As you might recall from the sappy romantic writeup in Thief + Wizard, Part 5/5, the writer and illustrator of this here Handbook are happily wed. And when it comes to the geekly arts, that means we’ve hit the jackpot. We get to sit in on another’s games, talk shop between sessions, and steal both minis and dice sets from one another. Not all couples are so lucky.

Sharing what you’re passionate about is a good thing. When you walk out of a session filled with dragon fire and world-shaking revelations, it’s only natural to want to tell somebody (anybody!) about the day’s adventure. The next logical step is to actually bring those people into the game. But sometimes, those people just aren’t into it. They make Munchkin cards about this experience.

To a certain extent, this business applies to all hobbies. Getting your friends and loved ones to try out full-contact skijoring, intramural quidditch, or competitive dwarf tossing can all be a tough sell. But there’s some strange alchemy that happens in the gamer brain. It insists that, “If I just explain it one more time, I’m sure they’ll come around.” As Thief so ably demonstrates in today’s comic, that just ain’t so. Besides which, if she actually did manage to pick up a spell or two, she’d have to change her name to Arcane Trickster, and there’s no way she’s going through that paperwork headache.

And so, we come at length to our question of the day! Have you ever tried and failed to bring someone into the hobby? Or worse, have you ever sat at one of those awkward tables where some poor schlub was failing to show an utterly-uninterested acquaintance the ropes? Tell us your tales of poorly-explained rules and why-did-you-make-me-come-to-this eye rolls down in the comments!

 

THIS COMIC SUCKS! IT NEEDS MORE [INSERT OPINION HERE] Is your favorite class missing from the Handbook of Heroes? Maybe you want to see more dragonborn or aarakocra? Then check out the “Quest Giver” reward level over on the The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. You’ll become part of the monthly vote to see which elements get featured in the comic next!