What template was he using before?

Steven Crowder

It usually means they don't want anything but the status quo.

Nah, you'd just write up the first level in an Incident Report covering multiple dead demons. And more to the point, both bureaucracy and warfare are forms of politics, so killing demons is still a form of politics, with or without paperwork.

I think there's a middle ground where the game 'world' can acknowledge there are political maneuverings happening, while not forcing you to track the shipments of food and goods so you can squeeze nobles who depend on certain economic routes into complying with the king's orders to rally troops for a cause. Bounty orders style campaigns are fun for a short while, but there's only so many 'go here, kill x, biggest change is the layout of the dungeon and enemy vulnerabilities' before the game sessions all bleed into one long blurry dice roll. That's close to warhammer/battletech/etc territory. I want a real story to go with the campaign, and that necessitates a 'politics' somewhere unless you're playing one of the barbarian/end-of-the-world games where there is no civilization or npcs at all aside from enemies. But I think we can all agree that the "politics" of motions and passing votes is not what was being addressed by OP.

Now it's like...\ 

If it has a story it’s political

I don't care about politics in my games (and shows/movies) as long as it fits into the world and into the story. A TV show examples for that is Torchwood. It has to be the most gay scify show (at least it is the most gay I know) but all of it fits together and I love the show, even as a totaly hetero/cis guy. It doesn't feel forced but is just how everything just it. Not sure if I can explain it good, hope it is somewhat to understand.

Easy moral patch: These specific goblins have all made unambiguously evil choices that warrant a good slaying. Like kicking dogs. You're not slaying goblins because they're goblins, you're slaying dog-kickers that happen to be goblins. There are plenty of goblins who do not kick dogs, but they're not a part of this fight. This is still a political statement that dog kickers are evil. I doubt anyone would mind that, and those that do are better off leaving my table anyway.

Or, you know. We could just ignore those pseudo-moral excuses and do some good old goblin slaying because they're in the dungeon, laying traps and we want the loot. Not everything needs 12 layers of logical depth. Sure, it's fun to explore moral implications from time to time, but more often than not, no one cares.

I learned after the fact, that most of Torchwood is just how John Barrowman is. He insisted on having a scene with a shirtless Stephen Amell in Arrow as well.

EVERYTHING is politics and the shitheads who complain are the ones who made it that way.

Just MLK's white moderate doing white moderate things. Funny how shit don't change.

Aren't goblins ontologically evil in most DND settings? That should take care of that specific issue anyway.

So you don't like narratives involving politics. That's a very different statement to "I don't want politics in my gaming."

Nah, they've long fallen to the usual cycle of "here is a species of interesting antagonistic creatures" -> "Oh wow, that sounds interesting. I want to play them" -> "Yeah sure, here's a playbale variant of that species. We've removed all traces of evilness and uniqueness because god forbid players playing evil characters". Same as Drow, Orcs, Fairies and Goliath.

Maybe that why it feels so "real" and "authentic" and not just forced onto the story.

It means "I don't want politics that I don't agree with in the game"

It means “I don’t believe in anything and my media must reflect the status quo of (my) politics or I will throw a little baby tantrum because you dared to make me think about the cost of the comfort I enjoy”

I don't like politics in ttrpgs because that means less time SMITING and more time with boring words. Unless the politicians are secretly vampires, then I can keep SMITING. NO TALK ONLY SMITE. This post has been brought to you by the palabian gang.