T w e n t y S i d e d
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Merry and Pippin were about the most underused characters in this campaign. I imagine the two of them sat on the couch playing XBox, and if they were needed for anything they would shout their actions over their shoulder without looking away from the TV. Now that I’ve come to this point, it would have been nice to have a gag where (during some tense or serious moment) the two of them were playing something like Halo 2 and their chatter was distracting the roleplaying. Ah well. Maybe I’ll go back and add it once the story is over.
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Loud, loud guffaws from here! You should definitely go back and change it later, though. It’ll be even funnier.
Nice. I was that guy when one of my friends decided to run a homebrew Narnia rpg. But that was before halo 2, so we only halo the original halo and shouted “tink-tink!” when we heard grenades.
Love the comic, dude. Good stuff!
Back in the day it was playing games of Magic: TG under the table on our legs XD Later, one of the players was heavily guilty of GBA use. And some gamers are just fidgety and will resort to even just reading sourcebooks while at the table. Though the really distracting part is when they will randomly blurt out something in the book they find interesting, irregardless of what is going on.
Heh, and I’d love to see more jokes added in an “Extended Edition” of DM of the Rings ^_^ It would just add another layer of parody.
I haven’t been able to view any of the comics the last few days. All I get is the title graphic, then a placeholder where the comic is supposed to be, even on comics that I have previously been able to read. I haven’t made any configuration changes or software installations on my end – any idea what might be blocking me from viewing just the comics?
I’ve had the “you’re either going to play D&D for real or you’ve gota leave” discussion more than once. The DM should have kicked them to the curb weeks ago.
well, you know that the hobits come back in like the third book, so who the hell is going to play them, and if no one else will, let’s see if you can create a convincing twist as to how to convince them to change their minds just at the right time. oh, and btw, why does everything seem to happen at just the right time?
One campaign I was in hand a penchant for different people playing the same roles (Bond/Dr Who-style) and NPCs becoming PCs. So maybe different guys will join the game later & be happy to take the Pippin/Merry pre-mades ;-)
I was the sourcebook reading guy. Whenever things were slow or lackluster in the campaign i’d always grab one of the nearby books… don’t know how many times i’ve read through the Druid, Psionics, and Elves handbooks. :)
ya, but it’d be cool if he could find a way for the players to decide to come back, and how the other players would act. it could end in an all out attack of PvP! that would ROCK!
This was well done. Thanks.
“Maybe I'll go back and add it once the story is over.”
He’s already planning the Collector’s Edition! What’s next, The DM of the Rings Criterion Box-set with Limited Foil Cards?
Nice chain ya got there… mind if I yank it a few times?
lol and spoofs of like farscape
We have a dog to play with at our DM’s home, and pizza, and wine, and somehow that never detracts from “real game time” workings. We _did_ lose one of our Dave’s characters, however, and an NPC cleric, so the DM’s had to graft new PC etc onto the back story of our campaign and such. I marvel at the effectiveness of our minds (5 players of varied experience and a veteran DM – and her little dog, too) to have it all happening at one, the delivery guy shows up with the food and no one groans, “aw just getting interesting” because we can turn the volume back up on the game. No visuals but for some teensy minis on a hand-drawn map, everybody has some version of the story in their head, how ever they might imagine it.
I am sooooo glad this comic doesn’t resemble my game group for the points above.
But I do laugh a lot to read it. Thanks for your hard work!
What do you mean everything happens at the right time?
They killed Gollum. That’s always a wrong time.
This is great! Keep up the great work!
Wow man, incredible stuff. It’s ALL true.
Someone in a forum I frequent posted a link here, I read all the comics today. Simply incredible, and even though I haven’t played D&D for about 20 years, it seems the experience is universal.
Siergen –
I haven't been able to view any of the comics the last few days. All I get is the title graphic, then a placeholder where the comic is supposed to be, even on comics that I have previously been able to read. I haven't made any configuration changes or software installations on my end – any idea what might be blocking me from viewing just the comics?
Shamus moved the files to a new server, which I run. I’m not sure why you can’t see the files now. If you email me at andrew -at- pixymisa -dot- net, I’ll do my best to get it sorted out.
Same goes for anyone else who’s having problems.
Theory:
Hotlink protection.
I’d turned it on, but allowed hotlinking from http://www.shamusyoung.com
I’m thinking if someone visited this site via a link or typing it into the adress bar as http://shamusyoung.com (thus omit the www) then they would be DENIED by hotlink protection.
I turned it off. Is the problem fixed? I dunno. It’s all ones and zeroes to me.
well, sam and frodo just so happen to leave at the right time
marry and pippen get captured
boamear dies
All these people who seem to have only seen the movies. If you read the books, you’d know it’s Merry (Meriadoc Brandybuck), Pippin (Peregrine Took), and Boromir. In fact forget the books, I’m pretty sure Shamus has used the name somewhere in the text of the comics. Oh well.
say, how bout you create an online d&d game here, then some people can come join. and we wouldn’t need to waste all that gass money lol
A special edition of this would be good and it would bring a new level of parody to the whole project.
Keep up the good work.
Shamus –
Earlier this year I had to firewall off quite a few IP ranges because mu.nu was getting DDoSed. Those firewall rules are still in effect, and may have caught some honest people by mistake (particularly if IP addresses have been reassigned). If people mention that they can’t see the comic, forward them to me and I’ll make sure it gets fixed.
“Maybe I'll go back and add it once the story is over.”
Please Mr. Lucas don’t do that.
If you want to go back and add extra panels into the story as “bonus features” on the DVD… err PDF, that’s cool. But Legolas with a cell phone instead of a bow, or Hans Solo shooting 2nd… that’s not cool.
I could say why, but South Park already explained it.
Shamus,
Freaking awesome comic! I just found it today thanks to a link at EN World.
The Halo comment reminded me of Caboose in Red vs. Blue, when they were setting off on the quest. “Okay, so Tucker is the fighter, Crunchbite is the healer and I am the powerful…and intelligent…wizard…Mor..phu…max…. This is going to be the best party EVER.”
OMG, its hard to RP a dark and spooky cavern filled with undead when some genius decides to play Rainbow Six on the 360!
I know I’m late on this, whatever.
In regards to Merry and Pippin, you could always add them after you finish the story and release the “deleted scenes”.
Well a classic moment of players doing other things at the table between their turns was in a campaign I was running.
We were playing an oriental adventures campaign. One of my players had his laptop with him at all times, so inbetween turns he was playing Warcraft III. Of course being the uber nice guy I am I didn’t say anything because, well, most my friends, although well into their late 20s and 30s – smart as heck – and all are hyper sensitive children if you say one thing to them they get all cranky and want to cry – but seriously I’d rather let them read or play their lap top then hear them bitch and moan for 30 minutes about why their playing Warcraft III at the table on their laptop ISN’T distracting to the rest of the players…
Well long story short – Warcraft Playing Guy – obviously not paying attention to the game at hand – thinks he hears someone at the table say something that offended his character – so he turns and casts a fireball at his ingame brother and kills him…
For no reason whatsoever mind you – since his brother wasn’t refering to him and it wasn’t an insult…
Of course an incident a couple years later involving very same player and my computer during a SWG D20 session proves that old dogs still piss on the same part of the carpet every time…
Damn I love this DM of the Rings…and the comments too, I cant stop…so onward!
What if Merry and Pippin are chattering while playing X-box when Boromir is fighting to defend them from the orcs?
Or while Frodo tries to destroy the Ring?
man I’ve never played D&D but hell, these strips make me wanna try :D
hope u dont mind a comment posted 4 years late
PErsonaly I Find sometimes the reason why a player would go off to play like XBox or something is sometimes in large groups it would take like 1-3 Hours for there turn to come around. And there turn only lasted 5-10 mins anyways SO …
Thats my own personal experiance however.
Yeah, I personally would never consider running a game like this simply because the size of the party would be very cumbersome. A fellowship of 9, with 8 PCs? I limit my parties to 4 or 5 max. I think once I did a party of 6 and it was a bit unwieldy.
With that many players, inevitably some will get shoved to the background for at least a little while (until they get bored enough to make you remember they’re there by doing something stupid), some will always be in the light, combat will take forever cause it takes so long to get back to your turn. It’s hard to make every player in such a large game feel like they’re an important contributing member of the story.
Not that it can’t be done, and if you as a DM are capable of keeping that many people interested for that long? Then more power to you, that’s a gift you have right there, and it’s a skill I have not mastered in my 5 years of DMing.
This comic is awesome and hilarious but I just wanted to post a quick comment that I love your comment tracking thing, especially that there are special ones like at 32 it reads 2^5 (of course it won’t anymore because of this new comment, but it did).
There are a few messed up character encodings in the comments.
Wonderduck:
I'll should be I’ll
Pixy Misa:
haven't should be haven’t
(two of those)
Steve C:
“Maybe I'll should be “Maybe I’ll
over.” should be over.”
“Maybe I’ll go back and add it once the story is over.”
Narrator voice: He did not.