To Be a Fan Again...

I heard that line on YouTube, where an older OSR YouTuber pushed aside a swath of negative comments in chat, and said he didn't want to be angry anymore, that he just wanted to be a fan again.

That is what I am trying. To be a fan again.

It doesn't mean I ignore stupidity or give myself a free pass to be a gullible fool; I know the hobby too well. There are still games that are way too hostile to fans and get silly or political. I want something fun that respects the audience.

I can sum it up by the old saying, "Give the fans what they want."

I only want games that do that, or show such a high level of understanding and design that they are undeniable. Level Up: Advanced 5E falls into that category. This was the Open 5E version I enjoyed most, designed for old-school players and addressing hundreds of criticisms of the game. Level Up A5E is solid, and I can be a fan of it if I cut my 5E library way down.

Why go back into 5E? Why not stay in BX? It is a good question. Well, before I sell off 95% of my 5E books, I need to see if the best version I played still holds up. You get one last chance, 5E, and  Level Up A5E is the strongest version of the game. I guess we will see.

I will give 5.5E a chance. I will pull out ToV.

Let's figure this out.

Also, if I want a "detailed fantasy character builder," I have two options: 5E or GURPS. BX will not do the layered, detailed, multipart fantasy builds that 5E does. GURPS will do it, but the result will be a realistic and gritty game. 5E is the only game in town when it comes to the "Dialbo-style" character build system, and A5E supports that and improves upon the concept nicely.

Also, 5E has the "MMO-style" play that defines the modern era, with shooty powers and epic combos. A5E does the 5E better by including martial classes in on the fun, where other versions of 5E will give martial classes a Charlie Brown "bag of rocks" when it comes to fun at the table. You, too, martial classes, can have epic choices, massive combos, and resource management just like the mages, but not feel like mages at all. A5E's martial classes are a genius-level design.

If 5E survives at my table, it will be A5E.

But I need to give them all another chance before I decide.

And that includes 5.5E, despite what YouTube is saying about it.

Star Wars, I am doing it in spite. The "franchise" is dead, but the classic universe and stories are not. I can still enjoy the stories I loved as a kid and bring them into today through role-playing. This is really good stuff. The feeling I am ignoring the current, tragic state of the stories and just doing my own thing again. The storytelling and craft in the current Star Wars have fallen to an insanely low level. This isn't even about messaging anymore; the writers have forgotten how to write, none of them could be bothered to learn about canon, and it is just plain, bad Star Wars.

I need good Star Wars. I need stories that treat canon with respect. I want personal struggles and tales of epic heroism and tragic villainy. I know I am not getting that anywhere else but my own stories these days. So be it. I can tell stories, and the good Star Wars is at my table every night. How cool is that?

All I want is good Star Wars.

Genesys? A fun game. Special fun dice. It creates narrative situations at the macro level. It is like Star Wars, but not Star Wars. It is cool. I can stay in the same narrative dice mindset and play other things. An underrated classic that eliminates the need for many of the newer narrative games, and it does everything so much more simply than many efforts.

BX? A classic, it is like playing games in DOS again. Simple, portable, expandable, and fast to run, with a definite dungeon-and-wilderness turn structure that manages play and keeps the game moving. BX is programmed into my DNA at this point; it is impossible to not be a fan.

A side series of games here are the excellent Without Number games by Kevin Crawford, BX-compatible "do it all and every genre" games that take BX to a whole new level. These stay right by my OSE books and promise play across infinite universes, and Stars Without Number is my "designated survivor" game for Star Wars should EDGE Studio ever lose the Star Wars license. If you want "BX Star Wars," start with Stars Without Number and mod from there to craft an incredible universe.

GURPS? Like The Who's song Long Live Rock, GURPS is dead, they say, and Long Live GURPS! It is that good for those who know. This game has survived, was the game that killed AD&D 1E for most in the 1980s, and it still rocks on to this day, still killing AD&D 1E campaigns and replacing the rules with a flat-out better system. Narrative support, the best character builds in gaming, and a combat system that puts Rolemaster to shame. This is seriously good pure 1980s and 1990s greatness.

GURPS set up D&D's death so Magic: The Gathering could take over. GURPS, Battletech, Vampire the Masquerade, d6 Star Wars, Warhammer Fantasy, and Rifts were the sinister six games that killed D&D. I was there, in college at the time, so I know. There is a smaller case for Runequest and Rolemaster, but they were not as big as these games. 

GURPS was the first game to put a dent in D&D's dominance in the late 1980s, and the rest came along later. The Stranger Things kids should have been playing GURPS in the last season to be more period-accurate. Or Car Wars. Both of those games would have given us a better final season of the show.

I don't even question whether I am a fan of GURPS; of course, I am.

If you learn the game, you are a fan for life.

This is where I am. I am trying to be a fan again. YouTuber channels that bemoan the current terrible state of D&D, Star Wars, Marvel, comics, role-playing, and everything else in the hobby become tired and one-note whine sessions. I agree with a lot of what they have to say, but after the hundredth time of hearing it, I have had enough already.

Yes, what Wizards did with the OGL was terrible. Their calling the original creators of the games, all those terrible things, hurts the memories of my childhood and all the fun we had with these beloved games. They showed they were not worthy of upholding the idea's legacy, just like the current crop of Star Wars creators, so we will have to wait a little longer for better days.

While I am waiting, I will be creating things I love over here by myself.

And sharing what I do.

And being the positive force in gaming that I crave.

But not surrendering to being blind and stupid, as many of these brain-dead influencers do.