The Inescapable Boredom of the Aging Straight Cis Male

As I write this, the latest TRPG Backerkit, "DeathBringer" has crossed the million dollar mark from roughly 5000 backers.

This trumpeted "Most Anticipated Game of the Year" on the ENWorld Site has now resulted in the moderators of that site locking multiple comment threads and instructing users NOT to create any new ones.

The creator, a polarizing YouTuber called "Professor Dungeon Master", he of the shocked-face, explosion, red-line goes down-clickbait, has crafted a whopper of an offering, replete with expensive shitty dice, mini figures, a DM screen, a clothing line, a vinyl record album... and if anyone even cares... I think also there's a game.

Well, part of a game, it's hard to know. It's at least a set of house rules for Shadowdark.

What's been released so far is typical for ProfessorDM: proudly sexist and regressive, full of gratuitously objectifying (and even more offensive, BADLY DRAWN!) cheesecake art, presented with a wink and a smirk about "what games used to be like."

"D&D is Dead, and This Game Killed It!" And his YouTube followers seem to agree. (Does anyone else? My local OSR group isn't talking about it at all.)

Scrolling through the Backerkit page, the impact of image after image of cheesecake is dulling in its repetition. Boob armor, peekaboo tops... even the Nuns wear bikinis! Every female form is depicted in a sexualized pose, pouting, sticking out boobs and butt. Forget armor, get these gals some sunblock! (Male figures, it seems, have been able to find clothing, thank goodness.)

Here on full display is the profound sexual boredom of the aging straight male nerd.

Magnolia Keep has two devastating articles detailing the gross sexism of the art and the sales pitch, as well as a look at the awfully thin gruel being presented as supposedly innovative gameplay mechanics.

The art itself, beyond the depictions, is disappointingly amateurish. The artists struggle with perspective, composition and human anatomy. The character designs are just lifts of famous figures like Death=Adder, Marvel's Psylocke, Red Sonia and Mr. T.

Like, c'mon, this is just embarrassing:

Of course, back in the 70s and 80s, the leering boob-armor art with damsels falling out of their clothing was synonymous with the Dungeons & Dragons brand. But at least these artists had taken a life-drawing course at some point (even if they always used the same model.)

As regressive movements tend to do, the pitch is about Making Games Great Again. Remember when Men were Men and women got a lower cap to their strength score? Ah, the Good Ol Days, when D&D was proudly, loudly sexist.

Teenage me, "Gee, how come we can never get any girls to play this game with us?"


But discussion on ENWorld was heartening: Users called out the regressive sexism. It became controversial. Members of the design team responded to ASSURE READERS that skimpily-clothed MALE characters were forthcoming very soon!

People became angry! Threads were locked!

And I felt that for all the gross throwback Deathbringer brought up, the fact that people were shocked showed that the game really has progressed. D&D and the similar games around it have become accepted, appreciated, and contributed to by a much more diverse crowd. Characters of all genders and none are depicted and celebrated. Queer relationships flourish in official D&D adventures like Baldur's Gate 3. Diverse depictions of good, and evil, of many different body types shown as attractive.

The old standard isn't standard anymore.

And it's because this game is no longer gate-kept by the world's most unfuckable men.

The bad underboob drawings can be snickered at, BECAUSE they are no longer the default. The game is not theirs anymore. It's everyone's.


Have fun.

-Bruce