Someone explain the appeal of Old Man Henderson?

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:00 pm

Apparently he's the coolest thing to hit the traditional gaming space since Pun-Pun, but frankly I don't see what's so awesome about the character. The character frankly feels like the logical culmination of FrankTrollman's Grognard Demands comment.

The neckbeards have a relatively simply platform:

No High Level Adventures! If something can't be done by a human with a lever, they don't want it to be something that can be done.

Always Succeed! Conversely, if something could even theoretically be accomplished by a man with a lever in the right place at the right time, they want to succeed at doing that. If they announce that they are going to "the mountains" to "find Osama Bin Laden's cave", they expect to succeed. Hell, their actual example was that they would tell the DM to shove it and walk away from the table if the DM expressed incredulity over basically exactly that action.

No Rules! This actually flows from the first two points. They view rules of any kind with suspicion, because any ability that had any rules text at all could only allow them to succeed at tasks beyond normal people with sticks or disallow them from succeeding at tasks that are theoretically within the realm of normal people with sticks.
Now, you might notice that that is basically the 4rry argument for why skill challenge rules don't need to work. And well, yes it is. There is a lot more overlap between the OSR and the 4e crowds than either would like to admit. That is also why both groups are fringes of the hobby compared to the 3e players.

Mask_De_H · Post by **Mask_De_H** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:05 pm

Lago, sometimes I wonder if you're actually autistic.

The Old Man Henderson story is a famous recounting of a shitty campaign turning into a farce. Old Man Henderson the character is mechanically meaningless.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:07 pm

It's a novel form of character optimization wherein your character's background is something you can optimize. People like it because it's new.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:18 pm

Mask_De_H wrote:Lago, sometimes I wonder if you're actually autistic.

The Old Man Henderson story is a famous recounting of a shitty campaign turning into a farce. Old Man Henderson the character is mechanically meaningless.

The idea has morphed well beyond the implications of the original story at this point. Old Man Henderson doesn't just stand for 'funny Knights of the Dinner Table-ish story', it stands for 'derailing the campaign in a specific way that conforms to the prejudices of certain people'.

Post by **fbmf** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:01 am

Can the uninitiated get a link to the source material?

Game On,
fbmf

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:09 am

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Old_Man_Henderson

Post by **fbmf** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:35 am

Okay, I've now read the original story, and I have to ask...

Lago PARANOIA wrote: it stands for 'derailing the campaign in a specific way that conforms to the prejudices of certain people'.

...how so?

Game On,
fbmf

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:56 am

It paints the GM as the "fat neckbeard grognard who kills peoples' characters for petty reasons" and Henderson's player as the... well, his player is basically House if he played CoC, with everything that entails, plus a flimsy justification for creating a character specifically to tear down the game around himself.

As to the appeal, well, there's a reason why House is so popular, and the OMH story pulls the same protagonist archetype. Nerds always think they're the poor smartguy who must suffer fools, so they identify with the player of OMH. Beyond that, while the character is highly disruptive, and the player cops to straight up cheating (revising the backstory as needed), it's an entertaining story.

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:03 am

He's cool, he's capable of doing anything. Players like being cool and doing whatever they want.

Man this isn't even hard.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:42 am

Also, resolving ancient eldritch horror problems via liberal application of explosives has an appeal that transcends cultures. And a guy going around battling cults while ranting incoherently about lawn-gnome theft is just straight-up hilarious.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:51 am

Yeah, I gotta vote for hilarity here. It doesn't speak to any power fantasies--or revenge fantasies--for me. It just makes me laugh.

MisterDee · Post by **MisterDee** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:58 am

Personally, I don't care about the OMH meta-narrative - that is, the poor player saddled with a shitty DM. Anyone who acts like OMH's player instead of just not showing up for games anymore is a dickbag with way too much time on his hand.

I like the idea of the fish-out-of-water, retarded moron solving actual Cthulhupunk settings with explosives. As in, I would actually run the OMH campaign unironically if my players could come up with that sort of hijinks. Cthulhupunk just generally deserves that send up.

Dean · Post by **Dean** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:05 am

I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees this but I feel a need to say it: It is obvious that this never actually happened and is a fictional story. That doesn't make it not valid as a funny story but if anyone thinks this actually happened it's really clear that it didn't.

No DM would be able to be so incompetent to have the negative characteristics he's described with and ALSO let that one player consistently get away with things that would require deep bending of the rules in the players favor. That DM would need to be desperately in love with that player and unless there is a prequel Old Man Henderson story composed entirely of that player downing huge quantities of DM cock then it's impossible.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:27 am

"This one time, we blew some stuff up in Call of Cthulhu" is not much of a story.

TheFlatline · Post by **TheFlatline** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:01 am

Yeah it's an obviously fictional story. But it's still pretty well written and fucking hilarious.

It's also an example of breaking the game from within the game's rule parameters. In theory Old Man Henderson is totally a legit character, and yet at the same time is so obviously satire and counter to the themes of CoC that it manages to...

fuck it you know what? It's funny. That's why we like it. It's funny.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:17 am

Lago PARANOIA wrote:Apparently he's the coolest thing to hit the traditional gaming space since Pun-Pun, but frankly I don't see what's so awesome about the character.

The GM is the villain of the series, he is set up as an uptight neckbeard while the protagonist is the laid back dude whose had enough and will push back with his own prankster brand of justice. His other party members are squares who can't think outside of the box.

It's a "Slob vs Snob" setup, like this Onion article explains:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/snobs- ... club,1092/

The elite Bushcrest Country Club was turned upside-down yesterday, as a throng of unkempt, drunken slobs descended upon the normally reserved social institution, terrorizing its uptight member snobs and stirring up all sorts of general mayhem.

The Bushcrest Country Club was turned upside-down yesterday when a group of rowdy slobs invaded, diving into pools, overturning tables and wearing loud, tacky shirts. According to witnesses, the outraged reactions of stuffy club members made the riff-raff-induced mayhem all the more uproarious.

Refusing to adhere to club dress codes, membership restrictions and mandates of behavioral decorum, the slobs, many of them fun-loving, irrepressible free spirits from the club's golf course service staff, stood up to the boring, repressed snobs by overturning tea services, diving into the club pool and using sexually suggestive language in the presence of Bushcrest's stern, elderly matriarchs.

Though the country club's blustering snobs were shocked and dismayed at the lowbrow state of affairs, witnesses report that their ineffective red-faced fuming only heightened the riotousness of the disruptions, as their expressions of outrage functioned as a sharp foil to the slobs' shameless misbehavior.

"Why, in my day, such impropriety would have never been allowed here at Bushcrest," said Judge Ted Bishop, considered by many to be the worst of the snobs. "Young man! Get down from there immediately and buff these shoes with a fine chamois!"

When his demands were not met by the unruly servants, Bishop threw his yachting hat on the ground, clenched his teeth and said, "Oooooo!"

Though details are still sketchy, according to reports, the slobs are a bunch of crazy kids who just want to have a good time and are sick of always getting hassled by club members and guests. And, surprisingly, despite the slobs' wild behavior, some of the club's wealthier patrons have chosen to ally themselves with the slobs.

Of the club's slob sympathizers, the most notable may be google-eyed billionaire Rodger Dandenrude, who yesterday cranked up the volume near the seventh hole with a cry of, "C'mon, you stiffs—let's dance!" and proceeded to "boogie down" to the smash hit "Any Way You Want It" by popular rock band Journey. He was reportedly wearing a loud, tacky shirt at the time.

"Why, that young man over there said the word 'balls'!" club member Eunice Stuffingsdale, 82, said, pointing toward a shirtless youth who had used the word in reference to golf but had also deliberately made an irreverent double-entendre. "All I could do was stand there huffing and puffing, unable to speak for the sheer shock of such adolescent, indecorous language."

Stuffingsdale's thrusting, accusatory pointing underscored her own uptight authoritarian stance, making her appear all the more buffoonish.

"There's no denying that these shenanigans have turned Bushcrest Country Club upside-down and inside-out," club spokesperson Walthrop C. McBain said. "Why, these slobs strode right into the pool area as if they owned it."

Shortly after entering the pool, McBain recounted, the slobs began splashing inappropriately and engaging in horseplay. When an on-duty lifeguard attempted to reassert control, the slobs gathered behind him and toppled his big chair right into the pool with a loud crash. "I find myself infuriated by such brazen cheek," McBain said.

Despite their obviously crude exterior, the slobs seem to possess a strong sense of pride. "Just because we're not a bunch of stiff-lipped upper-crust snooties doesn't mean we can be pushed around," said Michael O'Keene, a part-time club caddy and self-described serious partier. "There was a time when I kissed up to these snobs in the hopes of receiving the club's special caddy scholarship. But in the end, I learned I had to be true to my heart. No matter how stuffy and authoritarian the setting, the snobs cannot keep us down."

Though first believed to be an isolated event, yesterday's snob-slob showdown is actually not the only such incident to occur recently. According to police, similarly heated confrontations between slobs and snobs have been reported at summer camps, army training bases, homecoming float parades, college cafeterias and whitewater rafting races throughout the nation.

"Our latest batch of crazy cadets is driving me positively loony with their incessant pranks!" said Commander Lassard of the Police Academy, just one of the nation's many organizations to experience a significant rise in zany shenanigans recently. "Those no-good bumbling morons will never get it together in time to graduate! ...Or will they?"

It's very likely a fictional story anyways. For me my favorite "RPG transcript" is still the one where Cleric pees on Monk, and Monk quits forever, that's some greek tragedy right there.

Dean · Post by **Dean** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:37 am

That onion article is raw class.

Sakuya Izayoi · Post by **Sakuya Izayoi** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:43 am

Most importantly, he had a 320 page backstory that justified EVERYTHING, from his casual knowledge of physics to his ability to speak Portuguese flawlessly.
You can just imagine the sort of Shenanigans that character was involved in.

The point to having such a long backstory was three-fold.

1. to ensure the GM would never actually read it and
2. Since he would never read it except for in excerpts I pointed out to justify things, I could re-write and change things around completely at random without anyone noticing and MOST IMPORTANTLY
3. Convince everyone that I was serious about this character, and that it wasn't simply the game wrecking bullshit that it was.

Having played several games of Rogue Trader, I can verify that this is a pro-tier strategy for the play style that tends to emerge in % rollunder games.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:29 am

TheFlatline wrote:It's also an example of breaking the game from within the game's rule parameters.
[..]
fuck it you know what? It's funny.

I don't get it. It's like I'm reading a different set of stories.

Story #1: "This one time at band camp, our GM let my character buy fancy guns and I shot a bunch of bad guys!" Verdict: Not breaking the game. Not particularly funny.

Story #2: "This other time at band camp, our GM let my character get some fancy explosives and I blew up a bunch of bad guys!" Verdict: Not breaking the game. Not especially funny.

Story #3: "This other other time at band camp, our GM let my character get a fancy helicopter and I killed a bunch of bad guys!" Verdict: Not breaking the game. Not really funny.

Story #4: "This other other other time at band camp, our GM let my character get some fancy explosives and I blew up a bunch of bad guys!" Verdict: See Story #2.

Maybe it's funnier if you've never played hack-'n'-slash Call of Cthulhu before (or hack-'n'-slash Traveller, or hack-'n'-slash Star Frontiers, or hack-'n'-slash [your RPG name here], etc.).

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:10 pm

Yeah there is a lot of implied co-operation from the GM in the story that the story tellers don't seem to entirely grasp/intend.

The thing that amazes me about the story though is that they tell it as if its a total revolutionary first for Cthulhu and RPGs in general for someone to play a crazy guy who shoots everything, pretty much murders his allies and anyone else he comes in contact with, sets fire to everything and explodes things up to and including gods.

I was pretty sure that was standard fare if not basically how Cthulhu is pretty much intended to be played. Scooby doo with guns, explosions, and gleeful insanity is pretty much the only way to productively play it anyway.

But I guess if you were a sucker who never played a fun game of Cthulhu and bought into the more extreme hard core wank about it being an exercise in despair, powerlessness and inevitable defeat on all fronts it might seem pretty revolutionary. It's just totally oblivious to the fact that in Scooby Cthulhu pretty much everything Old Man Henderson does is standard playbook tactics as soon as the actual cultists/monsters are actually located.

PS And if anything the whole thing where he, constantly, brutally and needlessly, murders his allies all the time because he is such a "cool in character eccentric who role plays not roll plays!" if anything detracts from the fun of the story and almost certainly of the actual games (if real) as described.

Desdan_Mervolam · Post by **Desdan_Mervolam** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:16 pm

Hey, if everyone's down for it, sounds like fun.

I had gotten the impression that you were supposed to play CoC like characters in the books, people with more curiosity than is deemed healthy, and a profound lack of understanding of what you're up against. Like, you're supposed to lose, it's one of those "It's the journey"games where creating an interesting story to tell everyone at the store next time you go pick up your pullbox was more important than actually saving the world.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:20 pm

Most people I've spoken to/heard describe CoC games seem to think the point is to see who dies/goes crazy in the coolest way. Whoever lives longest loses, that sort of thing. Now, clearly the group wasn't all on board for that exact style of play, going by the player who got pissed because he would be "winning" if that were the case, but it seems to be prevalent playstyle for CoC. Maybe it's different for games not intended as a oneshot, though.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:44 pm

PhoneLobster wrote: The thing that amazes me about the story though is that they tell it as if its a total revolutionary first for Cthulhu and RPGs in general for someone to play a crazy guy who shoots everything, pretty much murders his allies and anyone else he comes in contact with, sets fire to everything and explodes things up to and including gods.

Yeah, I thought it was practically old meme that your CoC min-maxing includes things like being a murderous, illiterate track star.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:57 pm

My CoC min-maxing was just being a librarian cultist with an elephant gun and being too stubborn to run from zombie grizzly bears.

Mask_De_H · Post by **Mask_De_H** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:06 pm

Whipstitch wrote:
PhoneLobster wrote: The thing that amazes me about the story though is that they tell it as if its a total revolutionary first for Cthulhu and RPGs in general for someone to play a crazy guy who shoots everything, pretty much murders his allies and anyone else he comes in contact with, sets fire to everything and explodes things up to and including gods.
Yeah, I thought it was practically old meme that your CoC min-maxing includes things like being a murderous, illiterate track star.

With a fetish for explosives. You can't forget the explosives.

That slobs vs. snobs article is great, Ogre.

The Gaming Den

Someone explain the appeal of Old Man Henderson?

Someone explain the appeal of Old Man Henderson?

Re: Someone explain the appeal of Old Man Henderson?