4:33 Epistomological Dilemma: What you know, what you don't know, what you can know. 7:39 Metaphysics: How did it come to be? What is it? 10:20 Question of Ethics: What should I do? 14:25 Existentialism: Why am I here? 17:42 Ontology: What is actual?
Christopher Jacob to that, my science teacher would answer a quite eye openning answer. and its quite easy to answer at it... he'd say... things aren't created, they can only change. if nothing would ever happen, then nothing would be changing, and nothing would be evolving. as such... just like a boat. we need change to go forward. this is why nothing will never happen.
This video IS completely awesome. When I DM I do look around at some of these types of questions, but you went deeper with it that I ever thought. One of the questions D&D provokes of me is "Is there some higher dimensional being that created me, and is playing me as it's character?" Some of that Micro/Macro Meta-reality kinda stuff. (I think Hindus and Buddhists would say yes, and Taoists would say something about tree bark... :P )
It is family, friendship, and love that makes a good party and game. Powerful, and flys in the face of people who see DnD as an inherently evil game. Your videos make me want DM more!
MY GUIDE TO HANKERIN's THINGAMABOB HERE.... 0:00 Hello and stuff... 3:35 The Five Timeless Questions...got it...questions...5...also timeless 4:28 1. White paint = Epistemology...What is the limit of knowledge within the game's world...In other words, the can't know blahbideeblah but they can know doobideedoo, and that is so crucial and whatnot to chachiteetoo...because it affects things: you can the reward the players with knowledge for doing badass things...like they go in the tomb of joe the loser and they find out that he was really a winner, but the cool kids spread bad rumors about him and people believed it because they are not nice.... 7:41 2. Black paint = Metaphysics...How did the IT-THING come to be? What are these things and how did they come to be and how will they end?...You know the origins of things as the DM (because you made the stuff up!) and as a result you can "use time as a tool" to add to your story...or something 10:25 3. Metallic Gold paint = Ethics...What should I do? What is the right thing to do?...The players are interested in this question...The DM can pose the players ethical questions in the form moral dilemmas that force them to choose between owning it themselves, or making someone else watch out for the sniper, time to pay the pipa...The players hafta think about their characters sense of morality when they make the choice...ME ON EVIL CHARACTERS: We did evil characters when I was in high school in the 80s once, but they were in service to an evil supernatural being known as The Overlord and we hadta do what The Overlord said or risk being fired, or worse...One character sought to awaken The Old Ones (Lovecraftian beingsamabobs) and when he had the chance, did so and wound up killing us all...Now that is a moral dilemma that he totally went with at all costs...So it can be done...It being playing evil characters that have to make choices...And it can be more scary than funny if you frame it the right way...And we are all still friends today, except the one who died last year and I cry about it all the time (the one who released The Old Ones)...BACK TO YOU: I like this idea of not relying on alignments -- in fact, I am considering not even using alignments when I grow up and become a DM for 5e... 14:25 4. Avacado Green paint = Existentialism....This is kinda weird, but do it anyway...Why am I here? What is my experience of my surroundings?...You have to jump into the pool and feel the cold, cold and wet water making your skin go tingly tingle and then ask, "Whooooaaaa, what is this that I am in?!!!!" Hence the avocado, because avocados wonder about this kind of thing all the time, symbolized by their green...You need a lot of imagination to pull this off, to think inside the thing and feel it from within and wonder, "WHYYYY GOD???!"...As a player you place yourself in the imaginary world and wonder why you're there and you hafta choose the reason...OR PERRRRRRISSSHHH IN FLAMES!!!! 17:43 5. Foliage Green = Ontology...Only because that's the only paint he has left though, so don;t get too wrapped up about the color...Concerned with extremely weirdtastic stuff like...What is? What really is? What is actual?...Pretty weird, huh? Is there time? Is there matter?...We are epistemologically isolated from the truth because we think in a box that creates a reality that may or may not really be real (or something)...It's like when people get their sense of reality from watching the news or ?something (cartoons have better info, btw)...So why is this important to D&D? Who knows? But "what does it mean to even ask the question"...We are making stuff up here in D&D...As a DM you hafta ask, what really exists here in the world? Is it the world? Is it the rules? Is it the story? Maybe D&D is about story? Are the characters a construct within the story?....And "chance" -- if you don't have chance, as in you roll the dice and maybe you might not make it...or maybe...
I've never played Dungeons and Dragons, but I've been doing my research since July of this year (reading the free 5e pdf rules and DM guide). I want to make a game that draws in my friends that have also never played it. I've already got a basic outline of how I want the first session to go to see if they take the bait. This video tore open the fabric of reality much like a wonderful acid trip and poured so much into my brain. I know I'm already going to rewatch this many times. I've already watched several videos and you do what many do not and what I mean is, you don't make a hour video explaining something that can be summed up in 10-20 minutes AND you dive into very specific details of how to structure a fun and interesting game. I've been skipping around from different channels (fistful of dice, be a better game master, WASD20 and a few others) on their advice and yours definitely contributes just as much like their videos. Please continue these! Great stuff man! *Raises beer*
I dig that you posted this. I've been thinking about what to do with my channel. The response to this vlog of yours will be instructive. "We're not just inviting our friends over and drinking beer and talking about our work week." Inviting your friends over and drinking beer and talking about our work week is itself more than just inviting your friends over and drinking beer and talking about our work week. Metaphysics swim in the beer, too. I know you're feelin' me. On the evil PC phenomenon: The appeal of the villain was always there for many players, but the DnD team at WotC during the 3E era (Monte Cook, etc.) really pushed it. The introduction of warlocks, tieflings, and the Book of Vile Darkness happened because too many RPG consumers wanted it and the producers were happy to write it. Fantasy is often appealing to people who spend too much time in their own heads; of whom a large percentage are socially awkward and therefore on the fringes of social groups if not outcast. Not a few of those are bitter and jaded because they notice that success and fame go to the strongest and the swiftest and smartest, but not to the heroic, or the practitioner of ethics in the mundane reality. They love them some Elric. I don't. Have you seen the fantasy section of your local book store? Lots of torture and unlife and all manner of vicious protagonists. The rot is definitely not limited to DnD.
Oh, man. When you started talking about the pillars of philosophy, I just lit up with a big old grin. Then you got into epistemology and storytelling, my grin grew. I love that. I've likened storytelling to translation, too, in that you have to translate the story in your head, with all that you know about it, into a form that relates to the audience through recognizing what they don't know about the story.
you sound like the existential questionings of the Whale on "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" as he falls to the ground after he pops into existence. lol
Bro.... Can't help but comment in 2017 on something you did in 2015! So awesome! Just catching up on your stuff! 2.6 craft day tomorrow for me and family! Hahahaha! You will have over a million subs one day! Carry on good sir!
i have to say this video was interesting. i knew it all, but still interesting to see. another DM once told me, he hand waved certain battles and certain events cause he thought those events started by the players were just going away from his story. to him i answered a simple concept... let it happen and see where it goes. its not like your losing anything by just letting the players do what they want. and so he tryed that and he was mind blown. it openned his gaming eyes and figured how much the players are important to the story. so yeah... let your mind go, let your imagination go wilds, let the futility of life be forever changed in your games. those games are going to be much better then you think. as for what you said... i dont think the DM job is that hard... i had 2 players do it for the first time in their life... and believe it or not, they both done a great job for something without preparation. so i think the job is not that hard. it is only hard for those trying to "control" everything. they are the ones holding themselves up. just let your mind go wild. let the control go. just try to keep up with the goals you've set out for the players and keep that direction on target. but dont plan everything, if you do your only setting you up for bad plays and time constrants that you do not need to worry about. one day one DM told me, if you take more then an hour creating your session... you are doing something wrong ! create the skeleton, but leave the fat to the players. adding up to that fat is not your job, it is that of the player. thats, what i think, is the biggest problem of the DMs. they just create a story and the players ends up being only observers.
You see me impressed! From all Pillars i, personally found no. 3 to be the most important. Man, i was really impressed by the story of the marines and also of what you said at 13:10. Sadly it seems that it has become more and more socially accepted to be "evil" because everyone seem to think that being good equals to be boring or stupid/naive. But to me using a "Evil" sollution of a problem, is just lazy and cowardly (both in a grand scale and in personal life. Maybe i'm just old-fashioned). Really good video, very appreciated.
Skepticism (particularly that of the physical sciences) has taken dominant sway in our current contemporary society (Karl Popper was one of the most well-known skeptic philosophers). Cartesian metaphysics (including ontological dialectics) and Kantian ethics have also been displaced by what is commonly referred to as the existential and postmodern (or post-postmodern or meta-modern) condition. As Jean-Paul Sartre stated: "Existence precedes essence." That is to say that there is no pre-set meaning to man's existence, but, rather, that meaning is socially constructed by man only after he first comes into being. It is a rather nihilistic outlook on life. It should be noted, however, that the postmodern and meta-modern tradition (particularly that of deconstructionism) have based their ideas heavily on those of the existentialists. Looks like you need a sixth bottle of paint for that subject, good sir. ^_^ Great video as always and keep up the good work! P.S. At the 21 minute mark, you talk about story (i.e., literature). According to Georges Bataille, literature is innately evil in the sense that an author must create a conflict for their characters to overcome so as to (1) develop the personality traits of said characters and to (2) and keep the story from becoming too boring (i.e., a story cannot exist without an author creating some kind of conflict, whether it be man versus man, man versus supernatural, etc.). In other words, what stories do is that they disrupt peaceful settings with oppressive forms of power that must be overcome (very Nietzschian indeed). Stories in themselves are power structures (i.e., those things that are non-peaceful). The crazy thing about stories in our current society is that people mimic the lives of those told in tales and aspire to become heroes themselves. In other words, in the Foucauldian sense, they propagate the ideal of power. In a social sense, this is considered to be problematic because it keeps people striving for power continuously rather than abandoning it for a more peaceful existence. As far as a game of D&D goes, peace cannot prevail until the very end of a campaign. For as soon as peace prevails, the story ends. As long as conflict occurs, however, the game (whether it be a game of D&D or some other game set by society) can continue. In the reality of society, however, peaceful people usually sideline themselves from engaging in petty power struggles with other people (i.e., people who are trying to constantly impress others as if they have something to prove, showing off the objects that they own or the things they possess). Peaceful people are generally those who outright refuse to play the game, usually becoming deviants or social outcasts in the ideologically-driven eyes of their power-driven social system. In my experience, peaceful people like that usually content themselves (ironically enough) with playing fantasy games like D&D for fun. ^_^
+C.J. Cala "Skepticism (particularly that of the physical sciences) has taken dominant sway in our current contemporary society" Come on, this is not true in academia or even society as a whole. Your PS is good times though.
+C.J. Cala kantian ethics are heavily embedded in every socio-political soundbite you hear. i have no idea why you think it's influence has waned. poor people, are they lazy work-shy leeches or vulnerable victims forced into a materially amoral lifestyle? your answer has a lot to do with your intuitive interpretation of kant's imperatives. without kant's ethical dominance, existentialism ceases to be a fruitful inquiry.
Man this is a good video. I know you've got the kickstarter going, it's the new year, things are busy, but post a follow up to this. You spent about 3 or 4 minutes on each topic, of course a topic like Metaphysics or Ethics can't be covered in that time - let us in on what you've been thinking about recently.
7:00 or so: I don't know the twists. I often leave things blank on purpose so I, as the DM, can be surprised. I use random tables and give my players plot twist cards (by Paizo) and Action Cards (for Savage Worlds) they can use to create twists and turns in the story. I often only know the motivations of the antagonists and why they can't have what they want, and what they are willing to do to get it - and sometimes what resources they have available. 13:00 Considering the soldiers were invaders in a foreign country, the real drama for rpgs is where good-meaning characters are part of a system that produces "evil". Works the other way around too. "Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content." - Conan in Queen of the Black Coast
Back to Microbiology, where you can put a very small amount of a liquid on a plastic dish with some soy broth and then go home, hoping it might grow/kill enough of the right kind of thing to do what you want it to do.
As a DM I love to see my players struggle,make them sweat,play with there emotions and make them work for there achievements. I'll will make situations for them that forces them to use special items I give them. I'll even kill player charachters on purpose but I will always leave a way out of there condition or there intended death if they find the answer.Ill some times use npc saves to prevent a total party kill but at a price. I do these things to challenge my players and push there players skills as far as I can. Do you think this is pretty brutal for a DM to do? I guess I enjoy messing with my players to some degree.
I recently found this channel and have been delving into your past episodes. But damn, looks like I should have worn a helmet because you blew my mind with this one. This gets to the heart of murder-hoboism, and why it doesn't work and feels lame. Good stories involve moral choices, that draw us in. I stopped watching Lame of Groans, because I am tired of watching bad people make worse decisions. Any chance of setting up a Patreon to make it easy for folks to give you cash in exchange for badass wisdom.
+michael kotschi Thanks for watching, and welcome! I've had several inquiries about Patreon, just need to get off my craft table and look into it. For now, there's always that silly tip jar. "murder-hoboism" lol
Wow, what a headache I got now. All dem big words and hard concepts makes my brain hurt. Do ya suppose Gygax and Arneson struggled with these thoughts? Me? I jus' wanna pretend Ima damned good warrior type that chops up bad monsters with my big blade, make a few sheckels while I'm doing it so's I can drink some drinks and have fun with the ladies back in town on the week-ends, ya dig? Who knows? Like what yer doing, but I don't see no liquid refreshment to hand--you tee-totaling these days or what? Remember...talking's thirsty work so's ya gotta stay hydrated!
Ontology in a nutshell, for anybody who wants to do this suggested research, is summed up in Plato's work "the allegory of the cave"... which essentially says that there is a reality, and there is what we can see as shadows of that reality, glimpses of it... or in layman's terms, "There is what is, and there is what we'd like it to be, and all that we can see is the second one"... from this I extrapolate things such as faith, which is a very real thing in a D&D world, and in this one. To some people, Jesus is a "reality" in their lives because they believe he is due to some need for a comfort that things get better when they die , or their actions are justified because "Allah commanded it" kind of thinking.. now in a world where Gods are real, and many, and multifaceted pantheons of deities have real world visible influence, rather than just "well there is no proof but I CHOOSE to believe in a higher power of one sort or another" as in our actual world, characters in a fantasy setting don't get that choice. The gods EXIST in an actual sense, hence clerics can perform miraculous magic - there is no choice. This is why I defend the very heavy presence of various cults as a strong (and very motivating) factor in a story. You better listen to the cleric because that god is REAL here, not a question of whether or not you believe it, DIONYSUS THE GOD OF WINE AND DRUNKEN DEBAUCHERY IS REAL, heck he even has a stat line in Deities and Demigods if you want to doubt him, take it up with him (if he bothers to listen to your drunk asses). In a "world" such as we imagine D&D to exist as, I would think religious factions would be crucial story movers.. but you ask "why would someone worship the god of death? or the god of suffering? what are their motivations? I would guess fear.. which drives a lot of evil acts in our real prime material world too... why do we go to war? because we are scared that our neighbors will hit us if we do't hit them... fear is the root of evil, and he justification that evil characters should have to face, that they choose to embrace some dark god because they are too scared to take a moral high ground and look to the light.
That's an interesting way to look deeper into an "evil" character, instead of asking "why are they evil?" (which might be a meaningful question, but it could be too simple, too specific, too vague), ask "what are they afraid of?" and maybe "why?" But, if you're devoting that much time to explaining how the gods are real in D&D, I don't think you're carrying forward your analysis of ontology. Are the gods real? Or, to return to Plato's cave, are they the shadows cast by a greater reality that exists beyond your ability to perceive it? Most D&D characters don't see their gods walking around or even converse with them, ever, but they perceive and experience the effects of their "realness" in divine magic. Are those effects the "cast shadows" of the gods they've heard stories about, and people have constructed religious and cultural practices around those effects, alone? If the gods do walk around and talk to people, are _they_ real, or themselves merely a symptom of a condition farther beyond people's perceptions? What is real? It's not that there's an answer. It's that there's value in the question.
4:33 Epistomological Dilemma: What you know, what you don't know, what you can know.
7:39 Metaphysics: How did it come to be? What is it?
10:20 Question of Ethics: What should I do?
14:25 Existentialism: Why am I here?
17:42 Ontology: What is actual?
"Why didn't 'nothing' ever happen? It seems much more energy-efficient!" - freakin brilliant right there lol....
Christopher Jacob to that, my science teacher would answer a quite eye openning answer. and its quite easy to answer at it... he'd say... things aren't created, they can only change. if nothing would ever happen, then nothing would be changing, and nothing would be evolving. as such... just like a boat. we need change to go forward. this is why nothing will never happen.
Laughed so hard!
+Christopher Jacob (CHDesign) As far as it is currently known in astrophysics, the universe has zero net energy. Can't get more efficient than that.
Here is AN answer to this question: ruclips.net/video/-EilZ4VY5Vs/видео.html
Best. D&D. Channel. Ever.
This is one of your most underrated videos.
"You can constantly use that epistemological currency to pay your players for daring." Aaaaaand that's when I subscribed.
You have literally made me cry because of the deepness of your words. Thank you. Thank you! This is SO important. Peace and love to you dude.
Excellent video up to the end. You, sir, are a big 'ol bad ass.
Ha Ha Ha!!! The ending! Beautifully done!!!
Best video on DMing ever, easily.
I just finally saw this gem of an episode. Amazing job tying in philosophy to d&d.
This video IS completely awesome. When I DM I do look around at some of these types of questions, but you went deeper with it that I ever thought.
One of the questions D&D provokes of me is "Is there some higher dimensional being that created me, and is playing me as it's character?" Some of that Micro/Macro Meta-reality kinda stuff. (I think Hindus and Buddhists would say yes, and Taoists would say something about tree bark... :P )
FeyScribe delve. dare.
It is family, friendship, and love that makes a good party and game. Powerful, and flys in the face of people who see DnD as an inherently evil game. Your videos make me want DM more!
Way to find the true value of tabletop roleplaying and expose it like a boss. Right on!
MY GUIDE TO HANKERIN's THINGAMABOB HERE....
0:00 Hello and stuff...
3:35 The Five Timeless Questions...got it...questions...5...also timeless
4:28 1. White paint = Epistemology...What is the limit of knowledge within the game's world...In other words, the can't know blahbideeblah but they can know doobideedoo, and that is so crucial and whatnot to chachiteetoo...because it affects things: you can the reward the players with knowledge for doing badass things...like they go in the tomb of joe the loser and they find out that he was really a winner, but the cool kids spread bad rumors about him and people believed it because they are not nice....
7:41 2. Black paint = Metaphysics...How did the IT-THING come to be? What are these things and how did they come to be and how will they end?...You know the origins of things as the DM (because you made the stuff up!) and as a result you can "use time as a tool" to add to your story...or something
10:25 3. Metallic Gold paint = Ethics...What should I do? What is the right thing to do?...The players are interested in this question...The DM can pose the players ethical questions in the form moral dilemmas that force them to choose between owning it themselves, or making someone else watch out for the sniper, time to pay the pipa...The players hafta think about their characters sense of morality when they make the choice...ME ON EVIL CHARACTERS: We did evil characters when I was in high school in the 80s once, but they were in service to an evil supernatural being known as The Overlord and we hadta do what The Overlord said or risk being fired, or worse...One character sought to awaken The Old Ones (Lovecraftian beingsamabobs) and when he had the chance, did so and wound up killing us all...Now that is a moral dilemma that he totally went with at all costs...So it can be done...It being playing evil characters that have to make choices...And it can be more scary than funny if you frame it the right way...And we are all still friends today, except the one who died last year and I cry about it all the time (the one who released The Old Ones)...BACK TO YOU: I like this idea of not relying on alignments -- in fact, I am considering not even using alignments when I grow up and become a DM for 5e...
14:25 4. Avacado Green paint = Existentialism....This is kinda weird, but do it anyway...Why am I here? What is my experience of my surroundings?...You have to jump into the pool and feel the cold, cold and wet water making your skin go tingly tingle and then ask, "Whooooaaaa, what is this that I am in?!!!!" Hence the avocado, because avocados wonder about this kind of thing all the time, symbolized by their green...You need a lot of imagination to pull this off, to think inside the thing and feel it from within and wonder, "WHYYYY GOD???!"...As a player you place yourself in the imaginary world and wonder why you're there and you hafta choose the reason...OR PERRRRRRISSSHHH IN FLAMES!!!!
17:43 5. Foliage Green = Ontology...Only because that's the only paint he has left though, so don;t get too wrapped up about the color...Concerned with extremely weirdtastic stuff like...What is? What really is? What is actual?...Pretty weird, huh? Is there time? Is there matter?...We are epistemologically isolated from the truth because we think in a box that creates a reality that may or may not really be real (or something)...It's like when people get their sense of reality from watching the news or ?something (cartoons have better info, btw)...So why is this important to D&D? Who knows? But "what does it mean to even ask the question"...We are making stuff up here in D&D...As a DM you hafta ask, what really exists here in the world? Is it the world? Is it the rules? Is it the story? Maybe D&D is about story? Are the characters a construct within the story?....And "chance" -- if you don't have chance, as in you roll the dice and maybe you might not make it...or maybe...
Beautiful. First time I've really watched, and I loved it. Thank you! You take the art of this seriously... and I can definitely get behind that.
This video needs far more exposure, it's by far the most enlightening video i've seen to date regardless of d&d
I've never played Dungeons and Dragons, but I've been doing my research since July of this year (reading the free 5e pdf rules and DM guide). I want to make a game that draws in my friends that have also never played it. I've already got a basic outline of how I want the first session to go to see if they take the bait. This video tore open the fabric of reality much like a wonderful acid trip and poured so much into my brain. I know I'm already going to rewatch this many times. I've already watched several videos and you do what many do not and what I mean is, you don't make a hour video explaining something that can be summed up in 10-20 minutes AND you dive into very specific details of how to structure a fun and interesting game. I've been skipping around from different channels (fistful of dice, be a better game master, WASD20 and a few others) on their advice and yours definitely contributes just as much like their videos. Please continue these! Great stuff man! *Raises beer*
+gundamvirus welcome, good luck and thanks for watching!!
As a philosophy pre-grad, this video was AMAZING. loved it.
Dig the ending of the vid.
I love you, man. You people rock! Hankerin' is like some sort of big ol' bad-ass (role playing) warrior-poet, getting all Braveheart and shit.
Thanks for these nuggets of wisdom!
Thanks for this video! It's great to have permission to think deeply about this wonderful pastime
Excellent video and your way of presenting man
I dig that you posted this. I've been thinking about what to do with my channel. The response to this vlog of yours will be instructive.
"We're not just inviting our friends over and drinking beer and talking about our work week."
Inviting your friends over and drinking beer and talking about our work week is itself more than just inviting your friends over and drinking beer and talking about our work week. Metaphysics swim in the beer, too. I know you're feelin' me.
On the evil PC phenomenon: The appeal of the villain was always there for many players, but the DnD team at WotC during the 3E era (Monte Cook, etc.) really pushed it. The introduction of warlocks, tieflings, and the Book of Vile Darkness happened because too many RPG consumers wanted it and the producers were happy to write it.
Fantasy is often appealing to people who spend too much time in their own heads; of whom a large percentage are socially awkward and therefore on the fringes of social groups if not outcast. Not a few of those are bitter and jaded because they notice that success and fame go to the strongest and the swiftest and smartest, but not to the heroic, or the practitioner of ethics in the mundane reality. They love them some Elric. I don't.
Have you seen the fantasy section of your local book store? Lots of torture and unlife and all manner of vicious protagonists. The rot is definitely not limited to DnD.
Hotdog the Barbarian wow
As a philosophy major and a D&D'er I loved this vid
I can listen to this fucking guy all day long and never get bored.
The best video about DMing!! Let's break the chain!!
Oh, man. When you started talking about the pillars of philosophy, I just lit up with a big old grin. Then you got into epistemology and storytelling, my grin grew. I love that. I've likened storytelling to translation, too, in that you have to translate the story in your head, with all that you know about it, into a form that relates to the audience through recognizing what they don't know about the story.
Bezlonir Yep, and as CJ points out below...thsi rabbit hole goes DEEP. How deep and how it informs you as a storyteller, is the essence of the art.
"I need to talk to my peoples" I cried! That sounded so funny!
you sound like the existential questionings of the Whale on "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" as he falls to the ground after he pops into existence. lol
Wow, 8:44 my brain exploded. Well done! Love the videos!
Classic Aristotelian philosophy!! Good talk!
Thanks Hank! This really helped I was struggling with how to stop my games decending into murderhoboism.
If I could give this video 100 Likes, I would. Bravo, from a veteran GM and Philosophy nerd.
Loving the gobble-de-goo slang terminology!
Love me some existentialism! Sweet video, man.
Shit just got real!!! lol Seriously, tho... you continue to blow us away.... totally diggin the vids...
Bro.... Can't help but comment in 2017 on something you did in 2015! So awesome! Just catching up on your stuff! 2.6 craft day tomorrow for me and family! Hahahaha! You will have over a million subs one day! Carry on good sir!
i have to say this video was interesting. i knew it all, but still interesting to see.
another DM once told me, he hand waved certain battles and certain events cause he thought those events started by the players were just going away from his story. to him i answered a simple concept... let it happen and see where it goes. its not like your losing anything by just letting the players do what they want. and so he tryed that and he was mind blown. it openned his gaming eyes and figured how much the players are important to the story. so yeah... let your mind go, let your imagination go wilds, let the futility of life be forever changed in your games. those games are going to be much better then you think.
as for what you said... i dont think the DM job is that hard... i had 2 players do it for the first time in their life... and believe it or not, they both done a great job for something without preparation. so i think the job is not that hard. it is only hard for those trying to "control" everything. they are the ones holding themselves up. just let your mind go wild. let the control go. just try to keep up with the goals you've set out for the players and keep that direction on target. but dont plan everything, if you do your only setting you up for bad plays and time constrants that you do not need to worry about.
one day one DM told me, if you take more then an hour creating your session... you are doing something wrong ! create the skeleton, but leave the fat to the players. adding up to that fat is not your job, it is that of the player. thats, what i think, is the biggest problem of the DMs. they just create a story and the players ends up being only observers.
Ah! The ole Fiend Folio! My favorite monster book.
... its a four.
That was...beautiful.
Deep ---and sober. You gotta end (or not) more of your vids like that, haha
The greatest ending ever.
You see me impressed!
From all Pillars i, personally found no. 3 to be the most important. Man, i was really impressed by the story of the marines and also of what you said at 13:10.
Sadly it seems that it has become more and more socially accepted to be "evil" because everyone seem to think that being good equals to be boring or stupid/naive.
But to me using a "Evil" sollution of a problem, is just lazy and cowardly (both in a grand scale and in personal life. Maybe i'm just old-fashioned).
Really good video, very appreciated.
thanks! I got excited and flubbed my words...those were navy seals in 'lone survivior'
I really want to sit down and have a few beers with you!
Skepticism (particularly that of the physical sciences) has taken dominant sway in our current contemporary society (Karl Popper was one of the most well-known skeptic philosophers). Cartesian metaphysics (including ontological dialectics) and Kantian ethics have also been displaced by what is commonly referred to as the existential and postmodern (or post-postmodern or meta-modern) condition. As Jean-Paul Sartre stated: "Existence precedes essence." That is to say that there is no pre-set meaning to man's existence, but, rather, that meaning is socially constructed by man only after he first comes into being. It is a rather nihilistic outlook on life. It should be noted, however, that the postmodern and meta-modern tradition (particularly that of deconstructionism) have based their ideas heavily on those of the existentialists. Looks like you need a sixth bottle of paint for that subject, good sir. ^_^ Great video as always and keep up the good work!
P.S. At the 21 minute mark, you talk about story (i.e., literature). According to Georges Bataille, literature is innately evil in the sense that an author must create a conflict for their characters to overcome so as to (1) develop the personality traits of said characters and to (2) and keep the story from becoming too boring (i.e., a story cannot exist without an author creating some kind of conflict, whether it be man versus man, man versus supernatural, etc.). In other words, what stories do is that they disrupt peaceful settings with oppressive forms of power that must be overcome (very Nietzschian indeed). Stories in themselves are power structures (i.e., those things that are non-peaceful). The crazy thing about stories in our current society is that people mimic the lives of those told in tales and aspire to become heroes themselves. In other words, in the Foucauldian sense, they propagate the ideal of power. In a social sense, this is considered to be problematic because it keeps people striving for power continuously rather than abandoning it for a more peaceful existence.
As far as a game of D&D goes, peace cannot prevail until the very end of a campaign. For as soon as peace prevails, the story ends. As long as conflict occurs, however, the game (whether it be a game of D&D or some other game set by society) can continue. In the reality of society, however, peaceful people usually sideline themselves from engaging in petty power struggles with other people (i.e., people who are trying to constantly impress others as if they have something to prove, showing off the objects that they own or the things they possess). Peaceful people are generally those who outright refuse to play the game, usually becoming deviants or social outcasts in the ideologically-driven eyes of their power-driven social system. In my experience, peaceful people like that usually content themselves (ironically enough) with playing fantasy games like D&D for fun. ^_^
***** That is some good shit
Great post
+C.J. Cala "Skepticism (particularly that of the physical sciences) has taken dominant sway in our current contemporary society"
Come on, this is not true in academia or even society as a whole. Your PS is good times though.
+C.J. Cala kantian ethics are heavily embedded in every socio-political soundbite you hear. i have no idea why you think it's influence has waned. poor people, are they lazy work-shy leeches or vulnerable victims forced into a materially amoral lifestyle? your answer has a lot to do with your intuitive interpretation of kant's imperatives. without kant's ethical dominance, existentialism ceases to be a fruitful inquiry.
I just wanted to through in The Dark Tower series in for using time as a story telling mechanic. One of my favorite stories!
Trollocs First book: awesome
Man this is a good video. I know you've got the kickstarter going, it's the new year, things are busy, but post a follow up to this. You spent about 3 or 4 minutes on each topic, of course a topic like Metaphysics or Ethics can't be covered in that time - let us in on what you've been thinking about recently.
Fiend Folio!!
7:00 or so: I don't know the twists. I often leave things blank on purpose so I, as the DM, can be surprised. I use random tables and give my players plot twist cards (by Paizo) and Action Cards (for Savage Worlds) they can use to create twists and turns in the story. I often only know the motivations of the antagonists and why they can't have what they want, and what they are willing to do to get it - and sometimes what resources they have available.
13:00 Considering the soldiers were invaders in a foreign country, the real drama for rpgs is where good-meaning characters are part of a system that produces "evil". Works the other way around too.
"Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."
- Conan in Queen of the Black Coast
Great subject matter!!
Loved this one.
I thought lone survivor was based on a SEAL team mission
yep. in my earlier videos the number of verbal blunders is terrible! this one is the worst tho. the camera does weird things to your brain
Lone survivor wasn't marines. It was navy seals
Back to Microbiology, where you can put a very small amount of a liquid on a plastic dish with some soy broth and then go home, hoping it might grow/kill enough of the right kind of thing to do what you want it to do.
+Stratplayer05 whoah
this is deep
13:15 so true, even in real life!
As a DM I love to see my players struggle,make them sweat,play with there emotions and make them work for there achievements. I'll will make situations for them that forces them to use special items I give them. I'll even kill player charachters on purpose but I will always leave a way out of there condition or there intended death if they find the answer.Ill some times use npc saves to prevent a total party kill but at a price. I do these things to challenge my players and push there players skills as far as I can. Do you think this is pretty brutal for a DM to do? I guess I enjoy messing with my players to some degree.
Lone Survivor took place in Afghanistan.
Sorry, had to be that guy.
I flubbed that recap so bad!
Just fucking with you man. The video was fantastic.
Poetic.
Noooooo!! Not a 4!!!!
I think I got lost in the big words. What's the dumbed down lesson?
OnyxZephyr333 think deep.
Always consider every source for inspiration?
Or was that the answer and not a hint?
lol
Er those were SEALs not Marines..
What do your arms say (Faubauiz Tuatia?!?).
I recently found this channel and have been delving into your past episodes. But damn, looks like I should have worn a helmet because you blew my mind with this one. This gets to the heart of murder-hoboism, and why it doesn't work and feels lame. Good stories involve moral choices, that draw us in. I stopped watching Lame of Groans, because I am tired of watching bad people make worse decisions.
Any chance of setting up a Patreon to make it easy for folks to give you cash in exchange for badass wisdom.
+michael kotschi Thanks for watching, and welcome! I've had several inquiries about Patreon, just need to get off my craft table and look into it. For now, there's always that silly tip jar. "murder-hoboism" lol
Tapapachow!
Uma pena que só da pra dar like uma vez
They were navy seals. but its k still loved this video
Marines?
where?!
My g said spacebook
Lol
Wow, what a headache I got now. All dem big words and hard concepts makes my brain hurt. Do ya suppose Gygax and Arneson struggled with these thoughts? Me? I jus' wanna pretend Ima damned good warrior type that chops up bad monsters with my big blade, make a few sheckels while I'm doing it so's I can drink some drinks and have fun with the ladies back in town on the week-ends, ya dig?
Who knows? Like what yer doing, but I don't see no liquid refreshment to hand--you tee-totaling these days or what? Remember...talking's thirsty work so's ya gotta stay hydrated!
13thBear I gots excited. Drank before. STRENGTH and FURY.
Ontology in a nutshell, for anybody who wants to do this suggested research, is summed up in Plato's work "the allegory of the cave"... which essentially says that there is a reality, and there is what we can see as shadows of that reality, glimpses of it... or in layman's terms, "There is what is, and there is what we'd like it to be, and all that we can see is the second one"... from this I extrapolate things such as faith, which is a very real thing in a D&D world, and in this one. To some people, Jesus is a "reality" in their lives because they believe he is due to some need for a comfort that things get better when they die , or their actions are justified because "Allah commanded it" kind of thinking.. now in a world where Gods are real, and many, and multifaceted pantheons of deities have real world visible influence, rather than just "well there is no proof but I CHOOSE to believe in a higher power of one sort or another" as in our actual world, characters in a fantasy setting don't get that choice. The gods EXIST in an actual sense, hence clerics can perform miraculous magic - there is no choice. This is why I defend the very heavy presence of various cults as a strong (and very motivating) factor in a story. You better listen to the cleric because that god is REAL here, not a question of whether or not you believe it, DIONYSUS THE GOD OF WINE AND DRUNKEN DEBAUCHERY IS REAL, heck he even has a stat line in Deities and Demigods if you want to doubt him, take it up with him (if he bothers to listen to your drunk asses). In a "world" such as we imagine D&D to exist as, I would think religious factions would be crucial story movers.. but you ask "why would someone worship the god of death? or the god of suffering? what are their motivations? I would guess fear.. which drives a lot of evil acts in our real prime material world too... why do we go to war? because we are scared that our neighbors will hit us if we do't hit them... fear is the root of evil, and he justification that evil characters should have to face, that they choose to embrace some dark god because they are too scared to take a moral high ground and look to the light.
That's an interesting way to look deeper into an "evil" character, instead of asking "why are they evil?" (which might be a meaningful question, but it could be too simple, too specific, too vague), ask "what are they afraid of?" and maybe "why?"
But, if you're devoting that much time to explaining how the gods are real in D&D, I don't think you're carrying forward your analysis of ontology. Are the gods real? Or, to return to Plato's cave, are they the shadows cast by a greater reality that exists beyond your ability to perceive it? Most D&D characters don't see their gods walking around or even converse with them, ever, but they perceive and experience the effects of their "realness" in divine magic. Are those effects the "cast shadows" of the gods they've heard stories about, and people have constructed religious and cultural practices around those effects, alone? If the gods do walk around and talk to people, are _they_ real, or themselves merely a symptom of a condition farther beyond people's perceptions?
What is real? It's not that there's an answer. It's that there's value in the question.
Are you a coder per chance??? Talking monads and ontology! Great talk!
nope..a philosopher!
Lost me at "Bigoted" at 14:30.
?