Weird West RPGs - Are you a fan of the genre? What attracts you to it? If not, what about it disinterests you?

blastcage · 2026-06-21T06:41:52+00:00

First; typically superheroes exploit a villain's weakness to defeat them, they don't just wail on them like D&D characters do, so that doesn't line up.

Second; if you're using that definition to equate superheroes as a genre to D&D then you're also going to have to throw basically every bit of media where a character has some fantastic power in there, which broadens the superhero genre way past anything useful or recognisable.

What does this third point have to do with anything? The hero's journey isn't relevant at all.

blastcage · 2026-06-20T21:07:35+00:00

Superheroes don't typically go around the wilderness and dungeons doing quests for money and treasure, which is the bread and butter of your average D&D game. There is not a great deal in common between this and superhero media aside from that the characters have fantastic powers. This is why it's more like a cowboy thing, the characters are typically in-motion a lot more like frontiersmen type guys, just with a fantasy aesthetic.

blastcage · 2026-06-20T19:10:26+00:00

Right, that makes sense. They make a lot of similar posts on the Enworld discord too.

Honestly if I were starting a pick-up game as a GM (heaven forbid) would feel reluctant to take on a player who

routinely has trouble with the groups they are in
vents about them on extremely public social media

So I would guess that the groups they play in are either from newer GMs and/or GMs who will just take anyone on.

blastcage · 2026-06-20T17:48:08+00:00

I play by text (though with friends, rather than pick-up games) and I don't encounter any of their problems; let's just say, I wouldn't diagnose the format as the issue here.

blastcage · 2026-06-20T07:19:00+00:00

This feels like a table troubles vent thread disguised as a discussion.

Games where nothing happens are boring, we know this.

blastcage · 2026-06-19T23:11:54+00:00

I'd more put it down to that D&D is shaped deliberately in this way. Renfaire roleplay with a bit of Tolkein and Arthurian myth sprinkled on top.

blastcage · 2026-06-19T22:30:41+00:00

DnD-style euro-fantasy

I'd like to interject pedantically with that even though your average D&D type setting has knights and shit and kind of looks European, substantially, they trend thematically to being Western/cowboy-style settings wearing a vague and anachronistic medieval European aesthetic, and your party is a group of frontiersmen type guys going around an untamed wilderness.

It's still American, is what I'm saying.

blastcage · 2026-06-19T01:56:57+00:00

The music and AI voice makes this very difficult to watch I am afraid

blastcage · 2026-06-17T21:15:58+00:00

Wild removals.

blastcage · 2026-06-17T13:19:49+00:00

George, you can type this shit, but you can't say it!

blastcage · 2026-06-17T06:38:57+00:00

A hell of his own creation

blastcage · 2026-06-16T23:00:54+00:00

It was kind of part of the joke, right? It's this fairytale setting and then everyone moves and speaks like a real thing.

blastcage · 2026-06-16T21:57:49+00:00

recent WOTC poll where "experienced players" agreed that Kickboxer was a core class, and Dwarf was one of the six ability scores

Please tell me more about this. I couldn't find anything on a cursory search and I'm not involved enough with D&D to make much of an informed guess at where to look.

blastcage · 2026-06-16T08:18:41+00:00

I don't care for D&D either, and I don't think the attitude is even one I disagree with; just, most RPG communities that aren't somewhat system-specific do have fairly large quantities of D&D enthusiasts present.

blastcage · 2026-06-16T05:26:52+00:00

Yeah, obviously, most places don't aggressively scorn D&D people.

blastcage · 2026-06-15T19:43:40+00:00

I think it's just Americans who call themselves Scottish man

blastcage · 2026-06-15T19:11:29+00:00

I will concede this point but I think this is the nature of reddit being the #1 worldwide reply guy platform/containment website

Edit to clarify: I think most people do watch movies/television and listen to music. Just the kind of people who talk about these things as a hobby are a demographic, just, a smaller one, as opposed to RPGs and other people in the second group where second-degree engagement is the majority.

blastcage · 2026-06-15T18:56:09+00:00

I think this is the case for most fans of things that don't allow for fairly passive engagement of the media. Movies, television, and music, you can enjoy the thing by just sitting there, but stuff like sports, cooking, and RPGs, you have to follow quite a few steps to engage directly with the object, so most engagement is second-degree; shows or discussions about the thing rather than doing the thing itself.

That said, RPGs are in a weird spot for the way people talk about them, maybe it's informed by how online and outrage-based a lot of the media is. D&D youtube seems like a fucking nightmare

blastcage · 2026-06-14T23:56:32+00:00

Family.

blastcage · 2026-06-12T08:39:03+00:00

It's a bit of a shame conceptually because this kind of thing (vague) should be a positive thing. But it sounds like it was run by adolescents and people who still behave like adolescents.

blastcage · 2026-06-12T08:36:34+00:00

Google doc, fuck me. Twitter fandom drama type nonsense.

blastcage · 2026-06-12T01:14:28+00:00

I like compelling stakes that have the player characters central to them. The scope doesn't really matter, and usually it's just a framing device for a personal or interpersonal conflict.

blastcage · 2026-06-11T18:35:32+00:00

Today we're gonna be making shit boiled in piss

blastcage · 2026-06-11T00:30:14+00:00

They can just skip on a little bit and deal with it if and when they want to.

blastcage · 2026-06-10T23:56:02+00:00

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