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Wanderer posted:The 2nd edition reincarnation table was why nobody ever wanted to use it. I was particularly fond of how if the result was a non-player race, the rules for that were "poo poo, I don't know, make something up." OD&D was even worse. You picked a column listing all the monsters of a certain alignment and then rolled a dice to see what you got. ALL the monsters, including liches, giants and dragons. I can only imagine how well that went over because every edition afterward had some kind of clause preventing reincarnation as anything with more than 6HD. 
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May 14, 2015 00:55
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Apparently Rich is very okay: Down the Winding Path
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May 14, 2015 02:08
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MechanicalTomPetty posted:OD&D was even worse. You picked a column listing all the monsters of a certain alignment and then rolled a dice to see what you got. ALL the monsters, including liches, giants and dragons. ...How is one reborn as a lich?
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May 14, 2015 02:34
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e X posted:Apparently Rich is very okay: poo poo's going down in the mountains I guess? Maybe the gods are going to pull a Dragonlance and shack up until all this snarl business dies down. Or until the world ends, whichever comes first. Wanderer posted:The narrative mechanics of reincarnation don't really bear thinking about, because when you get right down to it, it means that the person you're casting it on is retroactively reborn decades or even centuries in the past. You're creating a relatively stable time loop, which suggests the exertion of far more power than I'd expect to go into a resurrection, and yet it's considered the weak-sister option. I like to think it works like that one scene from Beerfest where some random new character shows up out of nowhere and assumes the old one's identity. MechanicalTomPetty fucked around with this message at 02:55 on May 14, 2015 |
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May 14, 2015 02:50
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NameHurtBrain posted:...How is one reborn as a lich? The narrative mechanics of reincarnation don't really bear thinking about, because when you get right down to it, it means that the person you're casting it on is retroactively reborn decades or even centuries in the past. You're creating a relatively stable time loop, which suggests the exertion of far more power than I'd expect to go into a resurrection, and yet it's considered the weak-sister option.
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May 14, 2015 02:51
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Up until the last panel I was fairly sure that lady is Sabine
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May 14, 2015 03:12
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Poor Roy, still so drat oblivious. "Cool now we can get this whole vampire thing sorted out. Probably take an hour, tops."  Loved Durkon's 'thwarted villain' line though. And holy crap are these updates coming fast. Well...faster. Lightning speed for OotS, anyhow. Can't wait to see what's going down in the mountains and why it's such a big secret. e: hope the kid doesn't get murdered for knowing too much now that Roy's mentioned a vampire... 
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May 14, 2015 03:24
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I hate to be contrary on Reincarnation, but I got curious and pulled down my 1st and 2nd player handbooks to compare the spells and they're not what has been said. In 1st Ed, the Druid spell has mainly animals with a few odd things like centaurs, dryads, fauns, pixies, and Wolverine (as we to assume that this spell summons adamantium?). Magic-users get a little more wild, but they only go up to ogres and trolls at the far end of the hit die spectrum for revival; everything is humanoid, though. For both of these, it sounds like they just make a new body and drop a disorientated soul into it. The 2nd edition Reincarnation spell is almost word for word the 1st edition one. The chart is almost identical to the 1st edition druid chart, except "Use magic user chart" is replaced with "DM's choice".
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May 14, 2015 03:36
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Random Stranger posted:I hate to be contrary on Reincarnation, but I got curious and pulled down my 1st and 2nd player handbooks to compare the spells and they're not what has been said. In 1st Ed, the Druid spell has mainly animals with a few odd things like centaurs, dryads, fauns, pixies, and Wolverine (as we to assume that this spell summons adamantium?). Magic-users get a little more wild, but they only go up to ogres and trolls at the far end of the hit die spectrum for revival; everything is humanoid, though. For both of these, it sounds like they just make a new body and drop a disorientated soul into it. That's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, an updated version of 1st edition released about 4 years after OD&D came out. OD&D was literally the very first version of the game and was a massive cluster gently caress in almost all respects.
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May 14, 2015 03:44
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Missed a decently easy throwing money to a blind person gag there, Rich. I wonder if he had it but cut it out to avoid pissing off whiners, whether the blind person catching it is the actual joke or if Rich just wasn't really thinking at all on it and the lame villain thwarting line was supposed to be the joke?
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May 14, 2015 04:58
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Cliff Racer posted:Missed a decently easy throwing money to a blind person gag there, Rich. I wonder if he had it but cut it out to avoid pissing off whiners, whether the blind person catching it is the actual joke or if Rich just wasn't really thinking at all on it and the lame villain thwarting line was supposed to be the joke? I recommend sitting back and spending some time not thinking. More time.
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May 14, 2015 05:02
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So I'm guessing Durkula has foreknowledge of this gathering of Clerics from Hel, but can't act on it without finding it out by himself on the material plane due to Deific political shenanigans? Or maybe I'm totally mis-remembering how (or even if) these kinds of situations have been dealt with in the comic before.
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May 14, 2015 05:03
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Cuchulain posted:So I'm guessing Durkula has foreknowledge of this gathering of Clerics from Hel, but can't act on it without finding it out by himself on the material plane due to Deific political shenanigans? Or maybe I'm totally mis-remembering how (or even if) these kinds of situations have been dealt with in the comic before. It may just be that he needs the party (or at least the airship) in order to follow them- he may know of the gathering but not the exact location. And he can't really explain how he knows about it to Roy. My first guess is that he wants to turn a whole bunch of clerics of different gods into vampires all at once and then send them home in stealth mode to make more 'converts', but really it could be anything. It's definitely odd that whatever the pilgrims are up to, they wanted to keep it secret.
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May 14, 2015 05:10
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So this has got to be the gods calling in all their clerics to try and stop Xkyon, right? We've wondered why they weren't taking a more direct approach.
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May 14, 2015 05:23
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Fried Chicken posted:So this has got to be the gods calling in all their clerics to try and stop Xkyon, right? We've wondered why they weren't taking a more direct approach. Probably go about as well as when the paladins attempted this. But hey, maybe their charred, zombified corpses will at least act as a minor speedbump. I predicted a long time ago that some kind of wrench would have to be thrown in Xykon's plans because there's no way the OotS would be able to get to him in time otherwise, even when one isn't factoring in all the usual bullshit PCs have to deal with. Major props to Roy for keeping his eye on the prize turning down the obvious sidequest bait Durkula was dangling in front of him as well.
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May 14, 2015 05:54
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Zoe posted:Major props to Roy for keeping his eye on the prize turning down the obvious sidequest bait Durkula was dangling in front of him as well.
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May 14, 2015 05:58
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Why does the high priestess of Hoder have mistletoe on her staff? You'd think they'd want to downplay their association with that particular plant.
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May 14, 2015 07:53
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Ponsonby Britt posted:Why does the high priestess of Hoder have mistletoe on her staff? You'd think they'd want to downplay their association with that particular plant.
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May 14, 2015 08:01
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Vampire Durkon's accent is slipping badly. He's not as good at this thing as he thinks he is.
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May 14, 2015 08:37
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Huh, I didn't even notice that.
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May 14, 2015 09:06
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My Lovely Horse posted:Vampire Durkon's accent is slipping badly. He's not as good at this thing as he thinks he is. He is, when he's composed. Turns out an evil vampire soul has enough issues to prevent him remaining composed in conversations lasting longer than 2 minutes.
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May 14, 2015 16:10
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Wanderer posted:The narrative mechanics of reincarnation don't really bear thinking about, because when you get right down to it, it means that the person you're casting it on is retroactively reborn decades or even centuries in the past. You're creating a relatively stable time loop, which suggests the exertion of far more power than I'd expect to go into a resurrection, and yet it's considered the weak-sister option. This is the plot of the latest Drizzt novels, works fairly well tbh.
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May 14, 2015 16:17
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Ponsonby Britt posted:Why does the high priestess of Hoder have mistletoe on her staff? You'd think they'd want to downplay their association with that particular plant. FMguru posted:NEVER FORGET What's the joke here, for people who have never heard of Hoder outside of this last comic.
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May 14, 2015 16:22
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Zoe posted:What's the joke here, for people who have never heard of Hoder outside of this last comic. Hoder is from Norse mythology and was a son of Odin. His brother, Baldr, was made utterly invulnerable with only one weakness - mistletoe. Loki discovered this loophole and had an arrow made of mistletoe constructed. Hoder was blind and an archer, so Loki tricked him in shooting and killing his brother.
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May 14, 2015 16:26
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Zoe posted:What's the joke here, for people who have never heard of Hoder outside of this last comic. Tricked and guided by Loki, he shot the mistletoe arrow which was to slay the otherwise invulnerable Baldr. Literally found in two seconds on Wikipedia.
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May 14, 2015 16:28
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Ponsonby Britt posted:Why does the high priestess of Hoder have mistletoe on her staff? You'd think they'd want to downplay their association with that particular plant. Why do Christians hang depictions of the instrument their messiah was torturously murdered on?
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May 14, 2015 16:31
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MikeJF posted:Why do Christians hang depictions of the instrument their messiah was torturously murdered on? That's actually pretty weird too.
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May 14, 2015 16:31
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Random Stranger posted:I hate to be contrary on Reincarnation, but I got curious and pulled down my 1st and 2nd player handbooks to compare the spells and they're not what has been said. In 1st Ed, the Druid spell has mainly animals with a few odd things like centaurs, dryads, fauns, pixies, and Wolverine (as we to assume that this spell summons adamantium?). You know the wolverine is a real animal, yes? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine
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May 14, 2015 16:35
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I'm not sure what would be funnier: if he didn't know that, or if he felt D&D had a spell that actually randomly reincarnates your dude as a Marvel superhero.
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May 14, 2015 16:52
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Cliff Racer posted:Missed a decently easy throwing money to a blind person gag there, Rich. I wonder if he had it but cut it out to avoid pissing off whiners, whether the blind person catching it is the actual joke or if Rich just wasn't really thinking at all on it and the lame villain thwarting line was supposed to be the joke? For me at least the joke was she catches it and you're like "gasp! She caught it, despite being bad at not using her eyes before! Maybe this was all an act!" and then she goes "wait what vampire" and you go "oh nevermind she knows nothing." Taciturn Tactician fucked around with this message at 17:01 on May 14, 2015 |
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May 14, 2015 16:58
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MikeJF posted:Why do Christians hang depictions of the instrument their messiah was torturously murdered on? Mostly to remind you that "Jesus died for YOUR SINS!" It's to remind you that you suck so much that the best guy in the world let people kill him to make it right. Because you suck. Least you can do is put a ten spot in the donation basket, right? Growing up Catholic, you get the lovingly detailed statue of Jesus hanging from the cross, looking down at you with his cold, dying eyes, asking "why do you suck so much? Look what you made me do!" It's a lovely message for a young child. That heady mix of "you're terrible and you have to come to us to fix it" combined with "you're God's Chosen People, and everyone else (even and especially those who follow a nearly identical creed but they disagree about whether Jesus had one or two natures) will BURN" has kept the whole gig going for a couple of thousand years and counting.
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May 14, 2015 17:44
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Yeah that does sounds pretty accurate for Catholics, but for other less guilt-motivated kinds of Christianity I believe it's more of a triumphant 'okay this was the big climatic moment where it looked like the bad guys had won but then Jesus made Death his bitch and saved the world in the process, gently caress yeah!'
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May 14, 2015 17:55
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Zoe posted:Yeah that does sounds pretty accurate for Catholics, but for other less guilt-motivated kinds of Christianity I believe it's more of a triumphant 'okay this was the big climatic moment where it looked like the bad guys had won but then Jesus made Death his bitch and saved the world in the process, gently caress yeah!' Yeah, that's probably fair. Being a lapsed Catholic myself does tend to encourage me to examine things through a single lens.
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May 14, 2015 18:07
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Rumda posted:Tricked and guided by Loki, he shot the mistletoe arrow which was to slay the otherwise invulnerable Baldr. It's not so much tricked as Loki gave it to him. Throwing poo poo at Baldr and watching it bounce harmlessly off was kind of a pastime for the Norse gods up until then.
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May 14, 2015 18:07
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Shugojin posted:It's not so much tricked as Loki gave it to him. Throwing poo poo at Baldr and watching it bounce harmlessly off was kind of a pastime for the Norse gods up until then. I love that their mythology involving an invincible god also has said god using his power to goof around.
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May 14, 2015 18:15
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I mean, it's pretty realistic because like hell anyone who was immortal WOULDN'T use it as a party trick.
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May 14, 2015 18:29
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Shugojin posted:It's not so much tricked as Loki gave it to him. Throwing poo poo at Baldr and watching it bounce harmlessly off was kind of a pastime for the Norse gods up until then. Even better, the reason that he was immortal was that his mom went around and made everything swear that it wouldn't hurt him. She didn't get Mistletoe to swear because it was too young to swear an oath.
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May 14, 2015 18:34
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Shugojin posted:It's not so much tricked as Loki gave it to him. Throwing poo poo at Baldr and watching it bounce harmlessly off was kind of a pastime for the Norse gods up until then. Capfalcon posted:Even better, the reason that he was immortal was that his mom went around and made everything swear that it wouldn't hurt him. She didn't get Mistletoe to swear because it was too young to swear an oath. I really should get a book on Norse mythology sometime, sounds fun. Loki is pretty much ruined for me forever though because I can only envision him as Tom Hiddleston now.
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May 14, 2015 18:41
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by the way the reason they did all of that was that Baldr was so beautiful that everyone loved him enough to never hurt him
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May 14, 2015 18:47
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Shugojin posted:It's not so much tricked as Loki gave it to him. Throwing poo poo at Baldr and watching it bounce harmlessly off was kind of a pastime for the Norse gods up until then. Tell Wikipedia then not me
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May 14, 2015 18:53
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