Quote from: RPGPundit on June 29, 2023, 09:28:00 PM
I have to admit the recent things going on regarding the BroSR has left me more soured with the group of Youtube "influencers", the OSR guys who mainly make money from youtube rather than producing games. Maybe as some of them start to produce more games, their priorities might change, but right now this is exactly the sort of stuff influencer-culture does to a hobby: a lot of them are more scared of losing subs than of doing the right thing. Not all of them, of course, but I noticed that the people who actually make OSR games were largely aligning to one side, the ones who only talk about games on youtube mostly aligning to the other side.

I'm completely unfamiliar with any of this stuff (i.e. "BroSR"); would you mind making a separate thread about it with specifics? Or at least give some detailed explanation in the Twitter one.

Seems like there are fewer decent OSR channels producing content these days.

I used to like Captcorajus, but he's really slowed down his production schedule.  Same with Ol Man Grognard.

Unscripted and Unchained is decent; I don't always agree with his takes, but he produces lots of content and covers games I like.

Questing Beast is a sniveling little crap weasel.  That Bear guy is also really annoying.  Most of the others these days are hit or miss.

Quote from: Persimmon on June 29, 2023, 11:56:56 PM
Questing Beast is a sniveling little crap weasel.

He was okay until I learned about paid reviews.

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on June 30, 2023, 06:29:50 AM

Quote from: Persimmon on June 29, 2023, 11:56:56 PM
Questing Beast is a sniveling little crap weasel.

He was okay until I learned about paid reviews.

And takes down positive reviews at the instigation of the Twitter mob.  But he's also just so smug.

Quote from: Persimmon on June 30, 2023, 07:35:11 AM

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on June 30, 2023, 06:29:50 AM

Quote from: Persimmon on June 29, 2023, 11:56:56 PM
Questing Beast is a sniveling little crap weasel.

He was okay until I learned about paid reviews.

And takes down positive reviews at the instigation of the Twitter mob.  But he's also just so smug.

Indeed!

Quote from: tenbones on June 23, 2023, 09:56:32 AM

I agree. It's especially easy given how self-aware I am of the fact I'm Grim's polar opposite, as a Texan>American of mixed heritage, I think Grim needs to make a trip here to Lone Star and get some BBQ and whiskey in his belly, and roll some dice out here and get a better picture of reality. He'd have a gas if I took him to rifle-range.

Jim has always come across to me as the typical european classical liberal, which is always going to be a little more left leaning than folks in that group in the US. He certainly has a good bit of left-libertarian leanings which puts him in the same spot as me on a lot of stuff, but we also disagree on quite a bit. The nicest thing I could say about Jim (we're friends on Facebook and I won't claim to know him personally, but I think he'd take this as a compliment) is that he has strong principles and sticks to them rather than simply being a hypocrite and that he values open dialogue rather than orthodoxy. I also think he's intelligent enough to figure out that the far left are not his friends in the long term and will eventually come around to that.

To keep this more topical, I also like his reviews as he tends to find the same faults in products that I do.

Quote from: Brad on June 29, 2023, 09:53:42 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on June 29, 2023, 09:28:00 PM
I have to admit the recent things going on regarding the BroSR has left me more soured with the group of Youtube "influencers", the OSR guys who mainly make money from youtube rather than producing games. Maybe as some of them start to produce more games, their priorities might change, but right now this is exactly the sort of stuff influencer-culture does to a hobby: a lot of them are more scared of losing subs than of doing the right thing. Not all of them, of course, but I noticed that the people who actually make OSR games were largely aligning to one side, the ones who only talk about games on youtube mostly aligning to the other side.

I'm completely unfamiliar with any of this stuff (i.e. "BroSR"); would you mind making a separate thread about it with specifics? Or at least give some detailed explanation in the Twitter one.

Personally I'm aware of the BroSR as a vaguely homoerotic group of nerds with a very specific way of playing ADnD 1e with a 1:1 real time time scale and patron play. Trollopolus was their big mega shared campaign. Everything happened in real time in the different groups, and you had different high level players as patrons who essentially almost played a strategy game that the player groups then had to react to dynamically. Which then meant the patrons had to also react to the players.

I found the idea very interesting and it's something I want to do but the BroSR intermix all of this with memes from Gachimuchi and Gay porn whilst also saying this is the only true way to play DnD "As Gygax intended.". Whilst also being very rude to any critiques with hyperbolic twitter threads and even more gay porn posting.

I don't mean that to disparage any actual gay people. The BroSR legit have a weird fascination with Gay porn that makes me wonder how many of them are in the closet. It has nothing to do with DnD. I just want to read about the campaign.

I too am interested in what has happened to them recently, Pundit. Hopefully with the weird stuff filtered out.

Jeffro Johnson, essentially the leader of the broSR, began posting some openly antisemitic tweets. When he was called out on this, the response of a significant number of other BroSR accounts was to say that he's right, and to share their own ideas about "the jews". This shouldn't be all that surprising given that Castalia House is Jeffro's publisher (of his book about Appendix N).

A certain Youtube channel decided to have him on their livestream, which in and of itself is a free choice, but were explicit about saying that they would not be addressing his political views at all, in spite of the fact that he presented his views on Jews on the exact same venue he presents his ideas about AD&D Rules-as-written etc etc.

These guys obviously have negative views of Jews, which is what I would call anti-Semitic. Theodore Beale (Vox Day) is far-Right and anti-Semitic. He's a massive asshole with no obvious redeeming features, with his cult leader mentality he reminds me of a right wing Ron Edwards. He also publishes the conservative Israeli & Jewish military historian Martin Van Creveld alongside Jeffro Johnson, you can see books from both of them on the first page of Castalia's bookstore. He's obviously not a Nazi. Johnson is obviously not a Nazi either, no matter how obnoxious he is. A Twitter suspension for "Nazis get the hammer" seems pretty unsurprising to me. They'd have done the same if you'd said the same to some leftist Palestinian or rainbow-hair SJW anti-Semite, too. If anything I think it's good Twitter moderation seems less slanted now.

Quote from: shoplifter on June 30, 2023, 09:05:05 AM

Quote from: tenbones on June 23, 2023, 09:56:32 AM

I agree. It's especially easy given how self-aware I am of the fact I'm Grim's polar opposite, as a Texan>American of mixed heritage, I think Grim needs to make a trip here to Lone Star and get some BBQ and whiskey in his belly, and roll some dice out here and get a better picture of reality. He'd have a gas if I took him to rifle-range.

Jim has always come across to me as the typical european classical liberal, which is always going to be a little more left leaning than folks in that group in the US. He certainly has a good bit of left-libertarian leanings which puts him in the same spot as me on a lot of stuff, but we also disagree on quite a bit. The nicest thing I could say about Jim (we're friends on Facebook and I won't claim to know him personally, but I think he'd take this as a compliment) is that he has strong principles and sticks to them rather than simply being a hypocrite and that he values open dialogue rather than orthodoxy. I also think he's intelligent enough to figure out that the far left are not his friends in the long term and will eventually come around to that.

I totally get it. I'm very empathetic to the views of Europeans in general (my wife was raised in France - and she's Irish/Austrian) in relation to the social values of Americans... much less Texans which I likewise hold as different than other Americans (in general). That's why I happily extend him an offer to come hang here in TX to give him a different perspective outside of the bubble he lives in. At minimum I can guarantee I can show him a good time that will go diametrically against what he thinks is true. If nothing else, he'll eat and drink very well and have good gaming.

Quote from: shoplifter on June 30, 2023, 09:05:05 AMTo keep this more topical, I also like his reviews as he tends to find the same faults in products that I do.

Generally the same for me.

Honorable Mention: there's an OSR channel run by a cat named Meatball that takes deep dives into the Old-School Revival, trending topics in the overall hobby and she's a shameless shill for her own books. Sometimes the covers are hard to see because she stands in front of or on them, but great podcast nonetheless! Pretty sure she was also nominated for the Diana Jones award, so stop by and give Meatball a sub and send tuna!

Quote from: S'mon on July 01, 2023, 04:28:27 AM
These guys obviously have negative views of Jews, which is what I would call anti-Semitic. Theodore Beale (Vox Day) is far-Right and anti-Semitic. He's a massive asshole with no obvious redeeming features, with his cult leader mentality he reminds me of a right wing Ron Edwards. He also publishes the conservative Israeli & Jewish military historian Martin Van Creveld alongside Jeffro Johnson, you can see books from both of them on the first page of Castalia's bookstore. He's obviously not a Nazi. Johnson is obviously not a Nazi either, no matter how obnoxious he is. A Twitter suspension for "Nazis get the hammer" seems pretty unsurprising to me. They'd have done the same if you'd said the same to some leftist Palestinian or rainbow-hair SJW anti-Semite, too. If anything I think it's good Twitter moderation seems less slanted now.

Yes, I recognize the irony that if this was pre-Musk twitter there wouldn't have been a chance in hell I would have been banned, even if I threatened to disembowel them or something.

I fully recognize that Meatball is the real star of the show.

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 03, 2023, 05:46:30 AM
I fully recognize that Meatball is the real star of the show.

True.

Though I admit I've been having a hard time watching since the loss of Big Chungus...

Quote from: rkhigdon on July 03, 2023, 12:56:51 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit on July 03, 2023, 05:46:30 AM
I fully recognize that Meatball is the real star of the show.

True.

Though I admit I've been having a hard time watching since the loss of Big Chungus...

We all miss Big Chungus. But that's the nature of life.