Roleplaying - it's not just for straights.

I blame ukporl. Even with his fluctuating gaydar, it was him who pointed out that the roleplayers in the link I posted yesterday are plainly very gay indeed. If you watch it again, you'll see he has a point - the first guy in the room obviously fancies the DM something rotten, and goes into a proper girly sulk when the other boys show up and cock-block him.
This leads me to wonder if Wizards (the publishers of D&D) and the RPGA (Role-Playing Games Association, an international body of gamers) have identified gays as the growth market for their product - after all the two most famous gamers I'm aware of, Vin Diesel and Jaye Davison, have at least had rumours attached to heir names in the past, so who knows?

If you look at the men in the animation, several things strike you. There are five of them. They fit different modern stylistic stereotypes; you have the long-haired 'arty' one, the cool black dude with a shaved head, the grungy skater, the prissy metrosexual drama queen, and so on. I can only assume that if the RPGA had made this short film about the pleasures of gaming with the boys twenty-five years ago, the gamers would have been dressed as an Indian, a traffic cop, a construction worker, a biker and a sailor.
And with that mental image, I suddenly feel a song coming on!

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.

Young man, there's a place you can game.
I said, young man, where they're cool and not lame.
You can play there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.
It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.

They have everything for young men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys.

It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.
It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.

You don't need to be clean,
You can eat takeaway,
You can play all night and day.

Young man, are you listening to me?
I said, young man, what do you want to be?
I said, young man, you can make real your dreams.
But you've got to know this one thing!

No man does it all by himself.
I said, young man, take your books off the shelf,
And just go there, to the RPGA
I'm sure they can help you today.

It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.
It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.

They have everything for you men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys.

It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.
It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.

You don't need to be clean,
You can eat takeaway,
You can play all night and day.

Young man, I was once in your wack.
I said, I was down with nowhere to hack.
I felt no man roleplayed any more.
I felt the whole world was a chore...

That's when someone came up to me,
And said, young man, take a walk up the street.
It's a place there called the RPGA
They can start you back on your way.

It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.
It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A.

They have everything for young men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...

It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A
It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A
Young man, young man, there's no need to feel down
Young man, young man, pick yourself off the ground

It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A
It's fun to play at the R-P-G-A
Young man, young man, are you listening to me?
Young man, young man, what do you wanna be?

R-P-G-A
You'll find it at the R-P-G-A
No man, young man, does it all by himself
Young man, young man, get your books off the shelf

R-P-G-A
Then just go to the RPGA
R-P-G-A
Young man, young man, I was once in your shoes
R-P-G-A
Young man, young man, I said, I was down and out with the blues.
R-P-G-A


It's worrying how little editing that song needs to make it appropriate. And if you sing this whilst trying to do R-P-G-A actions, as I was last night, you'll find it impossible to do the "G" without looking like a screaming willy-wufter.