Everywhere we look, the news is just dire, grim, dark, and, if every major outlet is to be believed, doom, destruction and a holocaust are on the way.
Might as well pack it in. Give up. Throw in the towel. Tap out. It’s over and done. Auf wiedersehen, right?
Not so fast. I want you to take another look with something in mind. This shit didn’t spring up overnight. It took ideas at the grass-roots levels to take hold and then begin the gradual growth. At first, many of the ideas were really good. A clean environment. Clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, clean habitats for animals and plants to grow. Hey, maybe we shouldn’t just mindlessly pollute the very places we need to live. Maybe keep that eye out and do play the role of a good citizen every once in awhile. Act Locally, think globally. I know I’m only citing one example but you can see where I’m going. Let’s not react by recoiling from each other on sight. Let’s talk, see what we have in common and build from there and just leave each other alone when it comes to the differences. Stuff like that was reasonable and, along the way, we had people like George Carlin to show us that we needed to be careful because there were people so involved in overcorrection that we needed to sideline them and tell them “Hey look, admirable that you wanna make changes. I can agree on some of them but you need to calm the fuck down and stop with the hysteria. You’re going too far here and that won’t be tolerated.”
In the 90s, I can remember when some of the most offensive comedy was put on display, some boundaries were being tested and we were beginning to open our eyes to much of the stuff I just previously mentioned but we have a problem, we failed to heed the messages Carlin put out there and, over time, we allowed just every and any idea to come in without scrutiny or applying a bit of critical thought around it. That’s our fault there. We let it go willy-nilly and now, this is where we are.
I know it seems all doom and gloom but I’m going to let you in on a little something. This is a Monday where I’m not feeling that Case of The Mondays. No, I haven’t been diving into my box of spell components, cards, runes and I haven’t been scrying. There are just some light spots in this seemingly dark world that I’ve been looking at and I thought I’d share them with you. Hopefully, we can use these as focal points and we can turn things around ourselves. Why rely on those whom have failed over and over again?
This morning I woke up to find out that Eric July’s Alphacore is now available for pre-order. This is written by industry titan, Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Joe Bennett. Right now, there are four covers, two of which will be reprinted and two more that never will. I ordered Cover A, myself because of the eventual rarity. While I’d have loved to have ordered Cover C (the foil variant) I know that it would never be read and I like reading my comics as well as having that one that will become eventually at least a bit rare and thus rise in value. When it comes in and I’ve had time to read it, I’ll give you my review on it but so far, everything that Rippaverse has had to offer is something I’ve enjoyed. It’s not perfect and it doesn’t have to be, it just has to be fun and entertaining to me and I’ve certainly purchased worse in my life. If you want your copy of one that could potentially be rare, rather than waiting, then go pre-order your copy today, they’re set to start fulfillment on December 4th.
Why does this give me hope? Well, in particular, with comics, we see the big 3 (Marvel, DC and Image) are not providing great stories. Recently, Tim Sheridan took to Twitter in an effort to encourage people to buy the Green Lantern series, making Alan Scott, the titular character, gay and rallying people to buy this comic to “own the Comicsgate folks” in a sense.
It’s not selling. Seriously.
This is why it gives me hope. An independent comic devoid of these current year identity politics will outsell this comic by a country mile. This Current Year stuff is failing and it’s showing. We’re now in the “Ultimately Croak” portion of “Go Broke, Get Woke And Ultimately Croak” as Razorfist put it, so eloquently.
Another cool thing that I just happened across on YouTube is Dreamkid. If you haven’t checked him out, then you’re missing out on some of what is the most fun retro synth music ever written. Dreamkid has latched onto the 80s nostalgia that many of us have been re-visiting lately, myself included, and he’s made it cool again to walk around in hot neon colors and hey, I have to say that some of his shorts would make great soundtracks to your cyberpunk-style tabletop RPG if you really wanted to use it for that.
I think if you checked him out on his YouTube page or Spotify, you might just agree with me.
Third, we all know that I’ve been saying that when it comes to the TableTop RPG Hobby, plenty of independent companies are out there making their own games and doing well. I’ve recommended many of these games and companies. Good news. If you just don’t know where to start and you want a list to help you get started, there is one that you can peruse and give your money to people who would, as the kids would say, deadass, no cap, appreciate it.
The guide is simple. Green: They just make games, the companies themselves are apolitical and they’d appreciate your business and they make good games of good quality.
Yellow: The companies/creators have done some questionable things but haven’t seemingly gone one way or another. Questionable doesn’t always mean bad, it’s just something to watch. Approach but with caution.
Red: These are the companies that have engaged in tactics no one wants, needs or asked for and some of them have been reprehensible to the point where even I would recommend bypassing them completely.
Point of Fact, here: Alexander Macris announced that his Kickstarter for Adventurer, Conquerer, King System Imperial Imprint exceeded even his own hopes for the crowdfunding campaign. I haven’t backed it myself as money is far too tight and I have more fantasy systems than I’ll ever play, but I recommend you check it out, it might just be your jam
Now, I’m going to be honest, I do have games from companies in every category. Some of them made their way into my library before I knew this list existed and some of them even after I knew but for decent reasons. As always, my comments section is open if you have questions about the games themselves but what I really want to draw your attention to is, look how many major companies aren’t in the green list or even yellow list. It’s crazy that independent companies are positioning themselves in a far more desirable manner than the larger ones. I’ll come back to that.
Finally, I just want to point something out and, if you’ve been with me this far, then I hope you’ll go just a bit further. I hope that I’ve given you enough hope here that you’ll just hear me out and not take it to mean that I’m telling you what to do here. What has carried me this far is my own faith. Having faith in something larger than yourself is important. Being able to find something that gives you peace in this rather insane world in which we’ve all found ourselves can make the difference between laying on the floor and giving up and picking yourself up off the ground and carrying on.
Yes, look at how insane things have become. Sure, we seem to be on the brink of WWIII and everything seems to be just falling apart but remember that the insanity peaked because now, they’re losing and they’re going insane trying to keep the illusion up, they’re trying to intensify what’s left. The fearmongering and fear porn featured on your screen…it’s not real. The tools that have been employed to divide us are failing if you would only look past the surface. If they were so successful, then how are people who are providing really good things not failing? Seriously, go back and look. How many people now know that D&D clones exist, are more cost-effective and can still play and do? Plenty. Prices are rising sure but nowhere near as much as the big companies. How, if these big corporations are right, are these crowdfunding campaigns succeeding rather than failing miserably? How are you able to get music you really do enjoy rather than what mainstream radio tells you to enjoy?
The old guard is dying. That was inevitable and they haven’t had a plan in place to perpetuate their old guard reasonably.
It’s all failing.
That’s where you come in. When you get up out of that chair today, know one thing, you have something in your life that excites and motivates you. Find it. You have something in your day that was good news. Focus on it and share it. You have something to look forward to. Know that every painful step toward it is that one step toward relief. You can make it. Make it.
You can make that difference somewhere. Just do what you can and do it as well as you can. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be perfect.
Don’t tap out. Don’t give up. Turn off the fear-porn news cycle. Sure none of these things in entertainment and culture are going to change everything overnight but don’t you want to be part of the change when it does?
Here’s my tip, be careful not to overcorrect. Revenge is one of those things that even I’ve had on the mind at times but when it comes, it takes you out of being the person in the right and puts you squarely in the role of villain. It never, ever works out and it only becomes more extreme each and every time a “side” chooses to employ it. Don’t believe me? Watch this video.
You can see V as the hero of the story if you like but this clears up that, in this particular story, there really weren’t any good guys, just shades of grey really. Keep this in mind. Heed the words of Carlin on taking things too far.
So remember, Dawn is coming. Our Dagaz moment is about to break and when it does, it will send the undead hordes scattering for cover, their movements decimated. Just don’t hang on to the animosity because all it will do is consume you.
As Master Splinter said to Raphael: