Remember those inspirational posters that seemed to hang in every office, classroom, and waiting room in the 1990s?
You know the ones: a majestic eagle soaring over a mountain, a lone climber conquering an impossible peak with a single profound word like COURAGE, PERSISTENCE, or TEAMWORK urging us toward greatness.
Well, Adventurers deserve a little inspiration too.
Unfortunately, this isn’t it.
This week, I’m revealing 21 hilariously (de)motivational RPG poster memes I harvested from around the wilds of the internet, celebrating the other side of the adventuring life . . . bad decisions, questionable tactics, impractical armor, overconfident heroes, terrifying monsters, and the sort of hard-earned wisdom best learned at some other Adventurer’s expense.
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Putting the “Quest” in Questionable Life Choices
If you survived an office job in the 1990s, you probably remember the motivational poster invasion.
Those big, black-framed prints, usually featuring dramatic photographs of mountains, eagles, rowers, or impossibly determined rock climbers, paired a single inspirational word with a bit of corporate wisdom about LEADERSHIP, TEAMWORK, COURAGE, or EXCELLENCE.
The style became so recognizable that it practically begged to be parodied. By the late ’90s, Demotivators were turning the whole concept upside down with the same grandiose presentation paired with decidedly less inspiring observations about failure, incompetence, procrastination, and despair.
Naturally, the internet eventually discovered that dragons, wizards, barbarians, scantily clad warriors, and catastrophically bad RPG decisions made the format even better.
And thus we arrive at the questionable nuggets of adventuring wisdom below.
May their wisdom guide you toward slightly better decisions . . .
📢 Speaking of Questionable RPG Humor . . .
A few of you know this but I actually have an RPG Joke book that’s been completed (title, book cover, layout, jokes, images, the whole shebang) and languishing in the depths of Hard Drive Dungeon for over a year and a half.
And I could use your help finally getting it out into the world.
1)I’m looking to release it initially through Kickstarter, with the book living on afterward in print and PDF through DriveThruRPG. If any of you fine party members have experience with either platform, please reach out! There are only a few Troll bridge tolls and a Sphinx riddle or two standing between me and finally escaping Hard Drive Dungeon to complete this quest.
Speaking of Trolls, here’s a sample page:
2)Please take a moment to answer the anonymous polls below. I’d love to get a sense of your interest level — and how you’d prefer to get your adventuring hands on a copy.
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Thanks, Adventurers! Your feedback will help me decide the best way to finally liberate this hilarious (if I do say so myself) tome from the depths of Hard Drive Dungeon and unleash it upon the Realms. Moohahaha.
After languishing for over a year and a half, this poor thing deserves a saving throw...
And stay tuned, Adventurers. I’ll be revealing more about this long-imprisoned project in the coming weeks, including the official title, book cover, more sample pages, and an introduction to the dubious fellow responsible for it all . . . the Snarky Bard.
Perhaps the greatest lesson buried among all this questionable wisdom is that adventuring . . . like life . . . is rarely as heroic as the illustrations make it look.
Sometimes the dragon wins. Sometimes the plan goes horribly wrong. Sometimes your armor makes absolutely no practical sense.
And sometimes . . .
. . . the best thing you can do is simply laugh about it.
So go forth, Adventurer. Be brave. Make questionable decisions. Roll poorly.
And if all goes terribly wrong, all is not lost . . . you too might end up on a motivational poster someday.
💬Tavern Talk
❓Which of these (de)motivational posters made you laugh the hardest?
❓Have you ever created any of your own (inspired by hard-won RPG experience, perhaps!)?
BRODRYK SAYS: “If questionable humor be yer thing, Adventurer, come rummage through the Fun(ny) & Geeky shelves at the Rediscovered Realms Amazon Shoppe! I’ve gathered all manner of ridiculous fantasy and RPG treasures guaranteed to lighten yer coin purse . . . and possibly yer mood.”
“Remember to check out the Rediscovered Realms Amazon Storefront for the most epic gift-giving ideas for those important adventurers in your life (including yourself 🗡)” - Brodryk (Shopkeep)
(As an AmazonAssociate1 I earn from qualifying purchases)
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