Greetings!

Aaron Clarey is an economics guy that is a professional in the financial industry, as well as being a published author of several books. Aaron Clarey has run his YouTube program now for many years, where he regularly discusses economic topics, current events, social issues, international travel, and being a successful, independent man. He is also a gamer, and has been an enthusiast of Dungeons & Dragons for years, since the 1980's.

Here, in his program, he discusses some of his recent "adventures" while attending TTRPG sessions at various local game stores in his area. Aaron Clarey is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

It's sad that the Captain (Aaron Clarey) spent so much time away from gaming only to come back to this mess. 

There's nothing quite like sitting around a table with friends and playing an RPG. 

Buh-but you c-cannot c-call them mentally ill anymore!

Yeah, it's always a bad idea when someone brings along his girlfriend, especially when she isn't really interested in the game. However, I've also had good experiences with female players, so I can't generalize. It's nothing new that the hobby attracts mentally unbalanced people, as this has been a problem for decades. I think things started to go downhill after the introduction of "storytelling" games. 

Man, I haven't watched Aaron Clarey in years. It's always jarring to see how people have aged after not seeing them for a while.

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on February 11, 2024, 03:49:42 AM
It's sad that the Captain (Aaron Clarey) spent so much time away from gaming only to come back to this mess. 

There's nothing quite like sitting around a table with friends and playing an RPG.

Greetings!

Yeah, it is awesome that Clarey is getting back into gaming! He clearly loves D&D for sure.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

The bored GF has been the bane of groups and games for decades.

I successfully got my wife into TTRPGS. Which was harder than most because she has severely bad Dylsexia and Dyscalcula but it was still possible. I just have to read her character sheet for her. If people want to join in they will. So don't try to force it on people who don't want to join in. In general I'd only take my girlfriend to a group if I knew she'd be interested in it. I wouldn't take her if she was just going to hang around and have a strop. I've no idea why others would do that. It can't be fun for the group or the girl. Just tell her to go do something else for 4-6 hours a week. It's not hard. 

The problem with mental illness is that the layman has no fucking clue how mental health works. They think metal illness means someone acts like a clown and can be treated with talk therapy. In reality, the dangerously mentally ill go around murdering people with shotguns, sawing people's heads off on public transportation, drown their own children, kill themselves, and generally present a danger to themselves and potentially others. Others are harmless but cannot live a normal life unless they take their meds everyday. Every person is different. But mental illness is pretty much everywhere to some degree and so much of it goes undiagnosed until something happens that cannot be ignored. I was abused by a mentally ill person for years and have struggled with depression and suicide ideation in the past.

Whenever I read idiots online demonstrating their insulting ignorance of mental health issues, I want to punch them through the screen. But they're fucking everywhere and you can't educate them until a psychopath is running at them with a chainsaw. And these kinds of idiots are everyone in government and the mental health field, the organizations that are supposed to be responsible for keeping this in check. No surprise that mental illnesses are skyrocketing.

He pretty early distinguishes between genuine mental illness and people who adopt various descriptors as ways of making themselves the center of attention.  I don't think he really goes into it in the detail that such a topic deserves (why do people on the fringes of behavior and emotion try to run as far away, carrying as many identity flags related to mental illness and/or sexual or political identities instead of grouping into one of the many useful and normal areas of sociological organization as best they can, as was normal for decades in at least America?), but he's definitely not just pooping on the mentally ill.

I haven't messed around with any organized play in many years (not since Pathfinder 1), but I definitely noticed at that time that the quality of gamers at the table was a lower than it was just a few years prior.  I dismissed it as a geographical thing (I had since relocated), but I did try five different venues around town over a couple years, and eventually decided that none of them would serve as regular things.  I haven't tried organized play, which I could be interested in, or just pick-up-grouping a group, since then, and it seems like the latter would always be rough, and much tougher in the current environment.

Here would be what I would try if I did want to find a group in a game store, though.  I'd look for game stores on google maps, and I'd look for ones that are suburban or exurban, even if that was a drive.  And I'd try a few of those out and see.  Real life dangerhairs are uncommon, and while gaming stores WILL draw them, they are often going to form their own groups- meaning that I wouldn't expect every place to have them in similar numbers.  It's hypothetical though- I run with RL people these days and have for years.

Quote from: SHARK on February 11, 2024, 03:41:13 AM
Greetings!

Aaron Clarey is an economics guy that is a professional in the financial industry, as well as being a published author of several books. Aaron Clarey has run his YouTube program now for many years, where he regularly discusses economic topics, current events, social issues, international travel, and being a successful, independent man. He is also a gamer, and has been an enthusiast of Dungeons & Dragons for years, since the 1980's.

Here, in his program, he discusses some of his recent "adventures" while attending TTRPG sessions at various local game stores in his area. Aaron Clarey is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, the United States.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

  My advice to Aaron is the same I would give to anyone else with his issue.   Do  not go and seek RPG pals at a gaming store.  Instead recruit people who are already your friends/close acquainted to play a table top game with you.  In my experience it was a whole lot easier to teach people I get along with than try to learn to get along with weirdos who already know rules.

One of the games I was DM'ing for Adventurer's League for the before times had a couple playing, the guy was into D&D.  His girlfriend would play but to be honest, her IQ was in the lower 80's and she had problems adding two numbers together.  It ended up with her auto attacking.  It was not fun to deal with as a DM.

I just watched his video.  Perhaps try to filter out some of that nonsense, by running a ruleset that is known for being hardcore.  If they sign up, and start the nonsense; tell them to role a perception check, followed by an initiative check, followed by the BBG showdown, in the very first session.  If they survive the encounter, monitor their behavior.  Every time they start going sideways, take them straight into a BBG encounter.  No mercy.  Let the dice decide. 

They should either change their ways, or remove themselves promptly.  Any who do change, might be worth your effort.  The rest, not so much.

This guy is hilarious. Love the video.

I've run games in stores and solicited players on left-leaning boards. The easiest filter is to run something that's not 5e and that's not a trendy indie darling. I live in a very lefty city, and I've never had a significant problem using this filter.

Jesus fuck what was this bullshit?!
I thought I'd be hearing a Bill Rufo type or at least an Ackerman type, making an intelligent argument about society, and instead I got old garage grandpa complaining about playing in FLGS and being surprised that its mostly freaks at the FLGS. The video in no way matches the way you described it. There's no thinking complaints here, just personal griping.