Babe Magnet
I asked Laurel to draw the biggest, most ridiculous spiky armor she could imagine. I think she did an amazing job, but I tell ya, my hat’s off to the WoW guys. Gul’dan makes Fighter look tame by comparison. I bet the night elves are all over that guy.
In all seriousness though, as fantasy goes mainstream WoW is having a huge impact on our genre’s popular conception. This can be a good thing (more players!), a bad thing (what do you mean my Paladin doesn’t have aggro?), or a silly thing (lol shoulder armor). Personally I’m pretty torn on the subject. Not everything has to be all “stern men of Gondor” and pseudo-historical, but at some point I feel like you can’t lift that sword, guy.
What do you guys think? Do you approve of the influence that WoW is having over the fantasy genre, or are you all grognardy about it?
This strip is AWESOME:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/michigan-j-fighter
You clearly have artistic talent, humorous insight, and a love of the game. After having come across the above link, I immediately went back to the start of the strip to read all of your material.
I continued LOLing along until I hit the strip “babe magnet”. I’m a dad introducing my 5 and 8 year old daughters to the RPG hobby. You have lived up to a stereotype I’m hoping my kids don’t encounter as I try to teach that RPG can be an inclusive hobby. I think this joke could have been just as funny without the word poon.
-Bummed in Brooklyn
Sorry you feel that way, Chuck. We’ve got some salty language sprinkled throughout the comic, and despite the cute art style I’d definitely call this a PG13 comic.
Otherwise, I hope you can understand that a lot of our humor comes from the fact that FIGHTER IS A JERK. The book he gets all of his advice from–The Handbook of Heroes–is also a jerk. We make fun of this kind of behavior. I hope you don’t believe we’re trying to encourage it. Other examples of the style live here:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/dangerously-cheesy
and here:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/equal-armortunity
That said, I think you’re making the right call age-restricting this comic from a 5 & 8 year old. Good on ya for getting your kids into gaming, and for trying to keep the whole hobby positive for them. I hope they never meet Fighter in real life (most of the lady gamers I know have, and the dude is still a jerk in the real world).
May you and yours slay a great many dragons together over the years. Good luck out there, and happy gaming.
Thanks for the rationale response. I think I was having a cranky day when I posted. I didn’t see anything in the first few of these I looked at that said “PG13” to me. Do a bit more scrolling and hey, a link for handbook of erotic fantasy. That’s a clear enough statement that the topic will be mature. So bad on me for not scrolling down. You also go on to do this:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/equal-armortunity
So you are turning the gender thing upside down – which is GOOD.
In short, I was being a bit snobbish, and you are doing good art, so keep it up.
Glad we didn’t scare you off for good. Thanks for giving us another shot. 😀
Age Rating is a form of Challenge Rating.
Y: Young rated for 6 years old.
Y-7: Young rated for 7 years old.
PG: Rated for 12 years old with Parental Guidance and 14 years old without Parental Guidance.
PG-13: Rated for 13 years old with Parental Guidance and 15 years old without Parental Guidance.
M: Mature rated for 15 years old.
M-16: Mature rated for 16 years old.
A: Adult only.
A-21: Alcohol is served on premise.
Have you seen Longfinger Kirk from Dark Souls? You don’t know spiky armor unles you know him, and they call him the “Knight of Thorns” for a reason.
https://cdn.mirror.wiki/http://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Dark-Souls-3/Longfinger%20Kirk.PNG
He needs those spikes to fend off the mobs of hot elf chicks that are about to descend on him.
I know this is an old comic BUT, I think it’s still a prevalent question. Even today I’ll meet a new table top player who asks “Okay I’m in stealth and using sleight of hand, can I see the inventory sheet?” (cough skyrim cough). I don’t think it’s bad, but I think it does lead to session 0 and session expectations needing to be discussed up front.
I like the idea that TRPGs and CRPGs are different genres entirely. Trying to treat one like the other rather than treating it as a distince form can breed all manner of problems. Case in point, my very first session way back in high school I tried to talke to the folk in the common room.
“What do you say?”
“I… What? I mean, I just ask them for rumors I guess.”
I was hitting the figurative X button at the NPCs and hoping they’d respond with quest info.
As I play KAP (King Arthur Pendragon), and Rune Quest (RQ) I’m more of a grognardy type. Spikes on armour do not enhance any AC and it looks silly, and will probably get you injured or killed real quick in any combat. Also: sneaking will be majorly handicapped, as every twig, doorpost and item of clothing will be snagged by the spikes.
Historical armor FTW! I don’t mind a little bit of rune magic carved into my breastplate, but when you start swinging around achors, small trees, and dire bear skull flails as weapons, we’ve pretty well moved on from pseudo-historical to anime. Anime can be fun, but the aesthetic shouldn’t intrude where it isn’t wanted and vice versa. That’s my feeling anyway.
O, and with RQ you just use your spirit magic to enhance your armour. Better armour, and no spikes! And your focus for those spells can be al kinds of cool tattoos… Think Braveheart, but with working spells for all that woad they used.
I’m guessing you’re already a fan of Lindybeige, but in case you’ve never seen his stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEhAKgEOszA
Nope, did not know him, and now I’ll have to watch the heck out of him… Thank you… 😉
Except Paladins DO have Aggro. There are plenty of ways to pull aggro in Pathfinder, from the Knight’s Challenge spell to the Compel Hostility spell to the Antagonize feat, you can pull aggro. Tanks are viable in Pathfinder. I don’t know why you keep insisting that they aren’t.
My thoughts on the subject live on this one:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/tanking
Psh… more like 1d4 piercing damage, amirite??
Look, 1d4 is a perfectly respectable damage die. Any bigger and you’re just showing off. >_>