Looking for Answers
Laurel’s Note: Today’s comic was unexpectedly hand-drawn due to computer… issues. Hopefully they will be resolved quickly and things will look normal again, but in the meantime, I drew Handbook in a sketchbook for the first time in years! I used to draw the sketch mockups by hand at first before I switched to digital completely, so this was a bit of fun nostalgia.
Colin’s Rant: FYI, “computer issues” is code for “ants have invaded Laurel’s workspace.” If it was any worse she’d be taking swarm damage. Not to worry though. Steps have been taken.
We aren’t the only ones tackling problems head-on. After a long career of not-dealing-with-his-shit, it’s good to see Paladin being a little proactive. Of course, I can sympathize with a PC at his wit’s end.
So often in gaming, we tend to look down at our character sheets for answers. We parse inventories, double-check spells lists, and then throw up our hands when a solution eludes us.
“I don’t have anything for this situation. Guess I’m dead.”
But there’s an important resource that we tend to forget. Namely, the entire rest of the game world. If you’re not sure where to go next, you’ve got a whole setting’s worth of shady information brokers, ancient prophets, and learned sages willing to point you in the right direction. Hell, my own megadungeon has a freaking super-computer buried in its depths. If you’re capable of putting up with its very-literal personality and roll-on-the-chart-to-see-if-it’s-actually-helpful bullshit, it knows almost everything in the game. And that’s to say nothing of the fabulous resource that is the rest of your party. As all the examples show, if you can’t figure something out, someone else probably can.
I’ll do you one better though, because this mess goes beyond straightforward problem solving. When you find yourself unsure how to proceed, the unique alchemy of group storytelling has a wonderful way of shaking loose new ideas. When staring at the character sheet or looking desperately for a slightly-higher skill bonus seems useless, actually playing the game will—almost by definition—yield new information. You’ll find yourself able to make new connections as you go, bouncing off of the game world and your buddies in the process. After all, riffing on the procedural is what roleplaying is all about. And that holds true for impossible conundrums as well as combat encounters.
So what do you say, folks? When you need to go looking for answers, who do you ask? Do you beat it out of an informant? Bargain with an outsider? Consult the Mage’s Forum? Or maybe you just soldier on until some new solution presents itself? Whatever you strat, tell us all about it down in the comments!
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At least Paladin is trying, and Sphinx found someone to put her together after Magus failed to get the hint. ^_^
For information, we’d usually look for well-informed NPCs. Links to character backstories and folks we’ve helped along the way are a great boon. At higher levels, conjuring Outsiders and spells like Commune are good. For Curse of the Crimson Throne, my android alchemist had psychic skills, so she’d collect omens through automatic writing, card- and aura-readings.
I wonder if Paladin patched up the Sphinx himself — still fundamentally a good guy at heart — if Magus eventually figured out the Riddle of Adhesives, or if those nefarious meddlers, the Offscreen Rivals, skulked through at some point?
I am now accepting any and all fan fiction on this point. Which will become canon? Find out, this SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY at the Pit Fightin’ Dome!
> my android alchemist had psychic skills
I’m running a mesmerist at the moment. Dude has access to all those cool skill unlocks, but holy crap is it hit-or-miss trying to get them to work!
Yeah, there are some downsides. But when they work, they make a nice addition to the story, right? Not to mention, the roleplaying is fun. 😉
I quite liked my Occultist for this purpose. The “object reading” ability is the best I’ve ever encountered for, “Hey GM! Give me the plot!”
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/occult-adventures/occult-classes/OCCULTIST/#Object_Reading_Su
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/sword-skills and https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/riddle-me-not . Now hand over the good stuff.
Here is your reward: +5 XP
Spend it wisely.
Sphinx’s two earlier appearences where here
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/sword-skills
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/riddle-me-not
As fighter cut the proverbial Gordian knot and Magus sought a way to put her back togetter
Huh, now it shows up, strange.
Yeah, this happens from time to time. I thought the system – or Colin – might be checking whether the links don’t lead anywhere… awkward.
Yeah. It’s the links. I have to approve ’em manually every time.
If it makes you feel any better, it looks like you got edged out by 20 minutes anyway.
In the interest of fairness though, I rule that you still get +2 XP for your initiative. Good work.
Informants and libraries, if cleric then divine counsel, if modern setting internet and triple check the source and if other sources can back it up.
Paladin here should just choose which matters more, his faith and redeem himself as paladin, or love and become fighter. I mean he’s dealing with two emotions here, not a single shred of logic or working brain cell involved here. The only winning move is to find something to take mind out of both, say dedicate himself for his duties, seclude to monastery and train his mind and body untill he is free of unneccesary junk. Good character aec though.
I tried to us Pathfinder’s research library rules once upon a time:
https://aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?Name=Using%20a%20Library&Category=Research
I could straight up not get them interested. 🙁
I guess hitting eldritch horrors is more compelling than hitting the books.
Riddle-master… That takes me back to the “Riddle-Master”-trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip. ^_^ If Sphinx had really attended the riddle master academy, and studied the books of the lost wizards, she’d be extremely formidable above and beyond being a creature of living stone.
I always wanted more sphinxes to be living stone. I know the Egyptian model is just a statue of an actual mythical creature, but it’s so friggin’ iconic that I want it to be the norm.
Sphinxes are so smart they can all be assumed to have a PhD. So that would make her Doctor Living-Stone, I presume?
I both love and hate you at the same time.
I just love this without reservation! 😀
I see my last post didn’t post, presumably being caught in some automatic filter which didn’t like the links to the earlier sphinx appearances (even through they where links to this very site)
So trying again: Sphinx’s first appearance was on april 11th 2016 after Fighter had cut her in half instead of attempting to answer her riddle
Her second appearance was on may 14th 2018 where she tried to get Magus to put her back togetter but where stymied by Magus overthinking the situation.
OK. You get +2 XP for this post as well. 😛
A question for Laurel: the paper you use looks luxurious.
What kind of sketchbooks do you prefer? Is there a brand name?
What kind of markers and pencils do you use?
I had to check, but the current sketchbook is a Strathmore–normally I just get whatever sketchbooks are on sale, though, most of the brands you’ll find at an art store all work equally well! I am definitely more picky about pens, though, I use microns (normally .03!) and mechanical pencils because I absolutely despise having to sharpen a pencil constantly. If I’m feeling extra fancy, I get out my non-photo blue mechanical pencils so I don’t have to do much erasing!
This is where classes like warlocks and clerics come into their own. You’re working for some kind of godlike patron, so if they expect you to be a useful minion, they can stump up with some divine inspiration, or a vision or simply information provided via other mortal servants.
Always nice to have a eldritch entity on tap. They work in mysterious ways by definition, and are always one Marvel Dream Sequence away from an exposition dump.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/d6Xq5BEqihckVYKwThmfFW-1200-80.jpg
When Knowledge (__) checks and Gather Information fail the players, I turn to the D20srd site’s random NPC generator to churn out a few random Experts that the PCs can consult. The results are usually quirky enough that I can spin something unique, memorable, informative, fun, but probably frustrating and expensive (at low levels) out of the encounter.
I know for a fact that there’s one half-elf fashionista that a particular party would NEVER hire, except that she has ALL of the low-down on risky magic and can fence anything they can pull out of dungeon, no matter how dodgy.
Let’s spin the wheel then:
https://www.d20srd.org/d20/random/#type=npc;order=Common
Armor: Female Gnome Expert (entertainer), N. Str 7, Dex 9, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 14. Armor is stout, with uneven red hair and amber eyes. She wears modest garments and silk gloves. Armor has an animal companion, a hawk named Thrari.
Viga: Male Half-orc Expert (master craftsman), LN. Str 9, Dex 5, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 14. Viga has matted white hair and dark green eyes. He wears modest garments and silk gloves. Viga is dying and desperately seeks the secret of immortality.
Signe: Female Dwarf Expert (scholar), NG. Str 7, Dex 7, Con 8, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 9. Signe has an angular face, with red hair and green eyes. She wears well-made clothing and an ermine fur cape. Signe is hunting the demon who murdered her family.
Immortality research, demonic consultations, and a possibly-thieving hawk. Yeah, that checks out. 😀
Have we seen the Sphinx before? Why is it damaged?
Look at the older comments: two people have provided links to the Sphinx’s prior appearances. ^_^
^ What Rock said. 🙂
I wonder how much trouble Barbarian went through to carve/sculpt out those fancy new braids on the dreads for the Sphinx. The look sure suits her! Too bad she’s not the outgoing type though.
Homegirl always had dreads. It’s just that the automatic writing Laurel uses to channel the history of Handbook-World into our own plane of existence has improved with practice.
When my knowledge checks fail, I know how to try again – the local settlement’s library, of course! Or Mage’s Guild or certain temples. Generally, from good knowledge, most circumstances can be resolved by jiggling the data around a little.
Is it as simple as walking into the appropriate research facility and taking 20, or does your GM find a way to turn research into a proper encounter?
Usually we can take 10 with the bonus; relative to expected DCs, we’re something of optimizers.
Gotcha. So in practice, you’re just “given the information” when you go to the library…?
In practice, our modifiers are usually high enough that we only go to the library if we roll low. Controlled setting = can guarantee we don’t. So, yeah, in practice that happens most of the time. Occasionally, there’s the research thresholds and task progress thing for when the knowledge is supposed to take a while, but that’s rather rare.
with that hand drawing and Paladins question…
first impression was that Laurel had left you to draw yourself.
We talked about doing this as a gag once upon a time. She’d write, I would illustrate, and the weekly rant would be about letting the player GM every once in a while.
I showed her a practice sketch. The idea was summarily shelved.
If i can offer an alternate approach: You don’t deal with the problem, you actually make it worse… and worse… and worser… until the DM needs to intervene and resolve things out for you 😀
Nothing resolve not paying the check at a restaurant as making the forces of hell and un-death battle on a city bringing catastrophic casualties on innocent bystanders 😀
> …until the DM needs to intervene and resolve things out for you
You joke, but GMs generally want their narratives to advance. I have to restrain myself from just handing my players the answers all the time, and it’s way harder than it should be.
True love might only come along once in a lifetime. You can find a new god on any street corner.
Well now I want to go back and read Small Gods again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Gods
It depends on the character.
My Card Caster magus has two methods. She asks the Harrow when she needs ideas, an impression of a person or situation, or a push in the right direction. But she’s also got research spells for when she needs specific information.
Over in 5e, my bardlock is a member of the Harpers, so they’ve got a whole network to fall back on for information – and occasionally hiding places.