Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, man!

UncleBear, father figure of RPG Bloggers has started a new movement: ROLPUNK!
So, what’s this all about? Let the man speak for himself:

Rolpunk (one L, no E) is about pure, stripped down, no BS tabletop gaming. It’s about taking your game back to its bare bones roots: play a character, chuck some dice, period. It’s about not letting other people tell you how to play your games. It’s not about telling other people how to play their games, either; don’t be that fascist. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, man, not other peoples’ and especially not your own. It’s about having fun, because if you’re not having fun you’ve discovered the only way possible to do it wrong. It’s about embracing the do-it-yourself ethic of the hobby and sharing your stuff, even if it’s just with your own game group. But it’s not about rejecting stuff, dismissing stuff out of hand because of whatever pretentious filters other people have set up to dictate what’s cool and what’s not cool. Screw them. Reject attitudes, not games. It’s about accepting the potential of everything, salvaging what works for you and ignoring the rest. It’s about shaping your own identity as a gamer, about letting your group and your campaign and the rules at your table take their own form based on your creative needs. Don’t be a game sheep.

He also has written an uncensored manifesto, which is in my humble opinion pure gold! If you don’t mind a few swear words, you really should check it out! Ah, and before I forget it: The manifesto and the logos are © Berin Kinsman and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. So, join the movement, share the word and have fun!

Stargazer’s World is happily jumping onto the bandwagon! 🙂

Michael Wolf is a German games designer and enthusiast best known for his English language role-playing games blog, Stargazer's World, and for creating the free rules-light medieval fantasy adventure game Warrior, Rogue & Mage. He has also worked as an English translator on the German-language Dungeonslayers role-playing game and was part of its editorial team. In addition to his work on Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Dungeonslayers, he has created several self-published games and also performed layout services and published other independent role-playing games such as A Wanderer's Romance, Badass, and the Wyrm System derivative Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, all released through his imprint Stargazer Games. Professionally, he works as a video technician and information technologies specialist. Stargazer's World was started by Michael in August 2008.

9 comments

comments user
BerinKinsman

Rusty chainsaws, kiddies!

comments user
Stargazer

Kiddies? KIDDIES???? I hope you're kidding me, Berin! 😛

comments user
Dyson Logos

I was honestly surprised to see you embracing this with your vocal stance against certain games and game designs.
.-= Dyson Logos´s last blog .. =-.

    comments user
    Stargazer

    From how I understand it, ROLPUNK is a movement to empower us gamers, allows us to take back the game and not let others force us to drink the Kool-Aid.
    Sure, I have a vocal stance against certain things, but please I never forced my opinion on anyone. And if you have read my latest post on 4E you may have noticed that my main intent was to make peace with 4E and the end the edition wars (at least for me). So, I realized what was bothering me and moved on. I don't think the ROLPUNK manifesto forbids us to speak our minds.
    And I can say that I always embraced a lot of the ideals that make up the manifesto. The majority of my posts have always been about mixing ideas, making the game your own and having fun.

comments user
Dr Rotwang!

I, Dr Rotwang!, being of sound mi– okay, FUNCTIONAL mind and hawtsome body that all the ladies are giddy to get with*, approve heartily of this notion because it's pretty much what I keep saying.

Interestingly, the Anti-spam word I had to type in was "fudge".

*Big fat lie.
.-= Dr Rotwang!´s last blog .. =-.

comments user
Stargazer

There are a lot of funny anti-spam words on this site. One of my readers' favorites is Cthulhu! Proving that you're human was never more fun. Ia! Ia!

comments user
Dyson Logos

I was just thinking back to our discussions regarding WHFRP3 and the line in the manifesto "But it’s not about rejecting stuff"
.-= Dyson Logos´s last blog ..Fall Labyrinth Lord Blog-Cleaning =-.

comments user
Stargazer

As I said before, I am just human. 😉

And sometimes I just have to rant. But all in all I agree with what Berin said.

comments user
BerinKinsman

The part after "rejecting stuff" continues with "dismissing stuff out of hand because of whatever pretentious filters other people have set up to dictate what’s cool and what’s not cool". So Michael, or me, or you, not liking something for our own reasons is just fine. If you don't like 4e, or WFRP3, or whatever *for your own reasons* that's cool. I don't think Michael bashes stuff because that's the current trend; I think Michael says "meh, this isn't my thing and here's why" and "this product disappoints me for the following reasons".