Which is Stupider: Session 0 or Failing Forward?

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It's been a long time, though not nearly long enough, since I'd last heard the trite term Session 0, which I wrote about at length over three years ago. For those mercifully unaware, it's essentially a multifarious time vampire: player's waste time writing elaborate backstories, they waste more time reading them to the GM and other players that won't care or remember, and GMs waste time trying to find ways to incorporate all of this trash fiction into an adventure or campaign.

Time that could be spent actually playing, as opposed to having a struggle session poring over lengthy checklists of subject matter that would never come up with a normal group (attention-starved sex pests are another story), innocuous inclusions such as spiders, and inventing backstories that never really happened. While the groups I've played in had their share of issues, it was mostly players bringing real life teen drama into the game, and seeing who had the strongest imaginary character.

Undesirable, but fortunately the solution was as simple as it was obvious: talk to them, like an adult, and if they continue to be disruptive just don't play with them or invite them back. At no point did I feel the need to say, hey, let's waste an entire session seeing how many players are cool with maybe one guy desperately hoping he'll be able to muddle through awkward descriptions of his fantasy sexscapades, especially in a game that isn't at all about that sort of thing.

On Twitter I came across and responded to a...somewhat-snarky-yet-completely-understandable criticism about Session 0:

I also talked about Failing Forward here.

This prompted a couple of alphabet tribespersons to shuffle forth from the darkest of Twitter's befouled recesses, and discharge their special brand of "wisdom", the most embarrassing of which was courtesy of this guy:

The jokes really do write themselves. He claims to be, among other equally, provably dishonest things, an artist and a game designer. But, then, don't they all? Here's a glimpse of his artistic, so-called "talent":

Anyway, while going through the laundry list of tweets he left in response to me, I came across this:

"You don't like what I like, so I'm going to try and associate it with a disdain for roleplaying, in the hopes that you'll get upset, and/or focus on that." A pathetic-yet-bog-standard argument strategy, for those without an argument.

Mind you, up until this point I hadn't yet responded, and Ribsie hadn't asked about my gaming history or playstyle. I just came back at some point and saw around twenty or so new tweets. A presumptuous, patronizing, fallacious attempt to discredit that ultimately only serves to support my succinct-if-offhanded statement.

After all, if Ribsie had any reasons to justify Session 0, I'm sure he could have found the time to introduce them between all the disingenuous well-poisoning. Frankly, I don't think adding another half-dozen or so Tweets to the record would have distracted him from any more meaningful pursuits.

But, I committed the crime of not liking something he likes. Something he likes because he was told to. It's new. It's different. The "right" people also claim to like it. The "wrong" people don't. The why doesn't matter, but the purpose of the thing does. A purpose that, despite plenty of time, and a tangle of frivolous, extraneous questions and lies couched in condescension, Ribsie was unable to rationalize.

Of course, Ribsie never intended to. He couldn't. And he knows it, on some level, which just adds to his many frustrations, many of which I'm sure are a result of various cognitive dissonances. And, knowing this, he did what SJWs always do: try to bog you down with so many statements, distractions, and lies (mostly lies), that you will hopefully become too confused, frustrated, or exhausted to want to continue, or make some sort of harmless "mistake" that they can latch on to, either to paint you as a villain, "justify" ending the conversation, or both.

As with genuinely troublesome players (as opposed those deemed "problematic" by woke-standards, so-called progressive metrics), the solution is easy: focus on the issue. Ask a question, and keep at it until you get an answer (unlikely), they recant (very unlikely), or they resort to personal attacks, block you, and try claim victory (virtually guaranteed). Don't let them distract you, pull you away from the original conversation. Even if they insult you, ignore it. They were ostensibly initiating a dialogue, so hold them to that.

If you get an answer, then ask another question if necessary before moving onto the next item. Don't respond to multiple points or queries at once, unless you absolutely must, such as to support a previous point, or provide full context. This is another reason SJWs use a scattergun approach: they want you to respond to multiple things, so they can cherry-pick the easiest (or only) thing they feel that they can work with, and run with it. This is also attempted so they can make a claim or statement, get you to overlook it, and then use it later as "proof".

These are amateur strategies. The best they can do, because they aren't intelligent, and lack integrity. They aren't even standing up for what they believe it, but what they were told to do. It's why they're also called NPCs: lacking independent thought, that creative spark, they just follow directions, repeat what they've seen before. Don't fall for their cheap tricks. Stay on point until you get an actual answer, or they give up.

But, which is worse: Session 0 or Failing Forward? In the end, if you can call it an ending, I never got an answer to my original question (any of them, really), but upon reflection I'm inclined to say Failing Forward, as it will likely crop up constantly in your games, ruining opportunities for innovation, and cheapening both victory and loss. Session 0 mostly just monkey-wrenches the start. Really though, they're both utterly worthless procedures, so why bother with either?

Just roll up a character, and play the game.