Thought I'd share a lighthearted "horror" story to break up some of the dregs.
I was going through r/LFG trying to find, you guessed it, a group to join as a player. I apply to one game and the DM reaches out on Discord to do a call.
First question is pretty standard (something like 'Describe your experience with TTRPGs'). I give the usual spiel for that, and when I'm done he goes, "Okay, thanks for that, but relax. This isn't an interview."
Mildly taken aback, I internally note that 'this' is exactly the definition of an interview, but just say, "Sure, sorry, I wanted to answer fully, but I'll keep it reigned in." It did feel condescending, but fine, some people like short answers, I can adjust.
The not-interview interview proceeds with unsurprising questions - does the time work for you, what's the role you usually fill in parties, what's your favorite class, etc - and I'm trying to keep my answers short enough-but-honest. Everything I say is met with, "Yeah, that's exactly how I feel," or, "Yeah, exactly, I like that answer!" Usually that's a good sign, right? No, no. It was a bit like having Matthew McConaughey on the call, a lot of (metaphorical) 'alright, alright, alright's' that were more filler words than actual agreement. Pretty sure he might have been a bit Texan, too, and the voice was very much in that McConaughey vein where there was a slight drawl/slur to them.
Over and over again, everything I said was right and he was in complete agreement, and I'm getting an increasing sense of 'I don't think this will work...' without what's so clenched-teeth-inducing for me about how he's talking. He then abruptly says he's getting a call from work and needs to answer it, and then ten seconds later goes "Ope, sorry, that was the office, I'm an IT specialist for border patrol/ICE, the interns just messed up the servers and I need to go in."
Ends the call, blocks me on Reddit, posts looking for players still a few hours later. Suffice to say we're probably not a good fit for a table together.
It was the weirdest fifteen minute experience of my life. Bizarre, mildly insulting, unintentionally hilarious. I'm still not sure if he was drunk, high, or just...odd like that.
Dude, if you're there...just say the vibes are off. It's okay. They were.
Have more to get off your chest? Come rant with us on the discord. Invite link: https://discord.gg/PCPTSSTKqr
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Based on everything you said, I think I met this guy under similar circumstances. Apparently, I was white enough to make it past the interview process. Trust me, he did you a favor by ghosting. I joined for one session. It's the only game I've ever left half way through without saying anything. I just hit the red button and wondered why it took me that long. He was blatantly racist, loved to hear himself talk, and a really shitty DM to boot.
I mean there is definitely a part of me that is now curious what his games were actually like, but yeah, once I got over the 'wth just happened' of the end of the conversation, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by not playing with him. It'd be funny if we're talking about the same person. Definitely had his idiosyncrasies.
I'm half tempted to ask you to DM me who, just so I can avoid them. It's been a long time since I've played, and was thinking about trying to find a group again.
Makes sense that he works with ICE in that case...
I don't think he actually does. I think he just said that so OP wouldn't ever consider contacting him again.
Hard to tell these days, with the massive hiring push it's at least possible.
Why am I not surprised he works for ICE?
Dodged a bullet there. Personally I wouldn't want to play with anyone affiliated with ICE.
I'm 99.9% sure he doesn't work for ICE and was just saying something to get off the call instead of just ending it. But it did make me laugh about how out-of-left-field the excuse was.
"Hold up that was the Justice League, Superman needs help with his home computer running windows operating system."
Hahahaha, exactly! 'Sorry, gotta run, the space monkeys got into the garage again. Those pesky varmints.'
Except that it's more like "That was LexCorp" (but far, far less cool)
Hammer Industries
Yes, but he *DID* want to make sure you understood that he was a racist fuck.
With him, Delta Green might be interesting.
Meal team six?
I think he was trying to gauge how "edgy" (i.e. racist, misogynist, homophobic, etc.) you were because he's looking for other little bigots to join his game. He quickly pegged you as "woke," then had an anxiety attack when he realized he didn't have an exit strategy prepared to end the call. The best his irony rotted brain could come up with was flash banging you with panic-induced racism.
That's what was so weird about it! We honestly had a normal-enough conversation, even with both of us clearly not picking up what the other was putting down. No "woke gauges" or "racist dog whistles" that I could suss out, it was pretty standard DnD talk about purely game mechanics, we didn't even discuss LGBTQ+ things or race. I guess we did breeze by lines and veils, but I basically gave my two standard 'no-no's' - child abuse and sexual assault - and I'd hate to think that caused the rest of it all. The ICE thing came out of nowhere. I'm inclined to agree with the person who said he just wanted to deter me from reaching out. Maybe I missed something, though.
I wonder if the "this isn't an interview" comment was an invitation to be less politically correct or something- hoping to see how you acted when more "casual", but instead of that, you just gave him less to get a read on lmaoooo
Ohhhh, you know, that didn't even occur to me. Maybe, haha. If it's that, then I am unexpectedly grateful my pathological need to accommodate other people's preferences made me completely deaf to the dog-whistle implications.
That’s the dogwhistle here, yes.
Bullet dodged, he's a fascist.
I think he used something that he was sûre would deter the appliant. Like saying "I'm a child molester" or something.
To a stranger when he's not in his safe space?
Toba stranger on the internet that he's not going to cross paths with ever again.
Like, this guy probably wasn't working with them, but are there people over ther that are actually proud of working with ICE? It feels like the kind of job that you'd keep to yourself, like telemarketer, or sex trafficker.
Bruh, most people in this world are incurious and fairly dimwitted. The average American only possess functional literacy up to a 5th grade level. It's estimated that only about 15% of humans in the developed world are even self-aware. There's definitely tons of mouth breathers out there who will gladly tell you that they work as jack-booted thugs. We just don't share their social circles or algorithm.
Do you have a source for that, because that sounds like complete and utter bullshit.
Original Source from Harvard Business Review and more about the research study behind it.
I believe this is the full text from the paywalled article in the first link.
Thanks! I thought you meant "self aware" as in sentient, so that clears things up quite a bit :P
ew
ew. do not like.
I wouldnt want to be in a game with a fucking asshole like that, straightup.