So, he does what any sensible GM in his position would do.

He summons a demon – who looks remarkably like one of those annoying rubber-armed hanging Halloween decorations that vibrate and cackle when you slap them on the ass – and binds him to play a character.

And not just any character, either. A paladin.

If you’re thinking that this can’t possibly end well, that depends upon how badly you need a good laugh at the expense of some classic gamer stereotypes.

Boglin, the demon, unwillingly learns the ins and outs of roleplaying alongside Beck (Andrew Clark), the master rules lawyer and player of the elf, Marhephsilon Flipshadow; Lance (Brian Pope), the obsessively immersive roleplayer who records the history and exploits of his diminutive halfling-like character, Midget, in the “Midgetorius Footpadium;” and Steve (Jennifer Long), the trailer park munchkin who always plays the biggest badass – in this case, Big Bob the half-ogre.

As the epitome of Chaotic Evil forced to play a paragon of Lawful Good – the noble paladin “Sucksface” – Boglin suffers seemingly endless humiliations at the hands of both Dave and his fellow players. Having to meet the obvious backstabbings from less scrupulously-aligned PCs with nauseating forbearance is bad enough, but kissing the feet of Jesus Christ? That’s just pure evil. Or pure good. Or something.

Unfortunately for all concerned, Boglin turns out to be a quick study. It isn’t long before he combines Beck’s rules lawyering, Lance’s deep character immersion, and Steve’s hack-and-slashery into an insidious scheme to turn Dave’s carefully crafted fantasy realm into a dimension-wide killing field that makes Midnight look like Candyland.

The movie makes no effort to hide its miniscule budget. The in-character fantasy sequences make those in The Gamers look sophisticated by comparison, with the players wandering around the suburbs sans costumes and encountering orcs in the form of only the crudest animation. Since such scenes play a secondary role in the movie, however, this isn’t too much of a let-down. Perhaps the best special effect is the degree of expressiveness the puppeteer manages to wring from the simple Boglin puppet.

While The Gamers parodies familiar gaming circumstances, GMGMWHYD?! parodies gamer stereotypes and conflicting gaming styles. At times the actors succeed far too well at making those stereotypes irritating, going from “amusingly annoying” to just plain annoying – especially in the case of Jennifer Long as Steve the slack-jawed powergamer. (This may just be a case of a cute and charming gamergirl overcompensating for being miscast as an obnoxious male yokel.) But when they’re good, they’re very good, deftly poking fun at those Gamist/Narrativist/Simulationist arguments we all love to hate. (Or claim to, anyway.) And Gamesmaster Dave has loads of fun as the cloaked, Satanic figure the B.A.D.D. folks always feared, accepting junk food tribute from sycophantic players and pronouncing PC fates with the cold, cruel glee of Emperor Palpatine… at least until he senses the control of his precious fantasy world slipping through his dice-rolling fingers.

Ironically, some of the funniest bits on the DVD aren’t in the movie itself, but in the extras – especially the “Breakfast of Demons” interview show, in which Boglin serves as a kind of demonic Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. (For a sample of Boglin’s interviewing style, check out his observations on GenCon ’04.)

I wouldn’t call GMGMWHYD?! an instant classic, but it certainly warrants shelf space in the collection of any fan of gaming humor.

If nothing else, it may serve to discourage gamers from the demon-summoning mischief to which they all secretly aspire.