FAQ

Streams

What is a Lorerun?

A Lorerun is a form of a long-play stream where I play through a game, series of games, or franchise fully on stream. I do this while discussing aspects of the lore, behind the scenes information, gameplay design concepts, historical relevance, and other discussion with viewers. They take a lot of prep time, a lot of work, and a lot of stress. I love doing them, but for obvious reasons I try to spread them out since they take time away from work on the Youtube side of things.

What is a Premiere Run?

A Premiere Run is a first-time run through a game live on stream, while discussing it with viewers. The thing that makes a Premiere Run unique is that it’s the only thing I do that’s actually a review, using my own rating system. Any given significant positive thing is given a plus (to Story or Gameplay), and any significant negative thing is given a negative. The final score is balanced out between them. A Premiere Run is distinct from a Classic Run by virtue of being a game I haven’t played before, thus being a blind playthrough.

How do I request a Lorerun or a Premiere Run?

Both are funded via bits and donations on stream. In earlier times there were incentives done during runs to help fund them and keep the show going, but now days this is all done in advance. The amount any given Run costs varies, most dominantly affected by how long any given Run will be, but also changed by relative popularity, effort and prep-work, et cetera. I am always taking suggestions for both, but I always try to look into a work to determine if I think it’s good Premiere Run or Lorerun material before accepting a suggestion.

What is a Classic Run?

Classic Runs are, functionally, the same as Premiere Runs. I play through a game, rating and reviewing it by giving out plusses and minuses, and discussing the game with viewers. The difference is a Classic Run is a game I have played before, unlike Premiere Runs.

What is Tabletop Night?

Every other Thursday evenings we get together to play tabletop and stream the experience. It’s not a big event and doesn’t get a lot of viewers, but it’s intended to be a more casual and friendly atmosphere. Plus we love board games and pen & paper, so that’s good.

What is a Chillrun?

A Chillrun is kind of what it sounds like; it’s a stream where we aren’t reviewing anything, discussing the in depth lore, or analyzing a work. It’s just us streaming a fun game, usually with viewer interaction (like naming characters after viewers). Chillruns have admittedly taken a back seat in priority given how many Premiere Runs and Loreruns are in the queue, but there are several games always available for Chillrunning.

When is (suchandsuch) stream happening?

The majority of streams are scheduled, and listed in the upper left of the website. Most streams start at 9 AM Eastern Standard Time, regardless of other considerations; the only exceptions are things like event coverage. There’s also almost always a stream Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And Loreweek is every Sunday morning (10 AM EST) with exceptions.

Miscellaneous

What is your spoiler policy?

So we’re pretty anti spoilers here, but we also tend to be ‘no mentioning’. Sometimes this is jokingly abbreviated as NO MEN thanks to a production screw-up during the Dragon Age Lorerun (where the text accidentally got cut short from ‘no mentioning’ to ‘no men’). This means we try to avoid serious or obvious spoilers for other works in comments or on live stream, unless it’s relevant to the current work, or if proper warning is given first. Regardless, the rule of thumb is ‘no unrelated spoilers’. If we’re streaming Grand Theft Auto it’s okay to discuss spoilers for that game or series, but not for Star Wars or Mass Effect.

What is Lore Extant?

Lore Extant (usually just shortened to Extant)is the term for my body of literary works. The full story is lengthy, but in short; when I first really started getting into writing I wanted to have each of my stories connect to one another, because even as a child I liked the idea of continuity. Over time this became a rule of mine, that anything I spent real time and effort writing or designing would have to fit within The Extant somewhere. As I’ve gotten older I’ve spent time collecting and smoothing over these various stories, tying them all up in a more cohesive way so that the setting makes more sense. I love talking about it if you ever want to ask, and if I ever have spare time (hah!) I plan to finish work on The Extant Wiki to really showcase some of it.

How exactly do Patreon, Paypal, and Twitch subscriptions work?

Patreon and Twitch subscriptions are both monthly. Twitch offers four ways of subscription; a free subscription you can give once per month to a streamer via Amazon Prime. This has to be manually updated each month. They also offer a $5, $10, and $25 subscription referred to as Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 respectively. Twitch claims 50% of most of these (claiming 40% of the Tier 2, and 30% of the Tier 3). The most obvious benefit of a Twitch subscription to a viewer would be access to our Twitch emotes.

Patreon offers one method of subscription; you sign up on Patreon and set how much you wish to sub for per month. The minimum is $1, but aside from that you can set it to whatever you want it to be. We have plenty of people who put in 1, 5, 10, etc. dollars a month. Patreon claims 15% of these.

Paypal donations are once-only and claim a very small percent of the cut, close to 1.5%. Paypal also includes a transaction fee, so if you are donating a very small amount, please do not use Paypal. There is also Stripe for those seeking a monthly option that is not Patreon, which also takes 15%. Finally there are Twitch Bits, which shifts the cost to you rather than me. In short, to buy Bits you have to pay more than the amount (eg. $1.40 for $1.00 worth of bits) but I get 100% of the take rather than getting $.60.

What is a Loreium?

I tend to have phrases or examples I use, my own lexicon I’ve built up over the years (long before I ever started the show). These are almost universally based on examples from real life or fiction, and refer to a specific type of scenario. I have a whole page dedicated to them you can find on the website, at https://lorerunner.com/loreiums.

Do you have a Discord?

I do! However, thanks to issues we’ve had over the years, access is invite only. Bug one of the mods about it during a stream and they’ll consider it, based on how well we know you.

Why do you have your No Controversial rule?

I’ve actually had this rule for a very long time, since I was in High School actually. It boils down to several problems. First, in my experience most people can’t actually discuss more controversial issues without devolving into shouting, hyperbole, or argumentative fallacies. There is no benefit or purpose in such yelling matches, and therefore I’ve found it simpler to avoid the topics entirely. Second, it’s entirely too easy for less-than-scrupulous people to try and take advantage of an open forum to deliberately stir up trouble by couching their statements and questions in seemingly innocuous words with the express purpose of insulting or making things worse. Finally, aside from a few very specific exceptions, the point of this show is to be about geek culture, not controversy or drama. As an aside, we have a long standing tradition of lifting this rule during the Halloween stream once a year.