Dealing With Anti-D20 Snobbery

I’ve been gaming for a hell of a long time. For the last few years ago, most of the stuff I’ve been doing is d20 based. There are a lot of reasons for it, the biggest being that we converted our Greyhawk campaign to D&D 3E in 2000.

It’s worked well for us (none of those concerns about game mechanics overwhelming role-playing for us). And because it has, at lot of the other games we play are also now d20 based. Fading Suns? d20. Delta Green? d20. Stagate? d20.

The common ruleset makes it much easier for my players to pick up games, and we’re fluent enough in the system to make any needed changes (i.e. importing Spycraft, firearms rules into Fading Suns d20 to replace the awful ones Holistic released).

Ultimately, we use it because it works for us.

And man, do some people ever hate that.

Just about every gaming e-mail list I belong to (but particularly Greytalk and the Delta Green Mailing List) will periodically erupt into flamewars if someone asks a question about d20, posts write-ups using d20, or comments on some new d20 book.

Inevitably, it’s the anti-d20 crowd that initiates the flamewars, raining down derision, scorn and hatred upon the system and any player who uses it. And heaven help them if they say they like it.

Now the RPG community has always had people looking down their noses at Dungeons & Dragons, but since d20 arrived and Borg-ized the gaming shelves, the snobbery’s reached unprecedented levels.

Personally, I’m sick of it. I know all the arguments. I’ve read all the debates. I’ve seen all the stereotypes. I did all of that … in 1999. Everything that needs to be said on the subject has been said, a thousand times over, and yet, given the opportunity, people (on both sides) will say it all again. New flame wars erupt. Opportunities for constructive discussion are scorched from the ether.

Personally, I’m sick of it. I really wish that people could just move past the unending debate and acknowledge that people can use whatever system works best for them.

But unfortunately I know that just isn’t going to happen. Too many people are too tangled up in their own banners to see past them, and thus will continue charging onto the battle field, endlessly tripping themselves and dragging down everyone around them.

Not me though. I’m through with it. I’ll post my stuff to the lists, and if people want to talk about it constructively, I’ll talk to them. But if they great constructive posts with knee jerk derision, I’ll just ignore them. I’d much rather spend my time online improving my game than arguing with zealots.

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