RPG Comics

Wadefade · Post by **Wadefade** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:17 pm

RPG comic = Reference to +1 sword of might
Fantasy = No mention of the above.

haha

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:37 pm

Well, I don't think that any genre itself is bad and that nothing good can come out of it. But do genres wore out from overusing? I mean, does every new incompetent RPG comic chips a bit from good RPG comics? I don't know, it's hard for me to look at a comic separated from everything else that was created in that genre. Perhaps to avoid naming anyone else, I can talk about "mcDuffies", which was a classic representative of "wacky college kids" genre, after a time I realised that I can't be quite original because there were odds that everything I come up is, or will be beaten to death by other comics of the genre. All you're left with is to try to be as good as possible within given limits, which includes trying to work out a decent characterisation (within limits of usual genre roles) and to avoid pitfalls. Avoiding pitfalls isn't for me enough for a good comic. Good comic is not simply a comic that isn't bad, it has to have some positive value to tip the scale from the middle between "good" and "bad" towards good. That way, I can understand people who avoid webcomic fantasy or college or autobiographic or gaming or even entire manga.

Incidentally, RY is a "me and my buddies" comic but it doesn't play like one (thankfully). You're able to read it without ever knowing that characters are based on real people, unlike "Real life" and clones, where author has to remind readers that they are real people once in a while.

Jim North · Post by **Jim North** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:47 pm

phactorri wrote:you mean other than knights of the Dinner Table?

Sure, except:

1) KotDT is primarily a print comic, even if they do web-publish.

and

2) Role of the Die is actually funny.

Sortelli · Post by **Sortelli** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 4:31 am

I think the only particularly dangerous pitfall of the RPG comic, specifically a "this happened to my friends and I" RPG comic, is that stories don't follow the structure of a RP campaign for a reason.

There's so many people who can identify with the RP group style comic that you'll have a plenty big audience regardless of what non-players think. But if you really want to hook people you need to be willing to throw out detailed fight descriptions and re-write characters and circumstances so that they fit a larger theme rather than just being a long story of things that happened. Whatever you do, do not just transcribe your gaming sessions.

Komiyan · Post by **Komiyan** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:17 am

Oh god no, transcribing gaming sessions just doesn't work.

and then we wandered around for a while cause we didn't get what the DM was hinting at... and then a troll attacked! I rolled highest initiative, but Jeff rolled low and he got hit with their surprise round and it was lol.

Guildmaster Van · Post by **Guildmaster Van** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:42 am

Lies. Transcribing works perfectly.
You just have to not be a complete and utter moron when you do it.

Any situation in D&D can be put into a comic so long as you're willing to alter and storyboard it appropriately. Of course; this is true for any story, be it taken from a D&D session or not. If you can't learn how to storyboard and/or script properly you should probably go back to the drawing board (Literally) and work on some basic story-telling skills.

Komiyan · Post by **Komiyan** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:42 am

It really, really does need a lot of altering, though. My big mistake was not altering things enough, thus people like to spout nonsense at me from a million d&d books I've never read, and try to apply hard and fast d&d rules to the comic and all. It's very, very annoying.

KODAMA · Post by **KODAMA** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:04 am

eh.. RPG comics are OK, but because it's such a popular subject, almost everything has already been done by someone (thenoob?) so.. I dunno. I stopped drawing mine years ago. heh.

http://www.skimlines.com/sedin.html

DJMayhem · Post by **DJMayhem** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:38 pm

Komiyan wrote:It really, really does need a lot of altering, though. My big mistake was not altering things enough, thus people like to spout nonsense at me from a million d&d books I've never read, and try to apply hard and fast d&d rules to the comic and all. It's very, very annoying.

or having a smooth enough transition from one storyline to the next. It's getting sloppy.

Komiyan · Post by **Komiyan** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 1:24 pm

More detail, please.

DJMayhem · Post by **DJMayhem** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:49 pm

i'd rather not... publicly, at least, im considering you for re-review in january.

Komiyan · Post by **Komiyan** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:52 pm

Well, you've worried me now, especially since I don't think of it in terms of blocks of story, it's all meant to run together. PM me or something?

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 3:27 pm

Sortelli wrote:I think the only particularly dangerous pitfall of the RPG comic, specifically a "this happened to my friends and I" RPG comic, is that stories don't follow the structure of a RP campaign for a reason.

There's so many people who can identify with the RP group style comic that you'll have a plenty big audience regardless of what non-players think. But if you really want to hook people you need to be willing to throw out detailed fight descriptions and re-write characters and circumstances so that they fit a larger theme rather than just being a long story of things that happened. Whatever you do, do not just transcribe your gaming sessions.

A case of "you had to be there", eh?

I hate when comics do that, reprise some anecdote from real life with no timing or context, and then at the end say "It was much funnier if you were there" or something.

Phact0rri · Post by **Phact0rri** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 6:01 am

Jim North wrote:
phactorri wrote:you mean other than knights of the Dinner Table?
Sure, except:

1) KotDT is primarily a print comic, even if they do web-publish.

and

2) Role of the Die is actually funny.

*smiles* you said "comic" not webcomic.. so I just thought I'd throw it out there.. *s*

Post by **Kisai** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 11:20 am

Myself, never playing D&D, and all the RPG stuff I know is limited to Ultima, Quest for Glory or Final Fantasy CRPG's, only get very little of the direct D&D references.

Stuff like +2 sword of doom, doesn't make sense but "Sword of UltraDoom" would.

I play a console game right now that is based on X-men with some D&D stuff on it, and I quite honestly throw away the entire stats system and let the game pick stuff since I don't know how it affects the outcome.

But going back to comics. I'm not a D&D nerd, therefor I will not read a D&D nerd comic, since it may as well be in chinese.

Similiar lines of throught about "two dudes sitting on a couch", "person works at boring ass job" , "person playing a game" and "Super Cool event just happened, here's the wacky adventures that result"

So much has been done poorly, that the only way to not do another poor job is to -NOT- execute the story in the same way. Take the example of the HERO being killed almost right away, hence leaving the world to whatever would happen if the Hero never started stirring crap up.

Very little existing material has the bad guy win except in a twist ending. Take examples from the Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt. The story runs along and just when you think it's over, turns out they didn't win, maybe the action of trying to win in turn causes them to lose and they would have won had they done nothing.

Sortelli · Post by **Sortelli** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:26 am

mcDuffies wrote:
Sortelli wrote:I think the only particularly dangerous pitfall of the RPG comic, specifically a "this happened to my friends and I" RPG comic, is that stories don't follow the structure of a RP campaign for a reason.

There's so many people who can identify with the RP group style comic that you'll have a plenty big audience regardless of what non-players think. But if you really want to hook people you need to be willing to throw out detailed fight descriptions and re-write characters and circumstances so that they fit a larger theme rather than just being a long story of things that happened. Whatever you do, do not just transcribe your gaming sessions.
A case of "you had to be there", eh?

I hate when comics do that, reprise some anecdote from real life with no timing or context, and then at the end say "It was much funnier if you were there" or something.

Yeah, but I've also started to notice that there are certain stories where you can just tell that the author is thinking in terms of game turns and attack rolls and such. Two opponents face off and spend the next page hitting each other back and forth and making tiny fleshwounds with their big old broadswords. And it doesn't take a detailed description of every sword swing in a long, exhausting battle to show the readers a long, exhausting battle.

And, like the real world, an epic RPG campaign doesn't necessarily have three acts and an exciting climax, but the story about it should. That may mean tweaking characters and events to fit an overall scheme (or just because it might be cooler to change things up a bit) rather than being a straight up recounting of the whole adventure.

Komi's already said that she's made some changes in Darken like that, and that's exactly the right idea. I like Darken lots and I don't get stuck thinking game mechanics when I read it. The current fight against the big five-headed thing she's got going is nice since I'm not having to see whatever 50 sword swings it takes to cut a head off and still getting a sense that they're in a huge fight against a tough monster.

TYL · Post by **TYL** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 6:50 am

Hrmm..
If you're making comics for fun, do what you want. I do a generic based on DnD sessions comic too, and am having boatloads of fun with it.

Of course, you have to completely rewrite your characters and most of the plot as you go. That can be a bit time consuming. I've been going strong for about 3/4ths of a year and have yet to complete what was our first session. >_>

Prettydragoon · Post by **Prettydragoon** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 12:47 am

Sortelli wrote:And it doesn't take a detailed description of every sword swing in a long, exhausting battle to show the readers a long, exhausting battle.

You say that like there's something wrong with a long, exhausting description of a long, exhausting battle. I hear Dragonball Z does that sort of thing quite successfully.

Komiyan · Post by **Komiyan** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:51 am

TYL wrote:I've been going strong for about 3/4ths of a year and have yet to complete what was our first session. >_>

That's EXACTLY what I did

Most of a year and three chapters in, I was still on the first game..

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:39 am

Roleplaying Game related comics come in two general catagories - those that follow a group of gamers, and those that follow a group of characters.

It's hard to get a good comic of a group of gamers without many, many inside jokes. KoDT does it. RotD does it (when Jim can be bothered to update, you lazy bastard). But this type fails a lot for the reasons already listed, mostly due to inside jokes and running out of ideas.

Now, a comic that follows the characters - those can be very good indeed. Goblins, Order of the Stick, The N00B, etcetera do this very well. These comics tend to follow a story much like the roleplaying campaigns they are based on.

As an avid gamer from way back when (I think... if I remember Jim North's birthday right, I started gaming before he was born), I really, REALLY like rpg comics.