We Got Ours

Damn it.

We can agree that DMs need to be better.  We can agree that tactics designed to control people will probably fail, even if we think something ought to be put in place.  We can agree the game has to be personal and that DMs must reach out to players in moments of stress and speak plain and honest with them.

And then what?  We're supposed to just drop the subject?  We're not supposed to talk about what it would look like to make a better DM?  We just don't care?

Earlier this month, Stonekettle station wrote an evaluation of a certain part of the American character that is, no doubt, hard to admit:

"This is the philosophy of modern conservatism: I got mine, fuck you.

"This is the core of their horrible selfish religion: I'm saved, you can burn in hell.

"You’ve heard me say this many times before: It’s not heaven if everybody gets to go. The best part about Conservative Heaven isn’t being up there with Jesus, no, it’s gloating at the poor saps burning forever down below. Ha ha HAH. We’re Saved, fuck you, losers! And that horrible selfish religion shapes everything else. We got ours, our healthcare, our food, our clean water, our homes, our jobs, our retirement, our stock options, our savings, our opportunity, our salvation, so fuck you. The best part of America is that everybody doesn’t get to go. There’s no point in privilege if everybody is privileged. You can’t think of yourself as exceptional if everybody is exceptional. There’s no point in being rich if everybody else is rich too. They see liberty and justice and freedom as a zero sum game. If others get more, they are somehow diminished, lessened, cheated of their exalted status and made average."

Is that the crux behind everyone's Dungeon Mastering.  Fuck you, I know how to Dungeon Master.  Others don't, but I know how, so fuck everyone else.  My world works great, thank you very much.  I know there are other worlds out there and they suck, but what difference does that make for me and my players?  Huh?  Fuck any notion of education, evalution or accreditation. No one's gonna tell me I need to learn something about this game.  They can tell other people, sure, but not me.

Maybe this is what I'm up against.  Not DMs who see that education is an opportunity, not DMs who are sure they could kick butt on courses if there were courses, not DMs who have nothing to worry about because they really do have their finger on the pulse of what makes the game work.  No.  We have DMs who live in fear that someone will find them out, someone will expose them, someone will prove that they actually run a shit game, that they'll talk to the players in private and find out the real deal, that they're not DMs at all and they're just faking their confidence.  That's what this silence on this issue, a practical sound approach to learning about role-playing, sounds like to me.

No, no, we'd rather kick in for kickstarters that will give us real tips, that will provide for us, that will put everything into one 224 page book, where we won't have to do anything, because the book or Monte Cook or this group of internet stars will set us up.  Matt Colville has put up 50+ vlogs of advice, but here, with this book, he's finally going to give you the facts, stuff he's been holding back all this time just for this fantastic guide.  And Mercer, after 300+ hours of internet commentary and game running, NOW he's got the lowdown you've never heard from him before.  Now he's going to blow the doors off this D&D thing.  He's kept silent on this one really amazing contribution he's got ready for you.  Wow, don't you want this book?

Is it any different for anyone on this list?  Do we really think these people haven't already shown their stripes?  That this book is just going to be a rehash of the same shit you've been reading online since 2005?  But hey, they have a kickstarter, they have names, they have a budget ... so fuck you and your DM needs, they got theirs.

And the crowd online is eating it up with a spoon.

Yes ... after 40 years of writing about D&D, we're finally
going to see some original work.

Did you go to a university that told you they were going to give you an engineering degree?  Or a masters in psychology or a doctorate in political science?  I went to a university that was ready to provide the classes, while we did all the work.  We weren't "given" anything.  When people say they're giving you something, they mean something you already have, that doesn't cost anything and won't matter in the long run.

So yeah.  Let's not talk about any Dungeon Mastering based on an idea of anyone learning anything.  Or working for anything.  Or improving anyone.  Because we're already Dungeon Masters.  We got ours when it was easy to get.  So fuck everyone else.