6.0 KiB
[MK] Old Man Henderson vs Cthulhu
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Author: u/None *
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Score: 17
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Created: 2014-11-13T04:42:56
Post:
Comments:
u/None [+4] (5 minutes later)
There's munchkinry that comes from thinking outside the plot (like here), and then there's munchkinry that comes from roleplaying so hard that you accidentally break the universe. This is a story of the latter type, about a Vietnam-scarred old man who just wants to get his lawn gnomes back.
This story is the original inspiration for the Henderson Scale of Plot Derailment. Quite a long read, but definitely worth it, especially if you like chaos and dislike apocalypse-inducing Elder Gods.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a day later)
This is a story of the latter type, about a Vietnam-scarred old man
Except he was never in Vietnam; he was 12 in '74. He just claimed the Vietnam thing as part of his weirdness.
u/None [+3] (a day later)
Correct, but he was still scarred by it.
u/Chronophilia [+1] sci-fi ≠ futurology (5 days later)
I can't argue with that. Well, I could, but it's a rabbit hole I don't want to go down.
u/Solonarv [+4] Chaos Legion (4 hours later)
Minor nitpick: the main antagonist is actually Hastur, not Cthulhu. Unless you meant to refer to Call of Cthulhu instead.
I read that yesterday, after This Guy Destroys Psionics, and I think this is ridiculously awesome.
u/None [+1] (8 hours later)
It was actually Trail of Cthulhu, but yeah, that's what I meant.
u/RMcD94 [-2] (2 days later)
Why doesn't summon just upload that 320 page backstory?
Also, for those of you curious as to whether or not Old Man Henderson was 'real'... Yes, yes it was. I
Oh well that makes me believe that it was real Mr Other Random Internet Man.
Edit:
I know for fact he only knows like two words in German, while I'm kinda fluent.
The German was in his hand, and it was grammatically flawless.
Come the fuck on, there's a suspension of disbelief in the story, the reason it's interesting is because you can feasibly imagine it happened. 320 page backstory is a first glaring thing, people will wonder if that's legit. Other things about the story you can be like "Well, that could happen with the rules or with a GM using rule of cool", and I'm sure those familiar with the ruleset wouldn't get that joy and would probably be (more or less) convinced.
This happens a lot with internet stories and things like that, it's like once you've made up a tiny slightly reasonable if unlikely story, then boom he's cured cancer.
Edit 2:
By sheer freakish coincidence, the phone in the Detective player's office starts to ring.
"Hello?"Maybe it's because I've worked on phones, but what Detective answers his phone as his fucking office that's put in the damn phone book under Detective's Office with anything other than: "You're through to Private Detective Bob what can we do"
u/Chronophilia [+2] sci-fi ≠ futurology (5 days later)
Why doesn't summon just upload that 320 page backstory?
320 pages written over the course of a week? It'll be unreadable nonsense at best. And it's handwritten, there's no digital copy.
Unless you're just asking because you want some sort of "proof" that it all happened as described, in which case... no, it didn't. You've already convinced yourself of that much.
u/RMcD94 [+2] (5 days later)
320 pages written over the course of a week? It'll be unreadable nonsense at best. And it's handwritten, there's no digital copy.
The chances of someone handwriting that I figure has to be super fucking low.
Doesn't really matter if it's nonsense.
You've already convinced yourself of that much.
Yeah but I didn't want to be convinced of that. Am I not in the rational subreddit? Suspension of disbelief is a thing, the whole enjoyment of the story comes from not being "Well this is didn't happen", it's from believing it and being immersed in it like with any fiction.
That's why me saying.
The President said the Singularity is dumb and I linked him to /r/singularityisthebest then his head exploded!!!
is not a good story.
u/Chronophilia [+2] sci-fi ≠ futurology (5 days later)
The chances of someone handwriting that I figure has to be super fucking low.
Agreed, but that's what it says.
Yeah but I didn't want to be convinced of that. Am I not in the rational subreddit? Suspension of disbelief is a thing, the whole enjoyment of the story comes from not being "Well this is didn't happen", it's from believing it and being immersed in it like with any fiction.
Sure. And I'm fairly sure that this really did happen in some form, and equally sure that there are some serious exaggerations in there - the writer says that the GM was bad enough to prompt him into creating Henderson, but the scenarios seem well thought-out and the GM roll with Henderson's antics as much as he can, so he can't be that bad. I imagine there really was a character named Henderson who killed Hastur in a Trail of Cthulu game - but the GM was laughing along the entire time and probably fudging rolls like crazy to keep him alive.
The notion that WaffleHouseMillionaire actually wrote an eldritch tome of insanity as his character's backstory is ridiculous, but the story does have a ring of truth to it.
u/RMcD94 [+1] (5 days later)
I suppose that's a fair enough point.
I find this tendency to exaggerate to the absurd horrid reading. What was so lacking about the original content that the author felt they needed this? It seems like pandering to me.