Friendship is Dragons
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Page 790 - Shadow Fun
Author Notes:
Notice: Guest comic submissions are open! Guidelines here. Deadline: February 20th.
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56 Comments:
...smacking that (literal) man-stealing harpy in the face was one of my favorite moments so far.
Also helps if the combat has interesting mechanics and a variety of targets to keep everyone interested. Maybe some interactive terrain to foster creativity?
If you was to give this story line a title beside Hurricane Fluttershy, what would it be?(You have to include her name somehow).
Best name gets a prize.
(Prizes are not real and will not truly be given out)
Best name gets a prize.
(Prizes are not real and will not truly be given out)
Oh Gods...
"Next time... Over a Barrel, perhaps?"
Well...Let's see how you deal with the worst episode with the most anti-logical "moral" ("Some groups of people should just get stuff for free because they deserve it.") ever...
*sighs*
I'll try to prepare myself while the Guest Comics are running.
"Next time... Over a Barrel, perhaps?"
Well...Let's see how you deal with the worst episode with the most anti-logical "moral" ("Some groups of people should just get stuff for free because they deserve it.") ever...
*sighs*
I'll try to prepare myself while the Guest Comics are running.
Free? It's their land! Expecting newcomers to pay rent for its use is reasonable.
I realize that's inconvenient for North Americans, but most of us live on stolen territory. The justification for this over the last few hundred years has been, "They're not using it, so they shouldn't have it."
I realize that's inconvenient for North Americans, but most of us live on stolen territory. The justification for this over the last few hundred years has been, "They're not using it, so they shouldn't have it."
Claims like that stop when everyone party to the original act is dead, if they have not stopped before then. Whatever rights or wrongs were done all those years ago, don't give the descendants of people X a right to kick the descendants of people Y out, when both sets of descendants were since born on the same land. (Not even getting into the fates of those who descend from both groups.)
Otherwise you'd have to go back to who the "Native" Americans - those still remaining when European settlers arrived - stole the land from, and who those people in turn stole the land from, and so on for over ten thousand years. All the continents have had waves of migration over history. There's literally no "unstolen" land on Earth (even Antarctica has its claimants). Nor does the problem stop with Earth: the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies have had conflicting claims on them for over a century; for example, NASA has been sued for parking on an asteroid someone had claimed.
Over A Barrel is different: it's dealing with the buffalo who were already there when the town sprang up, not their far-off ancestors. As stated below, the moral is about sharing and compromise, to end up with something better than either party could have had by themselves.
Otherwise you'd have to go back to who the "Native" Americans - those still remaining when European settlers arrived - stole the land from, and who those people in turn stole the land from, and so on for over ten thousand years. All the continents have had waves of migration over history. There's literally no "unstolen" land on Earth (even Antarctica has its claimants). Nor does the problem stop with Earth: the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies have had conflicting claims on them for over a century; for example, NASA has been sued for parking on an asteroid someone had claimed.
Over A Barrel is different: it's dealing with the buffalo who were already there when the town sprang up, not their far-off ancestors. As stated below, the moral is about sharing and compromise, to end up with something better than either party could have had by themselves.
I found it laughable when I read about that lawsuit against NASA. To quote Eddie Izzard, "Do you have a flag?"
In fact, I generally sided with the settlers when I watched the episode myself.
See, they merely stampeded THROUGH the land.
That's not a proper use; The settlers have a far greater need for the land, and with no work put into it the buffalo's claims aren't as strong as they seem to think.
The Buffalo will just have to go stampede somewhere else; Tradition should never be allowed to hurt someone's standard of living.
The 'paying rent' compromise was fine, to me, though.
Perhaps generous on the settlers' side, but 'rightly' so - it's the kind of generosity that makes for good neighbors and a good reputation, rather than the kind that leaves you vulnerable to being taken advantage of and gives you a fools' reputation.
Errr... If you really want to argue for the settlers, remember that there is no "proper use" of land. It's just dirt. Capitalism doesn't allow for "proper" or "improper" uses of property. What's theirs is theirs, period. If you want it, you pay for it.
I can't believe there this much debate over a barrel. XD
I'll be here all week.
I'll be here all week.
In the meantime, please don't start an argument down here.
Since "Over a Barrel" was in season 1, it has an explicitly stated moral, and the summary of that moral is "friendship good, compromise good, sharing good." There's nothing in there about getting anything for free (other than the fact that expecting everything for free is usually antithetical to compromise).
The final "compromise" was: The Settlers will remove the trees that are "in the way" (thus reducing their food supply) _AND_ get reduce their food supply even further by giving the Buffalo free pies.
The Buffalo...agreed not to attack the Settlement anymore?
Either way, I'll respect the Author's request not to continue this past this reply.
(Applejack will already deal with this in an AllUniverse Fic I'm doing anyway. >:D )
The Buffalo...agreed not to attack the Settlement anymore?
Either way, I'll respect the Author's request not to continue this past this reply.
(Applejack will already deal with this in an AllUniverse Fic I'm doing anyway. >:D )
I'm not really sure how you concluded that that was the moral. What I took from it was "sometimes working out a compromise is better than pointless fighting."
"Get stuff for free?" ...First thing I'm trying to comprehend was who was the one getting the free stuff...
"Get stuff for free?" ...First thing I'm trying to comprehend was who was the one getting the free stuff...
"what fluttershy's player"
Ehh I love this webcomic but lines like these bug me, I mean these girls are out of character as much as they are in at times, it doesn't feel right to not know the names of the players by now, but this might be me reading darths and droids, grandline 3.5 and jutsu and jinchuriki... One, am I the only one who feels this way? And two, tell a story about a time where someone or everyone got TOO into character.
Ehh I love this webcomic but lines like these bug me, I mean these girls are out of character as much as they are in at times, it doesn't feel right to not know the names of the players by now, but this might be me reading darths and droids, grandline 3.5 and jutsu and jinchuriki... One, am I the only one who feels this way? And two, tell a story about a time where someone or everyone got TOO into character.
I've been in groups where we refer to one another soley by our characters because we had New members and not everyone's name was remembered yet. But... Yeah it is kind of odd to say "fluttershys player" this late in the game. Just have to sometimes accept it because there isn't much of an alternative.
5-hour combat encounters aren't so bad. I had a single battle that lasted three whole sessions (9 hours) and jumped back and forth between different parts of the party, who had split four ways to defend multiple targets. Admittedly, that was too much, but it was interesting.
I've been in groups where we never stopped referring to each others' characters as "the Druid," "the Rogue," etc, much like RD did at the comic's beginning, and we never ended up learning each others' character's names.
Of course, we knew each others' actual names perfectly well, so I guess that's not really an example.
Of course, we knew each others' actual names perfectly well, so I guess that's not really an example.
Some people take Dungeon World as meant to be played that way. There is only one Wizard in the world, only one Paladin, and so on, and these are the player characters. So why not call the wizard "Wizard"? Especially where true names have mystical power.
Also, I could have sworn I've seen comics where e.g. Fluttershy's player was referred to as Fluttershy, as if the players named their characters after themselves.
Also, I could have sworn I've seen comics where e.g. Fluttershy's player was referred to as Fluttershy, as if the players named their characters after themselves.
In the original of them all, "DM of the ring" comic, players' names was not mentioned even once. Everyone refered to each other by their character's name, nickname of some sort or "dumbass."
5 hour combat encounters? Our group wishes it could be that long, 90% of our encounters end in like, 5 turns, even that one time we fought a giant army mostly by ourselves with ingenious use of barrels of gunpowder, our dm has constantly been trying to come up with an encounter that actually takes longer than a handful of turns WITHOUT making an enemy just be a health sponge....so far nothing he's tried has worked (and we weren't even trying to min/max, Hell one of our guys is even physically unable to attack any living sapient being (intelligent undead don't count)....and this character is also a vampire himself
The trick here is to make an enemy that's either an in-universe health-sponge (regenerator, ooze, something similar) or else make an enemy that doesn't get hit easily. Someone/thing agile, with high armour... Or he could always go all Tucker's Kobolds on you.
Most of the combat encounters in the games I've been in feel like five-hour encounters. They aren't, really, but they tend to take a while.
We've had 10-hour combat encounters... x.x
Take an entire castle. Fill with monsters. Obviously, the party's going to sneak in and assassinate the boss instead of fighting through. Only -- it's a trap! Even though he was incredibly hard to kill because of his specially tuned powerset that nullified most of your normal damage, that was only the number 2 guy! And now the whole castle is on alert, you've expended a bunch of resources, and you haven't actually completed the objective yet... and you can't just run away because then the rebel army you're supporting will be massacred...
I think that one ended up being a 10-hour combat encounter.
Take an entire castle. Fill with monsters. Obviously, the party's going to sneak in and assassinate the boss instead of fighting through. Only -- it's a trap! Even though he was incredibly hard to kill because of his specially tuned powerset that nullified most of your normal damage, that was only the number 2 guy! And now the whole castle is on alert, you've expended a bunch of resources, and you haven't actually completed the objective yet... and you can't just run away because then the rebel army you're supporting will be massacred...
I think that one ended up being a 10-hour combat encounter.
Because I'm using the ultralite XD20, most of my combat encounters go very quickly. That's one of the intentions, as Tracy Hickman (the writer) feels combat makes a game lag right when it needs to get furiously fast. My real problem, as a GM, is avoiding having it devolve into a "you-hit, they-hit" situation.
So, as usual, been a bit busy but a bit forgetful, but I really want to make guest comics this time. I've got a vague idea, but I think it might work. But what software to use? I recall some sort of program specifically for comics was brought up at some point...
The About/FAQ page says Newbiespud uses Comic Life, but that's a paid program, last I checked.
...the deadline is in 2 days. It's probably a little late this time.
I'd recommend coming up with a script, and bouncing it by NS with the disclaimer that this is for next time. That way, when August 15 comes and goes you won't have missed the deadline. Continue working at it until you have the complete strip, then just keep it around until the next guest episode run.
As for software...I use Notepad to compose the scripts, then MS Paint to compose the comics. There is other, more efficient software I'd use if I did this more often. But it's not the software that's your problem.
I'd recommend coming up with a script, and bouncing it by NS with the disclaimer that this is for next time. That way, when August 15 comes and goes you won't have missed the deadline. Continue working at it until you have the complete strip, then just keep it around until the next guest episode run.
As for software...I use Notepad to compose the scripts, then MS Paint to compose the comics. There is other, more efficient software I'd use if I did this more often. But it's not the software that's your problem.
@Winged Cat: That's... not really any different then just waiting until next time and working on the ideas until then. I mean, I'll still have missed the deadline.
That being said... I do have access to Photoshop. If I can come up with a proper script by the 15th, I can make it work.
That being said... I do have access to Photoshop. If I can come up with a proper script by the 15th, I can make it work.
This beast of a project keeps on surprising me.
And you keep surprising us. Looking forward to your taking the number of arcs to 11!
I've never heard the term "Decker" in this context. What does it mean -- stacking the deck?
Considering the title of the comic is Shadow Fun?
Yeah, I think it's a reference :P
Yeah, I think it's a reference :P
So how does the GM's and Dash conversation lead into calling Dash a Decker'?
I
I
These days it's not necessarily just Shadowrun, but that is where the term originated. I've heard it used generally to refer to cybercombat that's run similar to normal combat - sometimes at the same time (say, part of the party securing physical access to a computer, long enough for the rest of the party to do something with it).
Hey, 5 hour combat encounters can be perfectly fine.
As long as something interesting is always happening.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen bad/novice DMs allow a very filler combat encounter go on so much longer than it needed to.
Pro-DMing-tip: If your encounter has become a tedious mop-up with minor to no stakes whatsoever, just end it. "With the major threats dealt with, the remaining enemies either flee in terror or are slain with relative ease."
Seriously, I don't know why people do it. I know *I* don't have fun keeping track of mooks unless I need to, and your players don't have fun grinding through a bunch of dudes they don't care about who pose no threat. SO JUST STOP!
As long as something interesting is always happening.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen bad/novice DMs allow a very filler combat encounter go on so much longer than it needed to.
Pro-DMing-tip: If your encounter has become a tedious mop-up with minor to no stakes whatsoever, just end it. "With the major threats dealt with, the remaining enemies either flee in terror or are slain with relative ease."
Seriously, I don't know why people do it. I know *I* don't have fun keeping track of mooks unless I need to, and your players don't have fun grinding through a bunch of dudes they don't care about who pose no threat. SO JUST STOP!
Seeing other players involved in an rp definitely makes it easier to get in to a campaign yourself.
Wishing you happy birthday a day early because chances are I won't be back on the site until around the time of the next update. I don't want to wish you a late happy birthday, so...early it is. Happy birthday, NewbieSpud! May the cake NOT be a lie. Or pie if that is your preference. I like pie... And now I'm rambling. Shutting up now.
I am posting my first ever comment here to say:
Happy Birthday, Spud!
Happy Birthday, Spud!
We've got two, maybe two-and-a-half weeks of guest comics coming up. That'll start after I've concluded my 24th trip around the sun on Monday.