Jeffro Johnson is the John Bender of Rpgs

Face it, I am the talk of the town. Rpg discussions will necessarily turn toward me and my work because what I say about rpg campaigns produces results while conventional methods consistently fail due to people only pretending to actually like games that are predicated on them.

You don’t have to just take my word for it either. Just look at Spudbox here from over on Twitter as just one of many testimonials:

And hey, I don’t mind sharing the credit on this one with Alexander Macris. For one thing, he is a standup guy and very smart about things I don’t really care about. And a successful campaign is still a successful campaign! You can fault the guy for not running a superior system like AD&D or Classic Traveller, but you still gotta respect his game’s staying power!

And you know, it’s not just that I am absolutely brilliant when it comes to running rpg campaigns myself. I am also extremely generous when it comes to crediting people that have helped me to develop these phenomenal gaming ideas that have been buried in the pages of a great many vintage rpg sets– lying fallow, unplayed and unremarked upon for decades! Consider my pal Rdubs here:

Man, that is really nice. I really am a great guy. My track record of citing people who have been extremely helpful to me dates all the way back to my first book where I both quoted and footnoted everyone in and around the OSR gaming scene which had been influential in my efforts to produce a successful continuing campaign.

SeriousDM takes this even further and states that the remarkable group of people that have ended up comparing notes with me on winning rpg techniques day to day has a unique quality all its own:

Superlative! And Serious DM is right on the money here. Back in 2020 I was telling people that they needed to go to the gym, go outside, and talk to a pretty girl BEFORE they attempt to run a real D&D campaign. To get the best possible game, they have to simply be a better quality of person.

But not everyone is happy about this. Rpg shock jock Diversity & Dragons is irritated that anyone has the capacity to say anything nice about me at all. The fact that I have friends and admirers is something he goes out of his way to put in a bad light. I mean he acts like it is a bad thing! And the idea that D&D could be cool or high-test or masculine is utterly absurd to him. To him, D&D necessarily lame and weak and effete. And you know, it probably is when he is running it! But hey, not everybody can get immersed in a D&D campaign with a city with the name of Doucheopolis.

What can you do?

I’ll tell you what sticks in my craw, though. It’s guys like this commenter on Diversity & Dragons’ most recent video:

I would love Harmony to create a supplement booklet that convincingly educates, based on FAQ, why One-To-One Time in TTRPGs is worthwhile and reasonable. Or Harmony can feature an article in Elven Maid Inn’s Magazine.

Seriously, what is up with this? There are plenty of articulate people that have put years into developing these ideas and testing them. Heck, the definitive 1:1 time video has already been created by Gelatinous Rube. It already addresses the most common Frequently Asked Questions! Why is it that people have a need to instead hear these ideas from some girl that’s only been experimenting with this stuff for a few months?! Am I really supposed to be so scary, such a monstrous boogeyman, so intrinsically unlikable that people can’t handle hearing about this stuff directly from the guy that pioneered these efforts, ran the proofs of concepts, and developed our understanding of both why these ideas work and how these gaming techniques came to be in the first place?

I wonder.

You know, maybe I really am the baddest of the bad boys of rpgs. Maybe people like this really are intimidated by me. Maybe the idea of someone talking to me in public is so titillating, people like Diversity & Dragons still want to gossip about it several weeks after the fact. Maybe I really am so compelling, so irrefutable, and so clearly correct that my detractors can’t stop thinking about me.

Personally, I think it’s kind of crazy. I would have argued against this myself even just a few months ago, but now one of Diversity & Dragons’s own cohosts couldn’t help but compare me to John Bender from the Breakfast Club after watching one of my recent YouTube show appearances. Honestly, I think rather highly of myself, but this goes well beyond what even I myself would feel comfortable claiming. This is pretty wild, though. I mean, I know I am great and all. But could I possibly be as charismatic as one of the coolest figures in cinema history?

Maybe it really isn’t that too far-fetched. And hey, maybe everyone else in rpgs is as bad as guys like Jay Mac make them out to be. Maybe I really am as awesome and as compelling as John Bender when you compare me to them. I know, I know! These guys are pretty critical of me. And I know we would be inclined to disagree with each other if it actually came to chance that we all sat down together to talk about rpgs. But you know… after mulling this over though, I have to say…. I think these guys are onto something!

I am 100% open to being persuaded to concede this one point to them!