Quote from: Spinachcat;1126470I could see narrative driven RPGs working very well for forum or text games. It's quite true that crunchy combat is rough and anti-immersive in those mediums.

I find 5e D&D works ok for text-chat; Pathfinder or 4e D&D would be too crunchy and square-locked.

For Play By Post I like 1e AD&D/OSRIC, or simpler OSR systems.

Quote from: S'mon;1126474I find 5e D&D works ok for text-chat; Pathfinder or 4e D&D would be too crunchy and square-locked.

For Play By Post I like 1e AD&D/OSRIC, or simpler OSR systems.

5E I've found okay for text-chat thus far but in ten years it's literally my first time using anything D&D. My initial diet of P&P consisted of Dark Heresy, primarily on Myth-Weavers and you can well imagine how slow those games went once the combat kicked up. Luckily the consistent groups I've had over the internet are (now at least) people who generally read the hell out of crunchy systems and adapt to them quickly so that on things like R20 and Fantasy Grounds things can move pretty swiftly. I'd still not touch anything shy of... oh I don't know, PBtA via play-by-post these days though.

Quote from: tenbones;1126084It's "gaming" for people that don't actually game.

So the same as watching sports is for most people.

Quote from: 3rik;1126481So the same as watching sports is for most people.

It's difficult for me to imagine a similar motivation or style between watching sports and watching RPGs. In my experience, there are three types of sports-watchers (any of which may have also played sports in their day):

1. The Fan - personally identifies with a specific team and emotionally invests in their winning or losing.

2. The Statistic Collector - Crunches numbers the whole time, invests in their own numeric machinations and fantasy league standings.

3. The Aesthete - Appreciates the beauty of athleticism and teamwork -- watches football the same way most people watch, say, gymnastics.

(Note that any of these may or may not also be an Armchair Coach)

Of these three types, only the third seems even remotely possibly applicable to watching RPGs. And given the level of actual play in any of the streams being mentioned here, it seems really really unlikely to me that any would be candidates for an Aesthete's enjoyment.

So while I understand the reasons people seem to watch sports, I still can't for the life of me fathom anyone watching RPGs for similar reasons. To me, a much closer analogy would be people watching reality TV, for the sheer voyeurism and egoistic feelings of superiority not otherwise available to people with nothing better to do.

I watched few episodes of CR, and few sessions of Polish broadcasters, and I'm gonna say for me it's more like listening (as I usually go into listen mode) to podcasts.
Like CR players are terribly lousy but they are funny to listen to.

Quote from: S'mon;1126473I understand Koebel and co were playing Stars Without Number. A damning indictment of the OSR!!

In the first series... In the second series (where he drove it off the cliff) they'd switched to Genesys.

Quote from: mightybrain;1126472I did. And I'm agreeing with you, in the most part. You were of the opinion that this was an example of having an X-card and it didn't help. Since then, from what I've seen, the story is that he didn't have an X-card system in place, or do a session zero, or have consent forms, or anything else these muppets come up with. So people, a week later, are still proposing the X-card as the solution to this problem. But I agree that it's not likely a solution and more likely to cause these issues than solve them.

From the looks of it though, he's not going to brush this one off. He might at some point start running games again, but most of the people hosting shows are dropping him and anyone associated with him.

OK, I see what you were saying now.
Yes, it does seem that way, that Koebel will be persona non grata at least for a while. But the rush to attack me this week (based on the defamatory and false claims made against me) was clearly an attempt from the SJW crowd to distract from the shame of one of their own favorite-sons being such a dumbass.

It's fascinating watching the fallout. I just saw something more cringe-worthy to my eye that the stream itself. Some Twitterer obviously finding people who follow Adam and asking them if they are aware of what he's done.

It's certainly a useful resource for finding truly repulsive behaviour to bank for your NPC villains. That genuinely wouldn't have occurred to me.

Quote from: Zalman;1126494So while I understand the reasons people seem to watch sports, I still can't for the life of me fathom anyone watching RPGs for similar reasons. To me, a much closer analogy would be people watching reality TV, for the sheer voyeurism and egoistic feelings of superiority not otherwise available to people with nothing better to do.

I've known a couple pro wrestling fans, who are in it for the storylines, the rivalries between the wrestlers, wondering what the next plot twist will be, and so on.  I've never been into sports myself, but I get the impression that there are sports fans who follow their teams for similar, albeit unscripted, reasons - just a day or two ago, a friend posted on facebook about how there's nothing like the feeling of being in the stadium when "your rivals" come onto the field, which is just that sort of involvement in the story around the sport.

And I can easily see fans of gaming podcasts/video series being into it for the same reasons.  They want to follow their favorite character (or party), see how the conflicts with the Bad Guy Of The Week turn out, discover the latest plot twists, and so on.  I'm not sure whether you'd consider that to be a fourth motivation or to fall under your "The Fan" category, but, either way, I suspect that's the main reason that people follow Critical Role, APs, etc.

Quote from: nDervish;1126593I've known a couple pro wrestling fans, who are in it for the storylines, the rivalries between the wrestlers, wondering what the next plot twist will be, and so on.  I've never been into sports myself, but I get the impression that there are sports fans who follow their teams for similar, albeit unscripted, reasons - just a day or two ago, a friend posted on facebook about how there's nothing like the feeling of being in the stadium when "your rivals" come onto the field, which is just that sort of involvement in the story around the sport.

And I can easily see fans of gaming podcasts/video series being into it for the same reasons.  They want to follow their favorite character (or party), see how the conflicts with the Bad Guy Of The Week turn out, discover the latest plot twists, and so on.  I'm not sure whether you'd consider that to be a fourth motivation or to fall under your "The Fan" category, but, either way, I suspect that's the main reason that people follow Critical Role, APs, etc.

Well, I personally wouldn't call professional wrestling a "sport" -- it's athletic, but still theater. And that feeling of being in the stadium I think is more about being part of a large crowd -- the emotional investment in "rivalry" is just the mechanism agreed upon by the crowd. So watching sports still feels differently motivated to me.

Now, I do get the motivation of watching theater for the reasons you outline. It's still hard for me to imagine even that occurring for the video streams being discussed here. Pro wrestling is far better theater. As is any of 1000 B-movies free to watch on YouTube. But hey, to each their own.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1126451Storygamer favorite. Pink hair. Declaring himself "feminist". Declaring himself "queer".

Dyed hair used to just be 'quirky'. Now it's like a giant red flag: 'HI, I'M A FUCKIN WEIRDO!'.

Quote from: Ghostmaker;1126963Dyed hair used to just be 'quirky'. Now it's like a giant red flag: 'HI, I'M A FUCKIN WEIRDO!'.

Dangerhair.

Look at  creatures in nature who have skin, fur, plumage etc. those vivid colors.  To a one they are poisonous.  Hair that color is how mother nature says "Do not touch or otherwise interact with."

Quote from: thedungeondelver;1126993Dangerhair.

Look at  creatures in nature who have skin, fur, plumage etc. those vivid colors.  To a one they are poisonous.  Hair that color is how mother nature says "Do not touch or otherwise interact with."

That's aposematism, but strictly speaking, that's a signal to *predators* that the animal should not be *eaten*. It's not generally a signal to avoid for co-existing species. Color signaling is also used to indicate usefulness to other animals (like cleaner wrasse - "Don't eat me - I'm useful") as well as sexual desirability of males (as in peacocks - "I must be fit if I've survived like this").

None of that says anything about dyed-hair humans -- just poking holes in misuse of biology.

edit to add: I posted this before watching Pundit's video not knowing he referenced it, or having seen a picture of Mr. Koebel. Also I was going to say the same thing about him being a real life version of a SJW soy strawman from /pol/. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone less worthy of respect.

Someone here obviously is part of the run on hair dye. Wonder who it is...