Trojan Horse Games

I am finishing up my summer project to replace my gaming shelves with better, "display stand" style shelves with fewer games on them, and face-out books, special editions, inspiration art and classic comic collections, and other gaming kitsch. When I am done, I will have seven of these shelves in my gaming space, with only the best games on them.

If my gaming shelves are packed storage shelves, I rarely play the games on them. They are too junky, packed full of stuff, and disorganized for me to ever think of pulling a book off.

If my shelves have "air" and things are not packed so tightly, I use book ends and magazine organizers, I will pull books off those shelves regularly since every shelf looks like a display stand in a boutique gaming store. I will mix models, comics, framed art, art books, signs, figurines, a plastic skull mask I got for Halloween. and other inspirational things on the shelves to scream "play me" when I walk by.

My new shelves look amazing, and someone told me they actually look like I love and care about my hobby, that I am proud of it, and it does not look like a hoarder's collection of junk anymore. My shelves are a reflection of the game, how I see the game, and myself. My games now reflect my style, and how my hobby reflects that.

Oh, that that is a very important point I want you to remember.

This is my hobby.

It is not Wizards' hobby, a VTT provider, any 5E publisher, or any of these other companies. While I love what these companies create, the hobby should reflect my interests and tastes. I am not changing what I like because some game writer wants to exert societal pressure though a book that has no resale value, and the mass of paper and ink will likely go to Goodwill or the recycle bin someday, if the staff and social media people start on a tirade.

This is my hobby, and it reflects me.

And I am done with preachy garbage that tells me how to act and live my life, and art that is less interested in paying homage to the hobby, and more at pushing someone's agenda - on any side, mind you. Writers who put that stuff in books need to straighten their own lives out first, and stay out of mine. Sorry, how you treat each other and act in a civilized society should have been taught to you in school, please don't take up half of my game book explaining what a failed educational system did not provide, it is not the game's problem to solve.

When a game starts laying out "rules for real life" it has instantly crossed a red line. This is what the Bible is for. Stay out of religion, game designers.

These are the games I will play going forward. The other games will be put in storage and sold. And yes, this does affect my blogs. I see two that may get put into storage and shelved. I recently brought back my double-zero dungeon blog for 1d100 gaming (BRP, Rolemaster, Runequest, Cthulhu, etc.), and I created a 2d6 Space blog for all my amazing Cepheus and Traveller games.

And I have some games currently on my shelves that take away from the better ones. These are my Trojan Horse games, and I am beginning to see them for what they are. They are still great games and I love them, but they are distractions and take away time from the games that I enjoy more. this is not a reflection of the game's quality or them being a bad game, it is just I have better in my collection and prefer to play those, instead of something that "kinda sorta could be" and does not provide a strong experience aligned with my interests.

I have Cypher System on my older shelves, and GURPS on a display shelf. GURPS is the better generic game, and having Cypher out on my most-played shelves takes away time and attention from a game I really love. GURPS is the better game for me, doing everything Cypher System does, but better. Cypher System, for my interests, is a Trojan Horse that distracts me and takes away time and attention from GURPS, a game I get more "fun per moment" out of.

Tales of the Valiant is the best Open 5E system out there, but I have three display shelves devoted to Dungeon Crawl Classics. DCC represents fantasy far better for me than any other fantasy game, and especially 5E, which people call "superheroic fantasy" but that is a lie. I have superhero games that are far better balanced and fun to play than anything 5E, and they do fantasy as well. The only reason superheroes exist in 5E is the system is so broken it is impossible to kill characters, and the challenge rating system is so broken it never works. If I want real superheroic fantasy, I will play a superhero game in a fantasy setting and have the real thing.

DCC's charts and tables provide true emergent play. My concepts of fantasy are in that area where "magic is an arcane and unpredictable force beyond our understanding." This cuts to my core beliefs, where magic is forbidden knowledge and faith is the armor of the soul. This is more real to me. Why am I playing no-consequence magic again? Is this a video-game where I can spam the magic bolt button again and again, get bored, and quit? If there is no cost to magic, the entire fantasy game is boring.

ToV will likely be on my hall shelves and not in storage, but off my primary display shelves. I still like the game and plan to play, but it is not my primary fantasy game. Cypher System goes there, too, but reduced down to its core book and genre support. 

My new shelves will have Traveller and my 2d6 games. My d100 games will have a home there. Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, BRP, and my other games will find a home there. If they don't compete with GURPS and DCC, they can join the display shelves.

Now, GURPS could replace them all, but DCC has its charts, Traveller and Runequest brings tons of support for their settings, and really the games GURPS would compete with are BRP and some of the Open d100 games. I will see how it goes, but I feel this is a good balance.