Style
Today’s comic is not about anime. It’s about Matt Mercer. Bear with me on this one.
Role-playing games are one whole hell of a lot more visible than they used to be. With the rise of podcasts like The Glass Cannon, Adventure Zone, and Acquisitions Incorporated, it’s possible to experience an entire campaign without ever picking up a d20. This is, by and large, a good thing. Watching game masters like Chris Perkins pilot a group of murderhobos through the lands of adventure is instructive. For that matter, watching anybody run a game is instructive. Acquiring the good habits and innovative techniques of other gamers is one of the fastest ways to improve your own. However, there is one thing you should not do (and here comes THE POINT, kids!). You should not expect the rest of the world to be Matt Mercer.
When you’ve got billboards in LA and over 100K people tuning in to your season premier, you know that you’ve got somethings special. Critical Role is a hugely influential show. An entire generation of gamers is streaming on Twitch, listening and watching and picking up the style. The professional voice actors that make up the cast are genuinely entertaining people, improvising lyrics for bardic inspiration and maintaining convincing accents from start to finish. Mercer’s willingness to bend game rules at the service of story is an important example for any starting GM, and the worldbuilding at play is some of the most impressive I’ve seen on any tabletop. These are good things to watch and emulate. However, they should not be the standard you apply to all of your own games.
Lately, I’ve begun to see a disturbing litany of complaints on message boards across the web. My GM won’t give me my bardic inspiration dice because I didn’t make up a song like Scanlan. One of my fellow PCs is ripping off the Tyberius Stormwind voice, and now I’m getting shit on for not doing an accent. My players expect me to have a fully fleshed out fantasy world “more like Matt’s.” This is my first campaign! As a longtime gamer I’ll find myself sitting there and shaking my head in dismay. The fact is that it’s not fair to watch professional entertainers and then compare your buddies. You aren’t going to get the New York Yankees at the local sandlot. Your student film is probably not going to be Infinity War.
It goes deeper than that though. Different GMs have different styles, and there are plenty of good games out there that look nothing like Mercer’s. Sandbox play, zero level character funnels, adventure paths, and West Marches style games can all be a blast. If you hold them all to the standard of “it ought to be just like my favorite podcast,” you wind up missing out on cool experiences. While there’s nothing wrong with having preferences, I also think there’s such a thing as unrealistic expectations.
What about the rest of you guys? Have you encountered this issue out in the wild? Have you ever met a gamer that wanted your campaign to look more like a favorite podcast? What about complaints that your game wasn’t quite like another GM’s? Let’s hear it 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!
UPDATE: The Handbook is heading out for Free Comic Book Day!
We’ve got a table at our FLGS, Olympus Games and Comics in Cheyenne! Both the writer & illustrator of this here Handbook of Heroes will be there on Saturday, May 5th from 10 AM – 5 PM. We’re always down to talk shop in person, and we’d love to meet any and all of you guys out there in meat space.
So come on down! Win some free merch! We’ll sign your favorite d20!
Did the other halves of Fighter’s and Cleric’s body mass form a person and run off with the rest of Thief’s eyes?
Interesting how everyone lost stuff, except Wizard who just gained sparkles. =P
Somewhere, lurking in the shadows, there is a buff dwarf with a complicated prescription for eyeglasses:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/amalgam-creature-cr-special/
Thief’s eyes are still there. They’re just closed. (Those aren’t eyebrows.)
Jibblies. http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Jibblies
I get the feeling that Thief wants to keep the sparkles so she can figure out a way to find out how much they’re worth.
The key point here is inspiration, not emulation. It’s fine to look at something and want to have the same amount of enjoyment but you gotta understand the skill and effort put into it. That’s not to say you can’t ever have a game just as good or better than Critical Role but if you’re just starting out and learning the ropes then that likely not going to be the case. Not to mention that the guys RPing have some kind of acting that they can use to bring out their characters, a good deal of players reply with “Uh…yeah sure.” when a NPC asks them something and leave it at that. Different styles of play and the type of game are also a big factor into it; someone might like a more RP based game and other just want to make their numbers bigger and hits things until they’re dead.
Stealing the shit out of what you watch, read, and hear is fine; in fact I’d say that’s a good thing to cultivate when making a world/setting for your players to play in. But you gotta make it fit and realize that the world you’re making isn’t a carbon copy what you’re taking things from. Add some spin to it, make it yours. You’re not Matt Mercer, you’re you.
If your boyfriend suddenly had bishie sparkles, you’d want to keep them too!
I think you hit the nail on the head with the rest of your comment. The problem lies in the difficulty of gaining a breadth of experience in TRPGs. You can’t go to pick up gaming at the movies or on your TV. Nobody reads Newbery Award-winning campaign logs in elementary school. If you come to tabeltop late in life, your first example can easily be your only example. That will naturally skew expectations.
For hover-text: In 5e Friends cantrip doesn’t need Spellcasting ability to be indicated, as it doesn’t require saving throw, attack roll or ability check, and, being a cantrip, it is Contersplelled and Disspelled automatically.
See how there is no Spellcasting ability indicated for Bonus Cantrip: Light for Light Clerics, or Prestidigitation/Druidcraft for Arcane Archer.
Good catch. Changed!
omg, i didint knew your comic had hover-text like xkcd ! how many jokes have i missed D:
Also, its kinda weird to see thief’s eyes xP i got use to them never “being there”
Insofar as this is comic #278, I’m guessing you missed 277 of ’em. 😛
As for Thief’s eyes, I’m always reminded a bit of Book’s hair: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f9/de/de/f9deded2e24a9699623e2049a8a5146d.jpg
Nah, my dm is pretty good, and those I play it with have reasonable expectations, even if they aren’t always satisfied with how things are done. Also, if no one minds, I would like to talk about a pretty crazy and hilarious last session. Me and my friends are in the tomb of annihilations, something that is basically a somewhat easier version of tomb of horror. My last guy just died, and my new guy is a deep gnome ranger/monk/rogue named Zook Fnipper who followed the lessons of Elan in stealth. After a fight, while the cleric was casting a 10 min healing spell, our sorclock decided to hand my guy a wand he knew was possessed by agin, a rabbit trickster god of the hyperactive lol random variety, who promptly possessed my character upon accepting said wand. My character immediately walked off, highfived a picture of a man, opening a secret door, and put on a weird gold crown with a black opal in the middle of a dark room surrounded by demon faces. Surprisingly I didn’t just die and instead got locked in with 2 strong undead things in utter darkness, which worked out for my guy as he was immune to darkvision. By this time, the rest of the party had realized i was gone and tried to follow, after i told them to high five the man to open the door, the sorladin tried to get a hold of me as i immediately ran off again, quickly finding a awoken lizard i made my friend and a secret door. What proceeded was like a episode of buttons and mindy as our sorladin kept trying to grab my character to stop him from going into near suicidal situations such as a lava trapped room my character took a candle from room dripping lava. This lead up to him suggesting sarcastically i roll around to try and find some loot from a chest that was destroyed by a giant boulder from a trap i triggered in case it was just invisible, to his shock and my great joy, in doing so I found one of the keys to the end of the dungeon, made invisible. Next session, we’ll be entering a acid maze, can’t see if I’ll continue to somehow survive:). No one expected my guy to live this long in this state so far:).
Man, sorry if that ended up kinda long and boring, I don’t think I described that well. Also meant to say I can’t wait to see in that second to last sentence, oops.
Welcome to the club XD
Nah, sounds like you had a lot of fun! The phrase “he was immune to darkvision” threw me a bit though!
The 5e ranger recently got a new archetype, the gloomstalker, which has incredibly good powers, to make up for how bad 5e ranger is. One of them is umbral sight, which when in darkness renders you invisible to those who would depend on darkvsision to see you. The main problem is of course that any light sorce ends it, and our sorladin carries a burning sword that lights up a 80ft radius.
Ok, well I’ve learned something new. That makes a lot more sense.
No worries, man. The only way to get better at session summaries is to keep doing them. Eventually you’ll have hundreds of thousands of words worth of copy that no one–not even your fellow players!–will ever want to read.
…
Now I’ve made myself sad. 🙁
For serious though, you campaign sounds all kinds of bonkers. I’d also want to share that lunacy with the world.
Until we reached the tomb, this was actually probably our most tame campaign, but once we reached it, it became hilarious as we tried to beat its various puzzles.
I relate to this to well, currently i’m Dming a game thats in a sandbox world and I would say the greatest fear of mine apart from the players and my own opinion of the game being bad is the ever present of shows such as critical role and someone making a comparison between my game and critical role. As a tabletop player of 4-5 years I can say I have enjoyed many games that are not critical role. Although i have seen more than a few gm’s try to emulate critical role. While taking inspiration from it is great, honestly I take inspiration from war hammer fantasy and vagante. But to try to emulate something, that’s something else entirely.
A great lesson in Gming is to acknowledge where your at. Don’t expect your players to suddenly be spinning songs on the spot or doing convincing accents on the spot out of nowhere. That kind of stuff takes months and often years of practice to nail down, there actors for a reason. Try not to put yourself on a ledge where you expect your players to suddenly be master role-players or where they expect you to be a professional game master. That is a perilous fall no one wants to take.
Instead do what you think is best, make a sandbox!, make something unique or maybe something plain. Your you, and your unique in your own way your not matt mercer. So be you! Your game can still be great or even better than critical role if your players enjoy playing in it. There have been many epic moments and campaigns with simple plots and stories. 😀
As for what you asked, while I have a fear of someone comparing my game to critical role or well any professional podcast. It has not happened yet, although my players do make mention of them. I am glad to say no one has expected me to be a master game master. Although I have seen some players put themselves in the position where they have to be the next scanlan, jim darkmagic, or omin dran. They often burn out easily and quit tabletop forever. It’s a sad sight to be honest. I have seen someone complain in a game i was in as arkul that their game isn’t critical role often voicing it many times during a session. To say the least, he was quickly either kicked or given the talk. I can’t remember which it’s been a while. Along with this i have seen a few game masters try to emulate critical role, or their favorite podcast…It did not end well
….My grammer, why is it like this? Probably because it’s like 2 am in the middle of the night.
I’d originally written, “Your student film is probably not going to be Citizen Kane,” but that’s not fair to Critical Role or to Orson Welles. Critical Role is an exceptionally good campaign, but I’m less certain it’s a genre-defining best-game-ever-played. Acknowledging that you can be just as good but in a completely different way is oddly freeing.
Any examples to share? I’m curious what that looks like in practice.
I came to TRPGs last year pretty much exclusively because I’d been watching loads of Critical Role and absolutely loved it. My first campaign (which I’m still currently in) was the Zeitgeist AP for Pathfinder. It’s set in a steam punk style sub-tropical country where the characters play the equivalent of Homland Security agents, and the plot all surrounds working on missions and investigations for the security of the kingdom. It was also originally written for 4e, which I think gives it part of its weird thematic feel.
My point in saying this is I’m really glad I didn’t just jump into a high-fantasy 5e game, because I think I would have expected it to be run like Critical Role. Having a setting so completely different really helped in treating it as a different game in my mind.
That said I’m now also in a Rise of the Runelord game, because high fantasy dungeon crawling is still awesome.
Starting from a place of, “Critical Role is awesome! I want to do that!” is a great way to enter the hobby. Moving on to the next thing and discovering different parts of gaming is an important step though. Good an ya for keeping an open mind!
Also, thanks for letting me know about Zeitgeist. I’m always on the lookout for the next weird thing, and that looks like an interesting departure from my own familiar themes.
My current DM is constantly putting in references to other stories or describes monsters and expects us to know what they are(we found a tarrasque, but could only see the back. he told us it looked like a mound with spikes. Pretty vague). He expects some of us to know the references, and I just wish he’d stick with the story instead of making a bunch of LV.6s deal with the death dino.
My oldschool gaming group has a story like that.
“The biggest bear you’ve ever seen is sleeping in a clearing. You don’t think it’s heard you.”
“I shoot it!”
“The bear roars, lumbers to its feet, and stands up on its hind legs. It’s easily five stories tall. Roll initiative.”
“Oh shit! It’s enormous! I thought you meant huge!”
Giving players a sense of scale is important, yo.
I suppose I am guilty of being the gamer in question. I am a fan of Tales from my D&D campagin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2971j1O3tGM&list=PLylLGJF4VZY7Wya1zdWY3ExLfitPCdJEN), and often try to incorporate similar setting stuff into my campaigns (as either a player or gm).
Naw man. There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from your favorite sources. We all steal from other creative people, and artists of all stripes have influences. The key point is realistic expectations.
It is 100% cool to try and engineer your own playstyle to reflect “Tales From My D&D Campaign.” Just don’t be too hard on yourself (or your buddies!) when the results look different than the show.
On the subject of Chibi Dwarves and their Charisma bonus, it always bugged me that lesser edition Dwarves got a Charisma penalty. They love to socialize, get krunk, and be fun people, and I instinctively like them. If they should be penalized on any stat (And they shouldn’t, because they already have movement speed as a penalty) it should be Dexterity because of their stubby limbs.
Elves on the other hand combine the stink and chaotic stupid of hippies, with the pretentiousness of hipsters. I instinctively hate them. If anyone should have a Charisma penalty it’s them.
Apparently Pathfinder 2 is keeping this bad design element, penalizing the iconic Dwarf Paladin.
And do you know what this Dwarf says to that?
The 5E designers said that if they were to do another edition they would probably do away with racial stats (Bonus abilities like poison resistance, Darkvision and the like are still fine) and tie your starting bonus stats into your class. I would welcome this change.
I dunno. I’m not sure how much I like a halfling barbaran and a half-orc barbarian starting with the same strength.
Assuming the same 5e racial characteristics, Halfings would still get a bonus to stealth and rerolling 1s, while Half-Orcs will still get bonus melee weapon crit dice and their ability to endure mortal wounds once per day. Half-Orcs will therefore still do more damage with a melee weapon in their hands than a Halfling would.
Somehwat related to that subject, by 5e standards Half-Orcs should have at least 1 point that can be distributed to any ability score. They are half-humans after all.
Well, there are the gold dwarves in 3/3.5 e.
+2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity.
+1 attack vs aberrations instead of orcs and goblinoids.
Also, paladins may be iconic, but I’d rather see a dwarf sorcerer or bard…or maybe a dwarf marshal just barking orders at his party drill sergeant style and buffing them.
One of the problems I think is that find a good reference for what an average D&D game in the general media is hard. On one hand you have the very high end with critical role and such, on the other the “hilariously dysfunctional” like DMotR, Gamers: Dorkness Rising, etc, and on the gripping hand “disfunctionally hilarious” like Mazes and Monsters. Even this webcomic tends to focus on the zanier and crazier types of players and situations, though the comments generally give a better idea of actual gaming. Where do you go to figure out what you’re really getting into before jumping in?
Gotta get out there and earn those IRL-XP. It takes a lot of time to grind, but it’s worth it.
Whether it’s TRPGs, film, or slam poetry, there’s no better way to develop a sense for media than to get out there and experience it. The important takeaway is the need for realistic expectations. You can watch and read, but until you get out there and do you can’t know what it’s really like.
Honestly I really like my table. Aboot half of the players do voices, and those who don’t tend to be quiet enough that we’re not mixing up table talk and in character talk.
Our GM does do voices, and she tends to be up for our weird shenanigans. Our party has gotten disproportionate use out of Speak With Animals.
We’re doing Tomb of Annihilation, but our GM claims she deviates from the source material a fair amount.
If you’re going to watch a Chris Perkins stream skip Acquisitions Incorporated, and go for Dice, Camera, Action. The Penny arcade crew and their associates simply aren’t interesting to watch, they’re only defining feature is that they got into webcomics before there were quality standards, and stuck around.
Oh I dunno. I’ve quite enjoyed the live from PAX stuff. The pageantry of a live show is all manner of entertaining.
Wizard: Came out of this looking younger (even for a elf)
Thief: Came out of this looking way too young and seeing her eyes unnerves me
Fighter: Came out younger and body mass went in his sword, Str stat has to be the same or higher, how the hell is he holding that thing now?
Cleric:even younger then Thief some how, don’t think he get any more power under the, more younger you look, the more powerful you are. (if you see a 3 years old spell caster in battle, run for the next hill!)
Chibi Dwarves are different. You can tell their power level by the size of their eyes as compared to the rest of their heads. Cleric is only a mid-level Chibi.
This man has obviously played Eberron. The High Priestess of the Silver Flame is…12 I think? 18th level cleric while in the the confines of her church. Which she rarely leaves for obvious reasons.
Fortunately, that’s not a problem I’ve ever had to deal with. Both of my gaming groups consist entirely of family and/or friends and have been around in some form since before podcasts. Hell, I don’t even think any of us actually listen to those. None of us expect fancy accents or on-the-spot musical improvisation.
We’ve done musical cues and elaborate handouts a couple of times in my groups. As the great sage Cookie Monster once said, “They are a sometimes food!”
When i see this page first thing i think was that it was another Exalted comic, then i read it and i realize, fighter less muscular, longer and messy hair and bigger sword looks like Lance from Chorus of the Neverborn. Well fighter is a lot more visceral and violent, even when Lance is a day caste abyssal.
Speaking of GM, DM, CM and that have you sometime tried to make a anime like game just to change things up?
I’ve never done BESM, but I always wanted to give it a try. As for changing genres, I’m having a blast treating my Starfinder game like a goofy Saturday morning cartoon with 80s hair metal overtones.
Thanks for bringing attention to this. I am a big fan of Critical Role and I’ve actually heard the criticism before, that it sets unrealistic expectations for new players.
Although I think it’s highly unlikely that the show is causing more harm than good, it’s true that some people may get the wrong impression of pen and paper games from it. Although, maybe they’re not forming an impression of pen and paper games in general, just an impression of what they want from them.
In a way, I’m not entirely inclined to “correct” those people. Perhaps what they’re looking for is an experience similar to Critical Role, something which I can’t blame them for. And although I would not go as far as being exclusionary and trying to “force” the experience myself, maybe for some people, that’s what they would enjoy. They just need to find each other to make it happen.
In the end, what I’m trying to say, is that it’s not about Critical Role, it’s not about people misinterpreting how to play the game. It’s about understanding and respecting each other’s preferences, so we can all have fun our way. Judging people for the way they want to play, or for not liking the way you want, only creates negativity. As long as they’re not hurting anyone, I say let people do what they enjoy. And if someone’s in a group and they feel like they’re expected to play differently than they want, they should find a group where they can do what they like.
The best thing we can all do to improve the situation, is create more awareness about the different possibilities that the game has to offer. Something that your wonderful comic has been contributing to and of which I’m greatly appreciative!
After a long, hard day at the office, it means a lot to hear that. Cheers, Axel!
Good points all the way down too. I think that this is mostly a new player thing. It’s not about unrealistic expectations so much as narrow expectations. Nothing wrong with wanting a CR type game. I know I’d love to have a seat at that table. It’s more an issue of only knowing that style and then thinking that is the only acceptable way for a game to look. I’m right there with you on the “it does more good than harm” front. I just hope that all the new players who come to the hobby thanks to Mercer et al get to experience a wide variety of games before picking their preferences and setting them in stone.
I just got a new player that got most of his experience from watching Critical Role for a few months. He has played in one other campaign but all involved are in the same boat. I was nervous he might expect something else but was confident and an experienced DM and new I could help bring him to understand our table. I have been delightfully surprised with his creativity and flexibility. He has great team work skills and doesn’t assume every encounter needs to be a fight. He will struggle against an unfortunate event and question and ask about certain rules but as soon as I determine an outcome he acceptes it gracefully. I have started watching a few podcasts to get some perspective on my own style. So I guess I caught myself engaging in the opposite problem and having negative expectations of a Critical Role fan. Thanks for the article, now I have some new podcasts and channels to look in on.
Nice! I don’t want to crap on Critical Role, because I think that it really is a good example to aspire to. Sounds like you found that with your new player. All I really want to do is caution new players against unrealistic expectations. There are a lot of different games out there, and lots of different types of fun. Good on ya for leading a new player into the hobby. 🙂
I actually do that to myself. I run two games, and while my players seem to enjoy it (they do turn up every game), I feel like it’s not good enough. I try to do voices, just to forget what voice did I use for certain NPCs by next game. I try to prepare, and then sometimes forget key points. And to top it all, English is not my native language, so there are times when I don’t remember a word, which makes me frustrated, which makes me forget more words.
Also, half of the original players have left one of the campaigns, one by one. They said they had time scheduling problems, and it’s most probably the truth, it makes me question myself and my abilities – especially if I learn they have started another campaign…
If it makes you feel any better, Mercer forgets voices too. I’ve noticed a couple of times that he’ll change minor NPCs between sessions. In my opinion, effort and enthusiasm count for more than polish.
As for players dropping out… Sometimes it’s just a matter of incompatible playstyles. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad GM. It just means some people want different things from their hobby.
Keep gaming! It’s like any skill: you get better and better with practice.
I mean I started playing RPGs in 1995… 😛
But no, others messing up never made me feel better about myself, and the thing about insecurities is that they might be irrational but they always feel totally rational to the person. But I did not give up anyway, and got some new players to fill up the ranks! 🙂
Are you kidding me? Watching other people fail is the best! I mean, have you seen this bear hitting itself in the nuts? Makes me feel like a million bucks every time. 😛
It’s really not my cup of tea. 😉
It wasn’t the bear’s cup of tea either.
I feel the need to post my own favorite DnD Podcast.
Fate & Fables. (Not my favorite podcast but top 10, favorite is Our Fair City, hope you don’t mind me posting links to other content Collin)
https://www.fateandfables.com
(http://www.ourfaircity.com/2011/08/season-one/)
Naw man. I’m interested in this stuff too!
Sell me a little more on this podcast though. What’s so good about it?
Depends on which one you’re talking about.
Fate & Fables has excellent sound effects and a very fleshed out feeling world, and fresh takes on classic DnD monsters.
Our Fair City…well to start with it is a post apocalyptic story set in an underground city whose government evolved from a life insurance company, Hartlife. There aren’t exactly citizens, only policies. Also a ton of great unique interpretations of famous scientist characters from a large selection of literature including: Herbert West from The Reanimator, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Ilse of Dr. Moraeu, ect…
I can’t say too much more about Our Fair City otherwise I’ll give away too many surprises. “Just remember dear listeners; Hartlife, all the life you’ll ever need. I’ll see you in the tunnels.”
Wow didn’t think it was possible to make an elf more effeminate but there it is :). Just noticed the alt text and Imma gonna steal it. Poor Cleric I feel your pain.
P.S.: Since it took me this long to notice alt text, I’m going to go back through archive and read them all
It’s like Ghouls and Ghosts. Your reward for finishing is to go back and do it all over again!
You have been Animefied! You all reiceve a Charisma Bonus! As you are now an Anime Group of Friends you are required to use the Word “Nakama” as often as possible. Also you need to ad the suffix -chan -kun -san and -sama to People when you are talking to them.
If a Male Character falls somewhere even remotly near a Female Character, he is required to fall in such a way that he touches her inappropiatly.
Also if a Male Character sees something even remotly sexually arousing he is required to get Nosebleed and pass out from Blood Loss.
Failure to complay with any of the new Rules of the Universe will result in immediat Termination.
Thank you for Choosing Animefication, We Hope you enjoy the Expierence.
XD
By the way: Did Laurel also draw this? It looks amazing! I mean i like the usual Style very much as well. I am just curious if she is that good in two Art Styles at once.
Laurel’s note from the Patreon:
Then thanks for your hard Work Laurel, it looks great!
Kya! Hontoni kawaii desu ne!?
Crit Role is like a specter that looms over my modern D&D experience. On one hand, I am grateful to its contributions to invigorating my favorite game. On the other, it’s an entire series of content that I simply haven’t seen and don’t understand. I don’t have time to catch up on it either. It annoys me when a DM will bring an element into the game and other players go “yeah we get it you watch crit role.” One of my DMs abandoned his campaign, one of my favorite campaigns (and i’ve played many!) because it wasn’t measuring up to crit role in some arbitrary way that I haven’t the slightest care about. I was having fun.
Also I dislike the Gunslinger and Blood Hunter. The latter especially; it has a silly edgelord name and it’s weird in a bad way. Yet, the fandom treats these classes as if they are actually part of the system; I see threads asking “why won’t my DM let me play Blood Hunter” and such, hear those sentiments even among my own friends.
Also is it just me, or is Thief really the main character of this comic?
In my head it was always an ensemble, but I do love me some lavender tiefling. If I’m ever feeling incredibly bored I might go back through and count up total number of appearances for each character. I have a feeling Thief would be right up there.
Congratulations. You are now “internet old.” Your benefits package includes complaining about ruined fandoms and telling kids to get off your lawn.
For serious though, I understand how you feel. A few years ago I knew every pop culture figure walking around at the conventions. Now I’m baffled by half of ’em.
Haha I need to get around to watching critical roll. Almost all of my players have, but I just don’t have the time. Between fulltime employment, writing, dnd, writing dnd, and outdoors exercise, and indoors exercise, and very occasionally going on a date… Who can binge hundreds of hours of other people playing dnd?
If anything, I like my GM more than Matt Mercer, because in the campaign we are in there is no “situational magic” and the world makes sense in what we face and encounter.
The nation our PCs were in and fighting for went to war against the Giths and it made sense that for half a dozen sessions we fought Githyanki, (albeit the GM did add more and more Giths to the combat encounters we went into) and eventually had to face off against the commanding officers of the Gith forces instead of the rank and file soldiers.
Balanced encounters, with only a splash of homebrew added to the weaponry of our enemy to account for the party getting stronger and no big deviation from the rules as intended. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard about wild and abitrary rulings that made my skin crawl with contempt. So yeah, I count my blessings and look forward to every day I get to play with my group.