The Culture: The Cargo Cult Attempts Containment Of The Bros Again

Oh look, here's Questing Beast trying to cut the #BROSR out of the discourse again. This time for reviving Braunstein as a core part of proper campaign play.

And this is what he is trying to obscure.

Since Jeffro Johnson started recovering the real game from the memory hole that Cargo Cultists and similar bad actors (and Boomers generally, intended or not) folks who either wants to grift or felt threatened by the real deal messing with their Cargo Cult decided that they had to get out in front of it and try to hijack it. Beast is one of them.

This is not the first time.

It's the same scam, and it means the same thing: an idea that the Bros took out of the Memory Hole, learned how to use, and repeated demonstrated its value (accelerated due to podcasts spreading the word). The Cargo Cult of Conventional Play feels the heat again, so Containment Protocols are now being attempted again so they can (again) attempt to Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish.

It won't work this time either because these Cultists don't have what it takes to make it work, or to approximate it, while remaining good with the Cargo Cult. You won't see this happen in Conventional Play, which plays into Beast's presentation of Braunstein--despite deceptive language--as separate and distinct from Cargo Cult norms and its Art Therapy and Theater Kid bullshit.

You don't see this in their games, and it's a large reason for why they suck.

A Battle Braunstein is brewin' in The Bandit Mountains, and the Irish are lookin' for a fight! #Brosr #Machodor #BattleBraunstein pic.twitter.com/RGMhqDk5GO

— Robert The Heel Stevens (@SaintsOfOHS) April 15, 2024

Standard adventure expeditions rotating with Braunstein sessions is how this medium is meant to work.

The combination of these elements creates the intended fantasy campaign experience promised by Gygax, Arneson, and their contemporaries because this was understood as normal in the 1970s. They are expected to rotate because actions have consequences, including those that are slow-burning or unintended, compelling further actions either to stop something from happening or to make something desirable happen that furthers one's objectives.

In a blackly-humor way, this is a sign that the Bros are breaking the Conventional Play frame. Why else move to either hijack or suppress it? The Bros (as Jeffro noted) reached this stage:

And Jeffro puts paid Questing Beast's attempted hijack thusly:

The Cardinal has spoken.

This is the sort of mogging, mockery, and so on that needs to be done to all bad actors in the hobby, especially the corporate ones. No retreat, no surrender, no mercy.