Monday, November 29, 2010

Coolest. RPG. Videos. Ever. = "DM's Discretion"

Over Thanksgiving Break I finally started catching up on some blog reading, and came across a video review of The Dungeon Alphabet over at the Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope.  I missed this post back in July because I was, well, packing up all my worldly belongings in preparation for a cross-country move at that point.

However, I am so glad I went back through the archives and found this little gem, which is merely one installment of an ongoing RPG'ing video series called "DM's Discretion."  The series' creator, "Slathazar," is a disarmingly genuine and charmingly self-deprecating video host who is an unabashed fan of both 1e AD&D and Amazon.com.  And clearly he has an investment in spreading the word about the Old Ways amongst a younger generation of RPG'ers and potential RPG'ers.  A man after my own heart!

Along that line, I admit that some of the appeal here is surely narcissistic -- his guy reminds me a great deal of myself from a long-past era -- but his dedication to the Old Ways combined with his deadpan, ironic humor just KILLS me.

So check out the DM's Discretion Introductory Episode:


1 comment:

  1. "I prefer it because it's Old School."

    [Admittedly I chose to capitalize that.]

    "I prefer AD&D because it's more complicated than other versions, and keeps in the medieval feel of it."

    It's interesting to get this guy's read on why AD&D is rad, especially when he earnestly speaks in contradiction to the usual harangue: that Old School = Rules Lite. Many, many folks have skewered the simplistic assumption of "OSR is rules lite" by pointing out how heavily house-ruled most B/X games are, and how few people really ever played AD&D with all the rules as it was presented in the three 1e books this young gentleman is advocating for.

    But he sees that AD&D is more complicated (not complex ... who knows if he chooses his words that carefully, but complicated is his selling point) than other later versions. Hmm.

    Look, I've never played later versions, so I don't actually know if they are more or less complicated than AD&D, which I've gathered from OSR blogs. On the other hand, maybe this kid is like a prog rock geek, and he enjoys the intricacies (if sometimes forced or contrived) for their own sake, because they are complicated, even if not necessarily complex.

    Or maybe he just saw those covers and said "Holy shit, there's something going on there!" You see those big ruby eyes and you don't immediately see the guys prying out the gems ... then you think, "those are giant rubies, I'd totally pry them out" and THEN you see that there are two guys prying them out. The process of viewing the image confirms the path of adventure for those that want the adventure.

    Egads.

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