In response to a post by Wil Wheaton about DMing

[kane_magus]

Here is Mr. Wheaton's post on Facebook, which I shared and then wrote the below:

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I've never played a table-top role playing game (not as a player and definitely not as a DM).

I've been kind of... hovering around the scene for years now, what with playing computer games like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape: Torment, Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption/Bloodlines, Shadowrun, etc., watching Wil Wheaton DM a full game of Titansgrave on Geek & Sundry[1], and watching videos like Noah "Spoony" Antwiler's Counter Monkey series, and reading stuff like "Old Man Henderson," and other such things, all of which are tangential to actually sitting down and playing a table-top role playing game.

I'm sort of the same way about comic books, actually. I've read and watched and played an imperial shit-ton of stuff related to comic books, but the number of actual comic books I've read in my life is comparatively tiny (mainly just Batman Knightfall, Batman Cataclysm/Aftershock/etc., Watchmen, The Walking Dead, and whatever random musty old-ass comics my brother had in a dank old cardboard box when I was a kid). (EDIT) Well, and web comics. I guess those count, too. I've read an assload of those. (/EDIT)

[1] - Though I haven't watched any of Wheaton's Table Top, oddly enough (or anything beyond the first couple bits of Critical Role).

Comments

[owsf2000]

I DMed a little back in highschool although I'm a bit brutal as a DM - not really on purpose, but I would overestimate what the players would be able to handle. Koby DMed more than I did, and since where we grew up D&D books were hard to find we both made our own campaign worlds rather than using set adventure packs/stories or placing things in a pre-established game world like Dragon Lance or Forgotten Realms. Cheaper that way if you're just buying the core rule books. Most of which were owned by either me or my brother.

Strictly speaking I could join a local D&D group as I'm pretty sure there's one or two that meet at the local comic shop, but I'm not really up for that whole "social" thing.

Fun fact, I still have most of the D&D books from back then. Most of them 2nd edition rules. I use to have some 1st edition books as well but looks like I never got those back, or at least not all of them.

[kane_magus]

The closest I've come to actually playing D&D was due to my supervisor in WA who used to play every Thursday at a gaming store that was literally almost right across the street from where I lived[1]. I probably could have gotten a start with them, maybe, but I just never took the plunge.

And I've kind of wanted to watch the "So Many Levels" thing that Starla posts about on FB every so often, but I haven't even gotten into that. (Mainly because, as of this comment, it is 166 episodes long, and since each episode is anywhere from 1 to 4+ hours long, I would never get caught up if I started from the beginning, and I wouldn't want to just jump in at some random point. It's the same reason I've never gotten into watching Critical Role or any of the other table-top stuff Geek & Sundry does, aside from Titansgrave, and even just that was over eight hours long.)

I've vaguely considered trying to find online groups similar to the above to maybe get a start that way, but... meh... I guess I'd rather just play video games instead? Also, that whole icky "interacting with other people" thing? Aside from a very few extremely rare exceptions, I don't even like playing video games with other human beings, much less something more directly involved like D&D, which kind of puts a real damper on the whole thing. >_>;

[1] - Pretty much the only thing between my condo and that shop was the Jack in the Box restaurant that I frequented far too much during the nine years I lived in WA. Or at least the game shop used to be there. Not sure if it's still there anymore, since I haven't lived out there for over six years now.

[owsf2000]

Usually in a D&D group the social interactions aren't anything like what you'd see in online gaming - mainly since a D&D group would likely just kick out anyone being a retard. In that respect at least, it's generally safe.

I'm just fairly anti-social so meeting new people to play the game is enough of a deterrent unfortunately.

[kane_magus]

I have to admit that my perception of the potential asshattery of players (and GMs) has probably been corrupted by Spoony's Counter Monkey series.

Like the guy who tried to derail Spoony's Planescape campaign by trolling the Lady of Pain into mazing him, just so that he could use his supposedly ingenious character to easily escape the maze (though Spoony's response to that was pretty clever, as he'll tell you himself).

Or his players all but ignoring his Shadowrun campaign just so they could shoot people with squirt guns or focus on finding the materials to allow them to shoot people with squirt guns even more.

Or the guy who screwed over the rest of his party (and, eventually, himself) just to get a Deck of Many Things.

Or the guy who (unintentionally?) disrupted a Thieves' World campaign by throwing acid into the face of Tempus Thales. Though Spoony admits that it probably ended up being more interesting than whatever he'd actually had planned.

Or when Spoony himself nearly single handedly ended a Vampire: The Requiem LARP. (The only reason he didn't is because they rescinded his action and, indeed, kicked him out of the group... though if what he said about how they tried to railroad his character was true, he was kind of justified.)

Or... when Spoony, in real life, supposedly found a pizza in a toilet and nearly poisoned a dude for lulz.

And many other such stories.

So, yeah... I guess the moral here is that while Spoony's stories are entertaining (or, at least, I find them to be so), maybe don't emulate him or his players. >_>;

And beyond Spoony's stuff, there's Old Man Henderson, though that was more due to an asshat GM than an asshat player, though the player self-described as an asshole as well. And the other stories linked to from that page.

To be fair, some of these stories do end up with the player in question being thrown out, so at least there's that.