T w e n t y S i d e d
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The consequences you impose on your players for poor choices should be directly proportional to how much those choices annoyed you at the time.
What is Piracy?
It seems like a simple question, but it turns out everyone has a different idea of right and wrong in the digital world.
Stolen Pixels
A screencap comic that poked fun at videogames and the industry. The comic has ended, but there's plenty of archives for you to binge on.
The Brilliance of Mass Effect
What is "Domino Worldbuilding" and how did it help to make Mass Effect one of the most interesting settings in modern RPGs?
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.
Silent Hill Origins
Here is a long look at a game that tries to live up to a big legacy and fails hilariously.
I agree with your summation Shamus. In my Call of Cthulhu games people know not to tick me off lest they find themselves sharing the bathroom with the Shoggoth in the Pipes.
Brilliant plot turn, BTW.
Steve.
Exactly.
Great!
Great deadpan shot of Legolas.
Ahaha, that was brilliant!
I knew something like that would come up :D
So what are the effects of this rash on his stats? Charisma has to take a hit when you spend the better part of a conversation scratching the unmentionables.
All I can say is, “MU HAHA HAHA!!”
Ah…very tastefully done. Legolas demanding that Aragorn “share” in his payment would have been the obvious route…!
Okay, this one has forced me to really hold in my laughter less the rest of the IT cube farm wonder what’s wrong with me.
That was dealt with by the “Long lecture from the priest”. I would think the only reason Aragorn would have sat through that would be for a ‘Cure Disease’ spell.
Withoput wanting to seem to gush too much, kudos on the characterisation too. I hadn’t realised that I was buying into these guys as “real” (in the context of the comic as opposed to the movie) until this strip, when I actually heard Orlando Bloom’s voice say “and you’d better be ready to share it”.
Well done.
Steve.
The D&D group I DM includes a teenager with Asperger’s and three preteens. I design and run scenarios with emphasis on consequences, especially social ones. A classic example was the time the rogue decided to make friends in a bar, so he went up and bought a drunk NPC barbarian another beer. “The best stuff you’ve got,” he told the bartender. Needless to say, the barbarian warmed up instantly to the rogue and they were swapping stories like old army buddies in no time.
The monk saw this happening, and felt the need to tell the barbarian that the rogue had actually hidden from a fight earlier that day (which was true; the rogue’s player was a terrible coward, although we’ve since shamed him out of it.) The barbarian, however, did not take kindly to this slander of his “new besht friend”, and the last thing the monk saw that day was a fist the size of a Christmas ham.
The rogue went on to hook up the barbarian with the PCs’ employer, a gnomish mercenary captain (she’s a PC from an old campaign who started hiring men-at-arms to protect her newly-acquired castle, and it got out of hand) and it’s only a matter of time before the barbarian will show up again, doubtless to pull the PCs’ fat out of some fire or other.
The second and third last frames are just priceless. You can just see Legolass thinking “WTF?”
ROTFLOLMCOMN. This strip really is the best use of the internet. Thank you, AlGore!!!
I totally expect the finisher to be a comment about seeing why Gay Legloas wanted his share. :P
Another instant classic.
[Browncoat] Rolling On The Floor Laughing Out Loud Making Coin Operated Machine Noises???
This hardly seems appropriate.
Steve.
I’m wishing you could frame grab another shot of Bloom cracking wise, but he’s soooo serious.
But he should have bust a gut or at least mocked Aragorn – but it looks like everybody rolled low for their wisdom checks, given the drooling Aragorn has already exhibited.
EELOL (Even Elves Laugh Out Loud)!
Oh my gawd! I should’ve learned a long time ago to wait until I get home to read the newest episode. Do you know how difficult it is to be quiet at work while laughing so hard your ribs hurt?
This is one of the best ever!
Good thing I didn’t read it during that conference call.
Steve-
ROTFLOL, MCOMN, where MCOMN = “Milk Coming Out My Nose”
Ha! Payback for all his gay jokes at Legolas’ expense — time to see what it’s like on the receiving end.
(That wasn’t meant to sound dirty, though it kinda does.)
OMG, this comic is *outstanding*! But what are you using to locate the frames for the screencaps? The expressions are perfect!! Aragorn in this one just cracks me up.
And *please* put together that selection of Argagorn stoned, then let us vote for the lines!
I use Cyberlink PowerDVD for playing the movie (sometimes a single frame at a time) and for doing screencaps.
Just finished reading the entire archive.
Simply awesome. Great great stuff. I think I’ve gamed with these guys. :)
I also just read the whole lot – had to try very hard not to burst out laughing in the middle of a fairly silent office.
Thanks!
Considering the terrain, Aragorn probably has hoof and mouth…
Third panel — great screenshot. XD Aragorn’s guilty expression is TOO PERFECT!
As you mentioned previously and in this quip, annoying players should be hurt bad and the worse way to hurt them is give them their way … totally.
While DMing years ago, I finally got so feed up with a player that I gave him three totally unlimited wishes. By the third one he had made his character a god. I then closed my book, turned slowly to him, and then said “Now what do you want to do?” Everyone else at the table immediately got the hint and played alone. The annoying player made everyone play as his puppets for about a half hour before he got tired of it. Seing his future with us he then packed up, left, and was never herd from again. In 20 minutes the laughing stopped and everyone else got back into the game. The rest of the campaign was fun for everyone.
Thanks for your insite and hubris.
This is one of the three sites I visit every time I go online. I also visit http://www.giantitp.com (I think shamus has said something about these already.) and http://www.gmail.com (e-mail.) Definitely a top rated site!
Also, have you guys ever heard of IRC quotes? Just google search it, and when you find it, you wont regret it. (A must do: In IRC quotes search for Harry Potter. A bit graphic, but it got me and my buddies laughing for at least three months
Wait a second, Aragorn gets an STD from Eowyn, which implies that she is less than fully virtuous. Theoden’s now acting IRATE about Aragorn’s decision?!? Sounds like a scam to me. Every few months, Theoden finds himself in trouble, Eowyn just “happens” to fall for an adventuring band’s leader, and soon that band is obligated to help Theoden out of trouble.
Maybe that’s why Theoden’s in trouble now, because last time Saruman was the one who had visited Edoras and fallen victim to Eowyn’s wiles.
Brilliant, Joshua!
Priceless!
okay, not to dig up a dead thread, but I just had to comment.
Loved that resolution to Aragorns…’encounter’. He got what he wanted, alright, and so much more. ;P
I had a DM once do roughly the same thing to a character in one of our games. The PC was always being a real horn-dog, and eventually the DM had him get what he wanted out of a travelling female bard. Unfortunately for him, she was evil and went around intentionally infecting unsuspecting individuals with a STD. He got our cleric to heal the disease. He never lived down the shame.
As for how I have handled PCs and their penchant for chaotic behavior, I simply have told all of my players this;
You can do whatever you want. I will always make sure you have enough rope to work with. Whether you use it help or hang yourself is entirely up to you. Just be aware that there will be consequences for your actions.
Inevitably, there are always those who end up twisting in the wind…
Yep – sometimes the worst type of punishment is to get exactly what you ask for…
Joshua – that is awesome.
Khyran Storm –
It just so happens that I had a gamemaster So good at giving us just what we asked for – and usually exactly what we didn’t want – that before long he didn’t have to say or do anything. We all knew what could happen.
Oh, man…the whole “rash from the king” concept immeadiately stuck me as suss…going back to the whole “Leggo Of My Ass” and the “I’m not gay (but maybe you are)” things…and I couldn’t help but laugh at Legolas’s “WTF?” expression. Kudos to you, man *claps* ;)
1. “Withoput wanting to seem to gush too much, kudos on the characterisation too. I hadn't realised that I was buying into these guys as “real” (in the context of the comic as opposed to the movie) until this strip, when I actually heard Orlando Bloom's voice say “and you'd better be ready to share it”.”
That is so true! I immeadiately heard Orlando Bloom saying that…but it was more as Will Turner than as Legolas. Still, what you say there, I completely ditto that. :)
2. “Ha! Payback for all his gay jokes at Legolas' expense “” time to see what it's like on the receiving end.
(That wasn't meant to sound dirty, though it kinda does.)”
Yeah, maybe you shoulda thought about that first…lol!! (It’s funny cuz it’s true XD)
“I don’t want to talk about it…”
Exactly what my charicter said in a simler situation (see post 110 on LXIII).
I am really loveing the realisem of the OC player comments
Leggo-lass :P : Yeah, what did you get? And you better be ready to share it… Aragorn: I got a bad rash and a long lecture from the local priest, ok? Legolas dies of deadpan staring. LOL
Aragorn should be glad he didn’t play Star Wars. Imagine the diseases he’d get on Tatooine.
ROFL.
The best of these types of encounters Ive ever seen was the time one of the PC’s got a note from the NPC they had previously encountered (actually completely business oriented since the NPC was a thief or somesuch) and he could not remember who it was, but the rest of the party did. Unfortunately the little line “she sold you some boots… you know that you proceeded to knock” did not make it into a general thing.
Of course there was also the time that my character decided to be bolder than I was willing to be (call of cthulu female player female character) and the GM allowed my character to reach the full conclusions of meeting with that mobster… while the rest of the group tried (all guys) vaguely to get me out to of the situation a bunch of failed sneak rolls on my part ended with my character leaving the hotel the next day rather upset and me with a great story to tell all my non gaming friends.
reminds me of The Gods Must Be Crazy… “i dont want to talk about it…”
EWWWWWWW!!!! can we hold off on the gay perverted sexual stuff?????? GOD
Laughing till I cried!
Reading this series is making me realize how much of the LOTR movies is the main characters giving each other the sexeye.