Category Archives: Stereotypes/Blason Populaire

Induction Pranks of Passage TTRPGs

The Informant

GL is a long time tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) player with years of experience as a Game Master (a special role in TTRPGs). When I first asked about Induction Pranks in TTRPGs, GL had some time to discuss with some other members of the community before our interview.

The Text

The informant reports a few different induction pranks and common shared experiences that qualifies someone as a member of the TTRPG community, distinctly differentiating two sets between GMs and players. For Game Masters, the common experience is dealing with the first problem player, a whole subset of narrative genres emerging from this experience can be found on the subreddit r/RPGHorrorStories. The informant cites chaotic and evil player characters, which is a distinct tradition of D&D alignment stemming from Original Dungeons and Dragons. When he exchanges stories with other GMs, while telling success stories can be fun, tales of how terrible a particular player was to work with is an effective way of relating to each other. For players, while the informant reports that the community is generally averse to gatekeeping in recent years due to the nerdy and niche reputation and history the game has, he recounts how older players in the OSR community will put new players through the “death funnel,” a meat grinder dungeon that will kill several player characters to get the player accustommed to the brutal game style of older games. We discussed how this reflects a cultural shift in the TTRPG landscape in the modern age where players become more attached to their characters and think of themselves as the hero of the story whereas older D&D is more about the dungeon crawl, with any given character not expected to live through the story.

We then talked about unique signifers of the TTRPG player identity, such as maps and miniatures, which led to our discussion of how conversely, despite being a “tabletop” game, most TTRPGs can be played without a map or grid or any miniatures at all with the “theater of mind,” which we agreed was very unique to TTRPGs as wargames tend to rely on a grid or map and the miniature sets. Extending from that, we discussed how owning a set of dice can identify a TTRPG player, particular the 20-sided dice, which is hardly ever used for any other game and iconic to D&D. If someone owns a cohesive themed set of dice from 4-sided to 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20, then that is a sure certain sign of a TTRPG player. In a way, the moment a player buys their own set of dice instead of borrowing someone else’s indicates a commitment and thus induction to the community. The other example he talked about was creating one’s own first character, which players nowadays are more likely to be attached to as mentioned earlier. Even though the character may never be played in an actual game, a TTRPG player can likely be identified by their excitement to share their character ideas, character sheet build, or even stories involving that character from a game.

Analysis

This was a particularly interview as the informant came prepared, giving a blason populaire about his own ingroup of fellow GMs and particularly problematic players who play chaotic and evil characters, citing a specific experience that identifies a particular community. Older players also have an “induction prank” for newer players when playing older systems to shatter their idea of TTRPGs before welcoming them to the experience, but it’s also interesting to note that this hobby doesn’t try to gatekeep newcomers with anything that could be qualified as hazing. Aside from the “death funnel” and Gary Gygax’s Tomb of Annihilation dungeon designed to kill player characters, we both thought of a particular video as an another example of this “induction prank” in D&D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmNThMZJ1U

“Off record,” he joked that the real hazing is letting new players play 5th edition (a particularly divisve version of the game he dislikes but is otherwise a popular gateway game), but he notes that many other players in the community would disagree with the sentiment of the joke. Noting the uniqueness of TTRPG dice sets, a rite of passage presents itself in the form of buying the first set of dice, an example of Stuart Hall’s reception with the expression of community membership identity performance via consumerism. We laughed about how cheap it is to actually buy a dice set (you can get like a pack of 10 sets of 5 dollars), but at the same time, nobody else would bother with buying such a set of dice.

Less materialistic indications of membership are player characters, where a newcomer exploring the hobby might borrow a prebuilt character while TTRPG players committed to the hobby will not only have the knowledge to build their own characters but be actively invested in them as a proxy of themselves that they would like to roleplay as. In a sense, this is akin to a fantastical identity localized within this particular hobby or at a particular table, and modern players who focus more on the epic narrative of a band of heroes on an adventure invested in the safety and prosperity of their characters as an extension of the performed identity of the self. This is comparable to the process of an initiation ritual for community membership.

Story About a Priest at a Wedding Party

Nationality: Irish

Occupation: Horse Race Track Manager

Residence: Waterford, Ireland

Language: English

Text:

Back in the day Murphy got married, but he hardly remembers it because of how much he had to drink, oh far far too much. At one point during the ceremony the priest came over to him and said “Murphy you are drunk” and Murphy said “how do you know father?” and the priest said “Because you are lying on the floor”. Murphy looked up at the priest and said “that may be true, but the best man is drunker than me” and the priest says “don’t you mean ‘drunker than I’?” and Murphy says “no father, nobody is drunker than you”.

Context:

When my aunt told me this story, she acted like it happened at a wedding that she went to as a child growing up in Dublin; only when I pressed further did she admit it was a story she heard, not one she observed. It is unclear if there was a specific wedding that this actually happened at, but the story had been passed down from her mother, and her friends had heard similar stories elsewhere. When I pressed more, she said that one of her friends heard that story but said it happened in Kerry (in the West of Ireland), and if the story took place there that would feed into stereotypes Irish people have about Kerry.

Analysis:

The way that my aunt acted like this story had happened at a wedding she went to reveals a lot about Irish communities. The idea of a priest being drunk at a wedding is funny, but the story works as a joke because it isn’t completely unreasonable. In many parts of Ireland (less so in Dublin, which is how I knew the story wasn’t a true experience of hers), the priest is a major part of the town’s social network, where he would know everyone and be at any major event like a wedding. However, a priest would also be willing to join in the celebration, which opposes their day to day holy life. Many people in rural Ireland have experienced priests acting in a very normal way outside of their holy work, but this is generally not talked about; this joke is a way of bringing up how priests are human just like everyone else.

Wolf of Wall Street’s got nothing on this…

Nationality: African American

Primary Language: English

Other language(s): French

Age: 65

Occupation: Management Consultant

Residence: Upstate, NY

Performance Date: 4/20/2025

Context: 

My informant, WB, is a family member of mine who lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York. For a while now, I’ve known WB to be quite amazing at spending money, teaching me over the course of my life the concept of not wasting money on things that won’t be intrinsic in some capacity, or I’d end up like ‘another man on the street.’ Now, I always wanted to know what they meant by ‘man on the street,’ and it turns out it wasn’t a saying, metaphorical expression, or proverb, it was a reference to a stereotype they hated, yet held dear: 

Text: 

“Men are better with money than women. Now I don’t believe that but it’s something I grew up hearing. I come from a matriarchal family of successful women who oversaw and currently still oversee the family finances and the family business. They have all fared well and have been given the respect of being good with finances by their male family members and spouses especially. I think that saying came from an attempt for men to control women, like historically. We can look back in history and see when a man married a woman, her riches became his to control. Specifically in the most recent history, Colonial America, who followed the laws of their mother country; husbands controlled the woman’s property!!!” 

Analysis: 

So, this piece reflects a common gender-based folk belief which operates more as a social myth or stereotype than a truthfully grounded in experience. Now what’s compelling here is how the informant challenges the saying from both a personal and historical perspective. They come from a matriarchal family, where women not only handle finances but have consistently done so with success and respect. That alone functions as a counter-example that refutes the original saying and exposes it as culturally constructed rather than inherently true. However, I’ve definitely heard of this stereotype in my own life too, and of course, being related to WB, I never believed it either. The informant then takes it a step further by providing some slight historical context that reveals how the proverb wasn’t just a reflection of beliefs at the time, but also a tool used to justify inequality. And of course, in my research, and general experience in American history courses, yes, this stereotype was used tangibly to oppress women in colonial times and even still now in the digital age. Sadly some things never change. Though what I find most powerful here is that WB doesn’t just dismiss the saying they expose its function as control and offer real evidence from their family to disprove it. This turns the proverb into a kind of anti-folklore, still resembling folklorism though, a saying that survives culturally, even when it’s contradicted by lived experience. It’s also a good example of how folklore can be deeply personal and political at the same time, and how challenging traditional sayings can be part of reclaiming cultural and historical agency.

‘El Cipitio’

Age: 48


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: Spanish


Nationality: Latino/a


Occupation: Caregiver


Primary Language: Spanish


Residence: United States

Text:

  • El Cipitio is a legendary character from Salvadoran folklore portrayed as a 8-10 year old boy with a large conical hat and a pot-belly.

Context:

  • ‘El Cipitio’s’ name is derived from the Salvadoran word for child, “cipote” translating‘El Cipitio’ to ‘The boy’. Cursed by the god Teotl, Cipitio was condemned to live eternity as a small boy with backwards feet. He is known to be a trickster, wandering into farmers fields, throwing pebbles at beautiful ladies, hiding in bushes to scare people, and eating ashes leftover in rural kitchens.

Growing up in the rural parts of El Salvador, my informant has heard various stories about the Cipitio. Considering their family always cooked in lumber fueled stoves, when ashes laid scattered the day after cooking, the fault would always lay to ‘El Cipitio.’ Or whenever foot prints would lead to no suspecting figure, it would be perceived as a trick from ‘El Cipitio’ and his backwards feet.

My informant interpreted these stories from ‘El Cipitio’ to explain some of the oddities of life, or some of the things children would do but would never explicitly take fault for.

Analysis:

I interpret ‘El Cipitio’ as a legendary character who is just meant to be an entertaining factor in life. Made to make light of some oddities and serve as a easy cop out for things we just aren’t able to explain. I find that he is made to represent childish wonder and all that makes up being a kid growing up. In term, I believe that he is meant to represent the literal sense of a child, a boy to be exact as he is described to do some of the ‘stereotypical’ actions of a boy at his age.

Mexican Fork – Joke

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Undergraduate Student at the University of Southern California
Residence: Icon Plaza Apartments in Los Angeles, CA
Language: Chinese

Text:

Use your “Mexican Fork”

Context:

“Sometimes, when my family is eating food–and of course we are using chopsticks–someone will try to pick up something difficult to balance with their chopsticks, and we’ll tell them to use their ‘Mexican fork’… aka their hand. Our grandpa used to say it all the time. It is a little… uh… race-y so we only ever say it around family.”

Analysis:

The performer is a 3rd generation Chinese-American, and their grandfather came to America (specifically Lousiana) as a teenager around the 50s. This joke is interesting because it has an America-centered perspective. After all, the default eating utensil is a fork. By saying Mexican “fork” instead of “eating utensil”, it implies that the Chinese “fork” is a chopstick while, in this case, the Mexican “fork” is one’s hands. This could be heavily influenced by the American go-to utensils being spoon and fork and is an interesting reflection of their grandfather’s assimilation into the American folk culture. Additionally, it’s interesting that the performer prefaced that the joke is controversial and only said it in private as it reflects the attitude around the saying changing to be less acceptable over the past 7 decades.