DM of the Rings XI:
Failure to Communicate

By Shamus Posted Friday Sep 29, 2006

Filed under: DM of the Rings 31 comments

Lord of the Rings, Player Apathy, Rivendell, Council of Elrond, Boromir, Aragorn, Talk talk talk, Backstory, History

The DM will do a lot of talking, but if he’s not rolling the dice then what he’s saying is probably not important.

 


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31 thoughts on “DM of the Rings XI:
Failure to Communicate

  1. Bogan the Mighty says:

    Ah the good ol’ days of certain someones laying down on the floor to “rest their eyes” while the DM did the talking deal. Only the words money or xp awoke such slumbers.

  2. BeckoningChasm says:

    Man, I wish I had this on DVD. I’d watch it until I ran out of blood.

  3. haashaastaak says:

    it just gets funnier!

  4. John says:

    Just was forwarded the link to this. Great Stuff!

    This is a quote that will probably start showing up in a lot of .sigs:
    “The DM will do a lot of talking, but if he's not rolling the dice then what he's saying is probably not important.”

    In fact, it’s going in mine right now.

  5. Nicki-Joe says:

    Wow, it’s like you were sitting beside me at one of my past campaigns…
    “Yeah, great, great. We do that thing that we need to do… Are we going to fight this session?

  6. Kay Shapero says:

    Sounds like the reason for my “Warning, DM whimsical when bored.” button…

  7. Kanosereg of Zilthor says:

    I’m seeing this for the first time. I’m at work and laughing so hard that the people in the next office are starting to worry.

    This is like my life, 20 years ago. :-)

  8. Sewicked says:

    Heh, these days I seem to be the person taking notes in the game so I _have_ to listen to what the gm’s saying.

  9. Vayne Nomin says:

    Seriously this made my day, week, sigh, year, reading this. It is like reading about my group playing.

    “The DM will do a lot of talking, but if he's not rolling the dice then what he's saying is probably not important.”

    so classic.

    on to the next page

    1. Veklim says:

      Personally I like to roll the dice occassionally for no good reason other than to get the player’s full attention, works a treat ;)

      1. Veneficus says:

        I used to roll a random handful of dice just to seem like I was doing something random. Seriously, why to you think the DM keeps all his stuff hidden behind books and screens? :) It’s like readin tea leaves, the dice say what I want them to say!

  10. Dave says:

    “I’m in. We’re all in.” has become the new catchphrase of the players in our group!

  11. heh i swear i have met Frank- er I mean Boromir before, managing to sucseffully ignore the dm and continue the story at the same time. “were in, were all in” perfection.

  12. cheesebunny says:

    oh dear, between this and the tatu videos I may have to miss the party and read untill QI gets on!

  13. Aragorn says:

    I wish I had this on freaking DVD I would watch it until I die and then ill take it to hell with me :DDDD

  14. ERROR says:

    Priceless. No other adjective will fit this. :)

  15. ravenskysong says:

    is it a bad sign that I tend to skip over the yellow bits in the comic? lol I’m as bad as the players oh god…

    1. ImThisObiWanKid says:

      you and me both buddy

  16. Spit Fyre says:

    Blah Blah Blah!

  17. AA says:

    Can you repeat the middle bit?

  18. Mr. Beer says:

    Ahh, yes, this reminds me of a particularly long winded GM whose briefing room ended up as Billy Bo Bob’s Briefing Bar (we knocked out the wall to the restroom next door and remodeled while the GM had a 45 minute monologue).

  19. Leyomi the Parodier says:

    Whoa. When I saw the final panel I got this weird rush of adrenaline, like what I should* get at the actual scene.

    Oh yes, I was too lazy to say this earlier, but “Eat it, KNAVE!” is going to become my new battle cry.

    *I say should because I’m generally too busy parodying it to pay any attention.

  20. Mika says:

    This seriously reminded me of that owl from Ocarina of time.

    Spending what must of been an hour mashing the “A” button to finish his convoluted monologue then…suddenly…

    Did you understand all that?
    >No
    Yes

    And hitting the “A” button again by accident.

    “Well, let me repeat it for you!”

    ):

    1. Samuel Bronson says:

      That is exactly who I was thinking of, too, only his stories never *really* took a whole hour.

  21. OoiraqiwomenoO says:

    i dont know what game this is or what you guys are talking about but these are realy funny comic strips

  22. Duder NME says:

    Ah yes, the infamous DM infodump. Module text blocks = danger, Will Robinson!

  23. ImThisObiWanKid says:

    “Um, I sort of zoned out an hour ago. What are we doing again?”
    Oh, God STORY OF MY LIFE!

    1. Kaiman says:

      This is what it’s like teaching people new board games. Nobody listens to the rules and/or says it’s taking too long and let’s just play.

      Then during the game they keep complaining about things that only happen because they don’t know the rules.

  24. Sir Robin the not quite as brave as Sir Lanceilot says:

    That gets the DM very angry

  25. elenmirie says:

    I’m re-reading this ‘cuz I just re-watched the movies… it is still hilarious! “If he’s not rolling the dice, it’s probably not important.” That is deeply true, in more ways than one!

    Respect…

  26. 4ier says:

    There’s a couple of messed up character encodings in the comments.
    John and Vayne Nomin have he's, which should be he’s.

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