Be careful where you go, because you cannot un-smell things. For example, you should not, under any circumstances, visit the town of Frogmorton.
Dead Island

A stream-of-gameplay review of Dead Island. This game is a cavalcade of bugs and bad design choices.
Starcraft 2: Rush Analysis

I write a program to simulate different strategies in Starcraft 2, to see how they compare.
In Defense of Crunch

Crunch-mode game development isn't good, but sometimes it happens for good reasons.
The Middle Ages

Would you have survived in the middle ages?
A Star is Born

Remember the superhero MMO from 2009? Neither does anyone else. It was dumb. So dumb I was compelled to write this.
It’s Frogmorton!
Just kidding. Love the series… but I imagine you’re going to be moving on to another game. (Which makes me sad.) My favorite aspect has been the ignorant optimism all the Hobbits have, and Lulzy was hit with a flash of insight to realize what so wrong about everything, but no one can comprehend her newfound intelligence.
Does LOTRO interest you enough to keep playing it, or is that mid-20-to-30’s drought doing its dastardly work?
On a side note, I think we should revive the use of the word “dastardly.”
Wait, wait, level 20-30?
You mean that the Shire, a peaceful place with nothing bad happening, and thus nothing happening at all, can last you from level 1-30??!?
Really?!?
I thought Shamus would at least make it out of the Shire and get to stuff that can actually be considered adventure before quitting…
It would be tough to make it past level 15 without leaving the Shire, I think.
I’ve made it to level 16 doing just Shire quests but yes at about level 15 in any of the starter zones it is time to move on to Bree.
Yep, like Johnnie Morton, not Morten Andersen.
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I loved that last couplet. Very nice.
Only four pages? How can I possibly be content with only four pages of funny!? If this trend continues, you’ll charge us twice us much for the next post! Outrageous!
Not only that – but the link takes you to the Forum, not the strip. So, he is already charging double – it takes TWO clicks to get there now. :-)
I completely forgot about that! What a dastardly man!
Weird. It took me directly to the article. You must be having hallucinations!
Hallucinations must be contagious then – I had the same issue. What _is_ Lulzy adding to those pies?
Shamus, what server do you play Lulzy on? I started playing LOTRO myself recently, and it’s a nice thought to think that maybe I’d cross paths with Lulzy some day. I’m on Silverlode.
If you can’t/won’t divulge, that’s cool. Just wondering!
You can do a search under MyLotro. Just search for Lulzy and look for a level 15ish minstrel and see what server they are on. When you find that you have most likely found our Shamus.
Yup. Silverlode.
Secretly, he already knew what server you’re on, he just wanted to remove suspicion about who sent Lulzy those pies ;)
Okay, so they decided to put Deliverance in the Shire. No doubt Tolkien would approve.
Also: The Floating Log?! Are kidding me!?
I have one word to say: lolpoop
Not that I’m not enjoying this series (I very much am), but I was wondering if you had any clue how long you intended to keep going with it? 14 parts seems like a lot, but, as others have already pointed out earlier, you haven’t even left the Shire yet, and presumably there’s a great deal more to the game.
You’ve implied from other posts that you’ve played a good deal more of the game with a different character already, so I would imagine that by now you’ve got some general sense of roughly how many parts it takes to make up a level’s-worth of content in the game. So are we talking about a 50-part series? More? Less?
Originally this was going to be a 12 parter, ending about the time I got home with the resolution of the post office “plot”. Then I decided to add a few towns in the Shire and end around 16. Now it’s looking like we’ll end somewhere in the 20’s.
I’m trying to stay flexible. I want to have SOME sort of arc so the ending can have closure. At the same time, I don’t want Lulzy to wear out her welcome.
I would like to see something else besides the shire.
Agreed, the Shire is a silly place, but silly places don’t stay funny the longer you’re there…
I’d love to see more of the world, just, you know, without having to actually play the game.
+1 to this.I want to see silly of other races,not just the hobbitses.
Lulzy’s welcome won’t even begin to wear off while those quests are so hilarious :)
“Not that I'm not enjoying this series (I very much am), but I was wondering if you had any clue how long you intended to keep going with it? 14 parts seems like a lot, but, as others have already pointed out earlier, you haven't even left the Shire yet, and presumably there's a great deal more to the game.”
Considerably more. The Shire is lengthy enough to get you to about level 15, but there’s little reason to go back there except for crafting. The game is much, much bigger.
I thought the whole bit with agriculature was hilarious.
Glad to know this is not only true in my part of the world…
This is pretty much a universal rule of construction jobs. You can see it in miniature when moving your stuff to a new house: about 50% of the work can be done by any number of people (i.e. moving boxes), 10% requires everybody to work at once (moving furniture), and the other 40% can be done by just one or two people (packing boxes).
In some areas, it’s 1:3. Just look at any CalTrans worksite. It’s always the youngest guy digging a ditch while the other 2 lean on their shovels and… well, you know.
I’m sorry, but you mentioned CalTrans, and I couldn’t resist (for those of you outside of California who are unfamiliar with CalTrans, just picture any government-employed road crew):
What’s black and orange and sleeps six?
A CalTrans truck.
Did you hear CalTrans had to lay off 500 employees? The Japanese invented a shovel that can stand up by itself.
Two CalTrans workers are walking down the street, when one suddenly turns and smashes a snail with his shovel.
“What’d you do that for?” his coworker asks.
“That guy’s been following me around all day…”
I can’t believe we don’t have an argument here about what Tron would have been like if it took place inside of an Apple.
The correct answer, of course, is not half as awesome as if it took place inside an Amiga.
Shamus, do you think it’s just coincidence that some of your best work involves the works of Tolkien meshed with some form of RPG? Your skill at satire never ceases to amaze, and it always seems to be at its finest in the Tolkienverse for some reason.
With that in mind, if “The Hobbit” ever gets made, do you think we might see a DM of the Rings prequel?
Either way, thanks for another round of laughs!
“So basically you want me to invent agriculture for you?”
I had to comment, just to say I love that.
Also, to agree with Blackbird71. If “The Hobbit” came out, and you were in the mood for another DMotR-style webcomic, it could be a prequel sequel, where the DM creates a campaign that takes place before the previous one, with a dragon and everything, since they were complaining about only fighting orcs. I dunno.