(No after-comic commentary for this on in the original run.)
Shamus Says:
I love this strip. The whole thing. I love Josh, stalking the hapless goblins in panel 1. The rationalizations in panel 2. Chuck’s wry truth in panel 3 and Fitzpatrick giving raspberries.
Shawn Says:
Oh hey! I should comment here! Oops.
I’m a big fan of this one as well. I’d say it’s one of the high points of the run. I should note we had a few people complain about how cute and doomed those poor goblins were, which was rather the point.
Spoiler Warning

A video Let's Play series I collaborated on from 2009 to 2017.
Top 64 Videogames

Lists of 'best games ever' are dumb and annoying. But like a self-loathing hipster I made one anyway.
The Death of Half-Life

Valve still hasn't admitted it, but the Half-Life franchise is dead. So what made these games so popular anyway?
Skylines of the Future

Cities: Skylines is bound to have a sequel sooner or later. Where can this series go next, and what changes would I like to see?
A Telltale Autopsy

What lessons can we learn from the abrupt demise of this once-impressive games studio?
Heh, “ignorant enough to not be complicit, involved enough to get XP” reminds me of “very specific level of tired” in DMOTR. :)
This strip actually reminded me of the DMotR one where Gimli’s player makes fun of Aragorn’s for having absurd amounts of items including weapons and armor stashed conveniently in his pack and refers to it as his portable Tardis.
How about the one where Gandalf confronts the Balrog and Gimli’s player (wasn’t that actually Chuck? I always get player names confused) argues how abandoning Gandalf (for those unfamiliar in the comic he’s “GM’s pet NPC” of the very annoying variety) is within their alignment?
that was my favorite. Gimli was the most experienced roleplayer and showed everyone else how you can do what you want if youre smart about it.
That might still be my absolute favourite joke from DMOTR. I think of it so often when my DM or my players end up resting in conveniently epic places.
Yeah, maybe I’ve been reading Shamus’ stuff too long, but I honestly expected that to be the punch line.
From the D&D&D Players Handbook:
Huh. Forgot about this one, but it’s the funniest one so far. Nice to see Marcus leaning into the player nonsense, he feels like part of the group here instead of a newbie pariah.
I also find Josh’s stalking of the goblins one of the best compositions in the webcomic
If I remember right, one of the random lore books you can find in Icewind Dale 2 is called Face It, You’re Actually Neutral Evil or something similar.