December 3rd, 2015: Wheel... Of... Species...!

[BuildsLegos]

IlovedogsI'vealwaysloveddogs.

[Krulle]

Okay, lets make a game of this... by setting "HUMAN" as 1 and continuing clockwise, we get the species on the wheel assigned to d20 results.

► Show Spoiler

1- HUMAN
2- HILL GIANT
3- ANGEL
4- CAT
5- DWARF
6- TROLL
7- RABBIT
8- TITAN
9- SPIDER
10- DOG
11- MOUSE
12- ORC
13- DEMON
14- FAIRY
15- DRAGON
16- KOBOLD
17- ELF
18- GNOME
19- GOBLIN
20- VAMPIRE

Roll twice and post your new hybrid form below.

Had a few problems getting the roller to work for me.
Anyway, due to my faulty entry ("2, 2D20"; as "2, D20" always gave invalid), I did accidentally four throws:
2D20 = [3, 11] = 14 (Angel,Mouse)
[invalid throw 2D20 = [8, 19] = 27 (Titan,Goblin) ]

So, I got a mousy tail and angelic wings? Could come in handy when falling off a tree again. Or did I get a pointy nose mouse and the apparently small size for angels noses?

Plus side of my faulty entry: I finally understand that "d20" is invalid, you need to enter "1d20" in the "Roll" field.

[Morgaln]

another info dump, come on I want something to happen already

+1. Too much exposition in the recent updates.

For webcomic readers, patience is more than a virtue. It's a necessity!

This has been a character-insertion scene in a D&D game. There's a certain amount of background information we have to be given for the coming story to make sense. The new characters know it. Forgath has to learn it. There aren't many options available...

1. Character monologue? Boring. Thunt made fun of that already the first time these players entered the game.

2. Show don't tell? Please, no! At the rate of one page a week, this much info would take months or years to show in a flashback, and meanwhile all the main plot lines and all the characters we already care about would be left in limbo. It's necessary to get this in, but it's Background, not Story.

3. Work each detail into the story as it comes up? Yikes. Readers would be complaining that Thunt had started pulling new facts out of a hat every time his characters got themselves into a fix. There'd be justifiable mutters of 'deus ex machina'. It would slow down the action every time he had to do it. And until all the moments came up there'd be a lot of needless mystery in our minds about the new characters, interfering with our understanding of them, and generating many misinterpretations.

4. Infodump conversation. Best choice, here. Especially when you consider the meta level of the story. Have one of the new characters, who knows it, explain it quickly in a one-on-one conversation with the old character who doesn't, and at the same time have the new character banter with the old one and show us more about her nature. Yes, she is doing it a bit clumsily... why would she, in-character, go into all that detail about what went wrong with Junior just then, when she doesn't even know Junior exists? It can only be because the DM required the player to get this info into the game right now. At the meta level, the clumsiness works because if the player is who I suspect he is, he shouldn't be too adroit about it.


TL;DR - Yes, this has been info-dump-y -- for Reasons. It's over. Things are going to start moving now.

Sorry, but your whole post is full of assumptions that we have no proof for as of yet, as well as missing the point of why the info-dump is a bad thing at this point in the story.

1. We do not know if Idle and Bowst are player characters, much less Ward. Even if they are, we have no way of knowing whether they are returning players or completely new ones. It's a hypothesis that cannot be either proved or rejected at this point, but speaking about it as if it was fact is wrong.

2. I agree that a flashback would not have been a good idea at this point. Of course there is ample precedent for letting main plot lines hanging in limbo while other things happen; just look at how long it took between Chief's death and the end of the Maze of Many. We didn't see the GAP at all in that time. And when was the last time you heard of Dies Horribly and companions?

3. This is close to what should be done. These things should be worked into the story at times that are convenient, not interrupt the drama and tension of the ongoing story with a "hey look, new characters". Of course they shouldn't interrupt action scenes. But neither should they all be brought up right away. There are ways to build reveals like that into a story in ways that incorporate them into the story instead of interrupting it.

4. This is basically pointing at an in-game character and blaming them for the bad pacing to absolve the author. It doesn't work that way. You can't tell us the author's hands are tied because the in-game DM is a bad storyteller. It's still ultimately Hunt's decision to write it that way.

Also, how do you know the infodump is over now? Is there official word that things are going to step up now? For all I know, this could go on for another ten pages, explaining every single curse they suffer from in detail.

In general, this is a terrible point in the story to have info-dumps, idle (or should I say, Idle) banter and relaxed campfire scenes. It should be the moment when Forgath finally steps up to be on par with Minmax as a hero and goes through some much-needed character development. Will he decide to follow Kore into the dungeon to try and rescue Minmax? There's a real chance he'll die in the process and then Kore will decent on his unsuspecting village and murder everyone there. Or does he go and warn his village, saving his family, but leave his best friend to likely die at the hands of Kore? He doesn't have days to make this decision and it's a terrible decision to have to make. We should be sitting on the edge of our chairs here with tension and anticipation. Instead, we get ball jokes and flirtatious behavior.
Have you ever seen the episode of The Simpsons called "The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochy Show"? In that episode the Itchy and Scratchy show tries to liven up things by introducing a new character, Poochy the Wonder Dog. In the introductory episode, you see Itchy and Scratchy driving along a road promising a fireworks factory to come up soon. Just before they reach it, they get stopped by Poochy who then proceeds to introduce himself with a terrible rap sequence designed to explain who he is. After that, the episode ends. Needless to say, it doesn't go over well with the audience, because the episode neither delivers on any promise nor does anything interesting. As a result, the rest of the story revolves around the studio trying to salvage their botched introduction of the new character. That is exactly how this introduction feels; there are lots of things happening in the story, at three different locations, and at least two of them are at moments of high tension, and we get a bunch of pages that basically say "look at these two new guys, aren't they cool?" It completely breaks with the flow of the story, the drama and the tension, and not in a good way. To quote Milhouse: "When will they finally meet Kore again get to that fireworks factory?"

[Glemp]

Okay, lets make a game of this... by setting "HUMAN" as 1 and continuing clockwise, we get the species on the wheel assigned to d20 results.


[snip]Roll twice and post your new hybrid form below.

_: 1D20 = [15] = 15
1D20 = [2] = 2

HILL GIANT + DRAGON

Aw, yeah...FLEE! FLEE, PUNY HUMANS! RAAGGHHH!

[spiderwrangler]

Nice glemp!

Krulle, I think you get stuck with all four since you rolled it!

[nikohl]

Yeah, Krulle, no takebacks! Hehe.

[Krulle]

Cool. Angelic Titanic Goblin-Mouse.

Anyone willing to waste his/her prepared "Remove Curse" spells on me?

Wanna know what my colleagues D20 gave me when I lent his dice during lunch break?

► Show Spoiler

(1,1 - natural fail = Human, Human) Can you Remove Curse of "Human" from a Human?

Really, when it's needed, I usually throw 16+ dice, but when it really doesn't matter, all my low throws come out.
Better this way than the other way around. :)

[nikohl]

You're now "More Human than Human"! Which is quite a good song by White Zombie.

[SpeaksManyLanguages]

Eh, why not

_: 1D20 = [3] = 3
1D20 = [4] = 4

Angel cat. Yissss!

[Guus]

_: 2D20 = [3, 8] = 11

I messed up with the roll website last post (thus deleted it), and now I throw Angel and Titan?
That's pretty awesome I think?

Speaks: does that mean you're basically a sphinx?
Glemp: dragonborn. You become a dragonborn with stony scales.
Spider: we become insanely beautiful (titan aspect) with wings (angelic aspect) I guess? Not bad.jpg
Nikohl: You'd should roll a rogue and fly from the top of a cliff down and stomp your enemy: SNEAK ATTACK!. Or you'd be an ugly fairy
Lady Dawn: you'd shrink a bit I guess? And become more pale and grow fangs?
RS: Dog ears, cat nose? Fur? Maybe paws? You'd be Aegis best friend!

That reminds me, is there anything to the transformations other than physical appearance? Maybe it doesn't work in practice, it just makes you look silly?

[spiderwrangler]

I wonder if her ears are functional in terms of hearing... Would having four ears be a benefit, or confusing?

[Theis2]

Okay, lets make a game of this... by setting "HUMAN" as 1 and continuing clockwise, we get the species on the wheel assigned to d20 results.

► Show Spoiler

1- HUMAN
2- HILL GIANT
3- ANGEL
4- CAT
5- DWARF
6- TROLL
7- RABBIT
8- TITAN
9- SPIDER
10- DOG
11- MOUSE
12- ORC
13- DEMON
14- FAIRY
15- DRAGON
16- KOBOLD
17- ELF
18- GNOME
19- GOBLIN
20- VAMPIRE

Since I'm a rebel and like taking risks in games a bit too much I rolled three times! 3D20 = [20, 17, 12]

An orcish elven vampire hybrid!

So extra strong and agile vampire! Or since it's a curse I'll likely just end up ugly and get burned in the sun..

Guess I actually didn't get changed at all then...

[nikohl]

Half-elf half-orc = pretty much human. They might cancel each other out!

[askstoomuch]

human + vampire + hill giant

or tall pale dude or me

[thesilence]

Half-elf half-orc = pretty much human. They might cancel each other out!

Or they might become something awesome.

EDIT: Original link now accessible again.

[LarsenSan]

┬┐A...goblin/gnome? Yikes, with a gnome nose and goblins ears I may become hideous... shit.

[RocketScientist]

My son's roll:
_: 1D20 = [19] = 19
1D20 = [1] = 1

Human Goblin. I guess he gets Goblin ears?

[SpellsBedly]

3/18, Angel and Gnome.

Gnome is weirdly fitting, they come up from time to time in my life. I am kind of bummed that I may only be normal human size now. I liked having a view in the crowd. Angel is less fitting, but at least I get powers...

[Wolfie]

I rolled 18 and 5 : Gnome & Dwarf.

I find this hilarious as in the last campaign I played a Gnome who got busy with a Dwarf and ended up preggers. So I just rolled the offspring.

[SpeaksManyLanguages]

Speaks: does that mean you're basically a sphinx?

I hope that's not limited to a house cat, so...


Except, blending this into a human.

[Sessine]

2D20 = [16, 6]

Kobold, Troll.

Huh. Interesting combination. Kobolds are short, Trolls are tall, so probably the height wouldn't change much from human.

Cold-blooded, scaly digest-anything omnivore. Egg-layer? 60' vision in lightless conditions, though -- that's useful. Dog-like or crocodile-like features, depending on which edition the universe is using. Wolfie... sorry, looks like I hate you.

As for troll -- okay, those kobold-scales are tough and rubbery. But hey, yeah -- regeneration! Woohoo! Uh, wait, Wolfie, put away the torch!

[spiderwrangler]

That's assuming you get the best bits... you could just end up with a tail and a long green nose!

[Sessine]

That's assuming you get the best bits... you could just end up with a tail and a long green nose!

'Tis true. This is, after all, the Cursewalk.

Short and scaly and tailed like a kobold, Long green nose like a troll, with stooped posture and long arms dragging on the ground. And highly flammable.

...That'd be a riot to roleplay!


(Yeah, yeah, I know, trolls don't actually go up in flames, they just can't heal fire damage. But I'd definitely play a human who got Troll as a curse, as being misinformed on that point -- stubbornly convinced they were now, like, totally made of gasoline. They'd be deathly afraid of any open flame, and no amount of argument would be able to convince them otherwise. Because it'd be funnier that way.)

[Tofu]

** argh **

Just venting a little, I feel the mix/match/blend/bake approach to the characters is getting too much. Its all clever but I kinda like my characters to remain physcially kinda consistent and this page feels more like a 'supreme pizza' of species all melted together than a classic margarita.

I'm sure they will settle in but at the moment, it's just too ...

**but**

Regular updates - this is SOOOOO AWESOME -

can I say that again

... iT IS SOOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!

[Krulle]

Indeed. It is. Isn't it?