Fill in the blank: "My Ref Style is half A, half B"

[tetramorph]

So I decided to start a new thread because the following post from another thread by @gronanofsimmerya is the funniest things I've read all week:

I describe my refereeing style as "Half Conan the Barbarian, half Daffy Duck."

This is so funny I tried to think of my own.

Here is what I've got for now:

"I describe my referring style as 'half Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, half The Smurfs."*

How about the rest of you?




*Although I am trying to be funny, before you laugh too much about the Smurfs, consider:

They came from a Belgian sword and sorcery comic strip about the adventures of Johann and Pewit (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser?).
Those two remained around, to varying degrees, helping and being helped in the smurffy adventures.
They all start together in an enchanted town and land that only those who know about it and want to find it can see.
Every episode of the cartoon was a miniature sword and sorcery adventure where a befuddled band of adventurers wind up in a pickle until a powerful wizard leader (Papa Smurf) comes to help them out with magic and they all figure out how to use their unique resources together as a team to solve the problem.
The problem is usually solved in a non-violent way, or, at least, no one is permanently hurt: its all a good heist: extraction.
The world is wacky but compelling:
The main antagonist is himself a befuddled and misdirected alchemist (Gargamel) with his own cat familiar (Azrael).
But this alchemist is himself merely the puppet of a far more powerful and dangerous wizard (Balthazar).
The smurf village is at one time in full scale war with this whole flippin' pixie army of death until they figure out that their real enemy is yet another crazy monster race, the wartmongers (of course).

I could go on and on, but, seriously, I cut my S&S teach on the Smurfs!

[ritt]

Half Ralph Bakshi's Wizards, half a 60's Spaghetti Western or Early 90's Hong Kong macho gunslinger movie.

[foxroe]

Half Michael Moorcock, half Monty Python... with a side order of Michael Bay. Or at least that's how I hope it comes across.

[mrmanowar]

Interesting question. I try to emulate the feel of the game I'm going for. For example, in D&D I embrace the full fantastic and keep the wonder and keep the story moving and don't give one whit about "balanced encounters". If it's too tough, run! I incorporate all kinds of things in a D&D game. If it's a Conan themed game for example, I'll reread a LOT of Robert E Howard and keep the game to that feel. In the end, I try to flavor the game with the mood I am intending to get across. Only my various players could confirm if I succeeded I guess. On another note, I am only comfortable running/GM/DM-ing games with a fantasy slight sci-fi motif. I don't have enough immersion to current day pop culture and trivia to feel comfortable running a modern day set game. Same goes for current properties: for example if I ran a Star Wars game there are always players who know more/read more/watched more Star Wars than I'll ever know and can quote each movie as well as I can quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Army of Darkness. I'll play any game at least once, but I am more particular about what I'll buy and run.

[Starbeard]

Half Coen Brothers, half Disneyland.

(But seriously, if you think about it, Disneyland is the OD&D Fantasyland).

[foxroe]

Apr 9, 2017 2:09:25 GMT -6 Starbeard said:

(But seriously, if you think about it, Disneyland is the OD&D Fantasyland).

Don't tell Disney that; they'll end up buying the rights to D&D!

(EDIT: Had to check here to make sure it hadn't already happened under our noses... )

[Starbeard]

Apr 9, 2017 4:28:38 GMT -6 foxroe said:

Apr 9, 2017 2:09:25 GMT -6 Starbeard said:

(But seriously, if you think about it, Disneyland is the OD&D Fantasyland).

Don't tell Disney that; they'll end up buying the rights to D&D!

(EDIT: Had to check here to make sure it hadn't already happened under our noses... )

I guess it's only a matter of time before Hasbro gets swallowed up. With how conglomerates work these days, I wouldn't be surprised if half of their major share holders and boards members are the same!

Though I should qualify myself and specify that I mean only Walt's Disneyland, not DisneyCo in general or other eras or other Disney parks. That place encupsulates nearly every theme that also took hold in the imagination of wargamers and roleplayers between the 1950s and 1970s.

Fantasyland: OD&D, Chainmail, Tony Bath's Hyboria
Tomorrowland: Traveller, Star Trek
Frontierland & the Rivers of America: Boot Hill
Adventureland: Jack Scruby's Mafrica
New Orleans Square: En Garde!, Braunstein
Critter Country: Bunnies & Burrows
Main Street, U.S.A.: The transdimensional glue that holds all worlds together, an Edwardian midwest town that rests outside of place and time.

[DungeonDevil]

My campaign recipe:

4 c. REH's Conan
2 c. Moorcock's Elric
3 heaping T. of Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser
1/2 c. JRRT's Middle Earth stories
2 t. of inspiration from the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
1 t. of ideas from the Endless Quest gamebook series
A dash of weird horror of HPL and CAS (ad gustum)
A firm crust of ancient/Mediaeval historical miniatures wargaming (Chainmail and WRG Ancients) to give support and structure.

Bake for 37 years in the oven of imagination.

Serves about 6 players.

A topping of ice cream wouldn't hurt!

[Chainsaw]

In my games, I always try for half-scary wondrous and half-deadly (Clark Ashton Smith meets Karl Edward Wagner), but end up half-gonzo and half-silly (Thundarr meets Scooby Doo). /sigh

[18 Spears]

i dont try to cpy anything but make it something all from my head

[Deleted]

What would be really interesting is to get your players' half A / half B characterization of your DMing style. It would be fun to see how their perceptions compared to our own.

My biggest influence when I write my own stuff is the Cthulhu mythos - inhuman forces from beyond with incomprehensible motives, the mad cultists who worship them, and the bizarre monsters they summon forth. The other half is probably incompetence.

[Chainsaw]

Apr 9, 2017 12:57:04 GMT -6 @dungeonmonkey said:

What would be really interesting is to get your players' half A / half B characterization of your DMing style. It would be fun to see how their perceptions compared to our own.

I don't know if I want to know, hahah!

[aldarron]

Half Batman half Robin

[MormonYoYoMan]

Half sane, half finished, and half being able to count properly.

[Deleted]

"I describe my refereeing style as 'half Robert E Howard and half Edgar Rice Burroughs' really about 40% each and the other 20% is another 100 or so authors including Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Henlein, Edgar Alan Poe, Jack London, Joseph Alexander Altsheler, Alexandre Dumas, Homer, etc and with a dollop of Genghis Khan"

Genghis Khan quotes:

“A man's greatest joy is crushing his enemies.”

“Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard.”

“The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses, to savor their despair and to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters.”

Gee I wonder if REH was familiar with any of these?

I like this one too:

“If unable to abstain from drinking, a man may get drunk three times a month; if he does it more than three times he is culpable; if he gets drunk twice a month it is better; if once a month, this is still more laudable; and if one does not drink at all what can be better? But where can I find such a man? If such a man were found he would be worthy of the highest esteem.”

"I hate luxury. I exercise moderation…It will be easy to forget your vision and purpose one you have fine clothes, fast horses and beautiful women. [In which case], you will be no better than a slave, and you will surely lose everything."

"An army of donkeys led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a donkey."

“Heaven grew weary of the excessive pride and luxury of China... I am from the Barbaric North. I wear the same clothing and eat the same food as the cowherds and horse-herders. We make the same sacrifices and we share.. our riches. I look upon the nation as a new-born child and I care for my soldiers as though they were my brothers.”

“All who surrender will be spared ; whoever does not surrender but opposes with struggle and dissension, shall be annihilated .”

“It is not sufficient that I succeed - all others must fail.”

“A leader can never be happy until his people are happy.”

[kesher]

Half general phantasmagoria, half Mike Ploog.

[makofan]

Maybe half pulp/half Tolkien

[lige]

I try for half Vance/ half GRRM with bits of whoever I'm reading at the time but it always comes out a little closer to Your Highness.

[archersix]

Half Edgar Rice Burroughs/half Big Trouble in Little China

usually ends up with a healthy dose of Jack Kirby and Monty Python

[Deleted]

I describe my refereeing style as I AM RIPPER TEARER SLASHER GOUGER I AM THE TEETH IN THE DARKNESS THE TALONS IN THE NIGHT MINE IS STRENGTH AND LUST AND POWER.

You know, something like that. Half Nyan Cat, half Basement Cat. Something.

[tkdco2]

If I do it right, one half The Three Musketeers (the one with Michael York and Raquel Welch), one half Enter the Dragon

[Zenopus]

Half-David Sutherland, Half-Tom Wham

[Starbeard]

Another one: half Star Trek, half Star Wars. Or maybe 2001 vs Buck Rogers.

[makofan]

Apr 11, 2017 13:17:43 GMT -6 tkdco2 said:

If I do it right, one half The Three Musketeers (the one with Michael York and Raquel Welch), one half Enter the Dragon

Yes! That was definitely the best Dumas

[LouGoncey]

One third New World Pictures' SciFi Worlds, one third The Man Who Would Be King and one third Deathstalker II.


With a sprinkling of the Phantasm movies -- for seasoning...

[kesher]

I just had a friend tell me his was half Spy vs. Spy, half Evil Dead...

[xerxez]

Half pulp/half high fantasy, lots of Tolkien, a little Macbeth.