Hi TTRPG Twitter.

Today I'm gonna be talking about this attitude, how and why it's toxic, and how it can (and has in the past) ruin a thriving indie-creator industry.

Don't go harass this person.

[ Show this thread.]

Independent creators everywhere, and especially in the TTRPG Space, spend a lot of their own time, and often their own money, creating functional art. It's hard, but a lot of us are really passionate about it, so we're gonna do it no matter what.

Because it's fulfilling.

Sometimes, independent creators make their material free to access, for any number of reasons, including accessibility (like @/mustangsart and the incredibly in-depth Combat Wheelchair) or promotion (like my Fall Guys playable race).

But the worst thing that happens...

The worst thing is when creators feel that their material *isn't worth money* so they make it free for that reason.

Anybody who makes RPGs will tell you that they're criminally underpriced. They are. Creators often put dozens of hours and hundreds of dollars into the FREE stuff.

And that doesn't just devalue THEIR work. It devalues EVERYONE'S work.

It accomplishes this by creating shitheads like the guy in OP who expect free content to not only include a playable race, but an entire one-shot on TWO separate digital table top marketplaces. For free.

That's before they would even CONSIDER running a game. That's ridiculous. That's an entitled mindset.

You are not "entitled" to free entertainment. You are not "entitled" to the hard work and passion people put into the things they care about, EVEN if it's free.

I put about 15 hours into the writing, editing, balancing, research, asset collection, and layout of the Fall Guys piece. And yeah, it was mostly for fun and practice, and to show my love for @FallGuysGame

Would I make a one-shot with mechanics to play each game type? Sure.

Would I do that work for free? No.

I can't even BEGIN to imagine the work that went into the Combat Wheelchair. Literally. It's incredible, it's beautiful.

We should feel LUCKY that Mustangs chose to share it with us, because we are. We're lucky someone went to ALL of that work to make the game better.

This attitude of being entitled, of feeling like you should get all these things for free, is what lead to freemium games and microtransactions and God damned ads everywhere in everything.

It's why people see that a phone app costs 99 CENTS and then scoff at it.

That's AWFUL.

There are thousands of pay-what-you-want games on @DriveThruRPG and @itchio. Literally thousands.

And that's lead to this attitude of not wanting to play a game unless it's finished, balanced, playtested, beautifully laid out, AND free.

It drives me nuts. I can't stand it.

Anyway, rant over. I'm gonna go watch Lovecraft Country and spend time with @ohadelaide.

You're not entitled to someone else's art. Don't be toxic.

Black lives matter. Trans rights are human rights.