Ok so this really sandpapers my armpits and I’m mad about it but in a very specific way
There’s a longer post I’ll probably make after I’ve had sleep and dealt with tummy troubles but I’m exorcising this thought now, and the longer post has to contend with both Insider Baseball and Load-Bearing But accusations so that’s for later
Anyway; beloved rpg show dimension 20 has announced their upcoming season. Looks like a fun premise. Great cast with known amazing chemistry. Obvious fun being had. And they’re even not using D&D, which I appreciate on many levels. However, this is not a post about whether or not I feel kids on bikes fits their game (again, longer post, there’s potentially a lot to cover there and I have some choice observations and maybe even shots fired IDK)
This is a scream about ownership
See whenever they play D&D (which is most of the time!) it’s “this game is D&D” whether it’s playing in magical New York, or in a magic school, or everyone is candy, or everyone is weasels. It’s even “this is using D&D” when everyone is in a fairytale story and significant moving parts are added to play into the dark fairytale setting, or when it’s a regency romance with a rumors, titles and letters layer which gets significantly and noticeably more actual on-screen time than the main D&D mechanics do (though nowhere near as much time as the staple conversation-improv-first freewheeling play mode does). It’s just D&D, we’re playing D&D here. And that’s fine (ish), I’m not complaining much about that.
But then we get to seasons like “we’re playing kids on bikes but we added an extra tension track for drama and added a couple homebrew advantages and changed the stat names to avoid character spoilers” and in that one it was “heavily inspired by” KoB and in the upcoming one it’s also “a system highly inspired by…” and like. How much DID you change it, Brennan? As much as ACoFaF? Because that was still just “oh we’re playing D&D”!
Why does D&D get the tacit reinforcement of “oh it can do anything, it’s all D&D” and indie games get “mmmm, well, had to change it to fit my vision so it’s Our Bespoke System Inspired By…”?
This is likely not going to make any difference to how I feel about the season itself, and there are going to be people who ask “ugh why so picky” and I have a lot, a LOT to say about that but like
All I’m asking is equality, basically? Just take equal ownership? If you’re gonna “heavily inspired by” KoB, then just go “yeah ACoFaF is largely run on 5E but it uses our in house Regency Rumors system”. If you’re gonna “mmm yeah Neverafter was just D&D” about it, just go “mentopolis? Yeah it’s kids on bikes with a few house changes”.
If you have legal reasons to say “it’s D&D it’s just D&D you know D&D haha no matter how much we change it’s D&D” then give indies the same goddamned courtesy and ownership of their stuff.
Anyway there’s more but I haven’t been sleeping well at all and I need to try again so this concludes the pressure vent.
