{"id":45895,"date":"2019-04-12T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=45895"},"modified":"2019-04-13T02:01:33","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T06:01:33","slug":"15-a-truly-random-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=45895","title":{"rendered":"#15 A Truly Random Encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Why do they call them \u201cRandom encounter tables\u201d when there\u2019s nothing random about them? It\u2019s just the same stupid monsters over and over. You want random? Fine, make it really random. A hampstersaurus. A mucus salesman. A toenail golem. A troupe of fornicating clowns. David Hasselhoff. If your players don\u2019t start crying the moment you pick up the percent die, you\u2019re just babying them.<\/div>\n


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Shamus Says:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I wrote this one, the displacer moose originally had some other text. I don\u2019t remember, but it was something similar. Probably \u201cRar.\u201d (The period at the end is important. It implies Casey is delivering this roar in a monotone deadpan, which makes it even more absurd.) When the comic showed up, Shawn had changed it and I had no idea why. What\u2019s the point of replacing one guttural sound with another?<\/p>\n

I asked, and Shawn explained that the \u201cGrrr. Arrg.\u201d in the last panel is actually a reference to Mutant Enemy Productions, which is the organization Joss Whedon is using to try to take over the world. (Progress so far: Disappointingly slow.)<\/p>\n

I love references like this. They sail right by people who (like me) aren\u2019t in on the joke, but act as a secret handshake or an in-joke to the people who do. I love to work in details like this whenever I can. With two of us, we had twice the number of brains searching for obscure nerd culture references.<\/p>\n

I also want to point out that I\u2019d originally written this as a \u201cDire Moose\u201d. The whole \u201cDisplacer Moose\u201d was Shawn\u2019s idea, so he deserves credit for one of the most popular jokes in the series.<\/p>\n

Shawn Says:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this strip is a good example of our two brains coming together to make something better than if either of us had done it solo. It\u2019s true, the original script had a Dire Moose in the last panel. Now, it\u2019s a well known fact that Moose Are Funny (like pants). For some random reason the idea popped in my head that it should be a Displacer Moose, a tentacled beast that warps space around itself and does, um, moose stuff.<\/p>\n

Then I had the idea to tweak the last panel in to a long time running joke between myself and my best friend. For years, she had found the idea of a moose eating Kiera Knightley\u2019s head hilarious, and I would Photoshop such images for her whenever possible. (Don\u2019t ask.) I really wanted panel 3 to feature Sapphire\u2019s head in the Displacer Moose\u2019s mouth. Shamus eventually vetoed the plan, which looking back was I think the right idea. I think the Displacer Moose is funny enough as it is, and the added bit of absurdity probably would have made the strip less funny to most people, and overly hilarious to a very, very small minority.<\/p>\n

Also, if anyone has the original Chuck\u2019s Random Encounter Table that ran as a bonus feature to this strip, could you please send it to Shamus or myself? Shamus put that thing together, it was hilarious, and I don\u2019t think either of us have a copy.<\/p>\n

EDIT 2019: I think the random encounter table is gone forever. Nobody had a copy, and I couldn’t find it on the internet archive. Alas. I’d love to see it again. I don’t even remember any of the jokes. <\/p>\n

I used to have a monster book for D&D 3.5, and I remember it was filled with some really silly, broken monsters. A dogsnake and displacer moose were only just a little bit more absurd than what was in the books.<\/p>\n

EDIT: No! Less than an hour after this post went live, someone found it…. ON THIS SITE. I had it here the whole time. I’d just lost track of it.<\/p>\n

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