Internet Backdraft/Tabletop Games

• Whether or not Katanas Are Just Better, on the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons forum. Even suggesting that a katana should have different D&D stats from a longsword or bastard sword will get you flamed. Katana threads were actually officially banned for a while.
• Recently, the biggest infernos have raged about 4E in comparison to either version of 3E. Just try to start a civil conversation one way or the other. And that's not even mentioning the other edition wars that go on.
  • It's now occurring within the 4E fandom. Go on a message board and say you like the Essentials martial classes or the web-based Character Builder, or try using the term "4.5". Watch the servers spontaneously combust from trying to handle all the angry posts for or against your position.
  • In addition to the infamous "Edition Wars" on D&D forums, is its lesser-known cousin "Setting Wars." Eberron is a particularly volatile topic as it tends to be one of those "Love it or hate it" topics, supporting fans applaud the use "Dungeon Punk" setting, they feel that it makes the game unique. Haters are vehemently against it for the same reason. Forgotten Realms has undergone some major changes and therefore, has also caused a schism between fans of old-FR and new-FR.
  • Within the third edition, a major source of rage is whether the Tome Of Battle sourcebook is the greatest thing for fighters ever, or the much-maligned "book of weeaboo fightan magic". Also, in certain forums, you really shouldn't mention that you think a non-caster could successfully kill a high level wizard, or that you think the monk class is overpowered.
  • Never suggest that Pathfinder is/is not D&D. 4E players will point out their game has D&D in its title, some PF players will say it carries the true spirit of D&D, while other PF players will argue that it has become a game on its own, and detractors will claim it to be a bunch of 3E houserules with pretty art.
• Armor Class: ascending or descending? And don't get started on THAC0...
• Another mostly-obsolete D&D and fantasy debate was whether dwarven women have beards or not. Lack of beards (and attractive female dwarves) seems to have won out from the 90's on.
• Challenging the accepted "class tiers" in 3.0/3.5, ever. Any build that calls them into question is invariably "twinking," even or especially one that just allows a low-tier class to compete with a high-tier one.
• In the earlier days of 3.0, discussing how a paladin's code should weigh in on any specific scenario was often a recipe for an instant flamewar. Still true to some extent.
• Likewise, suggesting that nothing in the rules prevented monks from wearing gauntlets to obtain the benefits of enchanted weapons.
• Talk about that Warhammer Fantasy was once connected with Warhammer 40k or that you think that Aenarion is better than Sigmar or vice versa.
  • Try this fun little experiment. Head over to Warhammer forum and start a discussion about which is Warhammer Fantasy Rules Set is better: 7th or 8th edition. Enjoy.
  • For the longest time in Fantasy, there was a war between two groups of Chaos Dwarf players: those who liked their models to wear giant hats, and those who thought that the giant hats were stupid.
  • Swing by a Warhammer 40,000 forum and bring up the Necrons, Squats, Chaos Tau or female Space Marines, and watch a rough approximation of the fanatical fire and violence of the setting play out across the Internet.
  • "There was a Black and White Space Marine on a Black and White bi--" Hell Nooooooooo!
  • Do not mention the fanfic Squad Broken on a 40k board. Or in any 40K related gathering, for that matter.
  • What about Matt Ward? For extra bonus points, mention that you think Matt Ward does good work. Actually, probably not a good idea...
• Try mentioning anything remotely positive about any White Wolf game on a Pen&Paper roleplaying board that favors WotC. If you really want to get a bonfire started, use one or more of the following words: "Deep," "Conflicted," or "Morality System."
  • Not that debates on Character Alignment are any more civil, especially in regards to characters utterly dependent on a certain alignment (such as paladins). (This has caused drama on the Other Tropes Wiki. That's why we have "rules" on what can be added to our version of the Character Alignment page: Only give examples from works where there's an explicit alignment system.)
• Swing by any forum that talks about White Wolf games with folks who remember the Old World of Darkness and ask if Mage 2nd edition or Revised is better. Despite the fact that the entire gameline has ended, this is still a great way to get a fire going. 2nd was more typical of the "mad, beautiful ideas" vein of Mage, with frequent excursions to the Umbral Realms, whereas Revised went for a "the war is over, and nobody won" theme that brought it in line with the rest of the World of Darkness (and had a gigantic storm in the Umbra that hampered travel to any of the more fantastic realms).
• While you're at it, ask which is better, Mage: The Ascension or Mage: The Awakening. Fortunately, the Mage fandom as a whole has more or less come to a common opinion -- Ascension has better fluff, Awakening has better rules. Most will then suggest you play Ascension using Awakening's rules.
• With M10, WotC announced the biggest rule change to Magic: The Gathering since the 6th edition. Cue massive flaming war.
• Plastic versus metal for miniature war games. Or Resin?
• Traveller has a few topics players are advised to tread lightly if they have to discuss, but none more so than piracy (in the sense of attacking ships to steal their cargo, not that other kind) and how viable it is under the Traveller universe's economic model. In fact, the chapter on piracy in one of the Mongoose books has a "Flame War Warning" sidebar advising of the controversial nature of the subject.
  • Also to be avoided; are Jump Torpedoes (small uncrewed message-carrying drones) canon or not; is the Virus possible or not; Sonic Stunners; and of course Mega Traveller, a wonderful reboot or total crap ripoff of Twilight 2000.
• Go to a gaming forum and say Hunter: The Reckoning sucks, and the diehard fans will come out of the woodwork. Although Hunter is generally panned by oWoD fans (which, depending on who you ask, is either because hunters are overpowered, because they're underpowered, because they kill creatures from other oWoD games and thus imply that Vampire or Mage or Werewolf characters are inherently evil, or because the art was absolutely terrible and had nothing whatsoever to do with the actual mood and themes of the game), it has its devotees, and if you assume that everyone on the board shares the common opinion, you will get soaked in gasoline and set on fire.
• Go to rpg.net and mention any Palladium RPG, see how it works out for you.
• Don't mention board games like Monopoly around Euro board gamers or you will be burned for it.
• Propose any kind of fix or patch to the rules that makes Perfect Defenses easier to use on White Wolf's Exalted forums. Bonus points if you can get someone to froth at the mouth, or recite the "don't touch perfects unless you fix Lethality" mantra.
  • You get twice the rage if you make perfects harder to use. Also, if you discuss morality, someone will burn your house down. No, there are no exceptions.
  • With Exalted 2.5 (A long-awaited piece of errata purporting to fix the lethality problem) released, well, it's anyone's guess whether or not flamewars will still erupt over perfects. Especially since 2.5 made it a lot harder to spam perfects.

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