Free RPG Day is one of my favorite events of the year. It helps spread the word about roleplaying games, gives new players a chance to try out games for themselves, and it supports local game shops. It’s a win-win all around.
This event means even more to me because, for the last three years, a game I’ve created has been included in 9th Level Games‘ flagship Free RPG Day publication, Level 1.
Each year, the Level 1 anthology has a different theme. Last year’s was “How the West Was Lost,” and this year’s was “Stand Up!”
I highly recommend checking it out. The absolute variety of games and play styles inspired by that simple spark of inspiration — Stand Up! — shows the versatility of roleplaying games as well as the immense creativity of game designers in the community.
Whether the game focused on comedy or protest, last stands or first laughs, creators took those words in all sorts of entertaining directions. I’m proud to once again be included among those eclectic and talented folks.
All the proceeds from this treasure trove of gaming fun go towards the Level Up Fund, a charitable endeavor intended to grant game designers free use of 9th Level Games’ Polymorph game system, encouraging creators to continue creating games all year round! (You can click here to learn more about the Level Up Fund and its endeavors.)
Next year’s games will all be centered around Romantasy, so I’m excited to see where designers take all the tropes wrapped up in that literary genre.
Be sure to click one of those links to check out the creative minds featured in Level 1. You won’t be disappointed.
Czech Games is the home of Codenames, one of the most recognizable board game brands on the market today. It has been licensed dozens of times to include different pop culture properties, and it is the lifeblood of a smaller board game publisher.
And they just crashed into a wave of pro-LGBTQIA+ sentiment after announcing their new release.
Codenames: Back to Hogwarts.
Now, you may wonder what the big deal is. After all, this isn’t even the first Harry Potter-themed Codenames game. One was released years ago.
Well, in case you’re unfamiliar, in the intervening years between the release of that game and the release of this new one, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, has revealed herself to be an anti-trans zealot.
She has been on a campaign for years against the trans community (and LGBTQIA+ people, and virtually anyone else who stands up to her bigotry), and publicly celebrated laws in England that curtail the rights of trans individuals.
Moreover, she has promised that she will continue to use the money she earns from licensing Harry Potter to harm people.
Czech Games experienced a deluge of negative comments and feedback (as well as calls to boycott the company’s products), and has spent the last week or so promising to reassess.
To be honest, most in the board game community expected nothing to come from this. LOTS of companies still cut licensing deals with Harry Potter, like LEGO, and especially with the new TV show coming, there’s going to be more of this.
So I was pleasantly surprised when the company released the following statement:
We are all devastated that the project we were so excited to share with you caused harm instead of joy. We have been working to bring you the best possible games for years, and just like our other titles, we worked diligently to bring you this latest title, too.
In our excitement about creating a game within a universe many of us still treasure, we failed to see how that universe no longer brings joy to others. Over time, the harmful views of the story’s creator have escalated into harmful actions. We apologize unreservedly for not doing more to consider that possibility, and for subsequently announcing the game without taking preemptive actions to mitigate the pain it would cause.
Many of you have expressed your understandable anger, pain, and disappointment through a variety of platforms. Frankly, we were not prepared for the volume of the response. As a result, multiple accounts and comments were blocked or muted that should not have been. We would never want anyone experiencing the pain this situation has caused to then feel like they are being silenced. So for that, too, we want to sincerely apologize.
Like the world we live in, CGE is made up of individuals with various backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, and belief systems. None of us would ever want to take actions that would hurt or restrict the rights of another human being. We commit to remaining supportive of an inclusive and welcoming community of gamers. We believe in the rights of all people to have their own identity, and we reject hate and bigotry in all their forms. Trans rights are human rights.
With the above in mind, and after many heartfelt and vital discussions both internally and with members of the affected community, we have decided to donate 100% of the profit from this game to appropriate charitable organizations. We will ensure that an amount equal to or greater than the fee paid to license this product will go directly to organizations that provide support for the trans community.
We evaluate profits and make charitable-giving decisions each December, and we will continue using this annual process to direct the game’s profits. We will listen to recommendations from the community to help guide our choices of organizations that provide support for the trans community. Our goal is to select those that offer direct, practical help to people in need — for example, services similar to the emergency hotline that was recently discontinued.
At CGE, we are committed to making decisions that come from the heart in everything we do. We opened discussions with members of the affected communities and we came together as a whole company to find a way forward that was a genuine reflection of our values and desire to do the right thing. We are sorry for the time it took us to communicate our path forward, but we hope you see that we did so with the care and consideration that you all deserve.
I think it’s the best we could have hoped for. An acknowledgment of the harm caused, a promise to do better, and a tangible response that the audience will be able to track.
Boycotts work, speaking up works, and I’m so proud of the board game community for making noise and pushing back, leading to a turnaround like this.
There is no ethical consumption of Harry Potter material, given J.K. Rowling’s intentions. If she makes a single dime from you, it will go towards hurting others. That’s simply the facts as presented.
And it’s entirely possible that there would be huge costs and even legal consequences if Czech Games didn’t fulfill the agreement they made over the HP license.
So this feels like the most positive outcome going forward. Czech Games isn’t a huge company like LEGO. If you don’t buy HP LEGOs, or stop buying LEGOs entirely out of protest, the company probably won’t notice. (You should STILL speak up, of course.)
But Czech Games will. Most board game companies are small, and profit margins are often razor-thin. A PR disaster like this could easily end a board game company.
I don’t look forward to all the HP nonsense we’re going to hear as the show looms closer, but I’m grateful that the board game community stood up, and Czech Games listened.
PuzzCulture 