Welp, today's RPG dramarama left me feeling tired and listless, and reasonably sure that I'd look like some kind of asshole if I opened my mouth.

So, having left my takes cooling for a half-life or so, lemme roll out the considered version.

RPGs are a young medium. We don't have a *lot* to lean on, but we do have *some* theory, best practises, and history. And we *definitely* have distinct subcultures, and fashion trends.

If your work has the distinct appearance of having been done in ignorance of *all of that*, it's...not going to go down well.

Whether not I feel sympathetic, that is just how that is.

If your design motivations and outcome — regardless of the above — appear incoherent and self-defeating (a universal system!..specially focused on a specific genre emulation! Pick *one*, folks), that's not going to go well either.

If your work seems badly communicated, that's — I'm trying to be kind, here, I am, but an RPG text *is* an information-rich communiqué, and if it doesn't convey itself well, you've doomed it from the start.

Examples of play are a gentle, idealised showcase. They are the "after" shots in an infomercial, showing you how the Gizmatic 4K will improve *your* roleplaying.

If your example of play makes your work look bad....

Critique — yes, even people poking fun at your work — probably isn't *enjoyable*, but your responses to it are going to colour peoples' perception of you, your work, and whether critique (or pisstaking) are *justified*.

If all you have to say to criticism is "No. You are spreading misinformation" that — and pardon me, there's a repetitive theme here — won't go well for you.

It's genuinely uncomfortable to look at something which a) I am very, very much not in the audience for, b) seems to have basic flaws, c) as far as I can tell, is the product of utter sincerity, limited medium literacy, & a taste for things which are irretrievably unfashionable.

I once read a piece considering the trajectory of a creative's output as a never-ending race for their execution skills to catch up with their technical + aesthetic appreciation, almost always struggling to produce work they can acknowledge as good.

The worst creatives are inevitably those whose capacity to appreciate starts off no higher than their ability to execute, because *nobody* starts out good, but if you believe you have, you have no impulse to improve.

This pairs neatly with an inability to separate critique of work from personal attack.

I'm not saying that's what resulted in the thing that was the target of today's pisstaking, but...kinda looks like it from here.

And the thing is, there *is* no way to critique someone who sincerely can't conceive that you might have a point. They *cannot* take it any other way than you punching at them.

Which means, basically, that if you insist on engaging with them anyway, you *are* being cruel.

There's probably even an audience for that RPG! I'm, as stated, not in it. And from my understanding of the modern RPG market, I doubt, very much, there's enough of one for any commercial venture like that to succeed.

But the only decent thing to do is...quietly leave it alone.