874515417273..comments2023-10-14T03:58:59.333-06:00Comments on The Tao of D&D: LiberalismAlexis Smolenskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-79423917146730155282011-09-08T08:16:17.961-06:002011-09-08T08:16:17.961-06:00Thank you Tedankhamen. As a matter of fact Alexis ...Thank you Tedankhamen. As a matter of fact Alexis is my real name - pronounced A-lek-see - and everyone I know uses all of it. I have just always liked it in its entirety, and have avoided any shortening to it, as I don't want to one day be known as 'Al.'<br /><br />By all means, be familiar; nothing wrong with familiarity. By using my full name you will be more like my friends than the phone solicitor.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-87316079852961746962011-09-08T05:20:55.051-06:002011-09-08T05:20:55.051-06:00It's the mark of a certain outlook on morality...It's the mark of a certain outlook on morality - morality as disgust; morality as contagion - that the thought approaches the deed; "if you have lusted in your heart, you have sinned."<br /><br />It's this outlook, applied to gaming, that makes conservatives wary of 15 foot demon statues and liberals wary of slaughtering members of an evil race.<br /><br />I'm not going to judge this outlook because we all possess it to some degree, guarding our own sacred cows. But it's the opposite of "hey, it's only a game." Eventually, if an imagined thing becomes obsessive enough, it's hard to see it as anything but a repressed desire.Roger G-Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08594440701279968693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-52473400614549497832011-09-08T00:14:21.166-06:002011-09-08T00:14:21.166-06:00Oops! Understood. Seems I fell for the false famil...Oops! Understood. Seems I fell for the false familiarity of the internet again. Apologies, Alexis.Tedankhamenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00181643018957592969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-40892799324460179212011-09-07T21:19:05.642-06:002011-09-07T21:19:05.642-06:00Thank you all. It is most appreciated.
But one th...Thank you all. It is most appreciated.<br /><br />But one thing, Tedankhamen ... if you will kindly not call me 'Alex,' I will not call you 'Ted.'Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-48320752738056144202011-09-07T20:56:18.880-06:002011-09-07T20:56:18.880-06:00Fabulous post Alex, well thought out and very enga...Fabulous post Alex, well thought out and very engaging.<br /><br />“Caesarius of Heisterbach tells you to slaughter every person in Beziers, Catholic and Cathar alike, because "God will know his own," that is going to make an enormous amount of sense to you. God DOES know his own, doesn't he? There is nothing on this Earth more certain than that.”<br /><br />THIS is why I trust religion about as far as I can throw the pope…<br /><br />“Why should any person with power directly aid any person without power, when the power itself makes the powerless immaterial?”<br /><br />THIS would be a great seed for a campaign world. Call it ‘The Tyranny of Magic’. Uncaring at best or even despotic at worst mages and clerics hold the lives, deaths, and afterlives of average folk in sway. Great antidote to a lot of the touchy-feely fantasy going around.<br /><br />“I propose that the characters themselves, free of your puppeteering, would find your perception of their world one of inexpressible weakness.”<br /><br />No doubt, which also implies that those modern players we term ‘misanthropes’ who rob the king, ransom back the princess, then slay everything that walks or crawls in both the dungeon AND the village have been playing the game ‘right’ while those of us liberal fools who just save her have got it all wrong. In the eyes of natives of that world, that is.<br /><br />Keep them coming!Tedankhamenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00181643018957592969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-80826364284878220392011-09-07T20:05:55.870-06:002011-09-07T20:05:55.870-06:00In this regard I am very fond of several literary ...In this regard I am very fond of several literary works that depict medieval mores with different brushstrokes but the same general shape:<br /><br />The White Company / Sir Nigel (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891);<br /><br />Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett, 1989).<br /><br />R.L. Stevenson's own Black Arrow, with his beautifully psychopathic rendering of Richard III.<br /><br />Ishmael Beah's true/false(?) work A Long Way Gone (2007).<br /><br />And of course, this list would be incomplete without reference to Deliverance (James Hickey 1970).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-21634772042674418282011-09-07T18:54:13.358-06:002011-09-07T18:54:13.358-06:00Yes, Beedo, I recognize that most would rather our...Yes, Beedo, I recognize that most would rather our cold and nasty history did not make it's way into the RPG universe. I make no pretense to simulation at all, myself. On the other hand, part of my sense of fantasy includes no restrictions upon the activities of the players resulting from 'morality.'<br /><br />I'm not certain why you say it is 'impossible' for a modern audience to appreciate or attain these things in the game. You may not be aware, but right now, this very moment, there are people appreciating and attaining <i>exactly</i> the medieval equivalent, in Equatorial Guinea, Myanmar, Zaire, Indonesia, parts of Colombia ... and even on a small scale in Syria and right here in Anglo-America. Not to mention China, which continues to execute people while being given carte blanche by an indebted United States. Why should you think we can't do this in fantasy when it is being done in reality?<br /><br />Liberalism is a thin veneer. That too was R.L. Stevenson's point.<br /><br />Let me finish by stating again, however: NO limitations. But not to worry, this hasn't resulted in players becoming mass butcherers of imaginary populations, despite my having this policy for 32 years. What's important is that it's a player CHOICE and not a DM mandate.<br /><br />Fantasy isn't always pretty.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-80817091595738629822011-09-07T18:51:55.564-06:002011-09-07T18:51:55.564-06:00While I agree that any base assumption is correct ...While I agree that any base assumption is correct to question, Beedo, think also on the base assumption that the player-characters are heroes, informed by a liberal world-view. This essay makes a strong case for why that shouldn't be presumed... but of course we're all free to play the game however we see fit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-65368266121780007232011-09-07T18:27:05.105-06:002011-09-07T18:27:05.105-06:00I question a base assumption, which seems to go un...I question a base assumption, which seems to go unstated - that any given play group is attempting historical simulation. The world view you describe is nigh impossible for a modern audience to appreciate or attain, that callous disregard for life and the guilt-free approach to mayhem. Some groups do "try on" alternative mores like trying on a different set of clothes, but that seems more like a social experiment - the kind of unnatural "role-playing" folks point fun of when they see it in LARPers, or speaking with the funny accents in character. (I do recognize I'm in a glass house here).<br /><br />The point about utopias through magic is well taken. Even in the modern world, with Liberalism run amok, we haven't solved major world problems through technology.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-9584910366182184102011-09-07T17:22:41.086-06:002011-09-07T17:22:41.086-06:00I wonder how a liberal party would react when thei...I wonder how a liberal party would react when their perceived enemy uses liberalism against them. Especially if said enemy could be easier killed without repercussions...Oddbithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12091924105175846386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-18884961283499782612011-09-07T17:00:09.279-06:002011-09-07T17:00:09.279-06:00And I have never had any trouble running players l...And I have never had any trouble running players like that, JD. Liberalism has no place in D&D.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-33847551484707686452011-09-07T16:51:54.515-06:002011-09-07T16:51:54.515-06:00My teen son moments ago while discussing this post...My teen son moments ago while discussing this post and how it related to a raid the party launched against a tribe of stone-aged hill-men in our campaign recently said "we didn't murder anyone we killed savages, we are conquerors."<br /><br />Some of us don't have much trouble playing pimps, murderers, tomb robbers, arsonists, slavers, and conquistadors. But yeah the hobby tends to frown on some of that.JDJarvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691101939920824546noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-62485224570640752011-09-07T16:19:37.773-06:002011-09-07T16:19:37.773-06:00Great post. Makes you think about what a real-life...Great post. Makes you think about what a real-life Paladin would do in the name of his God. Lawful Good indeed.Butchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00470617214750867482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-6095126077092234602011-09-07T13:30:38.866-06:002011-09-07T13:30:38.866-06:00I've been taking tentative steps into finding ...I've been taking tentative steps into finding out about 'real' medieval life recently, and that was a thought-provoking article - thank you.Jason Jutahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07109751465009519029noreply@blogger.com