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| After Midnight by Me |
Gamers, be respectful of one another. You might not like the same edition or game some other person is into online and that is cool. You still need to respect that person's choice. I understand that you are excited about your particular game that you play especially if you write your own material or draw or do maps or have some special investment of your own.
I think of it this way. When I am on someone's board I am just visiting. If the house rules are that this particular site is about Vampire or 5th Edition or Pirates then I try not to talk very much about my main focus which is OSR and my own campaign. Sure it would be cool if those readers logged into this blog and my own readership grew. That would be cool, but that is going to happen so long as I keep writing an entry every day and keep posting up more monsters, locations, maps and adventures that readers find interesting.
Part of this whole dance is patience in building your own audience and part of it is being respectful and indeed supportive and positive about other writers, artists, creators and cartographers in the community who have already built theirs or are in the process of make it happen.
Of course take all this with a grain of salt. I had an interest in making a couple of bucks off my RPG writing an art and I guess if the opportunity comes up I'd be happy to write something or do layout for someone or draw a map or three for a few dollars. My main focus is no longer making any kind of paycheck, however small, in the RPG community.
These days my main focus is building my campaign and running fun games for my friends. I also like to share what I am building or what I've already built here online. I like having readers. I like having people use my ideas in their home games. That is part of the fun. Part of being a positive figure in the RPG community and in the OSR community in particular.
More and more I am trying to treat the conversation threads I read online in the same respectful manner. I am more and more trying to read them as a guest of the original poster. If I have something positive and supportive or encouraging to share I might share it. If I only have a criticism, more and more, I try to just leave it alone. I am also trying to reign in my occasional need to gripe online about politics. My opinions never sway anyone in the realm of politics. I only wind up pissing people off or having people argue with one another on my page. I'd much rather keep my page filled up with positive articles about gaming and my own home campaign in particular than have a bunch of negative crap lingering about.
Finally. I have made a choice not to bash anyone online in the RPG community. Even if they stiff me for money over a map or piece of art. Even if they get snarky and bash me privately behind my back (yeah, I know all about those few times as half the people those rumors get passed around to are friends of mine). I don't then flame on at someone online. Flame wars. Snarky behind the back comments about people in the community. This is all a symptom of a fundamental lack of manners, maturity and the ability to render to other human beings the sort of basic respect you'd probably appreciate in return.
Now that is not to say that I've never been in a flame war. Sure. I've been down that road once or twice but it never resolved anything. I am no white knight. I have more issues than I think the average gamer probably deals with in their private lives. I struggle in life just like anyone.
I just don't see the benefit in stirring up discontent and drama in the wider RPG community. I see the RPG community and the OSR community in particular as a sort of bastion of friends and potential friends where I want to be comfortable, where I want others to be comfortable with me. Of course there is always the odd jerk face in any group and I don't intend to let people just walk over the top of me but in most cases avoiding hassling people or disrespecting their turf usually keeps me out of the firing line anyway.
Well that is about all I can say on this topic.
Keep writing. Keep drawing. Keep creating. Keep DMing. Keep Playing.
Happy Gaming!
-Ed
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