This week has been full of ups and downs.

We hit the two year anniversary for daily posts here on the site. There’s a lot to do yet, but I’m still here throwing down my daily TTRPG takes and other content. Today I just happened to take a break from TTRPG posts and wanted to put out a lot of little thoughts. That, and I’m wanting to work more on my BRP Design Challenge.

If you follow my blog much, you probably know I have mostly TTRPG YouTube constantly running in the background at home. I consume a shameful amount of content in one day. I probably go through over twenty videos per day, more if they’re short. Once in a great while a video manages to catch my eye enough to warrant reading the comments.

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

The Roll 4 Initiative video from Hell, sort of.

I love Roll 4 Initiative on YouTube. Unfortunately, some people in the TTRPG community do not. Here’s the link that started the downslide of my mental health this week: https://youtu.be/vVCXOyNgyzU?si=tk-3ku2V3axWoxPC BUT! (As one of my favorite non-gaming channels says,) It’s not what you think!

The video titled: Mastering GM Skills: 8 Strategies for Smoother Sessions is excellent. I used to be in theatre, and I relate to Dawn quite a bit in this video. It gives good advice. She’s on point. There’s a laugh here and there.

The damaging part of the video started in the Comments section. This is a common disease on YouTube, but it’s not Reddit. A commenter, who’s a known associate of [REDACTED], (whatever his overly critical, negative ass name is.,) decided to make R4I’s comment section a good place to proclaim TTRPG superiority and turn it into his personal blog.

So far in this story, I’ve managed to bite my tongue.

I don’t much care for dudes who sh🦆t on my friends and #ttrpgfamily deliberately. To add insult to more insults, this shoener, shotglass (whatever his-messed up YouTubin moniker is)  decided to make one of his bullsh🦆t hit piece videos about R4I’s video. See, this dude’s been making these crappy derogatory videos where he craps all over other TTRPG YouTubers for over a decade now and no one has managed to stop him yet.

I’ve written a much, much nastier article on this subject with lots of impolite, NSFW words and phrases talking about the asshat’s take on Dawn and R4I’s video. I also nicely contacted R4I elsewhere and asked them to report said idiot-whose-name-shan’t-be-uttered for Harassment/Bullying on YouTube. I doubt I’ll hear back, but it’s worth a shot.

I have been in a very negative personal space because this guy in question has also taken a poke or two at me and my channel. Not that my channel has any content beyond the channel trailer. Can you tell I’m camera shy yet? Dumb🦆🦆🦆 like [REDACTED] (whatever) tend to make me not want to do anything on YouTube, but that’s entirely on me.

I had to meditate for over two hours to clear my head on this one.

I’m still mildly upset, but I’ve calmed down to the point where I can clown the dude without swearing much. If R4I fans see this, please understand I love Dawn and Ryan to pieces. None of my negativity is aimed at them.

The benefits of meditation are so numerous, I can’t name them all here. Being a spiritual person (not of ANY organized religion,) meditation is also very powerful and sacred to me. Once I’ve connected with the Universe in meditation, what seemed like major aggravations often become miniscule, barely a nuisance at all.

There’s a way bigger world out there than what goes on with TTRPG community social media. I have way bigger projects to focus on than any beef I might have with some d🦆🦆bag on YouTube. That dude can go kick rocks.

I think there’s a valuable lesson or more to be learned here.

First, I hope I don’t come off as the know-it-all authority on TTRPGs. I acknowledge I’m wrong sometimes. I vent a lot of opinions on TTRPGs that resonate with some but not all. I do my best on here, but I’m not perfect. John Lydgate did say, “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

I think the main thing we can take away from all of this is that many of us, especially Game Masters, have different play styles that we embrace. Dawn from R4I even said “Different GMs have different approaches,” in one of the replies down in the comments.

Dawn’s response to the nasty commenter. She’s very professional.

Next, I want to point out that most of us out here aren’t going to be on Critical Role. None of us are the Universe’s gift to TTRPGs. No one’s GM, player, etc style is truly superior to anyone else’s. There’s literally no reason to go over someone’s actual play or YouTube advice video because you think you’re the best and the greatest.

The last thing I think bears repeating in the TTRPG community in general these days is very simple- Don’t be a dick! We might not always agree. We might not always get along. But there’s no reason pretention idiots like slobber, loanner (whatever it is) should go around and make attack videos about other people’s content. It’s so pointless and rude.

On a similar tangent, maybe people could lay off the pretentious comments on R4I’s videos. Yes, I did call them out a little bit for shilling Paizo merch, but that’s a different issue in my opinion. I call a lot of big YT channels out for shenanigans. It’s different, to me, when people make a stand on a completely unrelated tangent just to prove their own perceived superiority as TTRPG players.

We should all try to be more positive.

I think that’s truly how I got into this mess. It’s unhealthy mentally, emotionally, and metaphysically to get dragged down by someone else’s negativity. It’s like a virus, almost. One person pops up in a YouTuber’s comments with some negative crap and it just spirals from there.

Positivity is strengthens our socioemotional immune system. If we lift one another up and talk about the things we enjoy, hit piece videos and trash talk in the comments disappear. My original goal for this blog was to try to keep everything on the positive.

The hard lesion I had to learn was we can’t always be positive. Toxic positivity is a thing. One can actually be too positive. It’s rare, but too much of a good thing and all.

The best we can do is the best we can do. I’m going to reaffirm that I will try to stay positive when I write, never tell anyone they absolutely must do, think, watch, or act like I do. The same thing I’ve said many times- watch for yourself, use your own discernment. I’m still not giving any free publicity to people who openly hate.

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.

By the way, [REDACTED]I haven’t forgotten. Yes, I do know what his name is. No, I really just don’t like him.