Boomer Style Gamer Can't Understand Why People Like Different Things Than Him

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Twitter - @popculturejoke
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[@sophitiaofhyrule]

"You're immature if you want diversity" is a new one. At least he's original I guess.

[@hailsateen9219]

Nope sorry. It's really old hat bullshit that I've seen in these circles. What is new is stringing those words in that sentence together.

[@studi0651]

Also extremely stupid but that’s not surprising

[@fugitiveunknown7806]

He's been doing that a LONG time. He was a reactionary TTRPGer back before GG was even a thing.

[@MTFOphantom]

Yeah diversity has made western culture a lot less enjoyable. Idk about DnD cuz im just a weeb, not a nerd, but the west has made diversity a priority in everything and its so stupid. Race swapping, shoe horning LGBT stuff, instead of adding original characters. They put a bigger emphasis on peoples immutable characteristic and forget to make a good product.

[@JenniferKlumpp]

Representation wasn’t important to these “olde skool gamerz “ because there was absolutely no shortage of white male character types!

[@12neef]

Facts! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🤩

[@Kropothead]

I mean, speaking as a grognard, I think diversity in gaming is fucking poggers. Dudes like Grim Jim are fucking exhausting to play with and generally fuck it up for the rest of us.

[@AsherBunnyman]

Right? This is the guy who shows up to the table with [generic edgelord with a chip on their shoulder #74]. Every. Fucking. Time.

[@epsilon-eleven]

@@AsherBunnyman And they always tell the DM that their rules calls are wrong. Usually after whining because the DM doesn't want to let them RP "banging the hot chicks in the tavern."

[@MTFOphantom]

When you focus on diversity instead of making a good product, I cant fucking stand it.

[@AsherBunnyman]

@@MTFOphantom You can do more than one thing at a time. You know that right? Right?

[@MTFOphantom]

@@AsherBunnyman Yeah, but its all they care about. Like they arent even interested in making games, just hitting checkboxes

[@blargh3428]

I'm an older gamer. It's so great we have a bunch of old players that know what we all think and can speak for us or the "new" generation. I hate these kinds of people lol self insert characters have always been a thing but if this guy watched any dnd streams on Twitch he'd realize how wrong he was about the new generation. Most of them are fucking zoomers and a lot of them are great roleplayers. Does he play with every zoomer? How the fuck can he know this?

[@Gloomdrake]

He just assumes the kids are wrong because it gives him a sense of superiority in his otherwise lackluster, wasted life. I assume

[@sluttyMapleSyrup]

Yeah, even back in the MUD text-RPG games there was some way to personalize your character

[@jebbush6657]

I dunno this guy might be right my character that's inspired by octodad and is an illithid great old one warlock who has been tasked to appear as a perfectly normal guy named dave who just likes adventuring using mask of many faces to constantly appear human is just like me, a totally normal guy. Not an illithid.

[@sluttyMapleSyrup]

@@jebbush6657 This just reminds me of my friend's Dwarf ranger. She lived in a world where the dwarves had disappeared centuries ago. She did not believe dwarves existed; she believed she was either a short human or a tall gnome 😆

[@epsilon-eleven]

I have a feeling he hasn't actually played D&D in decades, or has only "played D&D" by himself.

[@ahlerstb]

I haven't said, "So what?" this many times in one video. Who cares how people play RPGs. What a chucklefuck.

[@epsilon-eleven]

He has severe neckbeard/gatekeeper energy.

[@akizeta]

This is James Desborough, who gained a lot of notoriety a few years ago (gods, nearly ten years) for proclaiming that rape was an awesome story trope (almost his exact words, try googling _Desborough rape awesome)._ Way to misread the zeitgeist. After that, he went anti-SJW/GamerGate. Shame to see that he's still chasing those manosphere clicks.

[@epsilon-eleven]

His insecurity is so intense, I can almost smell it through the screen.

[@purpledragon2442]

Ugh, there’s very, very, VERY few instances where rape can be acceptable at the table. You first need to let everyone know at the table that it will be present and if they are all on board with that stuff. Second, how you wanna handle it and again, if people are cool with it. Did a campaign before where our characters were captured by drow in a Roman like kingdom deep underground and were made as slave/gladiators. Being paraded around as “champions” and stuff, we were treated less than human and if someone wanted to pay our owner to sleep with us, it could happen. This actually happened in olden times and our DM made sure way before if we were okay if that happened. It only happened to one of us but man, none of our characters made it out of that place without emotional trauma one way or another.

[@skybite]

I bet wishes he has the power of that sex deviant from Lastman where he body control people into having sex against their will until they die while he watches them naked

[@Gloomdrake]

The intensity of the music compared to his lack of charisma is disorienting

[@bigronnie9629]

Yup, I couldn't focus .

[@pollyhashiscrackerpaints]

As an "old person" (started playing with AD&D in the late '80s) I am glad that D&D is more inclusive and diverse. It makes for better storytelling overall and streamlining the mechanics as they did in 5e really helps with character play as well. I really enjoy the storytelling and the more diverse the individuals playing the more rich and interesting the storytelling. If you can't work things like a combat wheelchair or something else then it shows that you are a terrible DM.

[@n0etic_f0x]

I also find it helps with anti-meta, ignoring all social justice implications it just makes D&D more fun if you have Orc mages and intelligent Orcs or Demons that are not evil because demon people playing can not just know what to do because of a game they played years ago. If you just want to kill demons, orcs, and vampires beacuse they are demons, orcs, and vampires that is boring... go find a new GM.

[@pollyhashiscrackerpaints]

@@n0etic_f0x I also think that the old mentality of "It's the DM vs. Players" is something that should be done away with. The DM is not there to tell their story, the party is telling their story. The DM is just there to Harrogate and listen.

[@woobiefuntime]

That would be a cool idea for a video game.

[@bronzelevelsailing678]

Agreed, been playing since 2nd edition ad&d and we are loving 5e.

[@comyuse9103]

in my experience the overly simplified ruleset leaves less room to play unless you want to spend every waking moment creating and rebalancing rules. while i agree 3.5 is not the best example of this, but in pathfinder there is a good chance i can make any character concept i can imagine, with 5e it'll mostly be pretend and flavor. less is not more, it is less. with other rulesets i can have a much more well defined and customized character without fear of balancing issues.

[@bleakautomaton4808]

So he's got an old windows media player visualizer as a background?

[@JenniferKlumpp]

I started playing D&D when I was 13 in 1984. I was going to Gencon in the 90s. Jerks like this guy are the reasons girls and women didn’t play and things are SO MUCH BETTER NOW. It’s not the old gamers, it’s the old white male gamers

[@VoltieBird]

I think he's mad because the vast majority of player characters in 5th edition start at a very competent base level and you kind of have to actively fuck them up to make them not great. Old school gamers think this makes the game less "fair" because, if you follow the rules for building encounters exactly as they're written in the DM's guide, overwhelmingly your encounters will not end up a struggle for survival. In actuality what this does is it lets all kinds of gamers play at the same table without feeling like any one person is taking the spotlight, presuming your Dungeon Master knows how to handle your group. There are actually very few options for a power gamer in 5e that aren't also available to a role player.

[@MarquisLeary34]

I'm an old grognard and I'm GLAD that they start at a competent base level. AD&D PC's at pure creation level was a miserable experience.

[@epsilon-eleven]

@@MarquisLeary34 This. It didn't get better for several editions, either; 3.x was notorious for having crippled builds & objectively superior builds, depending on whether you built for concept/RP or for pure min-maxing, respectively.

[@vxicepickxv]

@@epsilon-eleven 3.5-I'm going to cripple myself by playing a Fighter at 17th level.

[@vainpiers]

All characters you make are going to be a self insert to a degree I'm writing a book at the moment and both of the main characters share traits with me and life experiences because it's easier to write what you know.

[@sluttyMapleSyrup]

Exactly. A lot of characters begin as various parts of a person's psyche, giving them a baseline for their personality and _character_ to build from

[@RavennaZane]

Precisely what I was thinking, hearing this dude's take. Writers know.

[@g8rb828]

Yes! I have this convo with my husband all the time. In writing, role-playing, anything, its difficult to make a character that is not at least in some small degree a facet of yourself or how you'd like to be.

[@AlexSilver9]

My current campaign has me playing a Lizardfolk Wizard who can control time and hears whispers of madness. I'm not seeing how that's self insert lmao

[@ShinGallon]

I love it when Jake talks D&D, the enthusiasm he has for it really comes through and it's just wholesome as fuck.

[@marlex3073]

Heisenberg has really lost it, hasn’t he?

[@ShinyNix86]

😂 This is NOT the DLC we want OR deserve. Wth devs?!

[@TheChoujinVirus]

Not since getting his ass kicked by Ethan and losing his Metal Army to that boulder punching asshole

[@stupidass69420]

NOT HEISENBERG

[@sluttyMapleSyrup]

@@ShinyNix86 This isn't the spin-off the devs deserve

[@ShinyNix86]

@@sluttyMapleSyrup haha, fair point!

[@VoltieBird]

I am literally playing a blind Circle of Stars druid. She's legally blind, only able to see colors and vague shapes, and permanently suffers the blinded condition. She gains no benefit from this, my DM didn't give me a bonus feat for taking a drawback. She's just blind, because I loved what it did for her character, and I wanted to play a fragile, almost helpless support character that would need to be guided literally by hand by the party. And it's awesome, and my party loves it.

[@jebbush6657]

yeah that was his most absolutely mindblowing take. that wanting a combat wheelchair wouldn't be something that was obviously directly narratively useful. seems like you kinda just suck at d&d dude, not the kids. You can't make someone who, for whatever reason needs the assistance of a wheelchair and decked it out to fuck up dragons instead of just wheeling to work at the local shop, into something narratively interesting or good? What's wrong with YOU?

[@epsilon-eleven]

@@jebbush6657 He's absolutely the sort who thinks roleplaying is "playing D&D wrong," and that it HAS to be nothing but a dungeon crawl for min-maxers.

[@Piterdeveirs333]

Oh yes, my power fantasy of being a disgraced knight who's actions lost him his home, his family, and his title. Just so I could make a billy goat gruff reference by naming him Sir William Gruff who's coat of arms was a black goat head on a green field who multi classed as a ranger so he could have troll as his preferred enemy. Yup such a power fantasy

[@Bofore13]

One of the biggest race related issues in d&d that I have come across on occasion is that certain people use orcs as a fantasy stand in for black people in a poor attempt to disguise their racism.

[@vxicepickxv]

They're based off Tolkien orcs, which were based on Orientalism of Mongolian people.

[@Fluffycara]

I'm so confused. Where is this idea that new gen DnD players are all power gamers? Maybe when they first play they are, cause we're taught games are for winning. But people learn and realize "oh I'm here to tell a story". I've literally DMed for children and teens and they don't munchkin most of the time. The ones that do are born and raised by old guard players. I DMed for a group of kids and one was obviously very experienced and played many many times before, probably exposed by an older sibling or parent. He meta gamed the whole time, rules lawyered me, and just would not imersive himself unto the game. No one else did that.

[@epsilon-eleven]

Honestly, the only group of power gamers I've ever encountered was a group of older grognards who whined that "anything after 2nd edition isn't D&D," and the first session I was invited to involved the *lawful good* paladin sexually assaulting every female NPC, to the cheers of all the other old guys at the table. (Oh, they also insisted that "girls don't play D&D unless they're trying to get attention," which was mindboggling.)

[@purpledragon2442]

@@epsilon-eleven pfft, women don’t play games. They just wanna be the center of attention to a group of boys. It’s not like they have hobbies and can enjoy role playing or anything lol (obvious sarcasm)

[@n0etic_f0x]

It is weird hearing about the optional rules as the campaign I ran from 2017-2020 started out with the third rule is "outliers to everything: An assumption that a race can not be something should not be made. Good demonic orc warlocks and evil human clerics exist in this world" I made it that way because it is fun.

[@epsilon-eleven]

Same. I've been running games like that since I started as a teen in the 90s. Racial alignments don't make any sense to me, except MAYBE if you have a hivemind monster species (and even then, rogue minds could exist).

[@fugitiveunknown7806]

Cripes. I remember "Sorry, you made a halfling fighter, you can't go higher than 6th level" Even the grognards I ran into who played those old sytems didn't use that rule.

[@TheMillenniumWitch]

"YOU'RE NOT PLAYING RIGHT!!!" That's what this hooded, gatekeeping creep sounds like 🤣

[@epsilon-eleven]

That's exactly what he's saying, really. I'd be surprised if he's actually played D&D, honestly.

[@DarthSenorQueso]

I think when he says "playing themselves" he means, bringing in stories that are more personal to that player....on the contrary I think that's an aesome way to start empathizing with the struggles other people have. I get a lot more out of dnd games where the DM brings in ideas about transphobia or racism then "oh go storm the evil guys castle". There's room for both, but ultimately stories are a way to interact with ideas.

[@shane3696]

The dweeb is literally redefining the terms "munchkin" and "power player" to describe players he doesn't like instead of players who specifically builds their characters in the most optimized and efficient way possible.

[@epsilon-eleven]

I'll bet a fiver that he's actually a "all characters have to be highly optimised" type.

[@neseipraxosia832]

In my group I play a character called “Bone Slayer” whose entire motivation is killing undead. We’re also playing exalted so imagine that but like also I’m pretty much a literal Demi-god or something. Idk the lore dump for exalted is something else. I did get to throw thunderbolts in heaven in my first game tho.

[@jacobjohnston3983]

I kinda want to play a lawful evil cleric, pledged to an evil god. Cleric: before we battle, may I offer a prayer to my patron deity? Party: of course Cleric: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD. SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE. KILL MAIM BURN, KILL MAIM BURN!!!

[@floraposteschild4184]

Hey, I know that guy! People like him turned me off the idea of gaming, because the way they play was the ONLY way to play (alleged). I know, games and gamers have moved on. Most of them.

[@Avrysatos]

With that attitude he'd be kicked out of my games and everyone else in my friend group that plays D&D. Some of them have been playing D&D since the late 70s. He's loud because he knows many of us who stayed around playing D&D don't agree with him. A lot of D&D is finding a DM and group that your playstyle is compatible with. I've been in dungeon crawler groups briefly but i'm not a mechanics person, so I gravitate towards the more role play oriented games, the ones with puzzles, and multiple ways to solve a situation. Please don't give up on what is essentially an awesome game of let's pretend with some dice helping you with probability.

[@zeratir7873]

I'm actually a stealth archer in real life, that's why i start out as a heavy armor 2 handed guy, then immediatly go into stealth archer mode when i find a bow when i play games...

[@Johnson-br2lw]

Fuckin Skyrim

[@ijakerz93]

Would if be offensive to people in wheel chairs if I'm super pumped to make a character in a combat wheel chair?

[@alyceblak1524]

As long as you treat the characters stuff respectfully. Dont use their inability to walk as a gag or a joke. It should never be a punchline.

[@halfpintrr]

Yep! Don’t use them as a joke and you’ll be good.

[@ijakerz93]

@@alyceblak1524 definitely not, a battle wheel chair just straight up sounds dope

[@alyceblak1524]

@@ijakerz93 yup! Its super cool! And a lot more unique then just "i have robo prosthetic magic leg

[@TheVeryHungrySingularity]

Combat wheelchairs are dope AF

[@hornylink]

yeah I have no context for this combat wheelchairs thing cons are pissing themselves over, but like wheelchairs make bomb ass weapons platforms! and the person using the wheel chair gets to go dungeoneering (and is probably a caster imo) despite a disability, that's a nice bonus!

[@soltier8965]

Damn right they are.

[@alyceblak1524]

@@hornylink there was a combat wheelchair homebrew that got a lot of shit on twitter after big names like matthew mercer and i wanna say jeremy crawford? One of the WotC design folk, they commented on it being cool. The first draft was a little op and then the second draft was far more balanced. The issue was never the balance though, it was just people being ableist and shitting on the wheelchair homebrew

[@Rawr1752]

I think there's a way for people to make really competent characters, and still have an amazing amount of depth to them. But, I don't really see much of an issue with power gaming because it's almost always a starting point. I look at all of the characters that I've written, and roleplayed, and most, if not all, started as a 'power gaming' thing even if they weren't specifically me. But as time went on, I refined them, changed them, included things that weren't there before. You start somewhere, that's how that goes.

[@orinjayce]

These kinds of "gamers" would hate that I, a cis staight AF guy, tends to prefer playing female characters who are badass. Though I think jrpgs and anime may have influenced that. My favorite is my tiefling monk/rogue hybrid. I play her as a rube from the city in the countryside for the first time. She's city smart, but doesn't get rural folk. basically naive Tifa.

[@wrabbit7163]

Munchkin does have to do with DnD though. The name of the game comes from the term used back in the day. It says so in the instructions leaflet thing, "meaning the player who tries to make optimized characters, using the many different books to conceive the most efficient, overpowered killing machine instead of a character fun to play with."

[@VayaKahvi]

All I hear is an old man angry at kids playing in the same park he's in.

[@DarkPuppy9]

Hi older gamer, I love the fact more people are getting into TTRPG, it's about time.

[@thamasteroneill]

I am in a game right now, we have a combat wheelchair. None of us actually use a wheelchair.

[@TheCountOfMommysCrisco]

Honestly the distinction this guy is making isn't WAY off-base or anything, it's just his reasoning for why these distinctions exist that's garbage. I think the things he's trying to attribute to age and generation-gap is a lot better explained by just general experience with RP as a medium. There is a huge distinction between 'war-gamers' and 'roleplayers' like Jake mentions, but even before you get that far you've got to learn the fundamentals of RP gaming enough to even know where your own preferences are going to be. RP is closely related to improv acting, it shares a lot of the same etiquette like the 'Yes, And...' rule. For some new players a more 'self-insert' style of character is better suited to helping them be able to actually play while still learning these standards. Beyond that, once someone discovers themselves to be more of a narrative or character RPer than a war-gamer (or 'power gamer' as this guy calls them) they're probably less worries about 'representation' and more interested in developing very fleshed-out and 'real' characters with a diverse sets of flaws and ideals so that they can really push themselves on the 'acting' side of things. Thing is, as Jake also says, you can't create any kind of fictional character without putting a fair amount of yourself into it. This means that the more 'developed' a character is, the more likely they're going to come to resemble their creator in various ways. This is, honestly, one of the main benefits of RP for some people. It becomes an insulating barrier through which someone can be 'themselves' while not really being themselves, and is what makes it such an appealing social experience for folks who might have trouble with other social outlets. It's also what makes RP so unique as a storytelling medium. It's like a script-writing room where nothing gets thrown out once it's on the table, and the whole story is written live - Not as the writers argue over how the story should go, but with that argument itself BEING the crux of the story. It lets them pit slightly-exaggerated versions of their own ideals against various scenarios and see how they play-out against other slightly-exaggerated ideals. It's a big philosophical playground where the rules of reality can bend to how you want them to be, so long as it keeps the story interesting.

[@Kablam5]

That Boomer Gamer's point feels kinda muddled and outlandish, like something you need additional context/knowledge of that particular clique to have a clue of what he's getting at.

[@seansteele6532]

The only time I limit players build choices is when we do our “Oops all” one offs.

[@TheN00bmonster]

We are currently playing an all-kenku pirate one-shot that turned into a three shot. It's so dumb I love it

[@seansteele6532]

@@TheN00bmonster That's fun, we have only done our "Oops all" by class, so like we had an oops all rogue heist, a oops all wizards magical school adventure.

[@clark778]

He's trying to look like a Jedi but just looks homeless

[@cristianl1516]

Don’t insult the homeless.

[@tyrongkojy]

Removing alignment has been a discussion since 3. not 3.5, but 3, if not before. 99% of the time it is useless, since normal people do not just follow "alignments". "Normal" people would mostly be all the neutrals. As for the race/class thing, like an Orc wizard, you are still VERY viable! What kind of difference is it, like one or two points? If that makes you unviable, you did something else wrong! Don't EVER roll for your stats, under ANY circumstances, if that's the case! Will you be as good as the elven wizard? No. But your orc wizard can take a better hit than the puny elf, and is STILL casting fireballs like a mother fucking champ. Just know if you play a Drow, there's a better than even chance I will call you a demon worshiping ashen fuck, and make insinuations that it would be good to burn you alive. Assuming typical Drow are like typical Drow in that world.

[@Nerobyrne]

In Shadowrun a combat wheelchair would totally be awesome, and fully supported by the rules. And if your character is a Rigger, they could actually drive the wheelchair with their mind!

[@DanielDiaz-zz6ih]

Why does that guy look like the combination of Heisenberg from RE 8 and a pimp named slickback?

[@jebbush6657]

So there's no reason for you to believe me but I found this whole video fascinating because the CTO at the small company I work for was in a few of Gygax Himself's tablegames at the OG Gencons, has pics in his office and everything. Played with the original Mordekainen, cool nerd shit like that if you're into it like me. What fascinates me is he has the exact opposite opinion of this guy, which you touched on yourself. Old systems were crunchy as fuck. Gygax was famous for making dungeons where not even one perfectly designed character would be enough. The original tomb of horrors is 10 saw movies on top of each other. Also that entire original table group was all nerds doing wish fulfillment - they all became permanent characters in the world and got written into lore as the coolest cool guys who ever cool'd. Which is fine. But modern games, which my coworker has swapped to now and enjoys more, allow for a lot more narrative flexibility. Its actually ironically, and this is my opinion now, this dude's generation that kinda started that shift. I mean I'm guessing his age. it was 4e that went from crunchatize'd 3.5 to basically "you are in a room. I dunno tell me what you do" full narrative theater of the mind style. People didn't like that, and that's the birth of Pathfinder - a preserved and built on 3.5. 5e, what "this generation" he's talking down to play, is WotC finally hitting the middle where you've got a good structured rule system to make it an actual game and not just getting drunk with friends and collective storytelling (which is also fine), but you aren't doing algebra to figure out if you are surprised or not.

[@fugitiveunknown7806]

I got the idea that a lot of the early games were built basically to be based on tunnel warfare experiences in Vietnam (consider that the game was made in the 70's by military game enthusiasts). So, there was a lot of stuff that amounted to that basically involved a 5-10 (or higher)% of someone just instantly dying, and raising people being hard as hell. RPG discussions existed that called this the "Fantasy Vietnam" style play. Not ALL early games were like this, but that's certainly what I got reading some of the high level adventures (which were bonkers). Lots of the earlier games also very much encouraged "creative solutions" to skip/bypass/trivialize encounters entirely. In earlier editions, this included a lot of out of genre but very clever uses of magical or mundane items: like we had players routinely dumping barrels full of greek fire into carrion crawler layers and cover the exits with rocks/dirt to smoke them out. Or using a "lyre of building" to permenently trap a room of demons in stone. 3.0 made creating magical items trivial and took away some of the harsher penalties for certain spells (like not aging a year for haste) and made spell durations bonkers, so you saw a lot of encounters being skipped by invisible, flying PC's who were buffed up the wazo. I'm not sure I'd agree that 4th ed is a "minds eye" game. I thought it was the only DND game where I'd insist on mini's. That's not saying that I thought it was "ruleplaying" or wahtever nonsense: I loved it. Combat could be a meaningful tactical puzzle rather than a strategic one, and the rules were transparent and balanced enough that designing unqiue crazy encounters was a breeze. It sure created a monumental amount of player backlash though: it just killed too many sacred cows,a and was too big of a departure from 3.5, which had only come out 4 years before. I loved it, but a lot of people really hated it and there were huge edition wars.

[@thebolas000]

@@fugitiveunknown7806 It doesn't get mentioned a lot, but when 4e came out and a lot of players jumped to Pathfinder, there were tons of new players coming in. Everyone talks about 4e as this horrible low point for the game, but WotC made bank on it. And yeah, I don't know how someone could play 4e without a grid and minis. It's designed with them in mind.

[@fugitiveunknown7806]

@@thebolas000 All the best fights I ever ran in RPG's were using 4th ed. It wasn't even close. I could get away with so many amazing and crazy setpiece battles, and I could push players to the point where they were ready to scream with tension without permenently killing 2 or 3 of them. It had amazing encounter balance and great GM tools.

[@thebolas000]

@@fugitiveunknown7806 You're the only person I've ever heard say that, so I'm glad it worked for you at least.

[@Nekulturny]

Why I'm glad you asked, I'm wearing fleece pajama pants and fruit of the loom boxers and nothing else. Its my day off, don't judge, and my names not Wyatt lol.

[@Saint_Medusa]

He complaining about a fantasy game being too personal but was a ok with the game when all the characters closely resemble him ....k sir

[@comyuse9103]

i mean, no? D&D has had large swaths of in-game diversity at least since 3

[@epsilon-eleven]

@@comyuse9103 Yea, but he's from the AD&D era. Much less diversity back then.

[@DemiBirdDoes]

This guy looks like a gymrat sith lord who'd call me the t slur tbh. Also as a trans person, way more comfortable in d&d settings now. Once the pandemic is over, might join the local LGBT d&d chapter with my bf who's also trans and disabled. So I'd love to see him make a character with a wheelchair in d&d cuz it'd likely help with immersion and making him feel comfortable. For reference, my d&d characters are a ✨good boy✨ gay Dragonborn Paladin who's taken the oath to nature and has a elf lover and a pegasus mount, a jackass pigeon sorcerer from a special campaign with a crow familiar, a ninja kenku monk, and a mischevious paranormal investigator genderqueer Tiefling warlock.

[@chrispysaid]

"This is a guy named Grim Jim" _knowing glance at the camera_

[@kevinconrad6156]

Young punks like him were the first to ruin D&D, power gaming sucks. Real hard in the original (1970's) game.

[@AshleyOlivia90]

He’d hate my mostly female and/or queer dnd crew. We play 3.5, I do like it, but haven’t played 5 before. I like adding all the skill numbers 😅

[@Piterdeveirs333]

That is one of my favorite parts too

[@declan0123456789]

Munchkin actually is a old DND meme about minmax players who only care about combat and never RP. Hence why the card game you kick down the door and loot.

[@therealkuzokun]

Great video as always Jake. A couple gaming related comments to address though. First, while a lot of mini wargamers are also power gaming rpg players, it is specifically the wargamers who play competitively (i.e. tournament circuits and the like). the majority of wargamers are much more narratively focused and enjoy the storytelling aspects of the rpgs. Next is the "old games didn't reward you for disadvantages" comment. This is simply untrue, as a whole. Most older rpgs, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Mechwarrior, Legend of the Five Rings, 3.0/3.5 Iron Kingdoms, Song of Ice and Fire, among many many more (and this is just what I have on my shelf that factors disadvantages in) and any system with rules/variants for point buy character generation (including 3.5). Third, yes. 3.5 is very crunchy. But there is much more room for variation in character generation in 3.5 to 5th. Where if you took 2 fighters in 3.5 and compared them with each other, the odds of them being different are much higher than the differences between two 5th edition fighters. A lot of that does come from the streamlining of the rules and simplifying the aspects compared to that of 3.5. Next, heck yeah battle chair and heck yeah to the continuation of the rule to ignore certain disadvantages and societal "yikes" of the in game races (a rule from 3.5 Eberron that was brought over to many of the future books of the edition). Would be down to recommend great rules sets if anyone is interested and has any specifications for what they like. Look forward to more great videos, Jake!

[@generalsci3831]

Played 3.0/3.5 and enjoy playing 5e. We don't roll dice for stats anymore either. Though, my group don't like being capped at a 15 before modification from race or lineage options. So, we use one of these three stat spreads: 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8 16, 16, 13, 12, 10, 8 16, 15, 14, 12, 10, 8 I try to encourage people to leave the eight alone so they have reason to rely on their friends and ally NPCs.

[@vxicepickxv]

I'm partial to team rolling an array. Every player(6, lucky me) rolls 4d6 and rerolls 1s. That's part of everyone's array. If I'm feeling generous(generally because there's a pair of 8s), I'll attempt a roll to see if I can replace a low stat.

[@KuLaydMahn]

The card game Munchkin is a spoof of D&D. It was designed to parody munchkins (players) in the way the sole purpose in the game is to acquire as much raw power as you can. Kill monsters to get treasures to get stronger so you can kill more monsters to get more treasures so you can become more powerful to kill even bigger monsters to get even better treasure to get even more powerful, etc. The complaint about munchkins is that they focus only on numerical power, without regard to any in-game logic, or the setting/narrative. Munchkins don't really participate in the immersion and they tend to kill it for other players who want to do more than roll dice. From Jake's description of how he DMs, it doesnt sound like he'd really like to have a munchkin at the table. Having said that, a munchkin game can be fun. If everyone wants to play a campaign where youre all powergaming and just trying to make the strongest characters to take down the most epic monsters and get the most epic treasures, that can be a lot of fun! But if the DM and most of the players want a more immersive narrative & world, a lone munchkin can be a real pain in the ass. It kind of comes down to how (or if) the GM handles it.

[@Reienroute]

His mom's going to want her blackout curtains back when she gets home from the night shift.

[@azazel166]

Boomer style gamer should quiet down.

[@Avrysatos]

20 years ago we were still playing D&D and dating people in university, maybe it was just that they were and are repulsive?

[@omegapuschel]

He's saying people play mary sues instead of doing power fantasies He's saying people do self-insert characters instead of creating new characters-- and i'm guessing he's the sort of white guy who complains about diversity in video games Contradictionssss

[@zzz_buzzing_zzz1234]

I’m having flashbacks to the absolute dogshit opinions on tabletops that Spoony used to spout back when he was relevant and I liked him. These people are embarrassing, yeesh.

[@thebolas000]

The suggestion to have a fighter bring light armor for the boat ride is still good advice however.

[@leomunroe9348]

We have been advised in the past that pimpin' ain't easy but this feller makes it look impossible.

[@keeganbenchoff6721]

I think the only big rule we have is no ERP at the table but that's because my group has my brother, his boyfriend, and my wife in it and that would get really weird really fast And dont be an asshole

[@walwave1]

my current dnd character is a flute playing, insane, bard thri-kreen and another character I have is a red dragon turned into a silver kobold by the dragon gods cause he's just that damn arrogant. He has wings but they don't actually work but could slow his fall a little at best

[@Avrysatos]

Power gaming when you create your character is ok but most of us in my current game want characters that don't play as power gaming, we had one in our group in the first 5e game, and he kept trying to tell me how to play. I'd been playing D&D more than 25 years, and my friend has been playing it since the start. "You should do this in this round" Ashen wouldn't do that. Ashen is by far much more patient and good natured than me, he's a harper scout that likes to create peace. Let me give an example of the weird sub-optimal gaming that I did: There are goblins sleeping in the nearby rooms and a trap that will cause a rockfall in this dilapidated fortress. We trigger the trap and Ashan yells out in goblin language. "The fortress is collapsing!! RUN!! everyone out!!!" and rolled a 20 on performance. This lead to the goblins in the nearby rooms running out and fleeing for their lives. I had my turn to use still, the DM asked me what he was going to do. I said "Nothing. He's staring, jaw dropped, in awe that his trick worked." The other player said "That's a waste of a turn." I said in a tone of finality "That's just how Ashan is. He's not an optimal bard, sorry." This guy keeps using munchkin as a term you can exchange with power gamer. It was an entire different system when I started playing D&D. Maybe he doesn't know as much as he pretends. In either case the power gamer in this case was a 32 year old man, Our GM was a transwoman. And the friend I have that has been there since the start? Also Trans. Most of my D&D groups from 1995 on have always been more women than men or equal women than men. What he's talking about is what the younger people I see are actually doing, rather than his idiotic insistence they're projecting themselves on to it. And we're not signing on to stupid forced adult encounters (you know what i mean, youtube is censor city) which drives him crazy. 5e allows for artificers. Artificers could make a combat wheelchair easily with enough player creativity. He doesn't like the plots he doesn't like and I know very well why. He's had bad takes before. Yes, I know who this guy is. He can go F himself.

[@phoenixheart79]

My characters would blow that guys mind. I'm mid-40's and one thing I carry over from every character is they are bi, cos I'm bi. It's a common element that let's me connect to each new character, no matter how individually different they are. From my stupidly OP rogue to my current Druid/Pokemon trainer that just used bears to solo an Elder Brain. They are all different, all individually powerful and my initial window into each is a single shared point of reference. Also, I just like screwing with my DM by flirting with every adult NPC they throw our way.

[@vxicepickxv]

Imagine how weird he would find my sex repulsed bard.

[@Avrysatos]

That last line makes it. We all love flustering the DM.

[@thebolas000]

As a DM, I would love it if I could have a single NPC show up and not get hit on by someone in the party. "He's the villain!" "I can change him." "It's a ball of angry tentacles!" "Did I stutter?"

[@Avrysatos]

@@thebolas000 In your case actually not flirting with npcs probably would have thrown you off then?

[@thebolas000]

@@Avrysatos I would be shocked to my core. And suspicious.

[@nicktrue7915]

The old Gen of gamers who hate new gamers are cringe af because we know that they are pissed that we are taking the one identity they have.... and get laid. You hit the nail on the head Jake.

[@epsilon-eleven]

As an older gamer, we also think the grognards like this toxic boomer are cringe.

[@LordZeebee]

Oh god as soon as i saw the dude and heard the words DnD at the same time i was terrified this was gonna be Ted from Nerdarchy, so relieved it wasn't

[@MrBice123]

Older game here. I outgrew "power gaming" in my teens, it's the least interesting way of playing a kind of game that has so much more on offer. This is just a sad snowflake crying about "young people" being better players than himself, lame.

[@n0etic_f0x]

Now that I am not the GM I am playing my old horrible self but I am playing that because I have lost touch with who I was a decade plus ago, they are someone I am glad I never became largely because I want to stop distrusting religious people. I want to play someone I vehemently disagree with but can still like.

[@JoelRiter]

It took me a long time to get over hating religions. While I am an agnostic atheist, I also now consider myself a secular spiritualist. Don't get me wrong, I still don't like religion but I no longer see it as a core problem and most people interpret religion and spirituality in their own way. I would rather work with a leftist christian, Muslim, Jee, Buddhist, who the fuck the ever. At least they can admit they don't know for sure themselves. Most Hardline atheists have proven to be just as bad as any conservative religious person.

[@Cammino3]

How do representation in the art and combat wheelchairs relate to power gaming??????????????? Also, I feel like this guy's observations more have to do with age and how long someone's been in the hobby, not someone's political leanings. I've seen several pretty right-wing people play with idealized self inserts like he describes

[@Mike-zx6sl]

10:30 I though Munchkin was based on some derogatory term for people who play D&D SPECIFICALLY as a game they win rather than like... you know... a story they're participating in.

[@epsilon-eleven]

Yup!

[@zwartdude]

He said Gary Stu... That literally is power gaming. Power gamers usually self insert... He has no idea what he is talking about

[@comyuse9103]

power gamers almost never bother having a character outside of combat at all, my dude

[@epsilon-eleven]

Power gamers care about stats, nothing else.

[@-xphobia]

Insofar as combat wheelchairs, as long as it matches whatever world you are in. Also the race thing is the same thing. Have a lawful good orc that was left for dead and a group of paladins come across them and heal them. Racial modifiers are a bit stupid. However I like each race still having their own lore.

[@comyuse9103]

how are racial modifiers stupid? a dog isn't going to be as strong as a wolf, generally speaking.

[@epsilon-eleven]

@@comyuse9103 Except there are dozens of dog breeds that can easily overpower a wolf. Thus why racial modifiers don't really make sense. Besides, think of it like this: are ALL Chinese people good at maths? Are all Americans proficient with firearms? Are all Germans super-smart and athletic? No. Not even enough to generalise without sounding like a bigot. Besides, why would an orc who spent his whole life reading books & studying magic have the same physique as one who works out all day & swings a giant axe?

[@epsilon-eleven]

The racial modifiers thing is why I like the Tasha's Cauldron book. It has "variant race" rules which basically state that you take the original race & just plug in the normal stat bonuses - usually +1 and +2 - to any abilities you like (which I feel WotC is going to implement as default next edition, at least if my intuition is correct).

[@comyuse9103]

@@epsilon-eleven american and chinese aren't races, there thinking about it like that is about as wrong as you could possibly be on the subject.

[@Kerbtree]

Wait, I'm confused. Last time I looked in on D&D, grogs were saying that 5e was the second coming that was going to bring back 3.5 mechanics and get rid of "weeaboo fightan magic". It even had that guy involved with design - the one who played with pornstars and is super litigious?

[@thebolas000]

Every edition is like a church reformation. Some grognards will hate the newest edition, some will like it, most will be loud about it.

[@AshMos]

The title really reminds me of my old friend. Glad i dropped them

[@zwartdude]

3.5 had a flaw system, you take negatives to your saves or stats and you can take a feat or a point bonus to something else. (I homerule that in my games)

[@renaigh]

Folding Ideas has a lot of Evil Twins

[@saininj]

Jake, you gotta go after Lord of Cringe's gloop again. He has two new ones called Cheddar BLT Burger and Old World Mac and Cheese. Not only do they look disgusting, he used all the gross jokes we've come to love.

[@mountainhun]

Video summary: Grognard grogs hard. :P

[@MarquisLeary34]

Speaking as a grognard, I apologize greatly for this chucklehead. I don't like everything about modern RPG'ing, I'll say without apology, but I'm glad we moved from this shit at least.

[@jackjohnson1128]

I understand so little of what the hell they're talking about.

[@turrrrk5917]

This dude has the bootleg COD Cold War music going

[@zachattack461]

As someone who prefers the lower fantasy/grittier style of older editions it's a shame there's so many chuddy individuals in the osr style gaming. Just gonna stick with Warhammer and run the occasional one shot until I find a group with similar tastes I guess!

[@TheN00bmonster]

Power fantasy isn't a self insert? Sure, Jan.

[@gazblackheart4596]

This guy is pretty cringe...he also talks a lot without making really any point, its so rambling. When this started I was like oh hes going to talk about the way people made some alt racials so old races don't have negatives and that was power gaming in a way but nope. Just a whole lot of nothing.

[@vainpiers]

My first DND character was a fucking idiot, I didn't intend to play her that way but I kept making mistakes as I didn't really understand the game fully yet and I was bad at it so I was like "welp guess she's just gonna be a disaster gay then" it was also the game where we all fought over the ring of trans your gender.

[@cardshark971]

My first dnd campaign was all tiefling

[@Zarboned]

This is a man who think Guy Fieri is a fashion icon.

[@pestilenssi8979]

How is wanting more diversity not mature?

[@cheeto.burrito]

I wish I was wearing a onesie. That's my dnd power fantasy, to be someone who wears a onesie ...I love 3.5 because it gives you the ability to choose skills that don't even have anything to do with adventuring. I gave a high level rogue skill with violin. Does he need it? No. But he has the skill and he uses it to annoy people. He never multiclasses into Bard. He was forced to learn an instrument by his mother, and now he inflicts music on people. If I think about trying to play 5e I feel like something's missing because I can't be like "he is good at performance but only for violin", I have to make him good at _all_ kinds of performance. I hate that.

[@alexisartfeild2807]

That is explicitly not true. Proficiency (being skilled with) a single musical instrument is completely separate from the the Performance skill. 5e not only allows but encourages this kind 'odd niche skill' for all characters not just those that can spare their precious 'skill points' like 3.x. Many backgrounds in 5e include things like being skilled at a single instrument or game or craft. The party's fighter could be as good or better than the bard at playing the drums without taking away from their effectiveness as a fighter.

[@thebolas000]

@@alexisartfeild2807 It is a lot harder to pick up a skill after play has started in 5e. In 3.5 I could put a couple points into Perform (string instruments) as the game goes on. In 5e I'd need to purchase proficiency (250gp and 250 days of downtime).

[@Sykoze]

I'm almost exclusively a DM so I almost never play a PC, but when I do I like to play focused, support-role characters, because I find them the most fun(so, like, the opposite of powergaming lol) Also, I personally also prefer rolled ability scores(for my own PCs - I don't force it on my players, although I do encourage it), because I like the randomness and potential spread, and it is a LOT of fun to roleplay a character with intelligence, charisma, and/or wisdom scores of 6 or less. Y'all can disagree if you like, it might make it feel kind of "samey" to everything from 3.X back as Jake said, but I personally find you get the most fun characters out of it.

[@2uentin66]

Hard disagree on not rolling for stats, I still love doing that 🙂

[@SeverelyGlitchy]

I would have some drinks and play a few games of munchkin with Jake.

[@unchainedmel1475]

Wow. He really doesn't know what a Mary Sue/Gary Stu is a literary thing. He doesn't know what power gaming is or being a munchkin. His read on "newer generations" is completely incorrect. Despite all of this. The problem is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu character is that they are usually written as perfect in every way and free of any criticism. The problem lies in the player usually being the type of person unable to take criticism OR being unable to deal with situations thrown at the group. The concept of running some idealised version of yourself isn't a bad thing. The same with min/maxing. I've personally run min/maxed characters. I sometimes enjoy number crunching. I sometimes enjoy seeing how I might break the system. These aren't inherently bad things. The problem comes from behaviour from the player that is counter to the type of game a group might involved with, OR is disruptive to the enjoyment of the group as a whole. If the group is planning to play a dungeon crawler where the emphasis is on number crunching and optimal building, a purely RP character will not mesh with this style of play. If your character is built from an elaborate backstory where flaws are absent, and they are the most powerful person whom ever lived, it can become quite obnoxious for the rest of the group, including the GM, whether or not the player themselves is engaging in toxic or antisocial behaviour. An example of a pure roleplayer, playing with a group that favours character interaction and in depth engagement with the world via the GM, you can still engage in behaviour that is disruptive to the enjoyment of the group. Often in this case, you justify that behaviour by suggesting that it was IN CHARACTER and something you character would definitely do TM. It doesn't matter how you prefer to play, the system that you prefer, etc, etc. What matters is at the end of the day, a game like DnD is a collaborative affair that should be enjoyed by the group as a whole.

[@WhitePhoenixCrown]

I'm able bodied but if I could use the wheelchair from Nightmare on Elm Street 3 I would. It's been a long time since I've played D&D.

[@adalynn9771]

Jake does a mistake I see him do sometimes where he doesn't know what a word means (munchkin in TTRPG contexts) and thinks someone else is dumb for using it

[@NoMoreSuperHero]

Shit like this is why nerd culture needs to end.

[@n0etic_f0x]

About his point that we want to have self-inserts. It is weird because as a GM I had one and he was an OC that was my first level 20 and this is how our group retires our OC they stay in the universe but they are not a power fantasy, they are an in-game GM. If my players do nothing for long enough he forces an encounter but they rarely fight and despite the fact they are hideously dark and brutal.

[@animalxINSTINCT89]

He looks like coach redpill had a baby with Magog

[@jcdenton112]

Whys he look like Heisenberg from RE8

[@marktwain622]

Is MySpace still a thing? Send the link via AIM.

[@thebolas000]

@actualjake What do you mean by rolling for stats feels samesie? I like point buy too, but I've gotten wildly different stats that changed how I played a PC via rolling for stats.