I'm getting old, anons. Time is short. My time left is short. I have good friends, staple friends to roll dice with. Occasionally I invite guest players. I enjoy detecting players with low "roleplaying IQ". For instance:
> The player that cannot actually engage with theater of the mind combat and must have a battle map before they can no longer track more than two other moving pieces at the same time.
>The opinion that "all that matters is fun" as though things like mechanical consistency, tone, plausibility, and immersion aren't reasonably important goals. Yes, fun is important, but "fun is the only thing that matters" is the shade that retards bask under.
>Anyone talking about dimension 20. Most CR fans. You're immediately under scrutiny and the probability of midwittery is >90%
>Anyone who needs more than two sessions to remember their rules
>Folks that handwave immersive elements of games to "fast forward to action"
>Players that cannot read the room or match a tone and must constantly interject with Marvel-tier humor.

>inb4 people who post on /tg/ and use the word "midwittery"

I share these to help caution my fellow roleplayers to identify and weed out the midwit. If these points bother you... well... I have terrible news.

>>95867551 (OP)
>>inb4 people who post on /tg/ and use the word "midwittery"

If you know people are going to call you out for speaking like an idiot, and choose to speak like one anyways then you truly are a moron. And you're most certainly not old.

>>95867551 (OP)
Define "midwittery", OP

>"low IQ"
>midwit
You don't even know what "mid" means.

>>95867551 (OP)
Where does this uppity attitude among rpg players come from? It's just a game.

>>95867551 (OP)
On one hand, I agree with you pretty much completely. Those are all shit traits (exception dimension 20, never heard of that) and a player who can't read the room or a GM who doesn't bother to consider consistency and immersion in his game is not someone I want to play with. Acknowledging the importance of those factors is promising for the quality of the games you run.

On the other hand, how is this not just a "post your red flags" thread?

>>95867551 (OP)
Theatre of the mind in D&D and it's derivatives is just tiring and cumbersome. It's like having to a pirouette every step that's a prime number. I can do it, but I really really don't want to.

>>95868166
Tabletop roleplaying games and other nerd hobbies typically filter out the truly dumb, and the general social circles of smart people typically also filter out the truly dumb. You get people who are socially retarded sometimes, but they can at least wrap their heads around game rules.

If you're accustomed to being surrounded by smart people to the point where you think of yourself as average intelligence, the closest thing you're going to get to a dumb person is someone who's straight average or juuuust slightly above average (but thinks of themselves as smart because they spend too much time around dumb or average people).

It's jarring and annoying when you realize that someone who up until this point was capable of stringing sentences together has failed at what to you is a basic cognitive task, especially when there's some sort of collective endeavor going on;
>"oh, great, now everything's going to go at the pace of the slowest person in the group. This is school all over again."

There's also a contingent of people of completely average intelligence who think of themselves as intellectuals because of the cultural context they became adults in; most-college-educated generation, people imbibed political propaganda disguised as thinkpieces. Really they're just baseline conformists who conformed to being a smug pseudointellectual, as was the style of the time; all the external trappings of a smart person, but without the ability to think independently.

This was also the era of "Thing everyone thinks good actually bad because complicated reasons, trust me" articles, and the rise of social science using Big Data to justify political goals, when all those studies later failed to replicate. A whole generation got used to being epistemically helpless and to regurgitate articles and factoids and IFuckingLoveScience memes.

This is my defense of the "Midwit" concept. It's still over-used

>>95867551 (OP)
>Anyone who needs more than two sessions to remember their rules
Depends on how frequent the sessions are. If it's every week, sure. If it's every two, I'd give a little more time. At every three? As long as it takes no more than a bit of nudging at the beginning of a session, I'll give a lot of leeway.

>>95868237
>Where does this uppity attitude among rpg players come from? It's just a game.
A lot of RPGers don't have much else going on, so they need to get their sense of superiority from whereveer they can geet it. Also cute cat.

>>95870784
NTA, but this makes sense.
A dumb RPGamer is a midwit because people dumber than him wouldn't play in the first place.

>>95868114
>>95868126
>>95868354
>>95874071
midwits
>>95868166
>>95868340
>>95870784
highbrows

>>95867551 (OP)
Just stop playing 5e and with Americans. It's that easy.

>>95874990
It’s wrong to ask for OP to define a term that he made up now?

>>95867551 (OP)
I have terrible news OP...
You can't even comprehend that indeed - "All that matters is fun"! We just differ and understand fun differently…
That's for "Six Culture of Play" have been defined. So we can all find our Tribe.
I cross my fingers for You! It's never too late to learn, even if You're old, burned-out narcist!

>>95868166
He said low roleplaying IQ, not low general IQ

>>95876329
They're the same thing, multiple intelligence theories are brainlet cope

>>95867551 (OP)
>OP exposes himself as a gameless faggot that no group can stand
More news at 11

>>95868237
>implying OP plays anything else than with his organ
Reminder that people who cry about the need of gatekeeping are the ones that the gate kept away

>>95867551 (OP)
>play crunchy system with big scary book
>filters out 90% of midwits
>can still run it lite RAR with your nerd friends

If you want to avoid drunkards and dummies never play rulings systems, the 'I don't have to read?! Awesome!' only appeals to the worst sorts of players

>>95868114
He is, nobody under the age of thirty uses elipses like that

>>95875084
It's retard abuse anon

>>95867551 (OP)
by definition isn't "midwittery" the default?
why would you need a special detector for something that's already the most likely outcome?

>>95879430
RPGs require sentience, something the average human does not have.

>>95879740
t. A take that's acceptable for a 14 year old to have, but deeply embarrassing to express as an adult.

>>95879790
Yeah, anyone who's grown out of that holier than thou mindset would agree that absolutely no one is sentient, no matter their age

>>95879176
I get OP is a retard, but I don't buy that as an excuse for being a pretentious twat

>>95879790
How would you feel if you hadn't eaten breakfast yesterday?

>>95885994
The cat's out of the bag with this question, Anon. It was eye opening when it was first making the rounds, but people are wise to it now. Bare minimum, shelve it for 5 years.

>>95867551 (OP)

>Spouting trivia factoids from Reddit like water bears, the weird descriptions of angels from Ezekiel, trauma Tetris etc to feel like they've mastered subjects they haven't bothered studied.
>Rebellious toddlery, eg if the world is dead magic low fantasy they want to be the last sorceror or whatever
>Claims to love history but only cares about Romans and/or WWII.
>Weaponizes therapyspeak by tossing around terms like gaslighting, narcissist etc.
>Aggressively anti-religion. Shows poor emotional IQ. My favorite players have been Catholics, Mormons, and Muslims and any kind of That Guy causing trouble with hygiene, creepiness, cheating etc is invariably an atheist.
>Wants to work in more "realism", esp if they've made their own game with gory critical hit charts and rules for stuff like social class.

>>95868166

I assume OP means the low end of gamer IQ and therefore a midwit among the general population. Low-IQ normies don't play TTRPGs to begin with. They just watch Tik Toks all day and deliver slop for DoorDash.

>>95886810
>Low-IQ normies don't play TTRPGs to begin with.
I'm a low-IQ normie and TTRPGs are my single favorite pastime.
Also, your list describes half of my LGS and makes me very grateful for the group I have.

Mostly agree with everything said here. I would add the following
>Uses digital character sheets instead of paper. Or worse, refuses to or does not know how to use paper sheets at all
>Constantly looking at digital devices during games

>>95886810
Pretty good list, if followed you'd exclude most terrible players.

>>95887392
So do you ban calculators too?

>>95879864
It is, ironically, a highly midwit thing to think there are two clases of people, idiots and "sentient" people. When you're actually high intelligence and capable of introspection, you know it's retarded animal-people all the way down, yourself included.

>>95887417
Why would you need a calculator for a ttrpg? They all have extremely simple math. It's never even come up.

>>95879430
Midwittery is specificially distinctly average or slightly above average people who percieve themselves as learned and above others due to such mighty intellectual feats as having a youtube video level understanding of geopolitics, being able to memorize and use a set of up-to-date jargon slightly incorrectly, or being able to critically think hard enough to counter most strawmen of their own constuction.

An average person who is self aware is not a midwit.

>>95887469
Nobody is a midwit because that's not a word and anyone who tries to use it is an illiterate retard.

>>95867551 (OP)
What the fuck is dimension 20?

Also, I play real games like RIFTS & Rollmaster. No one remembers the rules on a lot of this shit so we have books we can easily look up charts & such

Also, "theater of the mind" only works in kiddie narrativist games, we got a burster flying in the air, a Glitterboy half a mile away, a rogue scholar trying to sneak in a building, a Juicer all over the place on any given turn he might as well be a speedster, & a small army of robots being sent to clean up the scraps. All of these characters are in combat & in range to shoot everyone else too. So it's not like I'm gonna split the party. I need a map of the grounds to easily represent all the information, it's not like their MHUD isn't gonna show them something similar anyway

>>95867551 (OP)
I'll just quickly go point by point here
>theatre of the mind
I love it as a concept but it's a double edged sword, how far removed does a game need to be from sitting in a circle and daydreaming to be a real game? I also wonder how you are finding people dumb enough to not have a visual imagination
>all that matters is fun
Here you list other things that also matter and I'd suggest they matter because without them the game is less fun, following my previous point about these games needing a sense of structure to be games
>d20 and CR
This is true, it's just tumblr at that point
>remembering rules
The memorisation can be done before the first session, basic courtesy to ask for reminders beforehand if you forget
>fast-forwarding
Again, if you want to do this it's not even a game anymore
>Marvel-humour
That's probably the D20/CR thing again
>inb4 people who post on /tg/ and use the word midwittery
Well, have you seen some of the generals on this board? Maybe not stupid, but certainly not well adjusted or emotionally mature.

>>95888387
>real games like RIFTS & Rollmaster
lol

>>95879740
>the average is retarded
Globally perhaps, but a remnant remains. Don't lump us in with jeets and niggers you filthy beggar.

>>95887469
So essentially this whole thread is just midwits who think they're not midwits? Great shit.

>>95890488
Many, many such cases. It's always the self-assured ones. If we're being honest, if you have time to devote to posting on this board you are probably ordinary at best. Nothing wrong with that, just don't delude yourself into thinking you're better than others.

>>95867551 (OP)
I'd add excessive merchandising and consumerism to this. It's always the guys who spend hundreds on things like DnD while complaining society isn't fair.

Constatntly having to mention political views is also very telling. I despise a lot of developments but I think there are better places to voice these concerns than at a table with friends.

>OP is such a nogames asshole for implying that midwittery is a thing
>Thread proceeds rife with examples of how midwittery does, in fact, plague our hobby

Lol. LMAO, even.

>>95890333
>how far removed does a game need to be from sitting in a circle and daydreaming to be a real game?
The answer is if there are established rules to render the imagination non-arbitrary. You'd be surprised at how few people can actually keep track of three moving imaginary objects at once. Don't worry, I weed out those who cannot.
> I'd suggest they matter because without them the game is less fun
Some people like such loosely defined "narrative" rules as to facilitate them doing anything they please. I would say these people are morons.
>Maybe not stupid, but certainly not well adjusted or emotionally mature.
You're probably right.

Pic unrelated. I just like this pic. This was a satisfying reply to read.

>>95867551 (OP)
>Talks about wanting complexity and immersive elements
>Lacks the creative capacity to put in effort to effectively map things and perform traditional hobby aspects like building custom terrain or models
>Complains about Dimension 20 and CR
>Posts art of the D&D setting (and author's barely hidden footfaggotry) that birthed the exact style of play D20 and CR are known for
>Complains about midwits
I have terrible news, OP.

>>95893410
I believe a symptom of midwittery is in fact the need to seek perceived intellectual superiority over people they don’t know to make up for their own lack of self-worth

>>95867551 (OP)
>>inb4 people who post on /tg/ and use the word "midwittery"

>>95887419
>It is, ironically, a highly midwit thing to think there are two clases of people, idiots and "sentient" people. When you're actually high intelligence and capable of introspection, you know it's retarded animal-people all the way down, yourself included.
Yep, reject civilization, sleep in barrel!

>>95870784
You don't sound fun at parties

>>95893950
Sorry anon you're no better than the homeless bum. I hope that thought doesn't keep you up at night.

>>95893950
Worked for Diogenes.

>>95867551 (OP)
>midwit
a term coined by an alt right figure. Anyone that uses this term is an imbecile.

>>95893793
the term was literally coined by an idiotic alt right figure, that would get mad at people questioning his intelligence.
So he made up a term to call everyone he thinks is dumber than himself.

>>95867551 (OP)
Fun is the only thing that matters -
> mechanical consistency, tone, plausibility, and immersion, etc.
These only are priorities insofar as they contribute to the fun being had

>>95894993
That explains why this thread felt like exceptionally lame bait

>>95870784
>a smug pseudointellectual
God, playing with a group of neil degrasse tysons would be absolute hell

>>95886810
> Claims to love history but only cares about Romans and/or WWII.
I would expand that to a more general statement about people who only care about their self-identified ethnicity’s history (it doesn’t actually have to match what they really are). The Rome/WW2 stuff tends to come from people who are very invested in being “White”, but you see similar behaviour in all ethnicities. African-American, Indian, Persian, Chinese - it’s much more broad.
> Weaponizes therapyspeak by tossing around terms like gaslighting, narcissist etc.
If you’re routinely being accused of gaslighting or narcissism by varied individuals, it’s most-likely your fault.

>>95887417
Bro...

>>95894978
>>95894993
AIIIIIIIIEEEEE NOT THE ALT RIGHT
*HIDES UNDER BED*

You gotta grow up :(

>>95867551 (OP)
Is CR really that bad? I've never seen an episode.

>>95902026
Between the Community episode where they played D&D and the Big Bang Theory episode of them playing D&D.

>>95902175
The roleplaying segment on the Harmontown podcast from 2012 is the poisonous bog from when all of this flowed. Can blame it for the influx of hipsters into RPGs.