So welcome to Dungeons and Dialectics. If you haven't figured it out already this blog is going to be all about my two favorite things: Marxism-Leninism and Dungeons & Dragons. So you'll see posts about both subjects, and of course some about the intersection between the two.
What got me to start this blog was twin needs. I wanted a place to compile my Marxist writings and analysis in one place. I normally contribute articles to the Refuse to Cooperate blog, but my articles can easily get lost in the mix there and what happens if that site goes down? All gone. Good idea to have a backup.
At the same time I am a pretty avid D&D DM (started playing with 3.5, dabbled in WoD, and have played a bit of 5e as well) and am now running an OSR style campaign of my very own, which means a lot of world building, house ruling, and basically a lot of stuff I want to share, its a way to give back after having read so many blogs in the OSR community and getting tons of great ideas from them.
So why combine these seemingly unrelated things? Well because they aren't necessarily separate at all. Anything we humans do can be subject to Marxist analysis and roleplaying games are no exception. At the same time we can use roleplaying to explore social dynamics and even use it to teach Marxism and give people a greater understanding of themselves and society and of course motivate them toward change.
I can already hear the possible objections. "Keep politics out of my game!" Ahem,
1. politics has been in this game since the beginning.
2. all media reflects the class values of its creators, and either challenges or affirms one or more of their class interests. and yes even something like a desire for escapism exists within a class context.
And I am sure there will be no shortage of standard reactionary rhetoric about political correctness, the evils of communism, blah blah blah, I won't waste my time with that stuff.
That's enough for now I think, if you'll excuse me I have a half hyena half squid creature to go work on...
