Meet the Red Dead Online fan roleplaying Albert Einstein while dishing out free chemistry lessons

A Red Dead Online player is whiling away the hours in the Wild West by offering chemistry lessons, all while roleplaying as Albert Einstein. 

Legend of the helpful RP star spread when someone posted about an encounter with them on the Red Dead Online subreddit. After learning that the stranger had a big physical chemistry exam coming up, the Einstein-looking cowboy took him to the Saint Denis saloon to help out. 

"I was like, what the fuck, but let's do that," the student posts on Reddit. "Low and behold, he actually helped me out.

"I told him about an example I struggled with. It was about relative humidity, and he went, 'Ah, look. Zis is way easier zen zey want you to believe,' and continued on to explain to me how I could use a variation of the Clausius-Clapeyron equation to calculate the humidity in a new enviroment. He explained it so well that I actually managed to solve it today in a study group."

The roleplayer in question then surfaced in the Reddit post after it caught on, and you know we grabbed them for a chat.

Sir Ibex tells us they only started playing Red Dead Online a few weeks back, further inspired to dress as Albert Einstein after seeing someone post an outfit in the game's dedicated fashion subreddit. 

"I just couldn't resist making one," they say.

Tutoring in-game comes naturally, too. While the encounter was the first time Ibex tried it out in a game, they have plenty of real-life experience. Ibex has been tutoring since high school, mainly specialising in maths though also being on hand to help friends, one of which who did an apprenticeship as a lab assistant.

"I have done tutoring before but never over a video game," the RDO fan tells me.

"I wasn't expecting to talk about chemistry at all. I mean, who does? I also wasn't expecting so many people to be interested in some sort of mini-lecture in-game, to be honest, but I am glad they are."

Following the interest sparked by that one Reddit post, Ibex has set up a Discord to help others coming forward with requests, with the first lesson due to begin July 14.

"This is a very spontaneous project, so I am just focusing on the first event for now," they say. "I can't say if this will be a recurring thing currently. We will have to see how everything pans out. I am super excited, however. Maybe this will develop into a community that wants to learn from each other and broaden their interests."

Here are the 25 best RPGs you can (and should) play right now, though how much you can roleplay as Einstein varies.