6/28/2006 - The Game Begins Again

I love albert's expression.

"JUST LISTEN TO ME..WE NEEEEEED A ROOOOOOOGUE!!!!!11!1!!"

Nice curtain.

...and Albert does look rather frustrated.

I love the way DM's just ignoring Albert (or was it Arthur? :P). And I also love the frustrated look, but that's already said.. :P

As for why the mage would hate kobolds is clear: racism! Everyone hates kobolds! They're evil, sadistic cowards, which is all against the mage's very nature.

And.. is Ethan meditating instead of sleeping!?

And I just voted and saw that you're already referring to the incentive! W00tastic! :P

How come everybody needs rogues, but nobody wants to be one?

Nice comic again.

Ah, so many questions have been raised with this. . .well, okay. Two.

What is Ethan's "Precious"? Why does Lia need to have a hatred of Kobolds?

Pfft, when I played DDO, skillful rogues were awesome to play. If you put ANYTHING like "trap-spring focused" in your LFG notes, you'd get 500 requests in the next five minutes. Every group needs a dedicated rogue. Let the rest of the idiots play Conan and run into the waiting arms of that wraith. I'm happy with hiding back here with my shortbow.

 

Of course, only rogue players get to deal with the unique frustration of sitting on the sidelines when people FORGET you're a rogue. I don't know how many times I've had to type "Hey guys, you don't NEED to spring that high DC repeating fire trap every time we pass by! I can disable it, really!" Some idiots just can't stand the minute it takes for a rogue to scout that ominous, spider-web covered hallways for traps.

Now on to the rest of the comic:
WHat the HECK IS GOING ON?

And finally
@Asiudono: I don't know what the precious is, but Lia probably wants to give her DDO character a reason to hate kobolds because all the incentive comics have them facing off against kobolds (in fact, the entire first city area centers around the little punks).

Sorry about not posting and voting recently. Just went on a vacation.

On the plus side, my stereotypical pasty-white nerd skin is now moderately tanned.

C'mon guys, it's not Rogue, it's Rouge.  As for racism, it's awesome!  Especially if you're a Nazi.  An Evil Nazi, to be more specific.

(Evil Nazis being the worst kind of Nazi, by the way...)

Wow... that's some warning. I usually need to plan at least 4 days in advance.

Happy Birthday DM! If only that worked all the time. Being a libra, I could use some presents. Especially of the DnD Online category. Everyone born in October could use a copy, so get on down to your local store and buy us one!

Well, I, for one, am all about the Rogues.  That's all I 'd ever play on DDO, except that my fellow PCs are all lower level than my rogue at the moment.

bah, you do not need a rogue. My group has not had one....well for years. They are over rated   

The incentive reminds me of this comic! Hahahaha! As for the main story line -- wow. I thought we would have a little bit more to wrap up from the last story line.

Though I enjoyed the sidetrip with the younger generation I'll admit that I'm looking forward to the continuing antics of the primary cast.

I wonder whatever happened to the elder god in Glick's tummy tum.

I am extremely excited! I can not wait to see our favorite characters back in business!

Hey all, minipoll:  who "can't" see this image on the frontpage.  Those who can't see it, can you tell me what browser/OS combo that you are using?

I think "my precious" is supposed to be funny because the phone is going "RING RING."

At least, I thought it was funny...

Wonder who's calling Ethan though? And that curtain thing is pretty freaky.

I gave the DDO 7 day trial a whirl, ended up with a Warforged Fighter 2/Rogue 2. Only played with a friend who was a cleric and never grouped with random people so I took the Rogue levels for the traps and locks, actually worked out pretty well. Also had just a high enough Int to manipulated most of the Int runes we came across, needed a Fox's Cunning once or twice though. I was able to still tank and whenever I pulled a mob off of the cleric I got sneak attack dmg. The versatility was nice too since I had both Fighter and Rogue action points or whatever you call them so I could boost AC, + to hit, dmg or skills as the situation warranted. The feeling of one hit sniping mobs was nice too as I lucked out with a +1 returning silver throwing axe which was nice with sneak attack.

Friends... I am here to tell you. Skill points are your friend and sneak attack is pretty handy too.

Rogues are awesome. Especially when combined with WyteNite's 'New Favorite Book Supreme!' The Players Handbook 2 (*trumpet fanfare*)

Crossbow Sniper [General]
You are skilled in lining up accurate, deadly hots with your crossbow. Perhaps you add custom-made sights to your weapon, or you have learned to maximize the stability and precision your weapon offers. (Wyte: Anyways, in some way you have made up for the crapiness of you crossbow and no longer wish you had bow proficiency)

Prerequisites: Prof. with hand, light or heavy crossbow; Weapon focus with hand, light, or heavy crossbow; base attack bonus +1

Benefit: When using a crossbow for which you have weapon focus, you gain a bonus on damage rolls equal to 1/2 your Dex mod. Also, if you have the skirmish or sneak attack ability, your maximum range for these special attacks increases to 60 ft

Special: This is a fighter bonus feat... but it ISNT MEANT FOR YOU! LEAVE IT ALONE!

So... Ethan is kneeling, looking down at something that he could have used against Venger... It is Either the Source he told Venger about, or the other sword he fought Venger with.

hang on, do you guys smell that? *sniff SNIFF* product placement!

I dunno whether to be proud or to be insulted... are you at least getting money for advertising for them?

Why would a mage want to hate a particular kind of monster? they're all evil. By the way, I have been thinking of getting city of heroes, and I wanted to know how I could apply for membership in your supergroup.

Heimdal:

which are you referring to? the DDO box?  The Advancing Hordes image? Either way, no, the only paid advertising we have are the google ads at the top.  DDO I put in the comic because its the best hope for a D&D-based MMO we have any chance of having for probably several years.  (I don't really care for NWN and have no hope that NWN2 will be any better unfortunately, not that they are MMOs anyways).  The Advancing Hordes image we host in exchange for a comic being displayed on their site (has everyone read it yet?)

As for a mage hating a certain type of monster, Melissa is trying to understand why her DDO mage spends so much time fighting kobolds.  The "meta" reason is because thats what all the low-level missions involve, but Melissa doesn't like metathinking, so she's writing a small novel about her character and "why" she would spend so much of her early career fighting kobolds.

As to our City of Heroes, what time are you likely to be on?  Our best bet is 7pm pacific time + and we're willing to play City of Heroes OR City of Villains, though half the house prefers COV over COH (I prefer COH, something about being a hero rather than a villain personally).  Between COH(V), DDO, Eve Online, and Oblivion we play very sporadically, if you want a group though, anyone can send me an MSN message(rmathis-AT-h2ohq.com) after 7pm Pacific and I'm usually up for joining any of the above listed games, and I can often scrounge up a couple other members of the dndorks crew too.

Hmm, I kinda want to make a gnome crossbow sniper now, sounds nifty. :)

I made a halfling rogue with it. Used the racial substitutions from the Races of the Wild book.

Improved sniping (reduced hide penalty)

+1d6 extra ranged sneak attack (-1d6 melee, but who cares)

+2 dex.

Oh yes, my friends.

That and, if I give him a lvl of fighter at 2nd lvl, he can take crossbow sniper at 3rd lvl and deadly percision from the Psionics Handbook at 6th. Im not gonna do a big feat thing like I normally do, but it lets you reroll 1s on your sneak attack dice. (if you roll a new 1, you have to keep it)

*cackles madly and applys for MUNCHKING*

“There needs to be more solo content.”

 

I think I’ve said that thing too.

Yunno, I've been thinking of starting a new MMO, UO has let me down time and again, and not a lot of people play Ragnarok (but it still feels so right... EEEE) do you guys have any recomendations? I rather like the idea of levels instead of skills, and I've been thinking about guild wars.

We burned through Ragnarok in about a week I think.  It was interesting, I don't know if it was "fun" honestly but it had that "thing" where I always felt like I was just around the corner of getting something new, which is an aspect of an "addictive" game.  So we setup our own ragnarok server, max-leveled our characters, then we retired the game. :)  It was close, we probably would have been sucked into it for a long time, but I didn't want another addictive game like that, plus I don't like isometric view. ;)

I highly recommend Guild Wars: Factions, the graphics are clean, crisp, for those who mind monthly fees there isn't one, and the game is a bit more strategic about character builds instead of just a straight progression upwards (like most rpgs). 

I enjoy GW, just had forgotten to add it to my list.  S3 has started playing pretty heavily. 

I do recommend giving DDO a try again using a 7 day trial, or wait a couple weeks for module 2 to come out, they are doing a lot of good things with the game.  Of course I wish they had done a lot of those things earlier, but better late than never.  The game is becoming much more similar to the D&D rules, which is really the only thing that annoyed me heavily by the game.  I wasn't annoyed that the game plays differently than D&D, I'm not one of those l33t D&D dudes that expected them to magically make turnbased play similarly to live action, I was annoyed that the underlying mechanics of the game would be changed for no good reason, which would cause other things to be changed, which would continue to cascade out of control.  Now they're reigning the unnecessary changes in, which is making the game "feel" a bit more balanced IMO.

Im a WoW man myself, but then again.... I also play the Warcraft D&D style RPG whenever I get the chance. (That means once, a long time ago *tear*)

I slowly lost love for Guild Wars... I was never content with my character, got bored with the options available and got DANG tired of being unable to walk 5 FREAKING FEET without having to fight something or another. >_<

REALLY stifled my 'Im just here for the scenery' vibe maaaaan.

*slaps self*

So many posts and I forget to say the most important thing.

*clears throat*

THE BOYS (and the one chick) ARE BACK IN TOWN
THE BOYS (and that chick) ARE BACK IN TOOOOOOWN!

Guild Wars is good stuff. By far the best "free" MMO I've played.

While on the subject, has anyone else tried Auto Assault? Not worth a monthly fee, IMO, but definitely interesting.

Thanks Wytenite, that was the kind of mood I was going for. :)

GrandMarquis, no I haven't, though I was "in the beta" supposedly...  What game is it most like? Can you fight both in your vehicle and out?  How much PVE content is there?  Solo vs group?

Is it all mundane, or are there mutants or cyborgs to liven up the mix? 

Well, I only had the 2-week trial that came with GW: Factions, and I always "take the scenic route" in games so I didn't get a whole lot done.

I played a Mutant... whatever the "fighter" class is, and that was my only character, so I can't compare the 3 races (human, mutant, cyborg) or 4 classes (essentialy tank, buffer, nuker, and fast attack IIRC). And as much as I love online games, I prefer to solo for some reason so I can't help you there.

What game is it most like? Graphics/display/interface-wise, I'd say CoH, but I only played that for a couple of hours. Constantly moving and shooting in battle, combat is more like a... well, a combat driving game than an RPG (you still get skills and equipment, of course). You can only fight in your vehicle, and can only get out of your vehicle in towns. The actual character part is definitely like CoH, though with less customization. From what I remember, missions are pretty cliche ("kill this, find these, talk to So-and-so"). I remember a string of missions involving a satellite dish array... thing (the correct words escape me) that was pretty fun though, with recon and demolition.

What I really wanted to spend more time on was crafting. You can make (or fix) just about any item with raw materials and training, insert "gadgets" (like gems or runes in Diablo 2), and salvaging spare parts. I hear crafting is good business too: the most memorable player I met was Hellsworth, who apparently crafts and sells chassis to other players almost exclusively.

Most of the time, I just drove around blasting stuff. Plowing through a Scav "shanty town" never seemed to get old.