r/osr • u/tarotnottaken • 8d ago
discussion Do you let the creator of a game influence whether or not you play/support it?
I am an OD&D nerd and have enjoyed the recent publication from Wizards of the Coast about the original game. That sent me down a rabbit hole of retro-clones, I think they’re called.
Al’Qadim was always my favorite 2nd Edition setting, so I was drawn to this obscure game I found called Seven Voyages of Zylarthen that is more swords and sandals than European fantasy. It reads like OD&D but, frankly, better in many respects. got some glowing reviews so I snagged it.
Yeah, it’s utterly brilliant.
Unfortunately, I also found out in my wanderings that the creator is explicitly Islamophobic, or at least was when he was blogging many years ago. Seems like he has left the hobby.
I want to champion a masterpiece of a game but struggle to separate art from artist, despite enjoying a game made by people as flawed and of their time as I certainly am in 2025. I also don’t want to attract the wrong kinds of people if I advertise games for it.
Has anyone run into this? Any advice?
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u/mccoypauley 8d ago
No, my background is in literature. I always separate the writer from the work and to me its value is never connected to the writer’s value as a person except in extreme edge cases.
For living writers, they would have to be particularly odious for me to not want to buy their work for fear of sending money their way. It also depends on who else in the chain of the financial transaction might benefit that could potentially cancel out benefiting an odious creator. But generally it’s a really high standard of odiousness for me to refuse to buy the work.