A few things recently happened in the discourse that raised the question, “what do critics owe us?”, in various forums across the TTRPG space. I have a response, but to understand it we must meander through a few other points first. Please, bear with me.

I started reviewing modules and games largely selfishly, for two reasons: I wanted to understand what made modules in particular and occasionally games tick, and I struggle to read long books without a goal, so I had trouble reading the modules and games I had in my library. Writing a review was a goal for me to read towards. But at the same time, I was encouraged to do so by friends in the community who felt there was a dearth of criticism in the TTRPG community. Over time my goals, the role I feel reviews and criticism has in the hobby, and what I feel I owe the hobby as a critic, has evolved, and what I talk about in reviews reflects that.

Firstly, I’m talking about the structure and composition of the product. I think it’s my job as a critic to provide honest feedback on the work of creation, at least as it pertains to the goals of the product. Is the art, the writing, the information design, graphic design, potentially editing all up to snuff? If it’s not, what could’ve been improved or done differently? This is important because we have very few avenues for creators to grow in our space. There are no schools where you’re taught to do this right.

Secondly, I’m talking about the product as a potential purchase. Is the product to my taste? Why? If it’s not, who might it appeal to? How might I be able to adapt this to make it to my taste, and is it a bridge too far? I might consider value for money, how practical it is to run, whether I can pitch it to my table, those kinds of things. Here, my identity as a working mother of 2 becomes important because it impacts my capacity to adapt games and modules, and affects the availability of my friends for certain types of games or modules. This is important because we exist in a capitalist hell where a certain of eggs costs an hours’ wage and in the embrace of a meaningful apparatus for discovery in our hobby, it’s good to help players find the right games and modules for them, and good to help creators get their games and modules to the right people.

Thirdly, I’m talking about the product as art. It’s a no brainer to me that TTRPGs can be art, and can be designed to make commentary and elicit feelings beyond simply being “fun” (although fun is a loaded term I’m not really interested in exploring right now). Nevertheless, you can recognise something as art and either be uninterested in that art or think it fails to meaningfully communicate its’ goals. This is important because, where there’s interesting or challenging engagement to be had, we want to support the community to recognise this and engage in the art we create in a healthy way, as well as invite discussion around what the game is saying about the world. To put it another way: Until we start putting TTRPGs in art galleries, someone has to write the plaque.

Finally, I’m developing a body of work. My reviews (be they Bathtub Reviews, I Read Reviews or Critique Navidad) don’t exist, to me, as individual articles so much as parts of a greater body of work. Reviews are often pretty useless in isolation, because we’re flawed humans with unique preferences writing about their subjective opinions. You don’t know if my opinion is worth anything to you, until I’ve reviewed so many things and explained myself clearly enough in them that you understand both why I like things and where we disagree or our opinions and preferences diverge. My opinion therefore needs to have integrity: I have to call a spade a spade, and publish reviews of products I don’t feel hit the mark or that I don’t really like personally, else it erodes the meaning of the body of work as a whole. This also means, by necessity, a critics’ opinions should develop both in clarity and change as their life experience changes. This is important, because both creators and players need to understand the greater context of my work over the years for the individual review to have meaning.

Now, all of these goals are subjective. I’m allowed to simply not like something; it’s my job to explain why as best I can, but “this isn’t to my taste” is often sufficient explanation, because taste is subjective. As a critic I am capable of missing any of these aspects in a given review. I may forget to talk about layout or art in a module; sometimes it feels pale in the face of what else there is to discuss. I may overlook or completely miss the themes in another; sometimes themes are subtle or I lack the further education to recognise them. I can miss critical information or important cues that the game provides. I am fallible and ever-growing as a critic. Each review is a critic presenting their wrist for you to cane; recognising the vulnerability that it takes to be critical in a public forum means in turn treating a critics’ imperfections with grace, particularly in the context of the larger body of work.

So, what do critics owe us? It depends on their goals: Therefore, critics owe us transparency regarding what those goals are. Maybe I suffer for attempting to tick all the boxes I mention above. I certainly get enough criticism for not focusing on potential purchasers — but this is kind of the reason I’m writing this: If what you’re trying to get out of my reviews doesn’t match my goals in writing them, we’re maybe not a good match (and so too it goes for any other critic). But I don’t owe you a review focused on value for money, just as I don’t owe you a score out of 10. There are enough possible goals and subjective opinions in our hobby that we can afford a few that disagree with us or that don’t target our specific needs. In a hobby with so few critics, I don’t think we can afford to alienate anyone who’s presenting thoughtful criticism, even if their goals diverge from our own.

Idle Cartulary

Playful Void is a production of Idle Cartulary. If you liked this article, please consider liking, sharing, and subscribing to the Idle Digest Newsletter. If you want to support Idle Cartulary continuing to provide Bathtub Reviews, I Read Reviews, and Dungeon Regular, please consider a one-off donation or becoming a regular supporter of Idle Cartulary on Ko-fi.