We also completely screwed up the rules. For I think the 10th time this season.
I am furious, I am embarrassed, and I need to put there here so I can just refer to it when this almost certainly happens again this season:
We had a producer whose primary job was to make sure we knew the rules to the games, and played correctly. I trusted this producer to be on top of these things, and I trusted this producer to ensure that we played the games properly.
For the first two seasons, this producer did a fantastic job. A couple mistakes got through, but it wasn’t a big deal. Everyone makes a mistake now and then, and the show has always been more about the fun of playing the games than anything else. But something happened in the third season. I don’t know if this producer was careless, overwhelmed, didn’t care as deeply as previous seasons, or just didn’t do the same amount of preparation that was done for the first two seasons. I don’t know why this producer failed to do the most important part of the job so many times this season, but I’m pretty fucking pissed off that the person I trusted to make sure we played the games correctly let me down. I trusted this producer so completely, I spent my time and my energy on other aspects of production, instead of diligently reviewing the rules before every game like I’d done the first two seasons. I feel really, really awful about this. I feel embarrassed by this.
We have a very ambitious production schedule. It’s grueling for all of us, but this season wasn’t any different than the previous two seasons. There is just no excuse for something so fundamental to the show to have been so completely screwed up almost half of the time this season. My trust and reliance was misplaced, I guess, and for that I am embarrassed, I am angry, and I am sorry.
Tabletop is more than just a show where we play games. Tabletop is where millions of people from all over the world go to see how games are played, and to discover new games. We have a responsibility to our audience, and we have let a lot of you down. This is even more infuriating to me this season, because this season was literally made possible by people reaching into their own pockets and trusting us with their money. We had a responsibility to take good care of that, and we didn’t.
Ultimately, I am the host and the face and the identity of Tabletop, so ultimately this falls on me. I take responsibility for these mistakes. I am the executive producer and creator, and it’s my responsibility to ensure that everyone is doing their job. It’s my responsibility to deliver the best show I can, and too many times this season I failed to do that.
To the developers whose games we’ve messed up: I am profoundly sorry. I sincerely hope that your sales aren’t hurt by our mistakes, and I sincerely hope you will accept my apologies.
If we do another season of Tabletop, I will ensure that this never happens again. If we do another season of Tabletop, I’m going to very carefully vet a couple of experts and producers to take on the responsibility of ensuring we’re playing games correctly, and I’ll spend even more of my own time getting up to speed on the rules for each game.
So all of that said, please know that Kingdom Builder is a really great game. We had a lot of fun when we played it, even though we completely butchered the rules.
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Because of Tabletop, and you, Wil, I’ve gotten back into tabletop gaming. I’d quit pretty much entirely, for the best part of twenty-five years (with occasional forays into Monopoly with the family).
The last time I sat down with friends to play a board game was GlobeTrotters, Axis & Allies, and Talisman, back in 1988 or so.
Until Tabletop.
Since Tabletop started “airing”, I’ve bought Arkham Horror, Ticket To Ride, Ticket To Ride Europe, rebuilt my Talisman set, the now-obligatory Cards Against Humanity, Elder SIgn, Settlers of Catan, and Pandemic.
I don’t watch Tabletop to get a perfect representation of the rules, and an instructional. There are a multitude of incredibly boring videos out there that’ll do that, or, I can read the instructions (which people should do anyway). I watch Tabletop to see which games look appealing, and to see people having fun playing them, and learning them. I know my group of friends, we get the rules wrong constantly. usually because the person who “knows” misinterprets.
That said, if it’s important to you to get the minutiae right each time, then keep an eye on things. But I don’t think there’s any need to obsess, and I think, given the success of the first two seasons, the producer in question has probably figured it out. How you deal with the business side of things is up to you, however, I’ll keep watching, because you, and your guests and players, make it fun to watch. And I find another game to introduce to my friends and family, and probably, get the rules wrong when I explain it to them the first time. (deity of choice) knows we did that with Pandemic!!
My $0.02 (which is worth less, I’m Canadian, so call it my $0.0165)
The joy of tabletop games is that the rules can change in almost every setting-if you’re playing Gloom with a bunch of writers and storytellers, it’s fantastic to turn it into a parlor game, where everyone builds on a little story as it progresses. I tried this when I played at my library during Tabletop day, and it didn’t work so much, so we changed it to a straight card game. NOT fully reading the rules of Epic Spell Wars made the thing a drag for everyone involved (added to the fact we played with the max 8-9 people, so the round ended after a single turn). But then you have a game like Fluxx, where the rules can literally change at any time, and part of the fun is figuring out what the Hell is going on here?!
The point it, unlike books, movies or video games, you can turn a tabletop game/RPG into a customized experience for everyone involved. There’s no reason to trash yourself or your show over some rules getting flubbed. The only time I’ve ever played by-the-book rules were during Magic and Star Wars tournaments, and you know what? They were an absolute drag. If people aren’t having fun, something’s seriously wrong.
Thanks to Tabletop, I’ve got a shelf full of new games, I’ve met some great friends over the past two months, I’ve come to love Geek and Sundry as a whole, and might have even been inspired to get back into new media creative/write mode. I don’t care if the rules aren’t being followed to the letter; I care about seeing a bunch of people I enjoy watching (Veronica Belmont! Rhett and Link! Felicia Day! who is this Wil Wheaton guy!?) gather around a table and cause some mayhem, while also discovering some new games along the way. If anything, it’s made me go into a game store or bookstore way more informed about a game I think is cool.
Plus, my mom enjoys watching the show-I had G&S on for noise when I was building some Ikea furniture last weekend, my mom comes in, and instantly-“that’s Wil Wheaton!” She remembered you from Star Trek!
All in all, TT’s been a great ride, don’t be so hard on yourself, and hey, hope to see you at DragonCon in a few months.
Bless you for reminding me I need to pick up Gloom. It’s one of those things that just keeps slipping my and my playgroup’s mind.
For what it’s worth, Wil, it’s not a huge deal to me if a game is played 100 percent accurately in the video — the series got me to buy Fortune and Glory, a game back in your second season you admitted had errors. Boy HOWDY, did I mess it up the first time too. And the second, and the third. But dang, we had so much fun everytime. And that’s what’s appealing about your show – fun people that I know and tend to admire because I’m a goddamn nerd, playing a board game and having a blast. Kingdom Builder was so funny, and most importantly, you made the game look FUN.
So it wasn’t 100 percent accurate, and you know what? I don’t care. Keep on rocking.
If something screws up and you’re the boss, you own it. Tearing your shirt and throwing one of your employees under the bus is not the way to handle it. You know that.
Gotta agree here Wil. You pointed out yourself you diligently reviewed the rules the first two seasons, and didn’t this season. Thats probably as much to blame. No need to place blame elsewhere. Just figure out what you can do better and do it (and it sounds like you have a good plan in place).
I also agree its not a huge deal and am looking forward to more seasons and more games. 🙂
The difference here (as written, at least) is that the producer had one primary job. On the basis of him having that job, Wil was able to focus on other things, expecting the producer to hold up his end, rather than perform redundant work.
Wil wasn’t expected to be the rules guy. Producer in question was. Only one is liable when rules aren’t done properly, and it’s not Wil.
How is learning the rules performing “redundant work” or are you going by some definition of redundant hitherto unknown to the world at large? This is unacceptable, he can’t just spit out the dummy and blame someone else, it’s his show, he should take responsibility.
At least he SHOULD know that. But it seems he also has a lot to learn – about being the boss.
Wil is blowing it more out of proportion than anyone else.
Hell, I understand that you want your work to be as flawless as possible and that you want to accurately represent the game, but handle berating your employees behind the scenes.
And he did….but you delegate for a reason.
Rules for games can be crazy and then there are situations that arise that the game rules might not cover properly. I think you should play the game at least 5 times before shooting.
Some time ago a person said “don’t be a dick”. Airing an problem with an employee in a nationally read blog IS being a dick
Yep.
Plays games, can’t figure rules on his own. Casual scum.
An Open Letter to the Apparently Illiterate Douchebags Who Have Commented Here
Dear Douchebags:
Did you miss where Wil said, in plain English, “Ultimately, I am the host and the face and the identity of Tabletop, so ultimately this falls on me. I take responsibility for these mistakes”? Please pay more attention in the future and take your straw-man logical fallacies home to burn in your backyards. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Me
An Open Letter to “Me”,
Dear Me:
Did you miss where Wil said, in plain English, “I don’t know why this producer failed to do the most important part of the job so many times this season, but I’m pretty fucking pissed off that the person I trusted to make sure we played the games correctly let me down… ”?
One must not, and literally cannot, “take responsibility” while putting the blame on someone else. The former, by definition, excludes the latter, and that was the main issue here; Wil claiming to take responsibility whilst simultaneously making it clear someone else was responsible. This is something which he followed up on in his (much better) subsequent blog post, which you may wish to read if you haven’t yey. Please work on not just dismissing the opinions of those you disagree with; they may have paid more attention than you did. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
The all-too-literate douchebags who have commented here.
Did anyone ever take the time to explain passive-aggressiveness and insincerity to you while you were taking Superficial Logic 101?
When you spend a few paragraphs calling out someone’s incompetence, then end it with “at the end of the day it falls on me”, you aren’t actually taking responsibility, as the only repercussions here are public opinion, and by making it obvious that it’s the producer’s fuck-up, Wil has deflected any negative public opinion about rules mistakes onto the producer, rather than take it himself.
Well, public opinion and the producer in question losing their job, potentially. There is that.
I am disgusted by your attitude here Will. I have lost a lot of respect for you – which I used to have copious amounts of. You have been unfairly accused of things in the past so it surprised me to read this post.
I hope that the producer in question resigned after being treated in such a manner. I also hope that you make a public apology on tabletop for your attitude and treatment of the aforementioned producer.
I know you have since addressed this in another post but I honestly found your follow up post to be lacking the substance of a real man that doesn’t play the blame game.
Tabletop has brought my family back to gaming – and no matter what anyone says you have done a great job making games seem fun for all ages and for all different types of people!
We make rules up all the time when the rules aren’t clear! As long as it is consistent I don’t see the issue.
Like many others, I don’t have a problem with rules being screwed up. I have been recently corrected in mistakes I’ve been making in both Smallworld and Dead of Winter. That’s part of the process, and I sympathize.
But instead of handling the issue privately and internally, it seems super unprofessional to publicly shame an individual (even an unnamed one) in an attempt to exculpate Wil or the show. I get it. People make mistakes and those need to be dealt with. But I don’t air my fights with my wife over Facebook even if one of us is clearly in the wrong. We deal with our issues in the appropriate forum- between the two of us. It works that way in any situation where people have responsibilities to an organization or a relationship or a community where perhaps they may be failing. Don’t air your dirty laundry and your drama in a grand gesture to say “I take full responsibility, but it absolutely wasn’t my fault, it was this other dickbag.”
For that reason, and not the rule mistakes, I have my doubts that I will continue to watch this show. You could have handled that in a gentle, respectful, humble way and kept my respect, but instead you chose a high horse and only a veneer of ‘responsibility’.
How you could have addressed this and kept my respect: acknowledge the mistakes, apologize, and say that you you’re dealing with the issue internally.
How you addressed it: “apologized”, pointed fingers, made yourself the victim, threw someone else under the bus.
This wasn’t an apology. This did far more harm to my impressions of both you and the show than the mistakes did.
Alright, guys, can we get a little perspective here? Let’s keep in mind that this is Wil’s personal blog that he elects to share with us. Certainly by living as a public figure and celebrity, there is a level of privacy that one forfeits, but that does not give any of us the right to judge and discount another human being’s feelings.
Were this a job interview or a professional forum, if he were giving a speech about workplace integrity, yes, this language would be inappropriate. I believe 100% that he would not use this language in such a situation. As it stands, this is his personal blog and he’s discussing his feelings: anger, betrayal, confusion, embarrassment. It is not unprofessional of him to have these feelings. He is using the appropriate forum to express himself…and we peep on that forum. We should view it accordingly. It’s his thoughts, his journal, we’re only (equally flawed) spectators.
At the same time, though, I’m sure it sucks for the exponentially-less-famous producer in question that Wil has a very public and mostly supportive place to throw her under the bus. Him or her, I should say. I’m sure “this producer” would like to get his or her side of the story out there as well, but the language “had” indicates that she probably got fired (meaning she doesn’t even have a chance to rectify the mistakes), and there’s the potential that we’ll never hear the other side of the story since she now is on the hunt for a new job in an industry in which Wil is a major voice.
This could have been handled much more delicately.
Here is a suggestion: Break 1 rule of the game in every episode next season and see if people can spot it. This will increase audience engagement.
There was a Games magazine that used to put in a fake ad every issue and challenge readers to spot it. The next issue would revel what ad was faked. It got people to pay more attention and actually read every advertisement.
I watched that episode, saw the mistakes and … did not really care. I do NOT expect rigorous attention to the rules. We never did when playing games when my girls were growing up and I don’t expect it with in-experienced guests on Table Top. ITS A GAME! HAVE FUN & LAUGH AT OUR MISTAKES.
I look forward to next season.
What was the mistake? I’ve only played KB once and we got it horribly wrong ourselves, so I’m wondering what rule was missed…