Gene Browses The Monster Manual

[geneweigel]

I tested that camera last week and the video went right to the computer unfortunately I kept having chronic problems with the YOUTUBE upload. So I gave up on it. I just tried it again this morning and four hours went by with no results. So much for instant broadcasting!

So I reignited my Google account and uploaded it with GOOGLE VIDEO and it took a 1/2 hour. Now it is "processing". Lets see how long takes. Anyways its a really cheesy video of me browsing through the Monster Manual.

Alright here it is:

Gene Browses the Monster Manual

Its full of random goddawful freeform AD&D chatter. So be warned.

[Rhuvein]

Haha, cool video.

I got out my MM and it was fun to look through it again. It's just a marvel of creativity. I love it. Tom Wham's stuff is great, as is Jean Wells' ~ and everybody else who contributed.

Interesting that much of it is not signed/initialed. Some I can guess, other stuff is hard.

[GT]

DAT and DCS are both pretty easy to pick out... ^__^

[GRWelsh]

We can only wonder what the future installments will be. "Gene teaches aerobics." "Gene reads his political demands." "Gene falls out of a tree onto a trampoline."

[geneweigel]

That reminds me of a National Lampoon 3 page one shot comic in the back of the magazine from the 80's called "FRED CLEANS HIS EARS" involving what the Ricardo's landlord Fred Mertz did off screen and it would just get progessively worse. Later on David Letterman did a milder version of it but the Fred one was the best.

[GRWelsh]

Gene I finally watched your videos on Youtube about your Dungeon I through IV. What was that all about? Ten red dragons and ten shadow dragons? Giants riding dinosaurs? Spider-riders? What happened in that adventure, and how did it turn out?

I kept thinking it should have been titled: "Surly New Yorkers pretend to play D&D" or "Fuckin' Ehh, the pizza's here!"

[geneweigel]

This was as real as it gets. There was absolurely nothing staged about this at all. The only thing missing was Henry then there would have been even more static distracting from the game. If I was doing the filming I would have had more cuts leading up to dynamic action but Bill is a "just turn the camera on" kind of guy. The AD&D rules parts are completely offscreen and its just army maneuvers during the Chainmail segments and a bunch of character dialogue.

The titan was the most over the top part but as you pointed out there was a whole lot of excess. Mostly because I was trying to show that it doesn't make one iota of difference despite constant protests otherwise that "minimalistic realism" is best. What they didn't realize was that many of the monsters were illusions anyway.

They were totally hammered thats why Taylor crashed, I think he was bugging out plus I was so stoned that I forgot about his character in the secret underground entrance! Dorothy was downstairs midway and the camera had to go off then thats why the gap plus the "smoking" segments had to be left out, of course.

[geneweigel]

Without giving away too much part I started it with a political debate with various nuts run by me. The real power in this stretch of land is gone but all these kings don't want to admit it. So the heir of a north kingdom is a total unknown and the forum of kings recognized his rights. But Bill decided to throw in with the rebelling town for no reason except that it seemed the right thing to do at the time. And then his allies backed him up and he called in all favors from all sources. The heir is of course a stooge from an unknown northwestern country that is bent on expansion into this wealthy region. There was no help from the majority but some recently allied kings fell in. Bill's mercenary army was destroyed at the sortie to stop the advancing enemy army before it got to the town. The advancing army was foreign. Giants, bugbears, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, manticores, EHPs, worg cavalry, seemingly all led by a massive giant (of unknown sort: = to a cloud giant) riding a "supersaurus". They stopped the army in its tracks wiping out all except the fleeing worg cavalry and the new "king". Taylor's high level thief really was the hero of the day as he took on the command from above in their hidden invisible cloud covered formation. In addition to his fortified merc army, Bill also lost his main henchman.

The next game was a gathering of all the allies and especially more mercenaries to free the kingdom from this "new evil king". In the meantime the power that sent this "new evil king" sent major reinforcements to hold them back indefinitely or so it seemed.

The titan was based on Balor from irish Mythology.

The weird flyers were "Greater Stirges".

The dragons had illusions on them to make them seem more numerous. So it was a heavy-hitting distraction.

The spider riders were bugbears. I always have bugbears riding all kinds of weird monsters and I was originally going to go with duergar riders and it seemed too preposterous. So I figured why can't a gangly bugbear ride a big ass spider?

The apemen are an old campaign favorite of mine. For the most part they're just cavemen straight out of the MONSTER MANUAL.

[geneweigel]

My camera has been hijacked for a few months. It got left behind ands its been passed around to various people holding it but somebody is headed that way this weekend so you might get the sequel to GENE BROWSES THE MONSTER MANUAL even sooner...

THE FIEND FOLIO STRIKES BACK!



Seriously, without a game going I was dicking around with the camera and figured what the hell. I should have done something more informative perhaps an outright attack on basic 2e/basic 3e/"late AD&D 1e"/AD&D 2e/AD&D 3e/AD&D 4e. That might be a good video!

[amalric]

Sept 24, 2008 10:57:44 GMT -5 geneweigel said:

My camera has been hijacked for a few months. It got left behind ands itsSeriously, without a game going I was dicking around with the camera and figured what the hell. I should have done something more informative perhaps an outright attack on basic 2e/basic 3e/"late AD&D 1e"/AD&D 2e/AD&D 3e/AD&D 4e. That might be a good video!

You going to get all that on one film, Gene? Or will we have to wait for the release of the DVD boxset (and all relevant commercial tie-ins)?

[geneweigel]

Gene Weigels's Dungeons II with relevant Burger King toy tie-ins?

Hmmm....

Now with each kid's meal you can get the Endless Decanter of Red Bull that refills everytime you lift it, the Bill In A Tub Of Pinot Grigio Racer, the Taylor's Sleeping Thief Secret Door launcher, the Fire-Using Creature Spark-O-Matic, the Hidden "Toilet DM" says a number of refereeing phrases from behind the bathroom door, Uncle Henry's "Dungeons and El Draque" Mojito Mess slime-the-miniatures game, and last but not least the "Magic 8 Ball Ruling Beer Goggles" that has a simple answer for every complex rule bump in the road like "roll a d12" and "yes, but I believe thats from Oriental Adventures" !

[amalric]

I just watched the video, here at home - watching it at work might (might!?) have got me some weird looks. I was highly amused, though slightly disappointed that you skipped past "ixitxachitl" without attempting to pronounce it.

Our group's first MM way back in the day was a paperback, with only half the drawings (it seemed) available in later hardback editions - but a couple of us coloured them anyway, and they were pretty darned good, if I do say so. Mind you, I was quite arty back in my school days, before women and drink came along (back in the bad old days, in other words ). I always loved the Giant illustrations (of DAT? Can't recall offhand) most of all. That MM was later bound with electric blue tape, though I've no idea who found that (or who the heck would even own such a thing!) ~ but even then it fell apart in later years. My friend's paperback PHB similarly came apart at the seams, but the hardback DMG still holds together (after a fashion) even today!

And Gene ~ that decanter sounds awfully similar to TSR's later Decanter of Endless Bull ~ I'd watch out for copyright infringements, if I were you!

[geneweigel]

I watched it again yesterday and my wife overheard said it didn't even sound like me. I think I was getting a cold. I was reading it a little funny too, of course!

What books the Monsters & Treasure? One guy I knew had a whole bunch of copies of that so I never bothered with getting an original set when it was still available on the shelf. I did buy several 1970's Holmes basic box sets at a clearance at the Kaybee toy store in 1983. I gave out most of those to new players and they preferred the newer 1981 sets even though they didn't mesh with AD&D like the Holmes version did.

I got the 1981 basic set as Xmas present from my rich little brother Chardo. I didn't have a dime to my name at the time! I remember opening it and being like what the hell is this "D&D"? I recalled that it was somewhat like the DALLAS TV SHOW game that I got a few years earlier for Xmas of which totally confused the shit out of me. The only reason that I got "DALLAS" was that I used to wear a cowboy hat sometimes and some relative thought it would be funny to give me that as a gift for Xmas. I think it got lost when I was shanghaied from my life of crime* to Connecticut to live with my wealthy godmother.

*According to some notice that my parents eventually received, I was the most wanted juvenile delinquent/truant in the five boroughs of NYC for a brief period (late 1982 to early 1983). What an honorific! I used to skip school and try to draft other kids into playing D&D in the most despicable places. I had a cop rip my first D&D basic set to into pieces once. I still have the book but its badly maimed. The box he shredded and he threw all the dice that I had in the sewer drain. Years later, I remember giving a bunch of guys from Connecticut a tour of my old haunts and my "castle" (an old 1800's smoking pipe factory) had been converted into a condominium complex...Dammit! I later found out that after I had left my old gang had a gang war there with another gang that dressed as ninjas and afterwards they locked up the place completely and eventually sold it off to developers.

You can't make this stuff up! Its insane.

[Scott]

That is quite an honorific for the Five Boroughs.

[geneweigel]

Those days are loong gone. A funny thing was when I was showing my old haunts off as I was saying above Taylor broke through the floor of an old train track and almost plummeted 50 feet to the street below! That would have been some explanation...

Its weird though out of every single abandoned site that I used to go for games every single place is now completely overhauled. Even the old massive felled tree that I used to DM on in the park has been hauled off!

Damn yuppies!

[GT]

We used to game outdoors at Purdue sometimes on Slater Hill... now there are fraternities built all around it and a power transmission station across the street. Rather takes the scenic nature outta it all! Back in my hometown, I used to invade this old three-floor school building. It was all boarded and locked up--except for the door at the top of this old tubular fire escape slide! My buddies and I would scoot up that and go in and rummage around. I wish I had salvaged some of the old school desks, books, etc.--but who knew E-bay would happen back in the 70's? ^__^ The place is now a big parking lot! And in 'south side' Chicago there were plenty of abandoned places--but one had to be very careful there!