June 4, 2016: Okay, that was weird...

[Arch Lich Burns]

1: Pillar was from both of them, but thunt said it was from minkax's mind
2: at least 8 hours past, not an hour
3: and that is why nobody stopped him (or at least held the axe for him) when he leaned out of a chasm holding his axe in a stuipd way?
4: i have no problem him healing but instantly over a mustace?
5: they still could have ran from him while he was sleeping but they did not try
6: does 'it hurts like a sickness' ring a bell? Ears stopped it before he can do it again

[SamWiser]

I think you're taking a lot of small things out of context. Some of this stuff is put in to try to keep/recreate the lighthearted manner of the comic. Such as #1 (if I remember what you're talking about. Just because Minmax isn't constantly talking about Forgath doesn't mean he doesn't care. The first thing he does when he enters the dungeon is collapse from grief, even when Names is talking about killing him.
Also, about why they aren't leaving Minmax, it mostly seems to be because he is good for Fumbles. Also Here. Also, he is a great fighter (as they know) and would be a big help in any dungeon. He doesn't seem to present a danger to them, so why leave him? Get his help now, and kill him later.
I don't actually know what pillar scene you're talking about. Nothing from Minmax there seems too ooc.
Not setting down the ax was stupid, but Big Ears rarely sets down the ax. I doubt this is the first time he's done something that would be easier if he just set down the ax.
As for not caring about Names' transformation, a) this page seems to imply that the demon energy leaking is what is finishing the transformation, so any attempts at fixing it before the ax is fixed would be wasted. Also, they have bigger problems. They can't help Names right now when an unstoppable demon is about to destroy the world. It seems entirely in character for both Ears and Thaco to deal with the bigger problem when they can do nothing to help him.

I still don't think any of the party have been acting majorly out of character.

[Morgaln]

The thing is, the story just isn't lighthearted anymore, and it hasn't been for years. They way the comic is trying to recreate that lighthearted manner is by having the characters ignore everything that happened and not react appropriately to their situation at all.
Yes, Minmax collapses from grief for a few minutes; then he's immediately back to his usual self. He just lost first his love and then his best friend, but if you look at the pages ever since then, you couldn't tell he went through anything like that.
Fumbles is even worse in that regard; he spent quite a while in a catatonic state, then Minmax fixes his mustache and suddenly he's back to how he was before. He's also suddenly buddy and BFF with Minmax; the same Minmax he witnessed slaughtering his friends in the warcamp only a few weeks before. Recovering from what he went through should be a slow process, not an instant change. But yeah, old Fumbles is so much funnier, that's certainly more important than character development.
Similarly, the other goblins are just accepting Minmax in their midst. As I just said, from their point of view he's a murderer. There should be tension between them and him, a wariness that is born from having to work with someone who might turn and kill you at any time, not this silly schoolyard rivalry they have going with him. They are forced to work with him, but that doesn't make him trustworthy.
Of course the reason they are forced to work with Minmax is that they are hunted by the unstoppable character that tortured one of their friends to death just a few hours ago. An enemy, that will kill them if he catches up to them. There's no dread there, no sense of urgency, nothing to make you feel like they're running from someone. For the most part you'd think they had completely forgotten about him.
Now that the axe broke, they have another problem. One of world-threatening proportions. Are they feeling the urgency to try and keep the demon contained? Are they rushing to find a solution? No, they're standing around and arguing semantics, because it's the set-up for another stupid joke.

All of these are reasons for the characters to develop and grow. What happened to them should affect them, and thus make them deeper characters. Instead, none of them is acting any differently from the beginning of the comic.
And all those throwaway jokes just no longer fit into the story. If you want a lighthearted, funny comic, don't go around torturing and killing people in gruesome detail. If you want a dark and gripping story, jokes and lighthearted banter at the wrong time will kill all of the tension. Ever since the group entered this dungeon, the tone and story of the comic has been all over the place, turning it into an incoherent mess. None of the existing story threads get continued, much less resolved. Things just happen without explanation. Previous character development gets dropped. Characters don't react to what happens to them and their friends. It's not just the GAP but also Forgath, who likewise just gallivants off for new adventures instead of dealing with the situation at hand. Sorry, but the quality of the comic really took a nose dive as of late.

[RocketScientist]

Is this better?

[SamWiser]

First off, about Fumbles. People had the same complaint about Minmax and Kin. Kin just left him, he is sad for a few strips, then is just fine. Characters recover quickly. Part of the reason is because many of them are probably not dealing with issues and bottling them up for later. The better explanation is that THunt takes a week+ to make a page, and if he gave us realistic recovery times for mental trauma like this, it would take 50 years for Fumbles to recover fully. But also, Fumbles isn't back to normal. In fact, the Fumbles as he was before doesn't exist right now. He has been completely taken over by Vorpal, probably in an attempt to deal with the damage done to him. He may be starting to recover, but he isn't back to normal.
Minmax, again is probably just coping. His life is falling to pieces around him, but he finds himself in a familiar situation. A dungeon crawl. Something he's trained for for years. So, now that he can't help Forgath, and he can't talk to Kin, he's reverting back to his old self until he has some control over his life.
Also, THunt has made it very clear that the GAP doesn't trust Minmax. They sat up watching him when he slept, for goodness sake. Never once have they acted like they trusted Minmax. Tension between the goblins has existed since the very beginning of the dungeon. I don't know how you're missing it.

Again, I'll say, everybody seems to be acting in character. A few stupid decisions, a few stupid jokes, but that's par for the course in this comic. Saying that the characters are acting ooc because they are acting the way they always have in the comic makes no sense.

[Krulle]

It's also the players (at least Minmax does have a player) are forgetting their character grieves much faster than a real person would.
Plus, if you have one session every week, still plenty of player-real-time may have passed, thus the players slack a bit in their characters.

I do not care, and I am happy that I do not read a comic that's transporting issues from the first attack of the adventurer's party on the Goblins war camp till here.
The story itself is still great, and while the characters loose a tiny bit, the advance in story does make that more than up, for me at least.

(One issue from the war camp attack is still lingering: Complains of Names and Minmax still wanting to kill each other.)

[Arch Lich Burns]

The problem is that it kills the mood and story. And I do not see how fumbles getting along with someone who killed hisclan almost instantly because of facial hair. Or that they should not try to run from Minmax when he is sleeping. Or why the leud pillar is somehow MM fantasy in spite of Goblinslayer making that same face. Or the fact Thaco, of all goblins should have told ears he would hold the axe, ears could have easily fallen with that hold.
Ears/thaco/names still dont care about the demon transformation in spite having time to fix it with remove disease.

You say these are minor because they have players but you forget this is also supposed to be a story. Bringing up players does not change the fact it is a mood killer

[Wolfie]

Fumbles isn't fixed. Vorpal is. Minmax fixed the mustache that is the physical characteristic of Vorpal KickAss'O. Fumbles is still broken. We saw it in Brassmoon when he was in his head fighting The Purple Worm again. It's his way of coping, which isn't really a way at all. Not once in this dungeon crawl has he called himself Fumbles. It's always a mention to Vorpal or KickAss'O.

The lewd pillar showed something for three of the characters: Names, Minmax, and Ears. Why is the one for Minmax bothering you so much?

Also, they do care about the continuing transformation. As it was mentioned before, there's no point trying to fix it with Remove Disease because the demon energy from the axe is causing the transformation to continue, not the Demon token as before. They can't do anything until the axe is fixed.

D&D characters don't act like regular people all the time. They're played by people who get their reactions second hand. Something happens to the character and the player gets to mime the appropriate actions. Because they're mimed, they don't last as long. Plus, most of the characters I've played have always been too busy trying to stay alive to properly mourn their lost comrades. They do that when they are finally safe and have time for the impact of the past few sessions/days/weeks to fully hit them.

[Arch Lich Burns]

I am not seeing a difference as to why vorpal/fumbles healed so quickly.

Because it was so unkin? Because the other pillars had personality? Ears did not even try to remove disease, so yea I still have a problem with them not doing anything about it. As for the story, the whole player thing seems more and more of an excuse to have mood killers.

[Krulle]

No. Mental breakdowns due tobtrauma can lead to the creation/strengthening of a second mentality.
The actual person often flees from reality, and hides behind a different personality (or by going back in time to happier times).
In their mind they try to block out the traimatic experience from their new ego, so that new ego never was affected, or they treat their alter ego like it never happened. Therefore they can make their alter ego "heal" quickly.
The problem with these coping method is, that the actual person successfully hides away, up to the point that this person can never be retrieved again.
In the beginning hey know they hide themselves from a reality they do not want to face. And they know they must some day soon. But cowardness, fear for reactions of others, of themselves, ..., causes them to hide ever deeper, and getting lost more and more in their self-absorbedness of how wrong they were treated.... I do not believe that any D'n'D player can emulate that without having experienced that themselves.

Soon Vorpal will not remember his dark episode, but Fumbles may never return. Althouh during the torture Fumbles hid behind Vorpal, Vorpal could never protect him. So Fumbles subconsciously did everything to let Vorpal survive. Im his mind at least. So, Vorpal emerges first...


Anyway. /tavern pschology.

I still like the page, but this discussion is very heavy topics indeed.

[Merudo]

I'm surprised the goblins have not figured it out by now.

Clearly, Fumble's stick is anti-magic (that's why the tentacle moved away when he touched them with his stick). That's why the axe got damaged, it collided with Fumble's anti-magic stick.