Irrational Indifference in RPGs

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I'm indifferent to AD&D. Since 1e I was 'why are we playing this when Basic does everything we need?' and it's continued. BECMI was our go to for D&D and despite owning every new version of the game up to 4e I never really had much interest in running or playing it. Maybe I thought I'd change my mind after having a good look. Nah. Meh. One o them I remember as being very brown. Was that 3e? yawn.
 
I am indifferent to the OSR. I was never an OD&D fanboy (in any flavour) so it has no nostalgic significance, and I'm not interested in getting closer to Godthe original play style of Arneson et. al. I would quite happily play in a game of one of the OSR systems if one was going but I would just as happily play something else.

I am indifferent to canon-mongery with one exception. I actively hate when people crash conversations about original ideas and try to pull them into interpretations of the setting canon.

I am indifferent to comics. I was never a comic fan-boy, but I have read and enjoyed comics at various times. The other day I bought a copy of Transmetropolitan 1-6 because I had been meaning to read it for some years. OK 20 years.

I am indifferent to Westerns, Luchadores (or wrestling in general for that matter) and Star Trek. I have read and enjoyed a couple of Westerns now, and seen some good Western films, but I'm not a particular fan of the genre. My sisters SO and his bestie used to watch WWF and Dwayne Johnson was quite good value when he was doing the Rock, but wrestling never did a lot for me. Star Trek is good on a good day and mediocre on a mediocre day. I was never a trekkie per se. I've never seen lucha libre or watched a luchador film.
 
I'm indifferent to the financial success or popularity of the RPG hobby. I'd be gaming with friends even if no one else on the planet was, and really get nothing more out of D&D currently being "in" than I did when it was associated with social outcasts.
 
I'm indifferent to Star Wars itself, movies, videogames, what-have-you, but I'll always love the 1st edition Star Wars RPG by West End Games.
That’s where I’m at really. If there was just one movie (the first), as with the one RPG, I’d be perfectly content with my lot for Star Wars. And, beyond this, the fanbase is just annoying now and the IP holders don’t really know what to do with it.
 
Mecha. Every setting I come up with, in every genre I've attempted, the first question I've been asked-- every time-- has been "are there mecha in it?"

I do not get it, at all. I'm not hostile, but I have absolutely zero interest in people piloting giant humanoid warmachines. Hell, I didn't even like Voltron as a kid.
 
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I don't really care about licensed games. If designers get to write for their favourite setting, that's cool, and they typically provide fluff for the fans, so that's neat too. But the actual game attached to the sourcebooks... could be anything, really.
 
Im indifferent to D&D 5e.
I pretend to have opinions but really... fundamentally? I could take it or leave it.
Its cool, I guess. But... meh.
I'm the same. Which is why I stay out of discussions initiative. I've got no interest in even talking about it
 
THAC0
Forgotten Realms
Diablo
D&D5
OSR
Story Games
...that's actually quite the long list, and it can go on and on:grin:!


I was going to post something that would have blown this thread wide open. But I just never quite got to it.

Oh wait, irrational indifference, not irrational procrastination.
I mistake them a lot, myself:smile:!

I'm indifferent to Star Wars itself, movies, videogames, what-have-you, but I'll always love the 1st edition Star Wars RPG by West End Games.
I like the first (historically, not in-universe) trilogy. The rest are meh indeed...but I'd always remember StarORE by Arc Dream:wink:!
 
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I guess I'm indifferent to, like, whether a game's resolution is roll-under, roll-over, linear vs. bell curve, uses cards, stones, etc. I'm happy to add up successes, or sum up dice, or any of that. I'm indifferent to whether a game makes me add or subtract or check a chart. I'm kinda not a fan of "dice ladder" systems (like, I have a d4 in Sneaking Around, a d10 in Swimming w/Jellyfish or whatev'), and likewise not a fan of resolution that requires special dice or cards that aren't just regular ol' playing cards or the RP dice we know from D&D, but other than that, I'm good.
 
I'm indifferent to a lot of the debates and arguments about things related to roleplaying, such as GNS theory, "are storygames roleplaying games?" and other things like that. I just find that most of the time the stuff flies over my head or I get bored reading it after ten seconds.
 
"Weird West" options for every other western RPG.
That does not look like 'indifference'...

I'm pretty much indifferent to whether a system creates PCs with random dice rolls or points buy... though I do like life-path generators ala Traveller.
Ideally a system will let me pick whichever I'm in the mood for... sometimes random, sometimes constructed perfection.
 
I’m pretty indifferent to SW and Trek. I watch them and like some films and series and I’m more lukewarm on others but just don’t have the passion for them that so many others do. I do like WEG and FFG’s SW rpgs more than the films actually. But Lynch’s Dune was the sf movie I loved as a kid so...

Have zero interest in Rolemaster, Palladium and GURPS as systems although I appreciate those games for setting material.

Although I’m intrigued by the idea of mecha rpg and loved Robotech as a kid, Battletech did not interest me one bit.

I remember as a teen there was a club that played Battletech in one of the classes after school, I knew some of the guys who played and was pretty lonely and alienated at that time, but watched a couple of minutes of them playing and was like *meh*

Although I really like WFRP, everything about 40K leaves me completely uninterested in it. When I hear people start to talk 40K ‘canon’ my indifference collapses into itself like a Black Hole.

Most rpgs based on anime fail to grab me as I find most anime super boring and poorly animated. Some notable exceptions, like I’m loving Pop Team Epic and One Punch Man, but in general find way better work in Japanese manga and wish we had more rpgs based on those.

Which makes me realize, is there a madman out there willing to design an Ichi the Killer rpg? Or would that just be a Japanese FATAL?

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When I hear people start to talk 40K ‘canon’
That one is funny as unusually enough even the people working on the novels etc are explicitly on record as saying there isn't any major attempts made for consistency or "canon", saying they just take what they find to be the most interesting combo of different past material.
 
Most rpgs based on anime fail to grab me as I find most anime super boring and poorly animated. Some notable exceptions, like I’m loving Pop Team Epic and One Punch Man, but in general find way better work in Japanese manga and wish we had more rpgs based on those.
That too. I discovered anime in the 90s, when it seemed like Western television was in a slump. At first I was excited to have access to an entire new medium of fresh, non-cliche stories based in cultural assumptions I wasn't familiar with. It didn't take long to figure out these stories were even lazier and more cliched that the ones I was already fed up with. And the people I was swapping these shows back and forth had a way of making it kind of an ordeal at times.

You haven't watched Sailor Moon? Why?

Because it's childish.

You haven't watched Dragonball Z? Why?

Because it's boring.

You haven't watched One Piece? Why?

Because it seems like the voice actors are competing to see who can be most annoying.

You haven't watched Black Butler? Why?

Because this show about a 10-year old boy selling his soul to a 6,000-year old demon in exchange for the chance to take revenge for his murdered parents seems uncomfortably like a love story.
 
"Canon" falls apart when you get to the multiple-writer never-ending-franchises. Picking the bits you want to work with is all you can really do; you can't rely on a new reader having read all the bits you liked, so you are almost setting your own local canon.

I make an exception for books in the same series (Not franchise!), where it's fair to assume you're marketing to returning readers so can be a bit lax; in the third book about Captain Spaceface, you can just give enough to give your returning readers a reminder, and then get on with your story.
 
That too. I discovered anime in the 90s, when it seemed like Western television was in a slump. At first I was excited to have access to an entire new medium of fresh, non-cliche stories based in cultural assumptions I wasn't familiar with. It didn't take long to figure out these stories were even lazier and more cliched that the ones I was already fed up with. And the people I was swapping these shows back and forth had a way of making it kind of an ordeal at times.

You haven't watched Sailor Moon? Why?

Because it's childish.

You haven't watched Dragonball Z? Why?

Because it's boring.

You haven't watched One Piece? Why?

Because it seems like the voice actors are competing to see who can be most annoying.

You haven't watched Black Butler? Why?

Because this show about a 10-year old boy selling his soul to a 6,000-year old demon in exchange for the chance to take revenge for his murdered parents seems uncomfortably like a love story.

Yeah I find trying to figure out which anime is worth watching a real challenge as the fandom seems really uncritical, to the point that even the more professional review sites online are completely unreliable as a guide as well.

I find the anime/manga thread here on the Site is a better guide than anywhere in fandom circles as I know the posters here aren’t the uncritical types who seem to like everything they are presented with.
 
I'm indifferent to the financial success or popularity of the RPG hobby. I'd be gaming with friends even if no one else on the planet was, and really get nothing more out of D&D currently being "in" than I did when it was associated with social outcasts.

I have to awkwardly dodge a few more random people asking me about it, because I don't want to game with anyone but my friends. Otherwise, yeah.
 
Superhero role-playing games

I have nothing to say about them; I've never played one and I've never wanted to.

Same here. I just simply don’t care at all.
 
Although I really like WFRP, everything about 40K leaves me completely uninterested in it. When I hear people start to talk 40K ‘canon’ my indifference collapses into itself like a Black Hole.
I like early 40K and I've been reading a reissue of one of the early books (GW game fiction was pretty decent back then). I know they went through and retconned bits of the stories, like squelching any mention of squats, but at the same time I'm surprised by what they did NOT change... stuff that would make the hard-core fanboys' heads explode.
But yeah, there's no 'canon' 40K because it's constantly changing to suit the marketing fluff. Any version I'd run would have a lot of pulpy Flash Gordon stuff... and alien PCs... and non-chaotic rebels.

A girl I tutor is an anime fan and into anything that features high school drama... which there is plenty of.
Easy to avoid, though I did just start Evangelion... which seems like it might have a bit of that.
 
Superhero role-playing games

I have nothing to say about them; I've never played one and I've never wanted to.
It’s the one genre of gaming that seems to pass me by - mainly because I just can’t get into Champions.

It’s only superhero-esque games, with a peculiar spin that seem to have an appeal for me - like Scion or In Nomine. I’m kinda indifferent to both those systems, incidentally.
 
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