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From The Archives:
Good to be the King?
Which would you rather be: A king in the middle ages, or a lower-income laborer in the 21st century?
Joker's Last Laugh
Did you anticipate the big plot twist of Batman: Arkham City? Here's all the ways the game hid that secret from you while also rubbing your nose in it.
Why Batman Can't Kill
His problem isn't that he's dumb, the problem is that he bends the world he inhabits.
Do It Again, Stupid
One of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
What Does a Robot Want?
No, self-aware robots aren't going to turn on us, Skynet-style. Not unless we designed them to.
“No more rhyming and I mean it!
Anybody want a peanut?”
Classic – hilarious!
Classic – Great movie to quote!
You keep using that word… I do not think it means what you think it means.
Thank you for using my favorite movie in conjunction with another great movie. My players actually get XP if they quote The Princess Bride at a perfect moment.
I mean, they don’t ~know~ that, since none of them have, but if they had, they would get XP!
that’s fantastic!
I love it.
And hey, I’d argue this is a far better choice for quoting during games, simply because it hasn’t been done to DEATH (other than “inconceivable!” and “My name is Inigo Montoya…”, anyway).
Best use of Princess Bride quotes, ever!
Since there are no movie scenes of Aragorn travelling the rest of the way to Helm’s Deep in the company of Gimli and Legolas, I wonder what Shamus will do for the next strip. Skip straight ahead to Helm’s Deep, is my guess.
Good strip, as always!
Freakin’ sweet dude! Keep it up!
All my characters have the possibility of getting XP for excellent lines. They may be quotes or originals. The only rule is that it must be in tune with the character.
For example: We had a barabrian, desperate for a weapon, grab a shovel and charge his attackers while yelling “SPOON!”
Appropriate for him (after we recovered from laughing until we peed, he did get XP for it) but not so much for the wizard.
So when does Aragorn fight the six-fingered orc?
Thanks to all the commenters for explaining this one to me:-)
“I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using?”
This one was so good, I just had to call someone to talk it. Naturally it being a work day, no one was reachable besides my mother. So I told her. (Yes, my mother. I’m a geek. My dad’s a geek. She understands.) I started with the webcomic in general and then explained the connection between the comic and geeks quoting LotR, Princess Bride, and Monty Python (Holy Grail in particular) during gaming sessions.
She said, “I love the Princess Bride. It’s geeky?”
“Yep.”
She asked me, “When did I become a geek?”
are things like lotr and princess bride really geeky, though? they are extremely mainstream, and beloved by many. being a geek is more than just “liking something that’s sci-fi or fantasy”
“They’re terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.”
One of your best. Great work.
CryptoKnight, next thing you know she’ll have a Wii.
The best strip ever (and I love them all). Great use of The Princess Bride :D
Oh my God, my roommates were yelling at me for laughing too much. Then I showed them this and they left me alone =D
I _knew_ it! Aragorn really IS the Dread Pirate Elessar!
(Hey, he shows up with the corsair ships!)
In my upcoming campaign I’m going to hand out cards redeemable for bonuses, re-rolls, and other goodies to players who come up with clever lines.
My god, I have GOT to watch that movie!
“Since there are no movie scenes of Aragorn travelling the rest of the way to Helm's Deep in the company of Gimli and Legolas, I wonder what Shamus will do for the next strip. Skip straight ahead to Helm's Deep, is my guess.”
Couple options:
1. Use pictures from earlier, before the Warg attack.
2. Have Aragorn’s player miss a couple games and have the DM rule that since he wasn’t there, they had him do nothing. Including travel. So he gets left behind. Plenty of fun opportunities for conversation there. Especially if you have him cheese off the DM and then use the shot of him and the oncoming Uruk-Hai army. Maybe something about wanting more combat.Or spilling a drink.
3. Cutscene to the Star Wars campaign. Prove the old adage that the only thing worse than a bad DM is a player who thinks they can do better. Gives a reason to bring ’em back too.
4. Something involving the revelation the priest only cast slow disease (slow poison’s lesser known cousin) and the entire procession leaves Aragorn traveling way way behind them. Out of range of the smell.
So, Carl, how big of an idiot are you?
So big that I allowed myself to get so sucked in to the strip, that I actually expected a frame of Aragorn hanging from the cliff. I only just remembered that that shot wasn’t in the movie.
Duh.
BTW, “Dread Pirate Elessar”? Brilliant.
This is almost…
ALMOST…
…better than the “Invisible Leather TARDIS.”
It’s a close thing, I tell you. (He said, after wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.)
We’ve often quoted “Why didn’t you list that amongst our assets in the first place!” and occasionally “Even on my best day I could not take so many.” :)
Better yet would be PCs that ask every new NPC how many fingers they have on their right hand.
Yeah, for a time both Monty Python and Princess Bride quotes were banned from one of the campaigns I was in. Probably Star Wars, too. Oh yeah, and the “shooters here and shooters here,” line from Ronin, SPECIFICALLY.
So when Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas , etc leave to attack Mordor, who will call out, “Have fun storming the castle!”
this sustained series of quotes is really impressive. I love the picture of Legolas pulling the rope out of his boot, or whatever he was really doing.
i expected the DM’s aggro to come in the form of, “No more movie quotes! I mean it!”… followed by the natural response from one of the players.
I just want to say that this comic is beautifully arranged. I especially like the first panel. Is it a composite of two pictures? If so, good job. It really adds to the atmosphere of the strip.
I guess the fall down the cliff left Aragormless “mostly” dead.
Steve
Okay. Princess Bride quotes compel me to delurk and comment on how much I love this strip. I must now put a link this under the “time well wasted” section of my website.
That’s nothing. See http://www.livejournal.com/users/mollyringwraith/44608.html
Has Peter Jackson read this? I’m sure he’d love it.
Ravs
ROFL! Nicely done!
“And when his head comes around that boulder, hit it with the rock!!”
“My way is not very sportsman-like…”
Awesome. Princess Bride and Lord of the Rings. Just awesome.
Heh, now you’ve made me want to dig out my copy of that film and watch it again.
You should have found some way to include the rodents of unusual size. I mean, what else are wargs?
We just recently checked out The Princess Bride to share with my 11 year old. After initial squirming, he loved it.
“She does not get eaten by the eels at this time.”
Oh, and read the book too; it’s even better.
Just watched another parody with Peter Falk – “The Cheap Detective” any Bogart fans out there, check it out.
But the Princess Bride… Oh, I’ll have to watch that again (tomorrow night, to cheer up someone else who is sick).
Thank you, DM Shamus!
I do really have too watch that movie, i think. It really seems i cant be a geek if i haven’t…
omfg! i JUST finished watching that! lol what a wierd coincidence. well to day has been my day for those. more quotes are good, they keep me crying. :)
“Let me explain… No there is too much, let me sum up”
Man you had me rolling. And as above I was waiting for the cliff shot, or the Legolas to drop his foot to help him up, when I too remembered none of that happened.
One of my absolute favorite movies. I have been reading these for months now, and i laugh hard very often.
Brilliant! I wanted to delurk long enough to reference
http://mollyringwraith.livejournal.com/24108.html
and
http://mollyringwraith.livejournal.com/44608.html
you killed my father with a holy hand grenade…i mean you poisened them both with swallows…hehe my bad…love those movies and 300…great stuff
Nogard_Codesmith: I’m a fool. That would have made abetter joke. I can’t believe I missed it.
Cory: I’m happy with the first panel as well. It’s a composite. The top is actually a photograph my wife took at one point. The two shots blended nicely.
I really like the tall panel shots, but it’s impossible to pull off without a little photoshopping. (Note that I did this once before, when Boromir died. The limited resolution of the movie means this tall images will end up blurry unless I can stitch multiple images together.
I have a few more like this in the queue. I like doing it, but it isn’t often I can.
Well, you know you COULD just edit that last frame if you’re really agonizing about missing that joke. But I think it’s very funny either way.
I really have to stop reading this comic at work. I already had 2 times I laughed so hard everyone looked at me. Worse, if someone asks what’s it all about, they rarely get the joke -_- . I even tried to explain the joke about Shrà¶dinger’s cat (about 2 or 3 comics back) to a curious colleague but gave up when it became clear he never even heard of quantum mechanics.
“See, I told you he wouldn’t fall to his death…”
“Yes yes, you’re very smart…now shut up.”
Thought here, if you do have the player for Arigorn gone for a few days, you can always have the other players doing things then have one go, “oh and don't forget Aragorn” who is shown standing there with a vacant stare. My players always forget pets, familiars, and npc's. All of which just kind of pop in when needed. (I forget too sometimes.)
Have fun storming the Castle.
Yes, everyone’s with the ha ha at Princess Bride quoting. Spare a thought for us poor 7th Sea GMs, who must spend at least 45 minutes per session getting people to stop quoting the Princess Flipping Bride. On reading this, my reaction was “I feel your pain”.
I even got the “The Gamers” reference up there. I’m such a geek… at 42. Yay! I know the answer to life, the universe, and… ok, I’ll stop now before I totally cross the line. Love ’em all, though.
Great comic again, Shamus, kudos to you. All hail the Bandit King! *runs*
as unbelievable as is sounds monty python is rarely quoted in my current game. staying on task is no better than any other game i’ve ever run but that has a lot to do with me. (frcs campaign heavy on plot, light on combat, and with the screwiest character being the elf…) i really like this comic in how it points out what a horrible dm i really am. thanks.
i will say that the recurring jokes from earlier sessions are some of my favorite things in the world.
two twenties in a row – death blow! cheers to me
OMG! AHH, that awsome! Being a huge fan of both, I find this highly amusing!
=)
Actually, the most used quotes in the last game I played in were generated by the fact we were all over-eager and under-equiped combat-happies.
“Mad Morrigan! Heeeeeelp!”
“Stupid Dychini!”
and my personal favourite went like this:
other player “Run away you idiot! It’s too damn big to fight”
Me, doing bad Swedish accent “Bet on heem if you like.”
Opinion was divided on that last one. I said it never gets old. Everyone else said once was enough.
Steve
48 Martin Says:
March 15th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Yes, everyone's with the ha ha at Princess Bride quoting. Spare a thought for us poor 7th Sea GMs, who must spend at least 45 minutes per session getting people to stop quoting the Princess Flipping Bride. On reading this, my reaction was “I feel your pain”.
THIS IS ABOUT LAUGHTER AND YOU ARE BIG DORK!
Me, doing bad Swedish accent “Bet on heem if you like.”
Heh. I’ve actually used, “When you die, can I give that to me daughter?” It was perfect, as my entire group are big fans of the film.
We’ve also had:
“Cavalry!”
“I’d rather prefer a dragon.” (came up several times)
“She’s quite mad.”
“The perfect advisor.”
“Well, if they don’t follow us, then we’ll know it’s too far to swim!”
I love quotes. :)
The games I’m in seem to feature as many musical quotes as movie lines.
If we fast forward past an uneventful period: “Let’s do the time warp again!”
If a foe fumbles two or more times: “He’s a loser baby, so why don’t you kill him…”
And of course, a rogue in a helpful combat position earns a: “Flank you very much, flank you very much…”
Actually I think another great line for the last panel would have been “MY MEN ARE HERE AND I AM HERE BUT SOON YOU WILL NOT BE HEEEERRRE” Then he rolls trip 20s on an orc attack.
scldragonfish? What’s that about?
“So when does Aragorn fight the six-fingered orc?” The answer is, he already did. That was the orc he was riding with. He just barely survived and the orc died.
“So when Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas , etc leave to attack Mordor, who will call out, “Have fun storming the castle!”’ No no no, you have it all wrong. That is when they leave for Isengaurd.
Also, when Saraman is stand on his tower, he might say “never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha…” then fall to his death.
One word of advice from personal experience.
Never say “Ni!” to a miniature poodle. Not if you don’t want your face bitten by an infuriated and confused poodle, anyway.
Steve.
We once ended up having an Amber campaign titled “Could be worse… could be stabbed” due to my using the statement once near the start of the first game… and somehow it still became funnier every time we used it instead of the usual deterioration that has been known to happen…
I must admit that many of our games will wander off and combat often takes weeks due to the fact that at least half of the group has gamed together on and off for the last twenty-two years. Pretty much since we started high school… three of us have been known to reduced Game Masters to tears of both frustration and laughter in the same night
And to further up my geek cred: We game on Friday night… talk about no life
:-)
Golgothus
He who lives by the skull, will die by the skull
46 Devilsquid Says:
March 15th, 2007 at 2:10 am
“See, I told you he wouldn't fall to his death…”
“Yes yes, you're very smart…now shut up.”
hahahahahahahahahaha! love it!
hey, when r u going to do any Hitch hiker’s guid quotes? jucie fish=bablefish
Best use of Princess Bride quotes in a comic ever! Thanks for making me laugh tonight.
Golgothus, you have nothing to be nerdishly embarrassed about.
We’ve moved _our_ games from Sundays to Saturdays (once a month, no biggie) and all of us are very stoked – where we previously ordered pizza, Chinese takeout, or other stuff from restaurants, we now cook and contribute wine, salad and garlic bread to the main dish. So now, instead of a geeky sideshow, we have a communal, morale-building experience, regardless of the game’s outcome; it going to be fun just seeing each other. If not for the gaming night we would have fewer jokes to share, bizarre ideas and be wayyy too serious all the time.
This week, it’s simple – I make the sauce with fresh tomatoes and peppers (roasted), reduced in the saucepot, it goes into tupperware and the DM cooks the pasta, ready for our arrival. Molto benne!
This month, we’re gaming on St.Pat’s – I’m bringing a (surprise) wee bottle of Ouiske Be’aha!
Slainte, alla yez.
And a toast to Andre the Giant, the world’s Greatest drinker ever. He’s missed by all breweries.
Brilliant! A classic addition to a fantastic strip.
OMG… ROFLOL!!!!!!!!
Oh, wow, sooo out of breath. Shamus… u r a genius!
heh this comic makes me happy. not as happy as the tardis one, but happy all the same.
right this is my first comment, so hello all i am elda.
58 Martin Says:
March 15th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
scldragonfish? What's that about?
Sorry, Surpressed Rage….I’M NUTS!!!
LOL. I once played a 6ft 3 cleric who, because the dice was trying to kill me, had a horrible time getting over a 6ft wall. It was terribly embarrassing (for the character) and yet, dreadfully funny to me and my fellow players. This reminds me of that experience. LOL
I’m getting over a cold and this strip almost killed me. I was laughing so hard I think one of my lungs collapsed.
…I forgive you.
“I could give you my word as an elf!”
“No good. I’ve known to many elves.”
I have to admit when I first saw Princess Bride and Dread Pirate Roberts spoke of rodents of unusual size, I was expecting to see those cute cappibaras (sp?) in the fields and streams. :)
Great! I wish my DM was more tolerant of quotes from PB. He really hated when I would turn against him and quote with the boys, considering I’m the DM’s gf.
Behold, the updateder version of Is This A Kissing Book:
http://folk.uio.no/obech/Files/TPB+LotR_Kissing_Book.htm
(I keep using that word. I’m not sure it means what I think it means.)
Capo Ferro!
http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/NewManuals/CapoFerro/10001127.jpg
:)
Is this where he uses the rope that automatically unties that they got way back when?
Its funny, because it’s true. The group I play can quote all the “quotable” scenes at the right time, the whole game comes to a halt so we can laugh it off. This one is the funniest yet.
Thanks for all of this, it’s awsome.
Oh my god, a Princess Bride reference following a Shrà¶dinger’s Cat reference. Great work man.
This is the best page so far!!! This is fantastic. keep it up please!!
I wish I could say that I like yesterday’s comic, but unfortunately I can’t; the comic itself is not being displayed at all. To make matters worse, the previous comics are no longer being displayed either. (Yesterday I used the same PC and everything was still working fine. This problem occurs for both firefox and internet explorer.)
I hope this problem can be fixed.
AHAHAHA! PERFECT scene for those quotes!
Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!
I started reading these at 8:30am. It is now 11:15am, and I think I’ve about emptied a box of tissues from laughing so hard, then blowing my nose and wiping my eyes.
Thank you SO much for this amazing quantity of hilarity, and for the Princess Bride strip. After I get all caught up (I bet I can get current within another hour), I’m definitely going to pop in my DVD of the movie.
“You’re right. This is worse.”
“I can quote chapter and verse.”
“Gahh!”
Only discovered this strip a couple of days ago, and I love it. This episode reduced me to tears of laughter. You have played *way* too many RPGs dude.
sweet
A few years ago, we were playing the White Wolf AEon/Trinity game. The GM actually gave us BONUS XP for fitting in Star Wars quotes.
Is there a house rule about quoting Vizzini or anyone else from Princess Bride?
“I would not say such things if I were you!”
Princess Bride is in my Top Ten favorite films of all time.
So is Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Star Wars too; another film that’s widely quoted.
You know what doesn’t get quoted from enough?
“It’s a balrog! It doesn’t have any vulnerable spots!”
“You broke the keep? You broke the bloody keep?”
“I remember that sound “” that’s a bad sound!”
“Look around you. Can you form some sort of rudimentary catapult?”
“Perhaps I’m not as stupid as I am ugly, adventurer!”
“Oh, RIGHT! Of course! It’s always about YOU, isn’t it?”
GM: You will fight this round!
PC: I won’t. And nothing you can say will make me.
GM: To the victor go the spoils.
PC: …Damn you. Damn you!
“Never give up! Never surrender!”
“To the death then.”
“NO! TO THE PAIN!”
Now all you need is for them to start quoting “Willow”…
Okay I have to comment on this one. I am now on day three of 12 hour streatches(interrupted by doing dishing, laundry and other assorted household chores) not becuase I’m a slow reader but becuase between the comic and the comments I just can’t stop laughing.
Zach’s Mind, thank you for coming up with the oh so appropriate quotes from Galaxy Quest. I hadn’t thought that they could work before despite having watched it multiple times(sorry but I’m just weak when it comes to Alan Rickman which would also explain my multiple veiwings of the recent Hitchhiker’s movie, Robin Hood:PoT, the very popular Harry Potter movies and the not so popular Quigley Down Under) but now that it’s been pointed out to me? You can be assured that I will now be trying to find a way of using them.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
With how often The Princess Bride kept cropping up in the commentary for this strip, we should hardly be surprised at this. I’d been looking forward to it. :) Finally!! Thank you, Shamus!
Has anyone read the book? It’s fan-fucking-tastic.
This is hilarious! I love princess Bride.
I probably would hav found this funnier if I’d actually seen the Princess Bride. Actually, i have…just not in a long time. Anyway my point is that I didn’t recognise the quote at all. Meh.
As you wish ;)
Oh that was just too perfect. I’ve got to share it!!
wow. i watch princess bride. shamus rocks. this comic rocks. im laughing happliy. u rule i wanna see all ur comics!
NO MERCY FOR THE SERVER…
On the upside, a movie reference I know!
You, sir are a f***ing genius.
“Mawwiage…”
Rereading the comic for the fifth time now. Still holds up, and this one is one of my favourites. Also, 100th comment!
You be careful…people with broken swords cannot be trusted.
I want my dismount roll back, you son of a bitch!
Yes!
Awwwww I love Princess Bride!! Im so glad you put it in this comic, it’s such a good movie hehe :D
You don’t know me, and the only thing I know of you is what I have read in this comic, but
I love you.
Brilliant!
Best. Quoting. Ever! My players get XP and also a lot of admiration from their DM if they use awesome lines, either quoted from a movie or original, and this one just made my day.
Nooooo, he’s only MOSTLY dead!
princess bride, fantastic stuff
I watched that movie for the first time last night. I was told it was about the world’s strongest man and the world’s greatest sword fighter.
I was lied to.
oh god. the princess bride. classic. so funny. XD
I tried to make a statement like this one time, but I didn’t get a particularly positive response. I’m hoping your writing on this subject turns out better than mine did. Continue the sterling work.
Best use of The Princess Bride ever. lol
Dude! The princess bride? Are you serious?? Thats freakin Great! I love that movie. I know im a little late on posting and finding and reading all of these but that’s amazing. :D
I have to say thank you Shamus.
I’m also rather late to the party, and only watched TPB for the first time 2 days ago, thanks to comments made on earlier strips.
I *LOVE* the use of the direct quotes and agree that it fits perfectly with this scene.
Anyway, I’m off to grab my comfortable mask, so that I can fit in with everyone else – Just 23 years late. (I can’t believe I mised that film for 23 years).
AW No Andre?
Ha I just managed to get afreind of mine too watch Princess Bride for the first time. I was very proud that she loved it.
Ha! I wasn’t expecting quotes from princess bride, clever way to put it in!
YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! I absolutely love this movie, I’m so glad you used it!!! =D
I was playing a game where there actually was a character named Inigo. The DM killed his father as our plot hook. It was awesome.
lol – the princess bride ;D
love it
Lol, I can totally see my Players doing this, and I’d probably be
“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU*******”
also see Darths and Droids (a Star Wars/D&D webcomic) the author uses an ongoing inside joke between the players about Their ‘previous campaign’ between Phantom Menace, and Attack of the Clones.
http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0406.html
also
http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0410.html
(jim believes (qui-gon-jin/ princess whatever) everyone with a goatee is evil)
Princess bride quotes=best!
Looking at the date above it must be over 5 years since you created this, what makes it a little akward now to react (in my defense: I only discovered this strip about a month ago.)
But: Loved this one! (Sounds like I didn’t liked the ones before. Hhmmm… it is not meant that way. It is just that since the moment I watched Princess Bride, I loved the movie way to much.)
I found this comic today and have been reading it for a couple hours now. I grinned through all of it, laughed out loud several times, but this is the first time tears came. The screen shots are perfect for the quotes! Lol I’m dying!!
no this is better than monty python, this is The Princess Bride.