[16 October 2020] Seems Contrived, but Whatever

[WearsHats]

It's a consistent rule in the comics, and the standard in D&D. Cuts, internal wounds, and missing HP can be magically healed. Lost body parts cannot be easily replaced. Magic to do so does exist, but it's rare, dangerous, and difficult to obtain.

The comic works by 3.5e rules (with some homebrew additions, like IME).

Cure Light Wounds can be cast by any Cleric, and will restore lost HP from just about any damage type. It can be cast as a single action and takes effect instantly.

But Cure spells only restore lost HP. In order to regrow severed body parts, you need Regenerate. That's a level 7 spell, which means you have to be at least level 13 to cast it. Which is significantly higher than anyone in the GAP (or just about anyone they've encountered). It takes 3 full rounds (30 combat turns) to cast and up to 20 rounds for the growth to complete.

[Generic]

What?

It's more of a game cliche, but definitely works in RPGs as well.

"Oh, no. Our king is dead!"
"... Mmke. But he was a king, right?"
"... Yeah?"
"Very important?"
"Yes!"
"Very influential?"
"The king of the kings!"
"So have one of his clerics Raise him."
"Uumm... Not possible."
"Have a druid Reincarnate him."
"Not happening."
"Well, I think there should be at least one wizard somewhere with Wish..."
"He's just not getting up, okay?!"

It's just the usual "someone gets really hurt for really reals" vs the multitude of methods to fix that. Sometimes even in RPGs it's just demanded that someone loses a limb. Or in case of Ears... Well, ears...

Reminds me that we don't know much of the Goblins world. How is it run? What kind of history is there? Who is taxing who?
I assume it's city states surrounded by monster infested wilderness.

[WearsHats]

There was a map Elli showed us a while back. But, yeah, that's about right. City-states surrounded by wilderness and dungeons. The current dungeon is a shortcut from the goblin war camp where we started to the Cryptic Fall's home village halfway across the country.

[Krulle]

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[Generic]

Yeah. I've seen the map. I gave up on it after wondering why the goblins entered the "dragon's maw exit" (since the bridge and the giant chasm is there, and not on the north side) and what river it was where Kore caught up with the GAP. If they ran from the only river shown all the way to the Dragon's maw, they could have made the trip from the warcamp to the village in about a day.

And the map still don't answer things about who is building and maintaing the roads, who is ruling (Dellyn Goblinslayer?), what kind of economies there are, who are growing food, etc.

[Glemp]

who is ruling (Dellyn Goblinslayer?)

I can answer that, at least, since he mentions Brassmoon having a mayor that he wants to convince to turn over the city guard to him. He's subsequently fired after it turns out imprisoning a ton of monsters inside the city wasn't a good idea. As for who's ruling the realm, it seems no-one is - each settlement is self-governing.

[Generic]

As I said, I concluded there are only city states surrounded by untameable crap. And that the map don't hint at there being a central government anywhere.
Mayor assumes local governance though. If the Mayor had noone over it, the title would have been Prince, Furst, Councelor, President, King, Chairman etc. Especially for a city with huge city walls and even more enormous sewers. Is there a ruler elsewhere? Has there been in the past and the word Mayor is a leftover since?
A city guard implies there also being an army somewhere? Or else it would have been the army? Is this also a leftover? I don't think Dellyn increased the guard force very much. We never saw that many guys, and the walls are completely gigantic. Obviously there is a real need for Brassmoon to have an army, unless it can rely on another one?

But. I don't think there is much to get here. I have come to the conclusion that the politics of the "realm" is not very interesting or important. The over world is like the dungeons. A series or stuff that happen that has little particular central theme or logic, until the heroes reach their destination.

[Inspired]

Yeah. I've seen the map. I gave up on it after wondering why the goblins entered the "dragon's maw exit" (since the bridge and the giant chasm is there, and not on the north side) and what river it was where Kore caught up with the GAP. If they ran from the only river shown all the way to the Dragon's maw, they could have made the trip from the warcamp to the village in about a day.

Dunno, I can draw a pretty clear path based on the storyline (Warcamp -> south of Plains of Cactuu -> Thornback Clan ruins -> swamp -> hills ->
Brassmoon city -> fleeing south -> crossing river (Bull strength!) -> Dragon's Maw Entrace).
We can assume that this is a freehand map and the scaling might fail sometimes, but even then, I assume that the bridge and the chasm at the entrance is a lot LOT smaller than it is worth showing. I mean, you get high drops in the mountains ... The big chasm on the south could be something like the Grand Canyon, only narrow, or like the Mariana Trench, but I imagine if it has to be graphically depicted it would be a lot bigger than what we have seen in the comic so far.

[Generic]

Sure. But does the map contribute to the experience in any way?

[redfeather]

Sure. But does the map contribute to the experience in any way?

A really well-made map would contribute to the experience of a really well-plotted story. (I can point to the maps in every Song of Ice and Fire book as a perfect illustration of this point.) But Goblins is just a well-plotted story, not a *really* well-plotted one, and I wouldn't even characterize this map as well-made, just as basically adequate. So in this case, no, I didn't really get anything out of it. I would even say that the map in book 6 of Order of the Stick is better than this one, as it made me want to know more about Rich's worldbuilding, despite the fact that he's silly enough to have countries named Here, There, and Anywhere. By contrast, the vague attempt at seriousness, while still being cliched as fuck, displayed by this map's worldbuilding leaves me distinctly uninterested in learning more details, even though the comic itself still does intrigue me in such a fashion.

[Generic]

Sure. But does the map contribute to the experience in any way?

A really well-made map would contribute to the experience of a really well-plotted story. (I can point to the maps in every Song of Ice and Fire book as a perfect illustration of this point.) But Goblins is just a well-plotted story, not a *really* well-plotted one, and I wouldn't even characterize this map as well-made, just as basically adequate. So in this case, no, I didn't really get anything out of it. I would even say that the map in book 6 of Order of the Stick is better than this one, as it made me want to know more about Rich's worldbuilding, despite the fact that he's silly enough to have countries named Here, There, and Anywhere. By contrast, the vague attempt at seriousness, while still being cliched as fuck, displayed by this map's worldbuilding leaves me distinctly uninterested in learning more details, even though the comic itself still does intrigue me in such a fashion.

+1. And I have an almost troublesome interest in blueprints, maps and floorplans over all.