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On one hand, it makes no sense for the monsters and encounter areas of the gameworld to come pre-stocked with loot. It also makes no sense for feral beasts and the shambling undead to walk around carrying fabulous cash prizes.
On the other hand, gold coins are shiny and make a fun jingling sound when you have lots of them.
Quakecon 2011 Keynote Annotated
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
Ludonarrative Dissonance
What is this silly word, why did some people get so irritated by it, and why did it fall out of use?
Megatextures
A video discussing Megatexture technology. Why we needed it, what it was supposed to do, and why it maybe didn't totally work.
The Best of 2019
I called 2019 "The Year of corporate Dystopia". Here is a list of the games I thought were interesting or worth talking about that year.
Charging More for a Worse Product
No, game prices don't "need" to go up. That's not how supply and demand works. Instead, the publishers need to be smarter about where they spend their money.
I think if the undead walked around with fabulous cash prizes, they’d be a lot more popular in my neighborhood than they currently are.
and that’s why Shamus made us broke….except for my character that is, and Pat’s since he just laid claim to pretty much all earth he walked upon.
OK, I *definitely* have played in this campaign.
So… who’s going to pay to have Boromir raised?
Shame, Shamus, shame! That’s RivenDELL, not Rivendale! :-)
In the SNES game Lufia II, it was suggested that the hero was paid by the shops in town for each monster that he defeated. That is how monster hunters make their living.
Many times did you have to explain why you had not given us treasure. Especially when we thought we deserved it. While Joe would hand out baseball sized diamonds… from the GARBAGE!!
Whateverville. I LOVE that one.
in the original D&D, before the first supplement, (I think I started playing the second year it was at my college) there were no plots and there really weren’t any characters. So it began with the tradition of everybody acting how they wanted to and I guess that never changed. Dungeon Masters tried to make up their own plots but nobody did what they were supposed to do. but it is almost as though D&D was so chaotic all these years _just so_ this comic could be written! awesome!
In my games, nearly all dungeons are pre-made by the town’s craftsmen, and the monsters are caught by hired adventurers so weak players can battle through a controlled adventure for prizes that would most certainly not be found anywhere. Natural dungeons are a little more chaotic.
Treasure rocks!
DM of the rings is just going to get better
“Rivendell” not “Rivendale”
[Just for, you know, when you make a book out of all these and become rich and famous. ;-)]
“Let’s get Dave to that Rivertown.”
This is.. amazing.
Some nitpicking: the watchtower of Amon Sûl originally held a palantir, the most powerful one in the kingdom of Arnor, so it had “something of value”.
Also, “watchtower” doesn’t really properly describe the place. In addition to being the location of a palantir, it was the central point of the three northern kingdoms that split from Arnor, and a HUGE point of contention and strife up until Angmar destroyed it. Think Minas Tirith, but without the city built around it.
Pannel 4 on the ground is a two handed sword. That’s the real loot.
well my bastard sword cost £300 ($600) and at £2 to the pint of beer .. thats 150 pints of beer (natures most valuable resource). Thus as warren says thats real treasure! … The two hander would keep the party in beer for 10 days? (for 4 half pints and a ranger).
Treasure Type C, G*dd*mmit!!!
Er, n/m.
19th! woo hoo! this comics great! “Whatevervile”. Perfect!
Whateverville never ceases to make me laugh :)
Apathy is always a winner. So is just being greedy in cases like this.
Bye, bye, natural 20!
I fullheartedly agree, but HOW DO PCS GET BETTER STUFF WITH NO LOOT?!?!
Shamus, you probably never will read this.. :( but you misspelled Rivendell, you said RivenDALE.
Aye Aragorn, not RivenDALE, RivenDELL.
This is great! Also: your notes at the end of this comic? Pure distilled truth and hilarity.
I bow down to you, sir. Bravo.
LOL – I misread the second frame completely.
Due to the power of quirky kerning, it looked like the narrator said, “Only the power of Rivend Ale can save him now.”
Mmmm… Rivend Ale. I think I’ll have me a pint or seven. I could use a bit of healing…
When I played DnD We went for 2 weeks with out loot.NOT EVEN COPPER Pieces!
*giggles* and if you REALLY want to mess with them give them gold and platinum… Next town? “Sorry sirs, we can’t break that much”
where did you get the picture??? LOVIN IT!
in panel six, here’s the movie quote that pip says:
“Is he going to die?”
i like the whateverville. but its Rivendell. just so you know.
Or Imladris for the elves.
Ooh, good point.
Frodo.
Rivendell…
I bet nobody yet pointed this out but its’ RivenDELL, not RivenDALE.
Haha, I thought I was the only one!
It’s even more amusing when you look closely and realize that books have more rpg elements than movies showed :). Well at least there is more loot and body searching hehe treasures of Barrow Downs and enchanted weapons, herb picking, finding stash of wood left by rangers so maybe they stashed other thing of use too :), beryl elf-stone talk about finding gem in a mud :) Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli searched through bodies of orcs to gather ,,trophies” of a last fight of Boromir, orcs use often poisoned blades, there are instances of magical healing, Aragorn gets some jewellery (Elessar stone with healing powers and Elendilmir insanely precious crown of Northern Kingdom circlet of mithril set with elvish crystal and gets nice new enchanted sword sheath :):) weapons like daggers with ,,spells for the bane of Mordor”, elvish blade, Narsil/Anduril which also has minor magical qualities, potions: ent-draught which nourishes and accelerates growth, rises attributes?? :), orc draught this vitality drink which gives hell of a kick of energy and removes pain, elvish miruvor used by Fellowship, the armouries of Edoras gave the heros some fine gear, gifts in Lothlorien (the only present in all this :), in Aglarond Glittering Caves one can find some nice gemstones if to search for them heheh, Frodo and Sam looting orc gear and clothes hehe (in Moria unfortunately all things of value were already looted by orcs as book mentions broken wooden chests and the dwarven chronicles mention mithril and gold they found there :), Legolas gathers orc arrows to resupply his quiver (maybe he can get upgrade to poisonous arrows as orcs often used those hahaha) and then in additional writings like Unfinished Tales we have major looting of Orthanc tower also canon has that Middle Earth is full of ruins some of which could contain some stuff :).
There are a couple of messed up character encodings in the comments here.
bucaneer:
Amon Sûl should be Amon Sûl
geo:
£ should be £