Concept: A chaotic evil character "being driven mad by the voice in his head," but that voice happens to be his consience, like Kreig from "Borderlands 2."
Actually, Krieg's "inner voice" is him BEFORE he was turned into Krieg by Handsome Jack's goons. I'd say the one closer to that concept is the "perfectly sane" psycho in Borderlands 3, who wears a tinfoil hat to quiet the voices being sent by satellites - voices that, strangely enough, are actually real, and used to... keep him sane. The very moment the vault hunter guns down the satellite receivers, he turns into an average Psycho, and gets filled full of holes by the main character.
@@alarkhar Yeah, but the "real Kreig" still acts as a consience, telling the crazy persona that if they ever harm someone who doesn't deserve it, he'll kill them both.
After some of the stuff my party has talked the DM into in the name of 'rule of cool?' The Atlantic Ocean is feeling very narrow right now. Just for full disclosure, the worst rule-of-cool thing we've done was letting my totem of wild magic barbarian dual-wield a greataxe and a hand axe, because the random wild-magic rage trait I got gave my greataxe the 'light' trait. And yes, he's said it only got to happen once. Was cool as hell, though.
As someone with a lot of experience interacting with children and youths with ASD's, I have to put a pin in the first part of the story where op describes their childhood home environment. That at least one of their parents not only took advantage of their condition, but actively encouraged and drove them to a state of mental illness is both disgusting and uncomfortably common. I'm not surprised that they reacted violently to being told not to bully others. Those are likely the only social skills they were ever enabled to learn.
Yeah, I knew someone in a similar situation, except their parents would do everything for them and now they’ve realized they don’t know how to do anything for themselves because their parents would basically say that they’re incapable of doing anything for themselves because of ASD/OCD and now that they’re living on their own and having to learn how to do basic things, they’re constantly frustrated and depressed because nobody bothered teaching them and their parents claim to be too busy/say it’s too stressful to work with them on things. They’re embarrassed and ashamed of the fact that they’ve essentially been gimped by their parents, and the worst part is that their older sibling has ocd/asd as well and weren’t coddled in the same way for whatever reason. Also, at first when we (friends/older sibling) would try to help them learn they thought we were all just being assholes to them when really we just wanted to help and were upset that our friend was struggling so much because of how their parents raised them, and were usually surprised to find out the things they didn’t know how to do for themselves (cooking, cleaning, hygiene, self-care, etc.)
Thank you, this is so important! My sister and I are both autistic and were homeschooled with barely any socialization. Learning those social skills was incredibly hard and to this day we struggle with emotional regulation. This stuff always starts at home and it can leave lasting scars. Luckily I was able to move out and I'm improving. My sister will soon follow suit and I'll help her as much as I can! (Sorry about the essay, I'm just very passionate about this subject)
As a person with autism myself, I find the mother despicable for letting her autistic child get away with that kind of shit. Just because a person has autism or any other kind of mental disorder doesn't mean that they can behave the way they want or be shielded from criticism. That kind of enablement is how we get Chris-Chan like people in our society
just wondering, since in this place more people are saying ASD instead of autism, is the word autism wrong to say, or it's more because ASD is a better technical definition?
@@Arlesmon It really just depends on who you are talking to. ASD is short for "Autism spectrum disorder". Just saying autism can seem to some as an over-generalization of the broad range of symptoms that can present. While some consider the autism spectrum as just lumping a bunch of often unrelated conditions into the "I don't know what it is, so just throw them all into the same pile" category. It's complicated.
@@WolfODonnelfan I fully believe this was set in America based on the comment about the Cleric not being able to afford their meds. Unfortunately thats a very Murica thing.....
@@helalokischild6316 I live in country with national healtcare, but without creativity I wouldn't be able to afford my meds either. You pay substantial amount of your salary (or your employer does if you're not self-employed, but in many cases employers encourage self-employment), but as we have about 2 doctors per 1000 people, you can wait many months or even couple years in some cases (eq psychotherapist) and the quality is far inferior to private ones, because it's not uncommon for doctor to just wave a hand and tell you that they can't help, so you have to go for private visit. Private visit costs from 150-300, where average net salary is about 3500 and average rent 2k for studio. Fortunately after corona started, some guys created service where you can get prescription for meds of choice. Of course you don't get the help of doctor, so if it's not medication you regularly take for long time (and you'd have to pay 230 in my case for prescription alone) I wouldn't reccomend using that service.
Honestly with the way John seems to be constantly terrified, defensive, and angry, it makes me wonder if she’s done more than indulge his violent tendencies. At the bare minimum, she’s been rewarding him for his outbursts by teaching him to “play it up” for benefits.
This story is the peak example of "it explains it, but doesnt excuse it". Mental health is not something to take lightly, and absolutely not something to just write off as "it's fine because he's ___". They need to be given help and be held accountable, not just shrugged off. Not saying it's the same for everyone with mental issues, but in cases like this, they need the help before they go too far, and just saying "that's how john is" like his mom said at the beginning is the worst move you can make. And people that use their own issues to get away with things is also just wrong. If anyone pulls the "but I'm _" card, that does not excuse them from any poor action, just gives an explanation for why it occurred. They need help to make sure it doesnt occur again. Again, this is not an everyone thing, since as our crab said, a lot of mentally ill are the nicest people you'll meet. But this is primarily referring to ones similar to what we see most of the time in these horror story videos, and a little bit from personal experience with a one-time friend
That's exactly how I explain stuff to people. A combo of childhood trauma related PTSD and ADHD explains the 25 and counting years of abuse from my stepdad to me, but doesn't excuse it. The only thing that makes it not as bad as it sounds is that he's spent at least 20 of those years working super hard to overcome his problems. He cares for me, but his mental issues rarely let him show it.
I tend to explain to people that my PTSD and BPD (or my Asperger's, ADHD, or ODD) caused the actions and how that happened (my body often reacts before my mind can catch up - it's a pain in the ass). That being said, I feel others can decide to shrug it off or leave. I'm not entitled to have anyone in my life just because my actions are more difficult to control for me than it can be for others. If they're pissed, they're allowed to be.
That's something I get into a surprising amount of arguments about. An explanation does not equal an excuse. And if they start using it as an excuse, they're not going to put in the hard work to change it, and it's going to keep going. The explanation just shows what needs to be worked at. It's not going to be easy, but it's not an excuse.
100% this! I have ASD (formally known as Asperger’s syndrome in my case) and some of the kindest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing have Down syndrome. I distinctly remember a kid from Secondary school who was such a delight and was adored by most, if not all of the students in said school. He was rarely seen without a smile and loved Scooby-doo and could talk about Scooby for hours. I hope he’s doing well, been a good 20 years or so now since I last saw him.
I have ASD and this was exactly how my mom always told me to look at it. My ASD makes it very difficult for me to control my emotions, so it's an explanation for how I react in certain situations. However, how I respond to my emotions is ultimately my choice. I can't choose not to be upset in an upsetting situation, but I can choose to leave and cool down without doing or saying anything rash.
As someone who is high functioning ASD, this was actually kind of depressing to hear. I've been becoming more interested in DnD because of a friend and I hope that I can have a great time with a group someday. I hope John gets the support he needs.
same here, though I'm not very social and would have difficulty even finding a DnD game to join. It would probably also take me a session or two just to start getting used to the group, and even then I know I probably wouldn't contribute very much or get very involved in the whole roleplaying portions haha
I started on roll20. That way you can fidget quietly in the background, and the lack of eye contact makes it easier to let your guard down and socialize.
@@nomisunrider6472 Thanks. I recently bought the Player's Handbook and am reading through it (yes all of it) before I begin to take the idea of playing seriously. I have a few characters in mind to brew up so far. A Tabaxi rogue (based off my cat), a human fighter, a elf possibly Druid, a Dragonborn Barbarian or Paladin, and an elf or human Cleric. Just getting to classes now in the handbook at the time of this comment.
yeah as someon with high-functioning ASD I can say we are emotionally live-wired, and prone to repetitive behavior patterns, and are very much creatures of habit........but stabbing people with knives is still something he can be legally held accounted for.
you're 100% correct. having a mental disabbility is not an excuse to stab someone and people with mental disorders still need to be held accountable for things that are problematic. Fidgeting or having uncontrollable outbursts, even intrusive thoughts, are completely different from doing something like stabbing someone
@@WobblesandBean Couldn't agree more. Yeah, the cat may have been adopted to help him, but when the cat got away, fearing the anger issues, that is when we draw the line. Cats can help in many ways, but as far as this issue was going, he would only beat up the cat to "control his anger issues". Unless this guy actively tries to change, there is no way he can take care of another life.
@@lucaspiazentin1052 Extremely important thing there: when you have a pet, you are responsible for it. If it's not safe with you, sucks to be you but you do what's good for the cat, not yourself. If you want to care for something so bad pick up a plant. Signed, a dude who had to give up a dearly beloved cat due to depression because I couldn't care for my kitty's upkeep along with mine.
@@neoqwerty I am deeply sorry for your situation and I do hope you got better. I hope the cat is alright as well and, one day, you may be reunited. More than that, I respect you for making such a hard decision. Ir is a tough choice and not everyone is ready to make it. At least, as far as I can tell, you also made this decision without having to stab someone, unlike John.
@@lucaspiazentin1052 Yeah, I hope he's happy too! And that whoever adopts him spoils him rotten, he's a sweet cuddlebug. (The shelter I signed him off to- the only choice in town- basically disallows re-adoptions for surrenders by former owners and bans the surrendering owners from adopting a new cat in general for 10 years, so... No, we won't be reunited. Those policies are in place so people don't just dump pets and adopt others like trading in games.) I do appreciate the thought, though! I'm doing better (depression can be symptomatic, not just a mental illness on its own or as a co-morbidity, and it's often a symptom of an undetected neurodivergence) though I'm trying to get a neuropsych appointment scheduled to find if it's ASD or ADHD or something other. And good news! You're correct and I haven't stabbed anyone, the worst I do when I'm frustrated is, uh, well, I hiss like an angry cat. (That's what happens when you raise a baby and a litter of kittens simultaneously.)
People with mental illnesses and cognitive and emotional disabilities CAN learn to exercise some level of control over their behaviors; often, it requires consistency across all environments, and even then can be dicey, depending on their level of impairment; Jon, having been raised to not control his negative outbursts at home was going to have troubles doing so anywhere else, because his home life sets the baseline for how he expects to be responded to, when he acts out...
Although yes people can learn self control. Unlike things like depression, schizophrenia is a neurological mental disorder. Which means there is a chance they had a lot less control than you'd think. The whole things of schizophrenia is actually not being able to think, feel, or behave clearly. It also doesn't show up sometimes will later in like like in your 20s and 30s. So even though some of it might be self control. A lot of it being a problem probably stems from the family either willfully ignoring that it's something that runs in the family, or being ignorant to the signs of John needing help. Now that he's getting the help he need hopefully he will have more control over himself and hopefully one day be able to recognize what he did was wrong.
Both my younger brother and I have ASD. I wasn't diagnosed until much later than him though. I was my brother's defender because I wouldn't let my dad and grandma pull the "it is just the way he is" crap. To me, they were looking down on my brother, I knew my brother could do better, and I wouldn't stand for their bs. They bullied me, a child at the time, because my brother ended up respecting my voice more than theirs. I got good at talking my brother through situations when he gets upset by a misunderstanding
@@clarehidalgo ^ This. Giving autistic individuals a free pass to act horribly means they think they are mindless things incapable of complex thought or self control. It's appalling. That's how you end up with endless violent tantrums and dangerous adults who inflict physical harm, like this guy. Except in rare cases of profound autism, anyone can learn to manage their own behavior.
@@clarehidalgo I wish more siblings were like you, willing to defend one another, I'm glad you stood up for your brother, even in the face of authority, also I'm sorry they treated you two that way and i hope you two got, or will get the help you need
@@MamieBabi Nope. Having mental illness, regardless of what kind, is an explanation, NOT an excuse. When a schizophrenic person knowingly and deliberately goes off their meds, they become morally and criminally responsible for any harm they cause while out of their right mind.
I hope they didn't let John keep his cat. Enacting physical violence on one person already and thinking about it on another, I hate to think how he might react to thinking the cat wasn't reciprocating his love when the DM was out of the equation.
My concern is if they had pets in the past and what happened to them. I can't help but feel concerned by the willingness to use a knife on people and punish a pet out of jealousy. Considering the dad didn't bother to address the problem until he himself was in danger, even after his sun knifed someone, I'm not liking the odds that he had other pets that didn't last long. If you get what I mean. Hope the cat is in the care of good people.
When CritCrab posed the question, "Who do you think John is going to stab? (a) The DM; (b) Daniel, his brother; (c) The Cleric?" I was like, "Oh the DM for sure." Then the story introduced two kittens and I immediately paused and paniced "DONT U FUCKING DARE TELL ME HE STABS THE CAT I SWEAR TO GOD PLEASE." I was legitimately scared to continue listening, as if by not pressing play on the video, the cat would never be stabbed. Luckily, the comments slightly hinted to the DM being stabbed and I found one comment that said the cat was "hopefully somewhere safe" so I was able to finish the story. Whew, stabbing is scary but I can brace for it... unless its to a cat. A kitten. Absolutely not. That hurts to even think about so much.
One does wonder how a cat figured it out in a few days, while his family(?) didn't, it's as if they are complicit in doing something terrible to the kid that led to those very mental issues.
I mean, doesn't everyone have thoughts about stabbing their father, or mother, or whichever parent hurt them the most? It's different cause he has shown he's capable of acting on it, but I think it's very normal to have intrusive thoughts about physically hurting or killing the person who traumatised you
That idea of the main enemy being rats gave me the idea of a minor BBEG who’s some primal nature spirit of rats and rodents angry that the first thing adventurers do is kill giant rats lol
Here's an idea: the plane of rats and disease of Richemulot. It's a Domain of Dread from Shadowfell, where rat swarms and wererats, commanded by Jacqueline Renier, spread a terrible disease that have fatal results in few days. This disease shrinks the population of the towns near her palace/castle and avoid rebbelions against her iron fist. The Domain is detailed on Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and there are many videos explaining how you can simply drop this mini-campaign on your party Since it is a Domain of Dread, all it takes is the Mists to swallow the party and the party looking for an escape. Since the strongest enemies are wererats, it can be done for low-level parties.
another option, the minor BBEG is just a bunch of highly intelligent rats stacked on top of each other and pretending to be a human. Perhaps the rat that speaks was actually a human that was somehow transformed permanently into a rat, but maintained its intelligence and somehow gained the ability to control rats like a hive mind. Now it is seeking revenge, as well as any way to return to its original form.
My brother had some small similarities with this story. One of my brother’s friends who used to live with him adopted two of our cats(We still have an excess of Cats) and took them to his house where my brother also lives, he never took care of his Cats, never fed them, changed their litter box, instead this guy waited for his room mates to do it when the house started to stink, my brother got tired of this guy. (He had no Job, took his friends money, never took care of pets, and was an absolute Douchebag) and kicked him out, and the guy had the AUDACITY to say “You don’t pay rent, you can’t tell me what to do!” The thing is... My brother paid the majority of the rent, and he was getting yelled at by a guy who paid none it as he lived there! Him and his Roommate kicked this guy out. TL;DR A douchebag never took care of his pets, never got a job, and bossed people around, and my brother kicked him out.
I was sharing an apartment with 2 people. 3 BR 2 BA. I put down the security deposit, first and last months rent, and $300 of groceries for the first month. One of the roommates had their girlfriend move in, saying she was only going to be there for a few weeks. No big deal. Except it was a lie. She was going to live there. Fine. She wants to stay? We split rent 4 ways. They've got a problem with that. They want to split their portion (1/3rd) between themselves. Problem is. They're eating the food I paid for, GF has no job, and she's eating all the meat for day time snacks while everyone's at work. So I went to management, told them I was moving out, and got them to agree to keep the security deposit to move the couple into a 1 BR apartment. Me and the other person left. It was going to be a recurring theme if we had stayed. No sense spending your whole paycheck on food you're not going to be able to eat.
11:00 I have ADHD and have both DM’d and been a player. Getting distracted on my phone was a NIGHTMARE to try and stop doing. Honestly, my best recommendation is a Fidget Cube. It’s so good to keep your attention on the game while still idly playing with something :)
Luckily, adderall and caffeine was enough for me. What sucked was I didn’t know I had ADHD growing up. The signs were there and my mother refused to get me treatment. I kept failing at a school I fought hard to get into and it was making me anxious. The psychiatrist took like 5 minutes to diagnose me and prescribe medication and I was able to finish school (barely). Turns out if I could actually study, I don’t have problems.
@@certifiedautist5387 you two wrote your comments in similar way as some spams: first one gives link/praises some service etc. and at least one other account is agreeing/praising too.
@@rei8694 no but a common symptom of schizophrenia is hearing voices so when he had HIS CHARACTER hear voices i immediately thought of it. Then at the end it turned out the real player was diagnosed with it i was not as surprised
Also, I want to correct the crab a bit here: schizophrenia can (and usually does) progress with age and it doesn't become lighter on a person. Its just a sad story, the only people accountable for the situation are John's parents and poor treatment.
For everyone that is rightly wondering if John's cat is okay, I scoped out the OP on Reddit (just did a Google using the name in the video description). Apparently John's cat lives with Daniel and John's mother so that John can visit it, and that neither cat was harmed during these incidents.
Yes. At some point, depending on what or how severe a mental illness and incident is, you still must be responsible for your actions and if you're AWARE of possible triggers or the feeling of a breakdown coming, you must be able to regulate your emotional response at least long enough to remove yourself from the situation. I lived with a girl that thought her BPD made her cuter and quirkier, so she refused to get help and would constantly neglect her medication expenses in favor of vanity and entertainment. Despite my immense patience developed over years dealing with SA trauma, anxiety and severe depression ( which I told her about when we moved in to let her know if I happened to get into a mood and ask to be left alone ), she was prone to extreme bursts of emotion and eventually caused me to have a PTSD response (sexual aggression is often a symptom of BPD). She should have known better. And after that fight things only got worse until she made me homeless in negative weather when I was at work. Tl;Dr - Mental illness can only explain or excuse so much before enough becomes enough.
Very true! To an extent anyway, some people can’t see the world like that, and at the end of their brain development with no good intervention, they sometimes may never be able to. To me the most important thing is whether there’s sometimes guilt after doing something awful, and if not then they’re just the worst and should be avoided. My dad and sister have BPD (assuming u mean borderline personality disorder and not bipolar disorder), and they’re a trip sometimes. I can’t say they were always perfect or even always good but, I do love them anyway because they’re good people under that disorder (neither of them ever got help or anything because my dad thinks it’s stupid and my sister tried once and was convinced her therapist insulted her by asking if she wanted to go to college(she could’ve I wasn’t there so)). Ofc it’s different with family haha I’m really sorry that happened to you that sucks major ass. She sounds like an terrible person. I really hope you’re doing better now!! :(((
@@MayvaAva Thank you. I have a loving boyfriend and while I'm still homeless, I'm out of that toxicity. And yes I agree. Underneath a condition someone can absolutely be wonderful to be around. I was meaning to say more that just because you have a condition doesn't absolve you of a level of personal responsibility. And if you really can't control yourself at all, that's fine. But people don't have to endanger their own physical or mental help either for your sake. (Not YOU you. General you.)
So, in context of this story i think it's important for everyone to remember: while stories of mentally ill people hurting others because of mental illness are most emotional and best remembered, statistically mentall illness is something that makes you into more likely VICTIM rather than attacker
And mental illness never excuses or justifies an attack, no matter how bad it is. It NEVER will or should be an excuse. And never should be punished more lightly.
@Prey R Wow thinking killing innocent animals is better than just hurting people is pretty messed up. OP is hurt but alive, you really think it would be better if John would kill the cat instead giving OP scar? I hope you don't have any pets
@Prey R So since when humans are the mist important animal in the world? Where in the Universe it says that particular animal is better, more important than anything else and if possible it would be better if anything other died to avoid fucking scar
@Prey R You lack education. I think everything you just said is wrong, amazing. Human are in no way superior to other animals. Almost every animal on the planet can easily kill human, other animals also use logic, tools, learn and communicate. Morality isn't something that requires 110IQ to figure out because that would make gorillas and humpback whales much more intelligent than majority of people. But whatever just make up shit that isn't true to prove your point that being hurt for a while is infinitely worse than killing innocent animal for no reason
Love to see WoW in D&D, but this is a little… much… even for Nefarian’s lore in game. Like the dude was absolutely corrupted by the Old Gods, but honestly making a Deathwing esque character could be interesting, if it weren’t ripped straight from WoW imo
I know the problem player didn't have the right idea but I like the idea of playing a Dragonborn go with such a metal, evil-sounding name and defending it as they're a mercenary that needs to sound tough, not just to get jobs but to also intimidate targets. Parella, the Aasimar Sorceress: We're here to help people, I think you calling yourself "Hellbreather" is making us that appealing to the masses. Kurrudan "Hellbreather", Dragonborn Fighter: Well I suppose if you think we could break into a Beholder or Demon Lord's lair and introduce ourselves as "the nice patrol" and still command any amount of respect then by all means.
18:25 I dunno if this is a "correction" since I do agree neurodivergence is no escape from personal accountability, but I can attest (as a recovering schizo) that a psychotic episode can involve extreme and irrational paranoia. The narratives constructed during psychosis can diverge wildly and unpredictably from reality. Who knows what that kid thought was happening. Check out gangstalking / "targeted individuals" - these are people who manage to fit every random look from passersby in the street into a narrative where a nigh-omnipotent global cabal is out to harass and gaslight them specifically. At my worst, I thought Gates, Obama and Musk were all teaming up to track me through satellites and traffic cameras. (Edit: oh yeah, and birds aren't real. Thankfully they were working for the resistance and would give me clues on where to go next) If someone thinks that's the world they live in and then you somehow give them the idea that you're some kind of ringleader in a conspiracy to ruin their life? Fuck yeah that'd set them off if they have even a violent bone in their body.
@Clare Hidalgo sounded like this episode is what led to the diagnosis. Before that they apparently somehow thought he was merely autistic. Hope he got the treatment he needs.
while this is totally true someone who had clear anger issues and extremely high support needs should not have been living with his brother and brothers partner.
You're right. Mental health issues can often explain poor behavior, but never excuse it. As a person with mental health issues myself, my behavior is my responsibility, regardless of why I'm acting the way I am.
@@tremorraygun2470 are they? Based on what?(genuinely asking) My aunt is schizophrenic and she's nutty as squirrel shit, but she's really sweet. She doesn't remind me of any of the schizophrenics I've seen interviewed in interrogations or like any of the nutters from crit's videos
17:43 as someone who’s first DnD character is a Kenku that can’t communicate without mimicking, and can’t say what’s on his mind, I felt your statement hard. Thanks CritCrab
I'm ASD, too. It's always refreshing to see that it's possible for my parents to have been worse at dealing with my condition than they were. John's mother was worse than mine, but not by that much. I'm lucky I found people out there with the patience to deal with me and help me control myself.
I have my own mental health problems, and I agree. While I do feel bad for John and how he was set up by failure by his mother, and his actions are explained by his mental health problems, they are NOT an excuse. Especially when it involves involves violence, like cutting someone's hand open with a knife. And that goes double when, a month later, they send a discord message not to apologise, but to ask when the next session is. Holy shit. I just hope he gets the help he needs. And of course, I hope everyone else is okay.
John's mom: "my son has autism, can I have money?" The government: "sure, here's some assistance money, and you'll also need occupational thera-" John's mom: "thanks for the cash, he's perfect as he is, we don't need any mitigating services" John: *grows up to be uncontrollably violent*
As someone with "high-functioning" ASD, I feel like saying "high-functioning" is kind of misleading because it often can feel like I'm barely functioning at all. Not to justify anything said or done, but just as a little side note.
Former psychiatric healthcare worker here - yup. In general the mentally ill tend to be nicest people, unless symptomatic. Even more nice and kind if actively getting treatment. Yes including schizophrenics, which most of my experience is with.
As a Dragonborn Paladin enjoyer who’s actually named Daniel with a brother named John, I almost had a heart attack reading that first sentence lmao, my brother also has ASD too like wtf lmao. He doesn’t play rangers or Dragonborn but god damn this is freaky
On their own, both "leans on his own volatility to get his way" and "responds aggressively to the mere possibility of exclusion" are red flags intense enough to merit finding the nearest hills and running to them. Together, they become an infrared-level flag labelled "I actively create the conditions that escalate my own volatility" that all but demands immediate professional assistance. I have a lot of sympathy for John's circumstances, but the situation here was clearly a lot more than anyone involved could be expected to handle.
Oh well there's the problem right there. Red flags each on their own, but combined become infrared. They leave the visible light spectrum. Together they are invisible.
I don't allow phones at my D&D table, unless it's an emergency, also, I have severe depression and BPD, and it is true that a lot of metal people (like me) are kind people, but we have our ups and downs, some days are harder than others to controll the impulses, normally on those days I sit home and do nothing. This, however, is no excuse to stab someone.
While I do think DnD had some role to play in this, that being the cause of some serious stressors for John, it was not ultimately what John stabbed OP over. It was the cat. The cat John didn't take care of. The cat that he claimed OP made dependent on them and thus they were the bad guy. This is really, really psychotic behavior on John's part and I do hope he gets help. However, I think another facet to the issue was how he and his brother were raised. The mother was the one who allowed the behavior to persist due to her own greed. Had John been raised correctly, e.g. not encouraged to become explosive when things didn't go his way, he probably would not have become the man he was. At the very least, he would be at least a little better. I think this went far beyond just DnD and became a whole horror story on its own. But these are just my two cents on this story.
A lot of stress and anxiety can trigger a psychotic break in anyone, people with Shcyzophrenia usually have heightened anxiety due to their paranoia but obviously it's not all of us. Yeah, I'm a paranoid Schiz and it can get pretty bad sometimes
I 100% disagree with no phones at the table or shutting it off. I explicitly use my phone to take notes, check rules, check spells and use the app that has my character sheet. I think it's better to say don't use your phone for thing unrelated to the session.
Partially agree. The table I play also uses character sheets on the phones. But also, sometimes we need to check the phone for emergencies or talking briefly with other people, such as boyfriends/girlfriends. What made me pissed with this story is that he deliberately took the phone to play another game and one that demands attention and focus. THAT is very disrespectul. He was there to play a colaborative game and instead went to play a solo game by himself. I do play a lot of games on the phone, but during a session is absurd. I think there is a blurred line on how much and what for you should check your phone. But to play another game while playing a TTRPG is a hard no.
The problem is not using the phone per say. It is that it became a burden for the other members of the table because of the noise and broken immersion. The audio in Pokemon go was very loud and the brother was always late when his turn came because he was too focused on the game on his phone.
When i as DM caught someone that bypass such rules get instant ban. No interessting on Meta-gamers in my games that google every monster they face. Also u dont need to know every rule; thats the DM's job. So for notes and sheet u dont need apps.
I might be the odd one out here but even if my brother had some form of mental illness I wouldn't be able to take them assaulting my SO lying down. There would be HEAVY repercussions
That nearly happened to my friend, his younger sister tried to stab him but if he tried to fight back he'd be the one who'd get in trouble because on his dad's side of the family, girls could do no wrong and boys were treated like dirt. Lucky for him, his older sister saved him then threw younger sister in the roller trash bin as a show of dominance. His family is so fucked up. Example: his grandpa payed him money to play in traffic as a child hoping he'd be hit by a car
18:02 I'm completely ok with that line. A mental disorder can explain why someone acted like they did, but should never be considered as an excuse to a bad behaviour. If you are having trouble with your mental health and are trying your best to live a normal life, you have my simpathy and my deepest hope you achieve it, because I've been there (not schizophrenia, in my case it was dissociative personality disorder), and it can be harsh, but I was able to keep it in check and not hurt anyone (also didn't help that I didn't know what I had, only when a friend told me about their own dissociative disorder and described how it felt, I was able to realize that I had been dealing with that without help, which isn't exactly the best way to do it, because due to lack of guidance, at first I didn't have the tools to cope with it in a healthy way, but ended up finding a way to deal with it long before I realized what I was dealing with). But there are people that use their mental disorders as a way to justify their behaviour and not trying to change the way they act when they hurt others, and that honestly makes me mad, because in my opinion, it's an insult to people that struggle every day with mental disorders, to what I had to go through until I was able to overcome it. Also, outside of that, John's mother wasn't exactly mother of the year, using your son's disorder for financial gain while enabling their worst behaviour and making them think that it is natural to act like this certainly didn't have a great effect in their development, so, yeah, that's also quite creepy and makes me angry, because a parental figure should look after their child, to teach them and to hope for the best of them, not to use them for selfish reasons, that's not being a parent, that's being a parasite.
I myself am bipolar and sometimes it is very hard to control my emotions even with medication but I always make it a point to walk away from a situation before things get out of hand and I never blame my actions on my mental health. Yes I am bipolar but bipolar is not me.
I had weird people like this and I said once "Hey man like... this is getting weird. Do you not like one of us... or all of us. You appear to like the game but not us." then the guy is very offended calling me weird and insulting me and going full rage mode, and I am just sat there very calm "Yeah I am weird, that is why I am concerned. You are in a rage, I am sat here all calm and shit and the rest of the table is scared out of their god damn minds even though we are online. We did all know each other and *could* get tougher but it would be a 45+ one way drive to get to a central location. and my house would be like an hour and a half away for some. The guy quit mid-session got hella thrashed drove to where I lived but could not find my house so he lit a dumpster close to my neighbourhood on fire. He was arrested with a DWI and some arson charges. Needless to say, he did not show up the next time we played. I know it was him because he had a very distinctive car and... well that was the car they found, he also set that on fire, though likely that was accidental as he loved that damn car.
@@KoffingOnion I really hope he did something like find my house and just decide not to burn it down but still being violently angry and drunk just went for basic property destruction of no value hence why he burnt a dumpster. It is still bad but that at least shows some thought of not wanting to harm people or cause real damage, he had to burn something so he burns shit people have thrown away, things they will not need to replace.
The fact that he was hospitalized for thoughts of stabbing his father and not for THE ACTUAL STABBING says a lot about the parents. They have been actively aggravating their son for profit and didn’t care until it blew back into them.
As a schizophrenic person who has it run in the family (5 of my direct family members including myself, and at least one cousin is confirmed) I can tell you I've never stabbed anyone. It's very much something they chose to do because they're a bad person.
The biggest thing I have noticed trying to find D&D group online is the sheer number of mentally ill people, fetishists, hardcore furries, and sexually obsessed people. I though Crit Crab was some sort of exaggeration, but it seems the majority of players I meet online fit into one of those catagories.
Yeah, rat swarms aren't scaled properly to levels nor are most swarms. Three swarms of Squirrels almost TPKed a party of level 11s in one of my campaigns. Also, on the subject of the actual video topic, why not have Luck get killed by someone else offscreen so John's obsession FINALLY ends?
Im assuming that Luck was important to the story(considering they had a twist reveal planned) and to be honest it likely didnt much matter if Luck had died and John would have likely directed his obsession elsewhere or he would have gotten angry at the DM for not letting him kill him.
3:30 My group had a running gag involving Rats when one of them used a spell that I forget what it was called, but it attacked the target's mind and they have to make an INT check and he used it on a rat and with how easy the spell would kill a rat since they have low INT, When the player joked that he would be surprised if the rat actually survived the spell, The DM joked that particular rat was like the God of Rats or something with super high INT and cries out "You fool!". Every time since then when we would encounter an enemy that's nothing too serious, we'd joke that they're actually as TVTropes would put it, "A Boss in Mook's Clothing" and go "You fool!".
A running gag in my family's game of werewolf the apocalypse is my character calling my brother's character an arson because he kept suggesting setting something on fire, and his character always drinking tea
This reminds me of the end of Skullduggery where Adams empty armor stabs the DM and the DM turns out to be Satan. Then Satans dead body flips off the camera. Favorite film.
This literally reminds me so much of my youngest brother (18), and its funny because I also have a brother named john, but hes good. I dont think my youngest brother has autism, but he definitely has some psychological issue. He's manipulative, entitled, angry, self centered, disconnected from reality at times, paranoid and least of all violent. But I cant do anything about it thanks to my mom who has assured me that she'll off herself if I call the police and she refuses to get him help because "they'll take him away." so even when hes stole from me, assaulted me, successfully or unsuccessfully stabbed me with whatever pointy thing he can find I cant do jack diddly squat. I cant go anywhere, so I'm just kinda stuck with it. So I feel really bad for the brother of this john guy, cause I know what its like being trapped with someone like that who can snap at anything. Feels good to get this out, I posted on ask reddit but they deleted the post because my situation is apparently too violent for their page so that felt just super. And just as a preemptive note for any comments along such lines: Yes, I have called the police before but my brother can act totally normal around others, and my mom lies for him, so they convinced the police I was just picking on him, brotherly squabble. Then when he came back inside he threatened that if I call again he'll convince them I'm a criminal or just try to kill me. I blew it off, but I haven't called since because I know he's not lying. hes a master manipulator. I had evidence of his threats on my old phone but it was recently replaced and I didnt think to send those to my drive, but his threats are constant so it shouldn't be long before I can record another.
In my experience as a player and Dungeon master: EVERYBODIES first ever D&D character is a self insert and often a reflection of how they see themselves... just in a fantasy setting. My first character was a half'elf noble swashbuckler rogue who started adventuring to escape his family problems because I felt like I didn't really belong with either side of my split family and was quite the "black sheep". I wasn't as much for sneaking about as I was for diplomacy and fighting when necessary so I thought a rogue that didn't need to sneak about as much was a perfect fit... and the half-elf race kinda speaks for itself if you know d&d
0:49 that’s me, well not me, but that’s exactly what happened to me, litterally word for word. People who take advantage of us are sickos in their own right
I won't lie, I never quite get how DMs can have so much patience. This guy would have been thrown out of the games my DMs run the moment he started acting up.
What happened to the other kitten? I hope DM or John's dad has the kitten. About schizophrenia, I mean, it can set in late in life, so yeah, it's possible this guy did go through life without stabbing anybody until then. And no, I'm not saying people with schizophrenia are usually violent, not at all. Just as you said, Critcrab, most people with mental illnesses are perfectly lovely people. I'd like to include myself, but that sounds too self-congratulatory, so I will simply say I do my best, and have never stabbed anyone.
John is broken and needs help. No amount of beating will help him as the damage is neurological because of his selfish mother. She should be charged for how he turned out.
I gotta say, though not being as intimately familiar with schizophrenia, as someone with ASD myself, from the sounds of it, he isnt "high functioning". His mom might've worsened his condition and he could've otherwise been, but some of these antics sound like someone who's more like medium functioning tbh. That said, I wholeheartedly agree with your point of keeping them accountable regardless of diagnosis, because otherwise how could we possibly learn and try to work on ourselves? Which I know at least for a lot of us (myself included) we very much want to
i cant help but think wtf, like yeah im kinda sad for john and empathise as i am also ASD, but i cant understand how stabbing someone was okay in his head and like he could get a pass from the dm and the dnd group for that since he has ASD... like damn, its not the dm's fault he didnt take care of his cat. i have an emotional support cat and i treat him like my son, he is my baby, my sunshine, i take care of him all the time and sometimes my roommate does when im not home but like, he will always give me attention but sometimes will go sit with my roommate on the couch and i dont get jealous over it? like im glad the cat likes her, she is my friemd so im glad my cat likes my friend. anyway, all that to say i do not condone at all johns behaviour and i hope he now has the help he needs. i do feel bad for him, but like, i totally take dm's side on this
for what its worth it was probably the undiagnosed schizophrenia rather than the ASD. ASD on its own usually doesn't cause psychosis. although its possibly he wasn't ASD at all because early symptoms of schizophrenia can look like ASD.
@@thoughtsofadame1952 yeah, but having ASD doesnt make you imune to psychosis, you can have more than one diagnostic, i have ASD with chronical manic and low depression and psychosis, but i guess my psychosis wouldnt be similar at all to his. i dont have schizophrenia either, they where sure of that when i saw the psychiatrist for a while.
"I don't like being left out" he says after separating himself from the group constantly and not caring about anyone else. To me it just feels like it's not about being left out, but about him not getting all the attention in the world.
After "the game" I was actually terrified you were gonna say he stabbed and killed the cat... the actual relief! I know what happened still wasn't okay, but you hear a lot of stories like that and I was scared for the kitty T_T
Fuck, the minute the ESA Cat was introduced knowing the video's title and with the slow build up of menace and rage from John in the story I was sweating bullets something would happen there D:
I have had anxiety and PTSD issues so I can say your take is right about mental health issues. There is no excuse for violence no matter what the issue is. There has been times I would have gotten physical but I knew that could have been the outcome so I removed myself from that situation.
As a mentally ill person with a therapy cat, the thought of locking him in my room like that hurts me. One thing about cats is that unlike dogs, you need to put actual effort into caring for them and making them trust you. Even though it can be hard, it’s well worth the effort, you just need to show them you care. [ to anyone looking for a therapy cat, I’d recommend going to a shelter/cat cafe/ area where you can interact with the cat to see if it’s a good fit. Also, I’d recommend getting an adult therapy cat, as kittens will sometimes change their personality at adulthood, making them kinda unpredictable]
I had a player who was always on her phone. I think she may have needed to do it for anxiety or something. I used her as a resource. As I fumble with my phone when I try and look things up. I had her on my left so I could ask her to look things up for me on the fly. I appreciated the help 🙏
I got really concerned that he was gonna stab the cat when they were mentioned. My heart sank. Tragic that any stabbing happened, but glad it wasn't to an innocent pet
The takeaway for me is that parents should stop indulging their child's differences and eccentricities, and establish discipline early on. While they may have a legitimate condition, it doesn't mean give them a license to do what they want. If a child is deaf, they learn sign language. If they're blind, they learn how to maneuver around regardless. If they have behavioral problems, they learn to deal with it without stabbing people or they're going to have a bad time. Letting people do whatever the hell they want with the excuse they can't help it is not the way to address it.
As someone who is blind, has anxiety and depression, and autism, I couldn’t agree more with this. I work at a company that mainly hires blind people and you would be surprised how many blind people don’t use their cane and have limited social skills. It almost makes me wish that eugenics was a thing in this country.
Our neighbor next door is about 8 years old with Autism, really sweet kid but his parents allow this kid to absolutely go crazy throwing all his toys purposely at our windows and always climbing into our backyard. We have rose bushes on our side so that’s already dangerous. When we brought this up to his parents saying how dangerous it could be they just say oh he has autism he can’t help it… their older daughter (about 14 or 15) is the one always looking after the kid and coming over to our house to apologize and ask for the kids stuff back that he throws over. I feel really bad for her
Don't let horror movies and one bad person that may or may not exist sway your view of an entire group. I don't have schizophrenia, but I do have autism, so would you want to stay away from me just because the person in this story has autism as well?
Another killer video King 👑 Apologies for slipping a pun in their about the subject matter of the video. I simply could not help it, but do not let detract from the idea that I enjoyed the video and I am excited for the next one 👍
You know, if you guys keep watching the video over and over you can get as many sand dollars as you want. I've cracked the code! These things are legal tender, right? ... Right?
I hate hearing stories like this because as someone with ASD myself I worry this is how I come across in the games I play. I know that's probably silly and while I'm not a perfect player I don't think I'm that bad, but I have a hard time knowing and that scares me. The stabbing though.... Sheesh, this guy needed way more help way sooner and honestly his brother probably did too. I feel so sorry for that guy.
Most people with schizophrenia don't have symptoms until their teens or early 20s. I'm not saying this to defend the behavior. I have A LOT of toxic symptoms I occasionally do (if I'm not careful) with my own mental illness (Borderline Personality Disorder and PTSD) so I also don't mean to dismiss any understanding for him. I just figured I'd mention that symptoms if schizophrenia in children is rare. He likely didn't have any violent urges prior to these incidents.
Given how he was raised, he believed what he was doing was completely normal, and given how his mother flat out _encouraged_ it, it's no surprise he ended up becoming schizophrenic. Only ones I feel sorry for are Daniel (who had to put up with all this growing up), Cleric, Wizard, and the OP. To deal with someone who not only made a blatant rip off of Deathwing, but wanted to eventually BECOME Deathwing spoke volumes to both his mental state as well as his emotional state. It was going to end badly regardless. In the end, I will point the finger to the exploitative mother. That wasn't a mother, that's a monster breeding another monster. Hopefully John's getting the help he desperately needs, John and Daniel's father filed for divorce (assuming they were married), and Daniel has since severed all ties with her.
RIP Warlock, the fifth player character who apparently doesn't get your sympathy 😂😂 I'm joking but just found it funny you decided to name everyone except Warlock, as if they did *something* in this story. :P
10:54 Reminds me of when I was trying to host a campaign at school for my D&D club. Half the kids were too busy with watching My Little Pony videos while I was trying to be super interactive and fun with the other players. That was my first time dming and though I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I was trying to make my friends happy. They didn’t pay attention to me at all which lead to a DM mark I have to this day of constant worry that my players aren’t having fun. I mean I was being extra to make them giggle, I was acting out how the monsters were behaving in that situation, their moves were acted out on how they acted when they got wounded. I did silly little voices to try and make them laugh and the people who did pay attention really did laugh. It’s just- 2 people who did nothing and once their attack rolled around they went “Oh uh- I’ll attack this one.” Roll for it, and then go back to their video (after I called them 2 times to roll.) I tried to tell them to not watch videos but they wouldn’t listen to me. Even to this day when I’m DMing for my family I have this fear, to the point I don’t think I could be a good DM ever because the mark is still there and my own head will get in the way. I’ve been told I come up with fantastic stories like- I had this whole home brew world of 5 royal brothers and one was banished from their kingdom, driven underground and he created this whole new world and kingdom under the Earth. But their kingdom was threatened by their brothers and needed the aid of the heroes to help them. But my fear of not pleasing my players always gets to my head and I fall apart once the DMing starts. Both with the mark my first time dming left me alongside my mild anxiety and inability to keep my thoughts on one lane. I’m much better at being a player. Like that one time in Curse of Strahd where I took down the BBEG’s Brother with an onslaught of Sacred Flame and my Blessed Clockwork Pet that spit Holy Fire. That’s probably one of my favorite moments in D&D. A Cleric down to one HP, paranoid of getting knocked to 0 health, surviving for many rounds of just spitting holy fire at a vampire. All by myself, as my siblings were off in another room sneaking off (I was the distraction at the masquerade.)
If John prefers to call himself a person with autism, or with ASD that is up to him, but most autistic people (myself included) do prefer "Autistic person". Think of it how you might say "blind person" as opposed to "person with blindness". Other than that, I do appreciate OP's careful handling of the campaign. He did his best to accommodate John, and did not talk down to him. It's tragic that his schizophrenia led him to violence. I hope John gets the help he needs, and that OP has no lasting damage from the stabbing.
When it comes to staying off the phone while playing, I agree for the most part but with one exception. There are times that the party gets split for decent periods of time while in town and my character is not present when another player is getting an exposition dump relevant to their personal goal. To minimize metagaming, I ignore the conversation so that I don't learn something OOC I wasn't there to learn IC.
3:30 Not so sure about the dm's encounter. 8 swarms for a level 2 party? That's 184 HP! Also they have resistance to physical damage. They also deal 2d6 with a +2 to with hp being ranging from 14 to 30 for the party depending on con and class. Rats get weaker as they get lower, but the rats can down someone reasonably on the first turn, depending on how swarms are ran
John: *literally stabs his DM bad enough to get them hospitalized
Also John: So when’s the next campaign? :D
Jesus, I thought you were joking when I read this. Nope
Next campaign is after he’s done getting help
Why let a little murderizing get between us?
If he attacked me we both could be going to the hospital
John: The voices in my head really need to know!
Concept:
A chaotic evil character "being driven mad by the voice in his head," but that voice happens to be his consience, like Kreig from "Borderlands 2."
Actually, Krieg's "inner voice" is him BEFORE he was turned into Krieg by Handsome Jack's goons. I'd say the one closer to that concept is the "perfectly sane" psycho in Borderlands 3, who wears a tinfoil hat to quiet the voices being sent by satellites - voices that, strangely enough, are actually real, and used to... keep him sane. The very moment the vault hunter guns down the satellite receivers, he turns into an average Psycho, and gets filled full of holes by the main character.
In the pantheon, a lot of Tharizdun’s followers are insane people so it works perfectly.
"I'M THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN" Wass his first words to a girl he liked
@@alarkhar Yeah, but the "real Kreig" still acts as a consience, telling the crazy persona that if they ever harm someone who doesn't deserve it, he'll kill them both.
@@chaoscrow27 ah. He’s the “TURN AROUND, PRETTY LADY!!!” guy.
I love how last video he asked for more light hearted stories and his next one is about an irl stabbing 🤣
What? You've never had a light hearted and wholesome stabbing? Me neither, but those probably happen.
@@johnlastname8752 it isnt wholesome but, there is some hole... sorry...
@@DourdenAdam and if there's a hole, there's a way. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Holesome
@@DourdenAdam new hole somewhere
And that’s why I keep my online dnd/rpg friends well out of stabbing distance
After some of the stuff my party has talked the DM into in the name of 'rule of cool?' The Atlantic Ocean is feeling very narrow right now. Just for full disclosure, the worst rule-of-cool thing we've done was letting my totem of wild magic barbarian dual-wield a greataxe and a hand axe, because the random wild-magic rage trait I got gave my greataxe the 'light' trait. And yes, he's said it only got to happen once. Was cool as hell, though.
@@darkhawkgames that ain't so bad, my party ended the world by summoning the king in yellow. We were playing curse of strahd
@@SeventhSeraphOfficerRevolver What the fuck that's cool
@@SeventhSeraphOfficerRevolver Oh shit. Poor Strahd.
Some people can't i'm afraid. Online just doesn't cut it at times.
As someone with a lot of experience interacting with children and youths with ASD's, I have to put a pin in the first part of the story where op describes their childhood home environment. That at least one of their parents not only took advantage of their condition, but actively encouraged and drove them to a state of mental illness is both disgusting and uncomfortably common. I'm not surprised that they reacted violently to being told not to bully others. Those are likely the only social skills they were ever enabled to learn.
Yeah, I knew someone in a similar situation, except their parents would do everything for them and now they’ve realized they don’t know how to do anything for themselves because their parents would basically say that they’re incapable of doing anything for themselves because of ASD/OCD and now that they’re living on their own and having to learn how to do basic things, they’re constantly frustrated and depressed because nobody bothered teaching them and their parents claim to be too busy/say it’s too stressful to work with them on things. They’re embarrassed and ashamed of the fact that they’ve essentially been gimped by their parents, and the worst part is that their older sibling has ocd/asd as well and weren’t coddled in the same way for whatever reason. Also, at first when we (friends/older sibling) would try to help them learn they thought we were all just being assholes to them when really we just wanted to help and were upset that our friend was struggling so much because of how their parents raised them, and were usually surprised to find out the things they didn’t know how to do for themselves (cooking, cleaning, hygiene, self-care, etc.)
Thank you, this is so important!
My sister and I are both autistic and were homeschooled with barely any socialization. Learning those social skills was incredibly hard and to this day we struggle with emotional regulation. This stuff always starts at home and it can leave lasting scars.
Luckily I was able to move out and I'm improving. My sister will soon follow suit and I'll help her as much as I can!
(Sorry about the essay, I'm just very passionate about this subject)
As a person with autism myself, I find the mother despicable for letting her autistic child get away with that kind of shit. Just because a person has autism or any other kind of mental disorder doesn't mean that they can behave the way they want or be shielded from criticism. That kind of enablement is how we get Chris-Chan like people in our society
just wondering, since in this place more people are saying ASD instead of autism, is the word autism wrong to say, or it's more because ASD is a better technical definition?
@@Arlesmon It really just depends on who you are talking to. ASD is short for "Autism spectrum disorder". Just saying autism can seem to some as an over-generalization of the broad range of symptoms that can present. While some consider the autism spectrum as just lumping a bunch of often unrelated conditions into the "I don't know what it is, so just throw them all into the same pile" category. It's complicated.
John's father better have paid for DM's medical bills. That's all I'm gonna say about this story.
Unless they were american...what bills?
@@WolfODonnelfan I fully believe this was set in America based on the comment about the Cleric not being able to afford their meds. Unfortunately thats a very Murica thing.....
@@helalokischild6316 extremely american
@@WolfODonnelfan the bills the insurance pays in european countries
@@helalokischild6316 I live in country with national healtcare, but without creativity I wouldn't be able to afford my meds either. You pay substantial amount of your salary (or your employer does if you're not self-employed, but in many cases employers encourage self-employment), but as we have about 2 doctors per 1000 people, you can wait many months or even couple years in some cases (eq psychotherapist) and the quality is far inferior to private ones, because it's not uncommon for doctor to just wave a hand and tell you that they can't help, so you have to go for private visit. Private visit costs from 150-300, where average net salary is about 3500 and average rent 2k for studio. Fortunately after corona started, some guys created service where you can get prescription for meds of choice. Of course you don't get the help of doctor, so if it's not medication you regularly take for long time (and you'd have to pay 230 in my case for prescription alone) I wouldn't reccomend using that service.
John should have been named Grendel, because his mother is a monster for indulging his behavior
*encouraging
Thats a deep cut right there
@@WarriorKalia THIS TBH.
@@alexanderthegreat6682 aren’t they synonyms?
Honestly with the way John seems to be constantly terrified, defensive, and angry, it makes me wonder if she’s done more than indulge his violent tendencies. At the bare minimum, she’s been rewarding him for his outbursts by teaching him to “play it up” for benefits.
This story is the peak example of "it explains it, but doesnt excuse it". Mental health is not something to take lightly, and absolutely not something to just write off as "it's fine because he's ___". They need to be given help and be held accountable, not just shrugged off. Not saying it's the same for everyone with mental issues, but in cases like this, they need the help before they go too far, and just saying "that's how john is" like his mom said at the beginning is the worst move you can make. And people that use their own issues to get away with things is also just wrong. If anyone pulls the "but I'm _" card, that does not excuse them from any poor action, just gives an explanation for why it occurred. They need help to make sure it doesnt occur again.
Again, this is not an everyone thing, since as our crab said, a lot of mentally ill are the nicest people you'll meet. But this is primarily referring to ones similar to what we see most of the time in these horror story videos, and a little bit from personal experience with a one-time friend
That's exactly how I explain stuff to people. A combo of childhood trauma related PTSD and ADHD explains the 25 and counting years of abuse from my stepdad to me, but doesn't excuse it. The only thing that makes it not as bad as it sounds is that he's spent at least 20 of those years working super hard to overcome his problems. He cares for me, but his mental issues rarely let him show it.
I tend to explain to people that my PTSD and BPD (or my Asperger's, ADHD, or ODD) caused the actions and how that happened (my body often reacts before my mind can catch up - it's a pain in the ass). That being said, I feel others can decide to shrug it off or leave. I'm not entitled to have anyone in my life just because my actions are more difficult to control for me than it can be for others. If they're pissed, they're allowed to be.
That's something I get into a surprising amount of arguments about.
An explanation does not equal an excuse. And if they start using it as an excuse, they're not going to put in the hard work to change it, and it's going to keep going.
The explanation just shows what needs to be worked at. It's not going to be easy, but it's not an excuse.
100% this! I have ASD (formally known as Asperger’s syndrome in my case) and some of the kindest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing have Down syndrome. I distinctly remember a kid from Secondary school who was such a delight and was adored by most, if not all of the students in said school. He was rarely seen without a smile and loved Scooby-doo and could talk about Scooby for hours. I hope he’s doing well, been a good 20 years or so now since I last saw him.
I have ASD and this was exactly how my mom always told me to look at it. My ASD makes it very difficult for me to control my emotions, so it's an explanation for how I react in certain situations. However, how I respond to my emotions is ultimately my choice. I can't choose not to be upset in an upsetting situation, but I can choose to leave and cool down without doing or saying anything rash.
As someone who is high functioning ASD, this was actually kind of depressing to hear. I've been becoming more interested in DnD because of a friend and I hope that I can have a great time with a group someday. I hope John gets the support he needs.
same here, though I'm not very social and would have difficulty even finding a DnD game to join. It would probably also take me a session or two just to start getting used to the group, and even then I know I probably wouldn't contribute very much or get very involved in the whole roleplaying portions haha
Same here. Best of luck, friend.
I started on roll20. That way you can fidget quietly in the background, and the lack of eye contact makes it easier to let your guard down and socialize.
@@nomisunrider6472 Thanks. I recently bought the Player's Handbook and am reading through it (yes all of it) before I begin to take the idea of playing seriously. I have a few characters in mind to brew up so far. A Tabaxi rogue (based off my cat), a human fighter, a elf possibly Druid, a Dragonborn Barbarian or Paladin, and an elf or human Cleric. Just getting to classes now in the handbook at the time of this comment.
your mindfulness and worry is proof that you'll be great at respecting your group and having a good time
yeah as someon with high-functioning ASD I can say we are emotionally live-wired, and prone to repetitive behavior patterns, and are very much creatures of habit........but stabbing people with knives is still something he can be legally held accounted for.
Precisely
you're 100% correct. having a mental disabbility is not an excuse to stab someone and people with mental disorders still need to be held accountable for things that are problematic. Fidgeting or having uncontrollable outbursts, even intrusive thoughts, are completely different from doing something like stabbing someone
Whew. Yeah, I’m glad John is getting help. Hopefully the cat has been removed to a safer home at least until John is shown to have addressed his rage.
No. The cat should NEVER be given back to John under any circumstances.
@@WobblesandBean Couldn't agree more. Yeah, the cat may have been adopted to help him, but when the cat got away, fearing the anger issues, that is when we draw the line.
Cats can help in many ways, but as far as this issue was going, he would only beat up the cat to "control his anger issues". Unless this guy actively tries to change, there is no way he can take care of another life.
@@lucaspiazentin1052 Extremely important thing there: when you have a pet, you are responsible for it. If it's not safe with you, sucks to be you but you do what's good for the cat, not yourself. If you want to care for something so bad pick up a plant.
Signed, a dude who had to give up a dearly beloved cat due to depression because I couldn't care for my kitty's upkeep along with mine.
@@neoqwerty I am deeply sorry for your situation and I do hope you got better. I hope the cat is alright as well and, one day, you may be reunited. More than that, I respect you for making such a hard decision. Ir is a tough choice and not everyone is ready to make it.
At least, as far as I can tell, you also made this decision without having to stab someone, unlike John.
@@lucaspiazentin1052 Yeah, I hope he's happy too! And that whoever adopts him spoils him rotten, he's a sweet cuddlebug. (The shelter I signed him off to- the only choice in town- basically disallows re-adoptions for surrenders by former owners and bans the surrendering owners from adopting a new cat in general for 10 years, so... No, we won't be reunited. Those policies are in place so people don't just dump pets and adopt others like trading in games.)
I do appreciate the thought, though! I'm doing better (depression can be symptomatic, not just a mental illness on its own or as a co-morbidity, and it's often a symptom of an undetected neurodivergence) though I'm trying to get a neuropsych appointment scheduled to find if it's ASD or ADHD or something other.
And good news! You're correct and I haven't stabbed anyone, the worst I do when I'm frustrated is, uh, well, I hiss like an angry cat. (That's what happens when you raise a baby and a litter of kittens simultaneously.)
Me: waiting for the April Fools joke.
CritCrab: THIS IS NO JOKING MATTER
People with mental illnesses and cognitive and emotional disabilities CAN learn to exercise some level of control over their behaviors; often, it requires consistency across all environments, and even then can be dicey, depending on their level of impairment; Jon, having been raised to not control his negative outbursts at home was going to have troubles doing so anywhere else, because his home life sets the baseline for how he expects to be responded to, when he acts out...
Although yes people can learn self control. Unlike things like depression, schizophrenia is a neurological mental disorder. Which means there is a chance they had a lot less control than you'd think. The whole things of schizophrenia is actually not being able to think, feel, or behave clearly. It also doesn't show up sometimes will later in like like in your 20s and 30s. So even though some of it might be self control. A lot of it being a problem probably stems from the family either willfully ignoring that it's something that runs in the family, or being ignorant to the signs of John needing help. Now that he's getting the help he need hopefully he will have more control over himself and hopefully one day be able to recognize what he did was wrong.
Both my younger brother and I have ASD. I wasn't diagnosed until much later than him though. I was my brother's defender because I wouldn't let my dad and grandma pull the "it is just the way he is" crap. To me, they were looking down on my brother, I knew my brother could do better, and I wouldn't stand for their bs. They bullied me, a child at the time, because my brother ended up respecting my voice more than theirs. I got good at talking my brother through situations when he gets upset by a misunderstanding
@@clarehidalgo ^ This. Giving autistic individuals a free pass to act horribly means they think they are mindless things incapable of complex thought or self control. It's appalling. That's how you end up with endless violent tantrums and dangerous adults who inflict physical harm, like this guy. Except in rare cases of profound autism, anyone can learn to manage their own behavior.
@@clarehidalgo I wish more siblings were like you, willing to defend one another, I'm glad you stood up for your brother, even in the face of authority, also I'm sorry they treated you two that way and i hope you two got, or will get the help you need
@@MamieBabi Nope. Having mental illness, regardless of what kind, is an explanation, NOT an excuse. When a schizophrenic person knowingly and deliberately goes off their meds, they become morally and criminally responsible for any harm they cause while out of their right mind.
Here I thought you'd do the april fools thing you did when "THE GUY STABBED ME, AND I FUCKING DIEEEEEED" too bad.
I agree, I was thinking that too.
God I wish
I hope they didn't let John keep his cat. Enacting physical violence on one person already and thinking about it on another, I hate to think how he might react to thinking the cat wasn't reciprocating his love when the DM was out of the equation.
My concern is if they had pets in the past and what happened to them. I can't help but feel concerned by the willingness to use a knife on people and punish a pet out of jealousy.
Considering the dad didn't bother to address the problem until he himself was in danger, even after his sun knifed someone, I'm not liking the odds that he had other pets that didn't last long. If you get what I mean.
Hope the cat is in the care of good people.
When CritCrab posed the question, "Who do you think John is going to stab? (a) The DM; (b) Daniel, his brother; (c) The Cleric?"
I was like, "Oh the DM for sure."
Then the story introduced two kittens and I immediately paused and paniced "DONT U FUCKING DARE TELL ME HE STABS THE CAT I SWEAR TO GOD PLEASE." I was legitimately scared to continue listening, as if by not pressing play on the video, the cat would never be stabbed. Luckily, the comments slightly hinted to the DM being stabbed and I found one comment that said the cat was "hopefully somewhere safe" so I was able to finish the story.
Whew, stabbing is scary but I can brace for it... unless its to a cat. A kitten. Absolutely not. That hurts to even think about so much.
One does wonder how a cat figured it out in a few days, while his family(?) didn't, it's as if they are complicit in doing something terrible to the kid that led to those very mental issues.
@@XoIoRouge Me, in the comments section, video paused, making sure the kitten isn't about to get hurt...
I mean, doesn't everyone have thoughts about stabbing their father, or mother, or whichever parent hurt them the most? It's different cause he has shown he's capable of acting on it, but I think it's very normal to have intrusive thoughts about physically hurting or killing the person who traumatised you
That idea of the main enemy being rats gave me the idea of a minor BBEG who’s some primal nature spirit of rats and rodents angry that the first thing adventurers do is kill giant rats lol
Here's an idea: the plane of rats and disease of Richemulot.
It's a Domain of Dread from Shadowfell, where rat swarms and wererats, commanded by Jacqueline Renier, spread a terrible disease that have fatal results in few days. This disease shrinks the population of the towns near her palace/castle and avoid rebbelions against her iron fist. The Domain is detailed on Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and there are many videos explaining how you can simply drop this mini-campaign on your party
Since it is a Domain of Dread, all it takes is the Mists to swallow the party and the party looking for an escape. Since the strongest enemies are wererats, it can be done for low-level parties.
another option, the minor BBEG is just a bunch of highly intelligent rats stacked on top of each other and pretending to be a human. Perhaps the rat that speaks was actually a human that was somehow transformed permanently into a rat, but maintained its intelligence and somehow gained the ability to control rats like a hive mind. Now it is seeking revenge, as well as any way to return to its original form.
Is his name Bruno by any chance?
5e dagger: boring
Irl dagger: RUN AWAY
thats why we took it from a d4 to d6 in all our games.
Most people only have 1d4 health irl so it makes sense
IRL, like in 5e, 1d4 against commoner HP is no joke.
1d4+3 is a level 1 character with a dagger, 4hp is a commoner
@@sailorgallifrey1365 hit points are defined as the number of military cannon shells a hull can take
My brother had some small similarities with this story. One of my brother’s friends who used to live with him adopted two of our cats(We still have an excess of Cats) and took them to his house where my brother also lives, he never took care of his Cats, never fed them, changed their litter box, instead this guy waited for his room mates to do it when the house started to stink, my brother got tired of this guy. (He had no Job, took his friends money, never took care of pets, and was an absolute Douchebag) and kicked him out, and the guy had the AUDACITY to say “You don’t pay rent, you can’t tell me what to do!” The thing is... My brother paid the majority of the rent, and he was getting yelled at by a guy who paid none it as he lived there! Him and his Roommate kicked this guy out.
TL;DR A douchebag never took care of his pets, never got a job, and bossed people around, and my brother kicked him out.
I was sharing an apartment with 2 people. 3 BR 2 BA. I put down the security deposit, first and last months rent, and $300 of groceries for the first month. One of the roommates had their girlfriend move in, saying she was only going to be there for a few weeks. No big deal. Except it was a lie. She was going to live there. Fine. She wants to stay? We split rent 4 ways. They've got a problem with that. They want to split their portion (1/3rd) between themselves. Problem is. They're eating the food I paid for, GF has no job, and she's eating all the meat for day time snacks while everyone's at work.
So I went to management, told them I was moving out, and got them to agree to keep the security deposit to move the couple into a 1 BR apartment. Me and the other person left. It was going to be a recurring theme if we had stayed. No sense spending your whole paycheck on food you're not going to be able to eat.
11:00 I have ADHD and have both DM’d and been a player. Getting distracted on my phone was a NIGHTMARE to try and stop doing. Honestly, my best recommendation is a Fidget Cube. It’s so good to keep your attention on the game while still idly playing with something :)
A sketchbook is useful for the artistic people as well. I like making little doodles related to the campaign.
I LOVE a fidget cube. Don't have ADHD but I do struggle focussing and a fidget cube makes meetings and certain dnd sessions so much easier.
As someone who is (likely to soon be diagnosed as well) agree, found that also taking notes describing what is going on helps me pay closer attention.
Luckily, adderall and caffeine was enough for me. What sucked was I didn’t know I had ADHD growing up. The signs were there and my mother refused to get me treatment. I kept failing at a school I fought hard to get into and it was making me anxious. The psychiatrist took like 5 minutes to diagnose me and prescribe medication and I was able to finish school (barely).
Turns out if I could actually study, I don’t have problems.
Your name sounds kryptonian. It’s cool :).
"cleric had depression and didn't always have the financial means for his meds"
Murrica moment.
AMERICA FUC YEA
.......I just took 15 points of damage from how much I relate.
that's all murica is best at.
1 stealing your money,
2 killing you when you try to rebel
silence with your true statements
[RELATABLE HIT!]
UHHHHHH WHAT?! Ok, I'm definitely curious after reading this title lol
@i know that ♿️♿️♿️♿️
Are these two comments above me spam?
@@valivali8104 Not a bot lol
@@certifiedautist5387 you two wrote your comments in similar way as some spams: first one gives link/praises some service etc. and at least one other account is agreeing/praising too.
@@valivali8104 I type the ♿️ to make fun of people who spam
As soon as he wanted a voice in his head for his character I shouted out,”Is this dude going to be schizophrenic?”
Answer: yes
What do you mean? I’m not trying to sound aggressive or something lol but is this implying that schizophrenic people are bad or something?
i’m just asking because the way it’s phrased it seems like “oh of course he’s schizophrenic!” yk? If that makes sense
@@rei8694 no but a common symptom of schizophrenia is hearing voices so when he had HIS CHARACTER hear voices i immediately thought of it. Then at the end it turned out the real player was diagnosed with it i was not as surprised
Also, I want to correct the crab a bit here: schizophrenia can (and usually does) progress with age and it doesn't become lighter on a person. Its just a sad story, the only people accountable for the situation are John's parents and poor treatment.
@@KolLolization no at some point you have to be held accountable for your own actions it is a explanation not a excuse
For everyone that is rightly wondering if John's cat is okay, I scoped out the OP on Reddit (just did a Google using the name in the video description). Apparently John's cat lives with Daniel and John's mother so that John can visit it, and that neither cat was harmed during these incidents.
Yes. At some point, depending on what or how severe a mental illness and incident is, you still must be responsible for your actions and if you're AWARE of possible triggers or the feeling of a breakdown coming, you must be able to regulate your emotional response at least long enough to remove yourself from the situation.
I lived with a girl that thought her BPD made her cuter and quirkier, so she refused to get help and would constantly neglect her medication expenses in favor of vanity and entertainment. Despite my immense patience developed over years dealing with SA trauma, anxiety and severe depression ( which I told her about when we moved in to let her know if I happened to get into a mood and ask to be left alone ), she was prone to extreme bursts of emotion and eventually caused me to have a PTSD response (sexual aggression is often a symptom of BPD). She should have known better. And after that fight things only got worse until she made me homeless in negative weather when I was at work.
Tl;Dr - Mental illness can only explain or excuse so much before enough becomes enough.
Very true! To an extent anyway, some people can’t see the world like that, and at the end of their brain development with no good intervention, they sometimes may never be able to.
To me the most important thing is whether there’s sometimes guilt after doing something awful, and if not then they’re just the worst and should be avoided. My dad and sister have BPD (assuming u mean borderline personality disorder and not bipolar disorder), and they’re a trip sometimes. I can’t say they were always perfect or even always good but, I do love them anyway because they’re good people under that disorder (neither of them ever got help or anything because my dad thinks it’s stupid and my sister tried once and was convinced her therapist insulted her by asking if she wanted to go to college(she could’ve I wasn’t there so)). Ofc it’s different with family haha
I’m really sorry that happened to you that sucks major ass. She sounds like an terrible person. I really hope you’re doing better now!! :(((
@@MayvaAva Thank you. I have a loving boyfriend and while I'm still homeless, I'm out of that toxicity. And yes I agree. Underneath a condition someone can absolutely be wonderful to be around. I was meaning to say more that just because you have a condition doesn't absolve you of a level of personal responsibility. And if you really can't control yourself at all, that's fine. But people don't have to endanger their own physical or mental help either for your sake. (Not YOU you. General you.)
@@MayvaAva And yes borderline personality disorder
So, in context of this story i think it's important for everyone to remember: while stories of mentally ill people hurting others because of mental illness are most emotional and best remembered, statistically mentall illness is something that makes you into more likely VICTIM rather than attacker
And mental illness never excuses or justifies an attack, no matter how bad it is. It NEVER will or should be an excuse. And never should be punished more lightly.
Source?
I was afraid John would harm a cat at some point
Same! As a cat lover, I thought for sure that the cat would of been harmed.
@Prey R No
@Prey R Wow thinking killing innocent animals is better than just hurting people is pretty messed up.
OP is hurt but alive, you really think it would be better if John would kill the cat instead giving OP scar? I hope you don't have any pets
@Prey R So since when humans are the mist important animal in the world? Where in the Universe it says that particular animal is better, more important than anything else and if possible it would be better if anything other died to avoid fucking scar
@Prey R You lack education. I think everything you just said is wrong, amazing. Human are in no way superior to other animals. Almost every animal on the planet can easily kill human, other animals also use logic, tools, learn and communicate. Morality isn't something that requires 110IQ to figure out because that would make gorillas and humpback whales much more intelligent than majority of people.
But whatever just make up shit that isn't true to prove your point that being hurt for a while is infinitely worse than killing innocent animal for no reason
But what about the cats? Did he take with him the cat that was scared of him? Poor kitty, he may have used it as a scapegoat for his anger issues
Let's assume Daniel told their father about how the cat felt and the father left the cat behind.
Love to see WoW in D&D, but this is a little… much… even for Nefarian’s lore in game. Like the dude was absolutely corrupted by the Old Gods, but honestly making a Deathwing esque character could be interesting, if it weren’t ripped straight from WoW imo
You mean like a dragon?
I know the problem player didn't have the right idea but I like the idea of playing a Dragonborn go with such a metal, evil-sounding name and defending it as they're a mercenary that needs to sound tough, not just to get jobs but to also intimidate targets.
Parella, the Aasimar Sorceress: We're here to help people, I think you calling yourself "Hellbreather" is making us that appealing to the masses.
Kurrudan "Hellbreather", Dragonborn Fighter: Well I suppose if you think we could break into a Beholder or Demon Lord's lair and introduce ourselves as "the nice patrol" and still command any amount of respect then by all means.
That would be such a fun character! An edgelord who *knows* he’s an edgelord, because he’s putting on an act lol
18:25 I dunno if this is a "correction" since I do agree neurodivergence is no escape from personal accountability, but I can attest (as a recovering schizo) that a psychotic episode can involve extreme and irrational paranoia. The narratives constructed during psychosis can diverge wildly and unpredictably from reality. Who knows what that kid thought was happening.
Check out gangstalking / "targeted individuals" - these are people who manage to fit every random look from passersby in the street into a narrative where a nigh-omnipotent global cabal is out to harass and gaslight them specifically. At my worst, I thought Gates, Obama and Musk were all teaming up to track me through satellites and traffic cameras. (Edit: oh yeah, and birds aren't real. Thankfully they were working for the resistance and would give me clues on where to go next)
If someone thinks that's the world they live in and then you somehow give them the idea that you're some kind of ringleader in a conspiracy to ruin their life? Fuck yeah that'd set them off if they have even a violent bone in their body.
If he's that reactive, he shouldn't be off his mood stabilizer
@Clare Hidalgo sounded like this episode is what led to the diagnosis. Before that they apparently somehow thought he was merely autistic. Hope he got the treatment he needs.
while this is totally true someone who had clear anger issues and extremely high support needs should not have been living with his brother and brothers partner.
@@thoughtsofadame1952 so he has high support needs but he shouldn’t have support, is what your saying lmao
So looney bin. Noted.
I like how I am now officially a Crab if I just clicked on the video, and ten seconds realize what the title said.
Join us.
Honestly I feel bad for John his mom screwed up his mind D: this however does not excuse his behavior
You're right. Mental health issues can often explain poor behavior, but never excuse it. As a person with mental health issues myself, my behavior is my responsibility, regardless of why I'm acting the way I am.
As an autistic, this story enraged and saddened me
Ugh
Just remember when you've met one of us, you've only met one of us.
As it is with any person of any type anywhere. Good luck getting people past group stereotyping. Everyone thinks they need an enemy it seems.
Spitting straight facts.
Same. I am also high functioning ASD and have only recently been getting into possibly trying DnD. Hearing this story honestly saddened me.
@@letsgetreal6402 people with schizophrenia are largely the same but that’s about it
@@tremorraygun2470 are they? Based on what?(genuinely asking) My aunt is schizophrenic and she's nutty as squirrel shit, but she's really sweet. She doesn't remind me of any of the schizophrenics I've seen interviewed in interrogations or like any of the nutters from crit's videos
17:43 as someone who’s first DnD character is a Kenku that can’t communicate without mimicking, and can’t say what’s on his mind, I felt your statement hard. Thanks CritCrab
I'm ASD, too. It's always refreshing to see that it's possible for my parents to have been worse at dealing with my condition than they were. John's mother was worse than mine, but not by that much. I'm lucky I found people out there with the patience to deal with me and help me control myself.
John's mom was the real villain here. Parents who see their children as a means of making money don't deserve to be parents.
Yeah seriously. From the second he said that I knew it was gonna be fucked up
I have my own mental health problems, and I agree. While I do feel bad for John and how he was set up by failure by his mother, and his actions are explained by his mental health problems, they are NOT an excuse. Especially when it involves involves violence, like cutting someone's hand open with a knife. And that goes double when, a month later, they send a discord message not to apologise, but to ask when the next session is. Holy shit.
I just hope he gets the help he needs. And of course, I hope everyone else is okay.
John's mom: "my son has autism, can I have money?"
The government: "sure, here's some assistance money, and you'll also need occupational thera-"
John's mom: "thanks for the cash, he's perfect as he is, we don't need any mitigating services"
John: *grows up to be uncontrollably violent*
As someone with "high-functioning" ASD, I feel like saying "high-functioning" is kind of misleading because it often can feel like I'm barely functioning at all. Not to justify anything said or done, but just as a little side note.
Did anybody else hear "we got cats" and immediately cringe while asking, "Oh god, is it dead?" I'm honestly still wondering about John's.
It’s probably ok. I doubt the dad would’ve let the cat be hurt after what he did and the cat wouldn’t be with john at the hospital
Former psychiatric healthcare worker here - yup. In general the mentally ill tend to be nicest people, unless symptomatic. Even more nice and kind if actively getting treatment. Yes including schizophrenics, which most of my experience is with.
As a Dragonborn Paladin enjoyer who’s actually named Daniel with a brother named John, I almost had a heart attack reading that first sentence lmao, my brother also has ASD too like wtf lmao. He doesn’t play rangers or Dragonborn but god damn this is freaky
On their own, both "leans on his own volatility to get his way" and "responds aggressively to the mere possibility of exclusion" are red flags intense enough to merit finding the nearest hills and running to them. Together, they become an infrared-level flag labelled "I actively create the conditions that escalate my own volatility" that all but demands immediate professional assistance. I have a lot of sympathy for John's circumstances, but the situation here was clearly a lot more than anyone involved could be expected to handle.
Oh well there's the problem right there. Red flags each on their own, but combined become infrared. They leave the visible light spectrum. Together they are invisible.
I don't allow phones at my D&D table, unless it's an emergency, also, I have severe depression and BPD, and it is true that a lot of metal people (like me) are kind people, but we have our ups and downs, some days are harder than others to controll the impulses, normally on those days I sit home and do nothing. This, however, is no excuse to stab someone.
I would rather enjoy the complete immersion of playing a bard.
.
.
.
:: Whips out a harmonica that I don't know know actually how to use OoC ::
While I do think DnD had some role to play in this, that being the cause of some serious stressors for John, it was not ultimately what John stabbed OP over. It was the cat. The cat John didn't take care of. The cat that he claimed OP made dependent on them and thus they were the bad guy. This is really, really psychotic behavior on John's part and I do hope he gets help. However, I think another facet to the issue was how he and his brother were raised. The mother was the one who allowed the behavior to persist due to her own greed. Had John been raised correctly, e.g. not encouraged to become explosive when things didn't go his way, he probably would not have become the man he was. At the very least, he would be at least a little better. I think this went far beyond just DnD and became a whole horror story on its own. But these are just my two cents on this story.
John: "Do I hear voices now?"
The Voices: "...no."
John: "Okay."
DM: "'What?"
John: "What?"
Crit crab: Uploads a horror story April 1st
Me: That's a joke right?
Crit crab:...
Me: that's a joke right?
A lot of stress and anxiety can trigger a psychotic break in anyone, people with Shcyzophrenia usually have heightened anxiety due to their paranoia but obviously it's not all of us. Yeah, I'm a paranoid Schiz and it can get pretty bad sometimes
I 100% disagree with no phones at the table or shutting it off. I explicitly use my phone to take notes, check rules, check spells and use the app that has my character sheet. I think it's better to say don't use your phone for thing unrelated to the session.
Its more of a "if you cant behave yourself" kind of thing with my group
Partially agree. The table I play also uses character sheets on the phones.
But also, sometimes we need to check the phone for emergencies or talking briefly with other people, such as boyfriends/girlfriends.
What made me pissed with this story is that he deliberately took the phone to play another game and one that demands attention and focus. THAT is very disrespectul. He was there to play a colaborative game and instead went to play a solo game by himself. I do play a lot of games on the phone, but during a session is absurd.
I think there is a blurred line on how much and what for you should check your phone. But to play another game while playing a TTRPG is a hard no.
The problem is not using the phone per say. It is that it became a burden for the other members of the table because of the noise and broken immersion. The audio in Pokemon go was very loud and the brother was always late when his turn came because he was too focused on the game on his phone.
When i as DM caught someone that bypass such rules get instant ban. No interessting on Meta-gamers in my games that google every monster they face. Also u dont need to know every rule; thats the DM's job. So for notes and sheet u dont need apps.
I might be the odd one out here but even if my brother had some form of mental illness I wouldn't be able to take them assaulting my SO lying down. There would be HEAVY repercussions
That nearly happened to my friend, his younger sister tried to stab him but if he tried to fight back he'd be the one who'd get in trouble because on his dad's side of the family, girls could do no wrong and boys were treated like dirt. Lucky for him, his older sister saved him then threw younger sister in the roller trash bin as a show of dominance. His family is so fucked up. Example: his grandpa payed him money to play in traffic as a child hoping he'd be hit by a car
If he tried to stab me he’d get the .45 acp three times over
18:02 I'm completely ok with that line. A mental disorder can explain why someone acted like they did, but should never be considered as an excuse to a bad behaviour. If you are having trouble with your mental health and are trying your best to live a normal life, you have my simpathy and my deepest hope you achieve it, because I've been there (not schizophrenia, in my case it was dissociative personality disorder), and it can be harsh, but I was able to keep it in check and not hurt anyone (also didn't help that I didn't know what I had, only when a friend told me about their own dissociative disorder and described how it felt, I was able to realize that I had been dealing with that without help, which isn't exactly the best way to do it, because due to lack of guidance, at first I didn't have the tools to cope with it in a healthy way, but ended up finding a way to deal with it long before I realized what I was dealing with). But there are people that use their mental disorders as a way to justify their behaviour and not trying to change the way they act when they hurt others, and that honestly makes me mad, because in my opinion, it's an insult to people that struggle every day with mental disorders, to what I had to go through until I was able to overcome it.
Also, outside of that, John's mother wasn't exactly mother of the year, using your son's disorder for financial gain while enabling their worst behaviour and making them think that it is natural to act like this certainly didn't have a great effect in their development, so, yeah, that's also quite creepy and makes me angry, because a parental figure should look after their child, to teach them and to hope for the best of them, not to use them for selfish reasons, that's not being a parent, that's being a parasite.
I myself am bipolar and sometimes it is very hard to control my emotions even with medication but I always make it a point to walk away from a situation before things get out of hand and I never blame my actions on my mental health. Yes I am bipolar but bipolar is not me.
I had weird people like this and I said once "Hey man like... this is getting weird. Do you not like one of us... or all of us. You appear to like the game but not us." then the guy is very offended calling me weird and insulting me and going full rage mode, and I am just sat there very calm "Yeah I am weird, that is why I am concerned. You are in a rage, I am sat here all calm and shit and the rest of the table is scared out of their god damn minds even though we are online.
We did all know each other and *could* get tougher but it would be a 45+ one way drive to get to a central location. and my house would be like an hour and a half away for some. The guy quit mid-session got hella thrashed drove to where I lived but could not find my house so he lit a dumpster close to my neighbourhood on fire. He was arrested with a DWI and some arson charges. Needless to say, he did not show up the next time we played.
I know it was him because he had a very distinctive car and... well that was the car they found, he also set that on fire, though likely that was accidental as he loved that damn car.
Holy shit dude
@@KoffingOnion I really hope he did something like find my house and just decide not to burn it down but still being violently angry and drunk just went for basic property destruction of no value hence why he burnt a dumpster.
It is still bad but that at least shows some thought of not wanting to harm people or cause real damage, he had to burn something so he burns shit people have thrown away, things they will not need to replace.
The fact that he was hospitalized for thoughts of stabbing his father and not for THE ACTUAL STABBING says a lot about the parents. They have been actively aggravating their son for profit and didn’t care until it blew back into them.
As a schizophrenic person who has it run in the family (5 of my direct family members including myself, and at least one cousin is confirmed) I can tell you I've never stabbed anyone. It's very much something they chose to do because they're a bad person.
The biggest thing I have noticed trying to find D&D group online is the sheer number of mentally ill people, fetishists, hardcore furries, and sexually obsessed people. I though Crit Crab was some sort of exaggeration, but it seems the majority of players I meet online fit into one of those catagories.
Sad because I've played many games and have had the opposite. I think you need to check your irl luck lol
@@Ghostcyborg71 Nat 1's all day baby! I probably need to find better places to look.
i'm shocked this guy avoided prison
He should be in prison. For at least 10 years. Such a shame.
I really thought he was going to stab the cleric. "You're safe from the manticores. But not from me!"
Yeah, rat swarms aren't scaled properly to levels nor are most swarms. Three swarms of Squirrels almost TPKed a party of level 11s in one of my campaigns. Also, on the subject of the actual video topic, why not have Luck get killed by someone else offscreen so John's obsession FINALLY ends?
Im assuming that Luck was important to the story(considering they had a twist reveal planned) and to be honest it likely didnt much matter if Luck had died and John would have likely directed his obsession elsewhere or he would have gotten angry at the DM for not letting him kill him.
@@fluidwolf Luck is always important in a dice rolling game, lol
3:30 My group had a running gag involving Rats when one of them used a spell that I forget what it was called, but it attacked the target's mind and they have to make an INT check and he used it on a rat and with how easy the spell would kill a rat since they have low INT, When the player joked that he would be surprised if the rat actually survived the spell, The DM joked that particular rat was like the God of Rats or something with super high INT and cries out "You fool!". Every time since then when we would encounter an enemy that's nothing too serious, we'd joke that they're actually as TVTropes would put it, "A Boss in Mook's Clothing" and go "You fool!".
Rat God be like: Omae wa mou shindariu!
A running gag in my family's game of werewolf the apocalypse is my character calling my brother's character an arson because he kept suggesting setting something on fire, and his character always drinking tea
This reminds me of the end of Skullduggery where Adams empty armor stabs the DM and the DM turns out to be Satan. Then Satans dead body flips off the camera. Favorite film.
That movie was the cinematic equivalent of an acid trip. Freaking wild and made no sense when it was over. 😂
This literally reminds me so much of my youngest brother (18), and its funny because I also have a brother named john, but hes good. I dont think my youngest brother has autism, but he definitely has some psychological issue. He's manipulative, entitled, angry, self centered, disconnected from reality at times, paranoid and least of all violent. But I cant do anything about it thanks to my mom who has assured me that she'll off herself if I call the police and she refuses to get him help because "they'll take him away." so even when hes stole from me, assaulted me, successfully or unsuccessfully stabbed me with whatever pointy thing he can find I cant do jack diddly squat. I cant go anywhere, so I'm just kinda stuck with it. So I feel really bad for the brother of this john guy, cause I know what its like being trapped with someone like that who can snap at anything. Feels good to get this out, I posted on ask reddit but they deleted the post because my situation is apparently too violent for their page so that felt just super.
And just as a preemptive note for any comments along such lines: Yes, I have called the police before but my brother can act totally normal around others, and my mom lies for him, so they convinced the police I was just picking on him, brotherly squabble. Then when he came back inside he threatened that if I call again he'll convince them I'm a criminal or just try to kill me. I blew it off, but I haven't called since because I know he's not lying. hes a master manipulator. I had evidence of his threats on my old phone but it was recently replaced and I didnt think to send those to my drive, but his threats are constant so it shouldn't be long before I can record another.
I genuinely hope John is getting the help he needs and is in a better place now.
In my experience as a player and Dungeon master: EVERYBODIES first ever D&D character is a self insert and often a reflection of how they see themselves... just in a fantasy setting. My first character was a half'elf noble swashbuckler rogue who started adventuring to escape his family problems because I felt like I didn't really belong with either side of my split family and was quite the "black sheep". I wasn't as much for sneaking about as I was for diplomacy and fighting when necessary so I thought a rogue that didn't need to sneak about as much was a perfect fit... and the half-elf race kinda speaks for itself if you know d&d
Weirdly enough, I try not to do self inserts.
You can go forever without stabby tendencies with schizophrenia and then have a bout of violence. It isn't uncommon.
0:49 that’s me, well not me, but that’s exactly what happened to me, litterally word for word. People who take advantage of us are sickos in their own right
I won't lie, I never quite get how DMs can have so much patience. This guy would have been thrown out of the games my DMs run the moment he started acting up.
What happened to the other kitten? I hope DM or John's dad has the kitten.
About schizophrenia, I mean, it can set in late in life, so yeah, it's possible this guy did go through life without stabbing anybody until then. And no, I'm not saying people with schizophrenia are usually violent, not at all. Just as you said, Critcrab, most people with mental illnesses are perfectly lovely people. I'd like to include myself, but that sounds too self-congratulatory, so I will simply say I do my best, and have never stabbed anyone.
poor kitty....hoppe it got to bless someone else with its healing calming spirit..
*sees title*
Alright then, time to strap in for this one.
This started as a typical RPG horror story, but then it turned into a crime report.
John is broken and needs help. No amount of beating will help him as the damage is neurological because of his selfish mother. She should be charged for how he turned out.
Still padded room would be a good idea with death row for the mum
Unfortunately that sort of thing is nigh impossible to prove in court.
I gotta say, though not being as intimately familiar with schizophrenia, as someone with ASD myself, from the sounds of it, he isnt "high functioning". His mom might've worsened his condition and he could've otherwise been, but some of these antics sound like someone who's more like medium functioning tbh. That said, I wholeheartedly agree with your point of keeping them accountable regardless of diagnosis, because otherwise how could we possibly learn and try to work on ourselves? Which I know at least for a lot of us (myself included) we very much want to
i cant help but think wtf, like yeah im kinda sad for john and empathise as i am also ASD, but i cant understand how stabbing someone was okay in his head and like he could get a pass from the dm and the dnd group for that since he has ASD...
like damn, its not the dm's fault he didnt take care of his cat. i have an emotional support cat and i treat him like my son, he is my baby, my sunshine, i take care of him all the time and sometimes my roommate does when im not home but like, he will always give me attention but sometimes will go sit with my roommate on the couch and i dont get jealous over it? like im glad the cat likes her, she is my friemd so im glad my cat likes my friend.
anyway, all that to say i do not condone at all johns behaviour and i hope he now has the help he needs. i do feel bad for him, but like, i totally take dm's side on this
for what its worth it was probably the undiagnosed schizophrenia rather than the ASD. ASD on its own usually doesn't cause psychosis. although its possibly he wasn't ASD at all because early symptoms of schizophrenia can look like ASD.
@@thoughtsofadame1952 yeah, but having ASD doesnt make you imune to psychosis, you can have more than one diagnostic, i have ASD with chronical manic and low depression and psychosis, but i guess my psychosis wouldnt be similar at all to his. i dont have schizophrenia either, they where sure of that when i saw the psychiatrist for a while.
"I don't like being left out" he says after separating himself from the group constantly and not caring about anyone else. To me it just feels like it's not about being left out, but about him not getting all the attention in the world.
Nope, don't turn phone off in-game. Emergencies happen. Silence your phone, or use it _for_ game. (I keep my char sheets online)
After "the game" I was actually terrified you were gonna say he stabbed and killed the cat... the actual relief! I know what happened still wasn't okay, but you hear a lot of stories like that and I was scared for the kitty T_T
Fuck, the minute the ESA Cat was introduced knowing the video's title and with the slow build up of menace and rage from John in the story I was sweating bullets something would happen there D:
I have had anxiety and PTSD issues so I can say your take is right about mental health issues.
There is no excuse for violence no matter what the issue is. There has been times I would have gotten physical but I knew that could have been the outcome so I removed myself from that situation.
As a mentally ill person with a therapy cat, the thought of locking him in my room like that hurts me. One thing about cats is that unlike dogs, you need to put actual effort into caring for them and making them trust you. Even though it can be hard, it’s well worth the effort, you just need to show them you care.
[ to anyone looking for a therapy cat, I’d recommend going to a shelter/cat cafe/ area where you can interact with the cat to see if it’s a good fit. Also, I’d recommend getting an adult therapy cat, as kittens will sometimes change their personality at adulthood, making them kinda unpredictable]
I had a player who was always on her phone. I think she may have needed to do it for anxiety or something. I used her as a resource. As I fumble with my phone when I try and look things up. I had her on my left so I could ask her to look things up for me on the fly. I appreciated the help 🙏
I got really concerned that he was gonna stab the cat when they were mentioned. My heart sank. Tragic that any stabbing happened, but glad it wasn't to an innocent pet
The takeaway for me is that parents should stop indulging their child's differences and eccentricities, and establish discipline early on. While they may have a legitimate condition, it doesn't mean give them a license to do what they want. If a child is deaf, they learn sign language. If they're blind, they learn how to maneuver around regardless. If they have behavioral problems, they learn to deal with it without stabbing people or they're going to have a bad time. Letting people do whatever the hell they want with the excuse they can't help it is not the way to address it.
As someone who is blind, has anxiety and depression, and autism, I couldn’t agree more with this. I work at a company that mainly hires blind people and you would be surprised how many blind people don’t use their cane and have limited social skills. It almost makes me wish that eugenics was a thing in this country.
Our neighbor next door is about 8 years old with Autism, really sweet kid but his parents allow this kid to absolutely go crazy throwing all his toys purposely at our windows and always climbing into our backyard. We have rose bushes on our side so that’s already dangerous. When we brought this up to his parents saying how dangerous it could be they just say oh he has autism he can’t help it… their older daughter (about 14 or 15) is the one always looking after the kid and coming over to our house to apologize and ask for the kids stuff back that he throws over. I feel really bad for her
That was a dicey tale, no matter how you slice it. Thanks for taking a stab at it, Crab.
Nice pun
Just like you, he jokes about someone almost dying. Both of you deserve harassment.
Moral of the story: don’t be friends with someone with schizophrenia
Don't let horror movies and one bad person that may or may not exist sway your view of an entire group. I don't have schizophrenia, but I do have autism, so would you want to stay away from me just because the person in this story has autism as well?
@@Jarack25 dude I’m autistic. The reason I want to stay away from schizophrenic people is because I’ve met 3 irl and all have been dangerous.
Another killer video King 👑
Apologies for slipping a pun in their about the subject matter of the video. I simply could not help it, but do not let detract from the idea that I enjoyed the video and I am excited for the next one 👍
I just need to know what became of "John's" cat! Is it ok? Did they keep it?
8 fall asleep to these videos. Idk why, just hearing the ocean waves in the background just make me knock out
Damn, lost my three sand dollars.
I thought it'd be the cleric.
Same, brother
You know, if you guys keep watching the video over and over you can get as many sand dollars as you want. I've cracked the code!
These things are legal tender, right?
... Right?
@@daviddaugherty2816 They are. But the places where they can be redeemed are so limited its ridiculous.
I hate hearing stories like this because as someone with ASD myself I worry this is how I come across in the games I play. I know that's probably silly and while I'm not a perfect player I don't think I'm that bad, but I have a hard time knowing and that scares me. The stabbing though.... Sheesh, this guy needed way more help way sooner and honestly his brother probably did too. I feel so sorry for that guy.
As someone with ASD myself. Screw the stabber he’s a jerk.
Yeah, that attempted murderer sure is a meany. He's kind of a loser, trying to kill someone.
Most people with schizophrenia don't have symptoms until their teens or early 20s. I'm not saying this to defend the behavior. I have A LOT of toxic symptoms I occasionally do (if I'm not careful) with my own mental illness (Borderline Personality Disorder and PTSD) so I also don't mean to dismiss any understanding for him. I just figured I'd mention that symptoms if schizophrenia in children is rare. He likely didn't have any violent urges prior to these incidents.
Given how he was raised, he believed what he was doing was completely normal, and given how his mother flat out _encouraged_ it, it's no surprise he ended up becoming schizophrenic. Only ones I feel sorry for are Daniel (who had to put up with all this growing up), Cleric, Wizard, and the OP. To deal with someone who not only made a blatant rip off of Deathwing, but wanted to eventually BECOME Deathwing spoke volumes to both his mental state as well as his emotional state. It was going to end badly regardless.
In the end, I will point the finger to the exploitative mother. That wasn't a mother, that's a monster breeding another monster. Hopefully John's getting the help he desperately needs, John and Daniel's father filed for divorce (assuming they were married), and Daniel has since severed all ties with her.
RIP Warlock, the fifth player character who apparently doesn't get your sympathy 😂😂
I'm joking but just found it funny you decided to name everyone except Warlock, as if they did *something* in this story. :P
Fun fact, did you know schizophrenia usually develops in children with emotionally abusive mothers, and emotionally absent fathers?
10:54 Reminds me of when I was trying to host a campaign at school for my D&D club. Half the kids were too busy with watching My Little Pony videos while I was trying to be super interactive and fun with the other players. That was my first time dming and though I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I was trying to make my friends happy. They didn’t pay attention to me at all which lead to a DM mark I have to this day of constant worry that my players aren’t having fun. I mean I was being extra to make them giggle, I was acting out how the monsters were behaving in that situation, their moves were acted out on how they acted when they got wounded. I did silly little voices to try and make them laugh and the people who did pay attention really did laugh. It’s just- 2 people who did nothing and once their attack rolled around they went “Oh uh- I’ll attack this one.” Roll for it, and then go back to their video (after I called them 2 times to roll.) I tried to tell them to not watch videos but they wouldn’t listen to me.
Even to this day when I’m DMing for my family I have this fear, to the point I don’t think I could be a good DM ever because the mark is still there and my own head will get in the way. I’ve been told I come up with fantastic stories like- I had this whole home brew world of 5 royal brothers and one was banished from their kingdom, driven underground and he created this whole new world and kingdom under the Earth. But their kingdom was threatened by their brothers and needed the aid of the heroes to help them. But my fear of not pleasing my players always gets to my head and I fall apart once the DMing starts. Both with the mark my first time dming left me alongside my mild anxiety and inability to keep my thoughts on one lane. I’m much better at being a player.
Like that one time in Curse of Strahd where I took down the BBEG’s Brother with an onslaught of Sacred Flame and my Blessed Clockwork Pet that spit Holy Fire. That’s probably one of my favorite moments in D&D. A Cleric down to one HP, paranoid of getting knocked to 0 health, surviving for many rounds of just spitting holy fire at a vampire. All by myself, as my siblings were off in another room sneaking off (I was the distraction at the masquerade.)
If John prefers to call himself a person with autism, or with ASD that is up to him, but most autistic people (myself included) do prefer "Autistic person". Think of it how you might say "blind person" as opposed to "person with blindness". Other than that, I do appreciate OP's careful handling of the campaign. He did his best to accommodate John, and did not talk down to him. It's tragic that his schizophrenia led him to violence. I hope John gets the help he needs, and that OP has no lasting damage from the stabbing.
Same here. I also dislike functioning labels
Poor John. Poor Daniel. Poor DM. Cripes. It makes me so upset
@@nasir6r996 Yes, I also don't like functioning titles. By the end of the video I forgot they mentioned "functioning", but I did notice it
When it comes to staying off the phone while playing, I agree for the most part but with one exception. There are times that the party gets split for decent periods of time while in town and my character is not present when another player is getting an exposition dump relevant to their personal goal. To minimize metagaming, I ignore the conversation so that I don't learn something OOC I wasn't there to learn IC.
Is the cat safe?
3:30
Not so sure about the dm's encounter. 8 swarms for a level 2 party? That's 184 HP! Also they have resistance to physical damage. They also deal 2d6 with a +2 to with hp being ranging from 14 to 30 for the party depending on con and class. Rats get weaker as they get lower, but the rats can down someone reasonably on the first turn, depending on how swarms are ran