As the world has begun to normalize and Warhammer has garnered more mainstream attention some troubling trends have surfaced or resurfaced, and some of you need help.
Disclaimer: This is an EDITORIAL.
After head judging the Las Vegas Open Warhammer 40k Champs I usually take about a month’s break from Warhammer. This time around the break has been a bit longer in terms of writing for Frontline Gaming but I have been brought out of my stupor by some recent events that I think need to be addressed. My weekly articles on the comings and goings of the ITC will start up again this week, but until then let’s discuss some troubling behavior in the competitive Warhammer.
First up, stop cheating with your dice. There have been a few notable occurrences of this in the last year and it’s really time for those of you who make this part of who you are on the tabletop to either give it up or give up the hobby. You are going to get caught, at some point, it’s going to happen, and the Tournament Organizers of 40k, Age of Sigmar, Kill Team, etc aren’t taking this stuff lying down anymore. You’re going to catch a ban from the event, you are going to become a pariah in the hobby, you will be dragged online, you will lose credibility, and you might even earn yourself a year’s ban from the ITC itself. Is all that really worth telling your opponent the special symbols on your dice are 6s when they’re 1s or lying about roll results that are behind a piece of terrain? Just to win a game of miniatures. Come on, grow up.
The next item on my list of things that need to stop are rules edge lords. This takes several forms, some of which are definitely forms of outright cheating and others are within the rules as written but clearly outside the rules as intended for the game. For example, don’t come to a tournament without the rules for your army, attempt to fudge the rules in your favor, and then plead innocence by ignorance of the rules because you “forgot” them. Everyone has met this guy, nobody likes them. Don’t try to RAW something that you know is clearly against the intention. Here, I’ll give you an example.
Yes, we all know that your RAW argument breaks the game or makes no sense, and you are oh so clever for having found it and pointed it out. Congratulations, but don’t go trying to actually do it. Yes, we know that the rules aren’t always 100% clear and yes, we all wish they were tighter in some areas to avoid things that are questionable. However, do you really want all the additional text in the rules that would be required for us to have it spelled out specifically that you cannot deploy and use your vehicles upside down, or place fortifications on their side?
Now, let’s turn to the fakers. Those of you out there who are spending, what I assume is a lot of time, making fake datasheets and then “leaking” them as legit leaks for new codices, stop. You’re arguably worse than outright cheaters, and actually more pathetic.
I am not sure what actually makes people do this. I have considered if it’s a need for attention, a hope in being able to one day get it right and say “Look! See? I do have insider info!”, do they do it in the hopes someone from the GW rules team sees it and thinks it’s a good idea and so puts it in? Is it just the new version of the old DakkaDakka wishlist posts from the dark days of old? Whatever it is motivating you to do this, please, stop. I know the internet is a void into which many people scream, or worse it’s an echo chamber into which their thoughts reverberate, rebound, and are regurgitated by people of a similar mindset often driving the group into a state of anger or excitement over what eventually proves to be false. Worse still are the poor souls within those echo chambers who believe these falsehoods to be true and continue to hold onto them long after it’s been proven false. This harkens back to my previous point where players see some edge lords RAW argument and then try to use it not realizing it’s a dumb idea and is not a generally accepted way of playing the rules.
We probably all have behaviors within the community that are more prevalent than we’d like. Especially in the online portion of the community. For example:
Having to see the opinions of people who don’t even play the game, constantly gaining traction, or de-railing discussion that was otherwise bearing fruit, can be a frustrating experience. For many of these behaviors there isn’t a lot that can be done to stop them, but hopefully by drawing attention to how it is poor behavior the community can slowly change its mindset so it becomes less prevalent, and/or listened to less.
If you would like to hear a bit more about some of what was discussed here TFG Radio had an episode from last week where Danny and Adam discussed an occurrence of misrepresenting dice rolls during an Age of Sigmar event that resulted in a player being asked to leave.
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