The Tweet Seen Round the 'Verse

This is the titular tweet from Mike Mearls that seemed to shake the D&D community up a little over two months ago.  I debated for a while about whether I had anything to add to the conversation about this- and all the back and forth that has ensued since, but I've elected to throw in my two copper pieces.

There seems to be a lot of debate about what was meant by the text of this tweet.  While there is nothing more quintessentially D&D than a bunch of nerds debating about how to interpret a simple block of text- it seems that a lot of people decided to (willfully) misinterpret this.  Let's review it one piece at a time.

Let's look at this bit first: Mearls is addressing this message to a specific subset of people among his Twitter followers and on the internet at large.  He is addressing people "who insist on gatekeeping."  These people are gatekeepers.  They are people who are interested in keeping new players out of their games and newcomers out of the community at large out of a dislike for things like diversity and inclusivity and/or disinterest in teaching the game to a noob or someone who just wants to try the game out.  If you are not a gatekeeper, then this message is NOT directed at you.  You are also not really a "fan" of D&D and what it has grown to be.

These are the specific gatekeepers that Mearls is addressing.  There are gatekeepers out there that use a multitude of measures to drive people away from the game and the community.  Some of them will tell a newcomer that they are unable to understand the rules (because they are so complex) or that they won't get the rich tapestry of history and legend that has been woven (if they are full of themselves about their homebrew or someone who is deep into the Forgotten Realms/Eberron/etc.)  If you are a gatekeeper that is using the excuse of "rules complexity" or "lore density" to drive away someone that would come to your table and ask "What is this?" or "How do you play?" or "Can I try?" then this message is directed at you.  If you're gatekeeping by any other means, then maybe you'll be address later- but again I feel like I should reiterate: " IF YOU ARE NOT A GATEKEEPER, THEN THIS MESSAGE IS NOT DIRECTED AT YOU."

Now remember folks- this message is about gatekeepers who use the excuse of "rules complexity" and "lore density" to drive people away from the game and community.  Now Mearls ventures to say that those gatekeepers ALSO "have a problem with women in tabletop gaming."  This means that the type of grognard or neckbeard that would try and shoo a woman away from their gaming table- is the type of person that would use the excuse of "rules complexity" or "lore density" to try and convince a woman that she could not play the game.  This DOES NOT mean that women cannot understand or appreciate these things- it ONLY means that these members of the old guard will resort to these things as the excuse for keeping people out.

This whole tweet was aimed at a group of people (gatekeepers) and an even more specific group within that one (that use flimsy excuses about the complexity of the game) to keep the game table from getting diversified (in this case it's women, but I have heard that many others face this kind of crap as well).  If you are offended by this tweet, then you are either a member of the group that Mearls is trying to address- or you are misinterpreting this tweet as fuel for the culture war that seems to spread across the geek communities as it has spread across every facet of our modern lives. In either case:

 

P&P D&D

If you look around the modern table of most tabletop roleplaying games- it looks much different than it did decades ago.  There have not been a lot of advancement in the realm of flat surfaces, but there have been some changes about how we all accessorize and approach managing a character and a campaign.  I for one don't much like tablets and laptops at the table- because I prefer to keep things pencil and paper as much as possible.

I don't know if my love of notebooks, writing utensils, and things to write on/in is a symptom of or the cause of this low-tech preference, but in spite of spreadsheets and apps I'll do as much as I can without looking at a screen.  There are a number of notebooks that I admire- some specifically branded for use in a tabletop gaming scenario and others (more like the ones that I compulsively purchase) are more general purpose.  So if you can't quite bring yourself to splurge on something like the Table Titan's Adventure Journal or the the Code & Quill Origin notebook "for creatives" to cart around with your other books- might I suggest trying out something compact, affordable, and awesome in the Field Notes brand?

Field Notes come in a variety of sizes and price points, but the most basic models that I like for keeping campaign notes and jotting down ideas for the next session look like so:

They are conveniently pocket-sized and come in lined, blank, or graph pages- I suggest the three pack with one of each.  I keep thinking I might write out the room descriptions of a mega-dungeon in a lined book and make the map in a graph one (though I could just as easily do it all in a graph one I suppose).  It's easy to fit several of these notebooks in whatever bag you might be toting your other books and gaming paraphernalia in.  You could even fit one into a book to save a page...

I reached out to the fine folks at Field Notes at their Chicago HQ to make a suggestion about a product they might market specifically to us pencil and paper geeks.  Here's what I said: 

"... I've made use of several lined, graph, and unruled books for taking notes and drawing up ideas for games of Dungeons & Dragons. 

I wanted to know if you would consider marketing directly to tabletop roleplaying gamers (or specifically D&D players since the game is experiencing a bit of a renaissance as of late) by creating a notebook that had a few features that this demographic would really appreciate.

1) Alternating pages of graph and lined paper.

2) A leatherette cover with a gold leaf cover printing (either of an ampersand or an icosahedron) that was reminiscent of the AD&D Complete line of supplements ('89-'95) or the 3rd Edition Quintessential line of supplements (2002-2004).  The latter were made to imitate the former specifically because of the retro appeal.

3) A slightly different interior of the front and back covers more referential to the tabletop gaming culture.

There is a lot of interest among this particular group of folk in pen and paper- since the games they play are pen and paper games.  I think players could use this resource to take notes during a game and  that DMs and GMs could use these to plot out dungeons or campaigns on the go."

I got a response from Brian at Field Notes that illustrated to me how Dungeons & Dragons geeks have infiltrated every level of society and every field of interest:

"Hi Crit!

We've got a few D&D players here, Matt, Shea, and I all play once every other week with some friends at Threadless, the t-shirt company! I've been playing on and off since original AD&D (mid-80s)

We've talked a bit about doing something D&D-ey, obviously we can't come anywhere near WotC's trademarks and intellectual property. If we were going to do something, we'd want to put our own spin on it anyway, probably go back to a generic fantasy/gaming theme and probably be pretty subtle, we've found books with a very specific use are hard to sell (and people see them and ask "can you make it MORE specific?" ha) and we have a huge user base (and subscribers) so most of our editions need to appeal to literally everyone. So we'll see. something along those lines could happen.

In any case, rest assured lots of Field Notes are being used as-is for D&D, even here in our office. I like the dot-graph larger Pitch Black book, i've drawn some runes on mine in silver paint pen, and glued a copy of my character sheet inside the back cover."

I was so happy to see that there were geeks in this pencil and paper based industry- well specifically tabletop gaming geeks.  I'm also excited that it's something they've at least considered- and it's something I would definitely buy in the future.  At this time a 3 pack of their iconic notebooks is just about $10 so pick a trio up and maybe share with your fellow players or DM.

Now, if you'll excuse me- I'll be cutting up the cover of an old Complete splatbook and making my own slipcover for one of these...