OSR Gamemaster Rescue

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So, watched the third video. I've been spacing these out because, even though they are only @ 10minutes a piece, I do feel appreciable SAN loss from these viewings.

In this one he goes full Tom Hanks.



Notable quotes:

"I'm here to call you to a higher state of being"

"You have to understand what Dungeons & Dragons is. If you think Dungeons & Dragons is a game - get out! You ain't here, you're not on the list, alright? You are not being quested, alright? I am interested in doing this, and I am doing the run-up to my first OSR gamemaster rescue, because I believe Dungeons & Dragons is a Life Path. I don't believe for one second that Dungeons & Dragons is a game. Dungeons & Dragons has utterly transformed my life."

"I know that when Fizzband's uh Treasury of Dragons hits the shelves man I'm gonna...you know there's so many moments right? I'm gonna go up and I'm just gonna hold it in my hands, I'm gonna look at it right. you know, and I'm gonna resist rubbing it on my face in the FLGS"

"So if you are where I am and you are changed in spirit, mind. and heart - if your life has been transformed by Dungeons & Dragons and it is painful for you to think that there are dungeon masters who can...who are perfectly positioned, perfectly capable, perfectly...you know, um, "resourced" to bring dozens or hundreds or thousands of new people into that transformation, then we need to pull them off of these sucky, myopic, y'know, combat-focused games and bring them into the Real World where their talents can really matter and really shine. Then you are a candidate, If you dungeoned...5e dungeon master for three years. You know you're good at it. Your life has been transformed by Dungeons and Dragons. If those three things are true of you, you are a candidate to be a quested champion to go pull these OSR game masters out of the desiccated shriveled wasteland they live in and bring them into the light! Bring them into the glade where things are growing and things matter, and where it's rich black fertile soil ready to sprout a thousand transformed lives"


Just the transcript here made me bust a gut laughing.

My favourite thing is that his video with the most views (359) is this one of him just riding his bike.

 
His latest impassioned plea, as to why any good DM should stop the game immediately whenever a player character dies, and devote the rest of the game session to a memorial/reminiscence of that character, has really turned me around on how I plan to run Call of Cthulhu games in the future.

That is, if I can still bear to play Call of Cthulhu, (only up to 49%, OF COURSE) since there's no Power Acquisition or Cultural Impact from running that game.
 
His latest impassioned plea, as to why any good DM should stop the game immediately whenever a player character dies, and devote the rest of the game session to a memorial/reminiscence of that character, has really turned me around on how I plan to run Call of Cthulhu games in the future.
Well... a lot of games do stop when that happens. It's more of a bitchfest about "WHY'D YOU KILL MY CHARACTER, YOU MONSTER!" than a memorial, but I guess it could be taken that way.

Story Time! The time we had a memorial for the party cleric!

Don't worry, this story is pointless!

So, one of my players had made up a cleric. His name was Blake. His religion was that he had no religion. Blake was just a mechanical construct for the player to be as abusive in game as possible.

This player also cheated a lot. That might explain why his dice loved Blake, but not why other people's dice refused to harm him. But Blake outperformed everyone, and the player was very smug about it.

Other than that, I can't recall why we hated Blake so much, but we seethed with hatred for this character.

One night, it finally happened. Blake finally got killed. I don't even recall how it happened. It just did. Blake was finally dead! Huzzah!

"Rip it up! Rip it up!" was the chant. I ripped the character sheet up.

"We should burn it! Burn it! BURN IT!" So we went outside and lit the shreds up. The fire warmed our hearts while it consumed the character sheet.

"We need to put it out... PISS ON IT!" So, all of us took turns urinating on it. The fire was extinguished and the ashes thoroughly dampened.

And that is the story of the memorial for Blake, cleric of who the fuck knows and who the fuck cares. It was a moving ceremony. Everyone who knew him remembers him and is glad he's dead.
 
Well that was a loss of d% SAN points. I keep wondering how he fell in love with D&D back in 1980 - it wasn't 5th ed then so how by his logic can that work?
 
Well that was a loss of d% SAN points. I keep wondering how he fell in love with D&D back in 1980 - it wasn't 5th ed then so how by his logic can that work?
I'd guess that he fell in love with AD&D 1st edition or Basic DnD and just said it badly and was a fan from that point onward. Or did he actually say 5ed DnD in the video? I watched the 1st and 2nd video and then cut myself off because I just couldn't listen to him anymore and I don't recall him saying it but again after a while your mind starts to go into a state of fugue at what's coming out of his mouth. lol.
 
His latest impassioned plea, as to why any good DM should stop the game immediately whenever a player character dies, and devote the rest of the game session to a memorial/reminiscence of that character, has really turned me around on how I plan to run Call of Cthulhu games in the future.
Oh, god, I am going to annoy the players in my Paranoia game SO much with this idea.

I'm going to make them give a eulogy every time a clone dies, without repeating any previous points from eulogies.

Thanks random YouTube guy!
 
Oh, god, I am going to annoy the players in my Paranoia game SO much with this idea.

I'm going to make them give a eulogy every time a clone dies, without repeating any previous points from eulogies.

Thanks random YouTube guy!
Let us know how that went...and how long before the first eulogy consisting of "he made good cannon fodder":evil:!

So, watched the third video. I've been spacing these out because, even though they are only @ 10minutes a piece, I do feel appreciable SAN loss from these viewings.

In this one he goes full Tom Hanks.



Notable quotes:

"I'm here to call you to a higher state of being"

"You have to understand what Dungeons & Dragons is. If you think Dungeons & Dragons is a game - get out! You ain't here, you're not on the list, alright? You are not being quested, alright? I am interested in doing this, and I am doing the run-up to my first OSR gamemaster rescue, because I believe Dungeons & Dragons is a Life Path. I don't believe for one second that Dungeons & Dragons is a game. Dungeons & Dragons has utterly transformed my life."

"I know that when Fizzband's uh Treasury of Dragons hits the shelves man I'm gonna...you know there's so many moments right? I'm gonna go up and I'm just gonna hold it in my hands, I'm gonna look at it right. you know, and I'm gonna resist rubbing it on my face in the FLGS"

"So if you are where I am and you are changed in spirit, mind. and heart - if your life has been transformed by Dungeons & Dragons and it is painful for you to think that there are dungeon masters who can...who are perfectly positioned, perfectly capable, perfectly...you know, um, "resourced" to bring dozens or hundreds or thousands of new people into that transformation, then we need to pull them off of these sucky, myopic, y'know, combat-focused games and bring them into the Real World where their talents can really matter and really shine. Then you are a candidate, If you dungeoned...5e dungeon master for three years. You know you're good at it. Your life has been transformed by Dungeons and Dragons. If those three things are true of you, you are a candidate to be a quested champion to go pull these OSR game masters out of the desiccated shriveled wasteland they live in and bring them into the light! Bring them into the glade where things are growing and things matter, and where it's rich black fertile soil ready to sprout a thousand transformed lives"

OK, I'm agreeing that mental illness is the most likely explanation:thumbsup:.

Now, I'd have to try and stop laughing at him. But before, I was totally doing exactly that...my willingness to assume a normal mental state really wasn't working in his favour:shade:!
And I might still do that...sometimes it's stronger than me:grin:!

Are we talking the same game?
Yeah, my thoughts exactly!

I need all of those things, but despite that failing I shall continue to stand as a game-master of my BRP-powered medieval fantasy game. When I was in high school the first edition of Chivalry and Sorcery appeared in a local store and from that point forward, I didn't care a fig for D&D, its history, its company or any of the rest of it.

If this clown showed up at my table waving a 5th edition DMG and talking about rescue, I would set the dog on him. I don't happen to have a dog at the moment, but I would definitely go borrow one for the occasion.
Yeah, that too - except I've studied on D&D history as a general part of studying the history of the hobby (and because of discussions with Chirine ba Kal and Old Geezer/Gronan, and because I feel the OSR has some good ideas about Refereeing, it's just the general "core ruleset" that sucks:devil:).

A new video dropped, but unfortunately he's started including politics in his rants, meaning he's now just the same as all those hundreds of thousands of other car rant videos on Youtube. So...there goes my interest.
That's a quick slide into the Dark Side:shock:!

His latest impassioned plea, as to why any good DM should stop the game immediately whenever a player character dies, and devote the rest of the game session to a memorial/reminiscence of that character, has really turned me around on how I plan to run Call of Cthulhu games in the future.

That is, if I can still bear to play Call of Cthulhu, (only up to 49%, OF COURSE) since there's no Power Acquisition or Cultural Impact from running that game.
I guess you're going to run Mythras for the other 49-% slot, but what takes the other 2+%? Delta Green? Faserip:tongue:?

I'd guess that he fell in love with AD&D 1st edition or Basic DnD and just said it badly and was a fan from that point onward. Or did he actually say 5ed DnD in the video? I watched the 1st and 2nd video and then cut myself off because I just couldn't listen to him anymore and I don't recall him saying it but again after a while your mind starts to go into a state of fugue at what's coming out of his mouth. lol.
Cut the guy some slack*, people! It's entirely possible he was faithful to the brand and not the rules, is it not?

*Was it really me who just wrote that:skeleton:?!?
 
I guess you're going to run Mythras for the other 49-% slot, but what takes the other 2+%? Delta Green? Faserip:tongue:?


I run Call of Cthulhu with Phaserip. And I'd run D&D with Phaserip. I sadly don't get much of a chance to run Mythras, but chance are I'd eventually convert it all to Phaserip anyway.
 
I'd guess that he fell in love with AD&D 1st edition or Basic DnD and just said it badly and was a fan from that point onward. Or did he actually say 5ed DnD in the video?
I think you’re on to something here. It’s the only way to explain this obsession.

I’m now imagining a scenario where he fell in love with his first DM when he originally played AD&D. Things went horribly wrong years later when he finally confessed his love, whilst also attempting to convince said DM that they must run 5th edition for him! Sadly his love was rejected, but it’s been twisted in his mind to mean that ‘OSR DMs must be converted‘.

Does it say something about me that when I wrote the previous line I mentally heard it as if it was said by a cyber man!?
 
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His latest impassioned plea, as to why any good DM should stop the game immediately whenever a player character dies, and devote the rest of the game session to a memorial/reminiscence of that character, has really turned me around on how I plan to run Call of Cthulhu games in the future.
...
Well at least in my fantasy games, and being in my personal life a avid reader of things ancient Eyptian, death is just the beginning. The dead character, if not revived quickly, then needs to navigate the after life. (I'm pretty kind about access to..not free by nay means..raise dead magic if one has not pissed off everyone).
Back to the after life, as The Book of the Dead tells us the after world is fraught with peril, where saying the right thing at the right time is important.

It dovetails nicely into my whole religion mechanics and where you die, die on consecrated ground to a deity you are in good with...well nice extra planar escort for you soul...die on ground consecrated to a deity opposed to one you follow...bad news...hope you are powerful, or have planned for after life support so ones soul is not taken. Just some schmoe...well can drift around a bit and slowly approach the realm of the deity you most follow..but be very careful how you answer questions of being you meet along the way. We would role play this out, usually at end of session, and I even give out xp for it. My players called it getting 500xp the hard way.

A death also always calls for a toast, with ones beverage of choice to the fallen.
 
Yeah looking at the most recent video where he says Dungeons and Dragons starting in 1974 looked set to "knock down intellectual limitations" and other hyperbolic stuff, it seems like he really sees it in a pseudo-religious manner. But if you look at the comments on some of the videos he's not the only one, I wonder is this part of some sphere online you've just punctured the surface of.
 
Yeah looking at the most recent video where he says Dungeons and Dragons starting in 1974 looked set to "knock down intellectual limitations" and other hyperbolic stuff, it seems like he really sees it in a pseudo-religious manner. But if you look at the comments on some of the videos he's not the only one, I wonder is this part of some sphere online you've just punctured the surface of.

Retro D&D fanboys - the Old School Revival Revival?
 
Yeah looking at the most recent video where he says Dungeons and Dragons starting in 1974 looked set to "knock down intellectual limitations" and other hyperbolic stuff, it seems like he really sees it in a pseudo-religious manner. But if you look at the comments on some of the videos he's not the only one, I wonder is this part of some sphere online you've just punctured the surface of.

Is the Gaming Den still a thing? I recall we used to get some really weird fellows from there dropping by the Site back in the day that had some...unique...views on D&D
 
Is the Gaming Den still a thing? I recall we used to get some really weird fellows from there dropping by the Site back in the day that had some...unique...views on D&D
The last I checked out of curiosity it was back online but it’s a diminished form now with its most well known member in self-imposed exile.
 
He's very focused on the popularity of current D&D - that seems to be the crux of his issue with the OSR.

I remember back in the 90's, in the comicbook community, there was always this one group who were obsessed with comicbooks being accepted by society as a "legitimate art form". They hated superheroes, and would only read the comics journal, and those weird biographical indy comics or anything that had gotten an award. And there was always this feeling I got that they were desperate for comics to recieve some sort of outside approval, to have their hobby "validated" by wider culture. It wasn't an impulse I ever understood - in fact the opposite, I tend to lose interest in something once it got too popular.

Anyways, it's clear the guy dearly loves D&D, but I can't help but wonder if wat's underlying this weird hostility to playing anything but 5th edition is that the widespread popularity of 5th somehow contributes to a similar need for cultural validation.
 
Is the Gaming Den still a thing? I recall we used to get some really weird fellows from there dropping by the Site back in the day that had some...unique...views on D&D
It is still there but not as active (just saw Endless above say the same thing). The videos have some specific slang that the people in the comments recognise but I don't, which makes me think it's all part of some "conversation" online that we're only seeing a part of...

I remember back in the 90's, in the comicbook community, there was always this one group who were obsessed with comicbooks being accepted by society as a "legitimate art form"
...and something like this seems to be it, i.e. having D&D taken seriously, but I'm only guessing at it.
 
Frank Trollman? Ah, OK, that explains a lot
 
...and something like this seems to be it, i.e. having D&D taken seriously, but I'm only guessing at it.

Yeah, I don't like speculating too much about the mental status of people just based on their online presence. Ultimately, this guy ha a steady job and owns his own home (more than I can say), so whatever else is a functioning adult, which is really all that matters regardless of how his rants come across. I've long since discounted the idea of "normalcy" as largely an invention of television sitcoms.
 
Yeah, I don't like speculating too much about the mental status of people just based on their online presence. Ultimately, this guy ha a steady job and owns his own home (more than I can say), so whatever else is a functioning adult, which is really all that matters regardless of how his rants come across. I've long since discounted the idea of "normalcy" as largely an invention of television sitcoms.
Yeah agreed. Just an example of this sort of stuff:

The recent trend in remastering computer games has led to a corresponding "purist" movement that the remasters be totally faithful to the original and restore all cut content. In the recent remaster of the 1999 Shadowman game they restored the levels for two bosses, but apparently if you dig deep into the files there is an unused fire extinguisher model. This has led to a group of purists denouncing the remake as a fraud, with guys ranting for their $9 back because literally one level is missing a prop that wasn't even in the original release.

Now these rants are ultra-daft and hilarious, as are these Gamemaster rescue videos ("You're not even on the list!") but there's a context to them, i.e. the people are just too deep into some scene to be easily comprehensible.
 
Yeah looking at the most recent video where he says Dungeons and Dragons starting in 1974 looked set to "knock down intellectual limitations" and other hyperbolic stuff, it seems like he really sees it in a pseudo-religious manner. But if you look at the comments on some of the videos he's not the only one, I wonder is this part of some sphere online you've just punctured the surface of.

As a big fan of weirdo cults I'm kinda surprised D&D hasn't inspired one.

We've got RL examples of Asimov's Foundation, Star Trek, The Beatles, hell even VtM was associated with a proto-cult double murder.
 
I've decided to move the Satanic Panic discussion to it's own thread, and close this one down. He's already deleted his old videos, and in light of this recent development, it doesn't really seem funny or in good taste anymore.
 
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