Assuming the reference is ultima, you CAN kill lord british. If anything, I hope the heroes learned the lesson: if it has stats, it can be killed, even if it takes a gamebreaking bug.
Slightly unrelated note, but for me, the greatest joy of Morrowind was that you could kill Vivec and carry his soul around in Azura’s Star. The greatest disappointment of Morrowind was that, despite having his soul in my pocket, absolutely no one in game would believe that I did it.
That was your greatest disappointment? For me, it was that Vivec’s soul was so valuable that it was effectively worthless. None of the merchants had enough gold to buy it, and it would have been wasted on any enchantment that wasn’t prohibitively expensive.
Is this the tale that begins with a speech and ends with somebody trapped in between a wall of flame and an assassin? I hope I’m remembering that correctly.
I played UO from launch. I met my other half Online in UO. the 1st thing she ever said to me was “do you want to buy a fishnet?” Lord British is back at it with a new game world Shroud of the Avatar. it’s crowed funded and has a lot of player community backing and input. also lord British has learned many lessons over the years 1. never trust any big company (EA) that shows up offering large bags of money promising “creative control and freedom” 2. all game corps are about what the marketing people want. 3. be good to your players and they will be good to you. 4. never every let go of control of a company you own for any reason ever.
interesting, it might be Frigg’s Sepia name after all.
– Frigg’s is… Teenage in Rebellious Phase want to be free from her Mother (which perhaps indoctrinate her to be religious?) so she create a character that similar to her… with some twist of course
– ‘more parents’ might be a clue for Syr’Nj. at least we are shown that Syr’Nj got both ‘Father’ an ‘Mother’
– ex-wife might refers either to Gravedust’s or Byron’s, depends on the marriage. (though I’m sure that ‘friends’ refer to Byron’s since some people play to have fun with their friends)
– and bandmates… you know who
I completely agree – great expression! – though I’m going to guess it’s a deadpan look of, “I’ve seen this rambling ‘Hahah! I am death, destroyer of worlds!’ schtick before and I don’t have time for it. Have a tranquilizer, villainboss23841.”
“Do you have any idea how impolite it is to tranq someone while he’s threatening your life with a friend that he just turned into a mindless killing machine? And while I was giving you my best ‘sleazy guy at the bar’ expression, too!”
Time passing slowly in the home world means HR would have less of it, surely? You get the benefits of time to plan and observe if your hour is only five minutes in Arkerra, i.e., your time passes quicker.
But in the sepia world the five are in tubes, safely under his control. Why would he need a time advantage to deal with them? The active adventurers, making plans, disrupting cultist activity, etc., are the ones he needs to keep ahead of.
It’s possible that he’s still looking to get them out, in the hopes that if he (or rather his assistant) can produce them outside the tubes before an investigation comes around, it’ll be less inconvenient than if a search warrant finds them still in tubes.
Which is why he needs to be in Arkherra. You can’t get ahead of somebody who’s moving at a significant clip more than you. By the time he’s fully figured out what they’ve altered about one storyline, they’re already most of the way through screwing up his next plan.
For every hour of planning and acting the Peacemakers get, HR, until moving into Arkherra, had 5 minutes. By the time HR’d had his full hour, the heroes would have had most of a day. The hours that HR spent sleeping (given his sanity slippage, I think we can assume that was maybe 3 or 4 a day) would give them several days. They were out ahead of him from the start, and the gap was widening.
(Later thought: This is complicated a bit by the fact that when dealing with regular PCs, they’d necessarily be slowed down to sepia-time, but this merely blunts the advantage they have, it doesn’t shift it to HR.)
Reading one in a book based on a role playing game, and I was thinking “If I was playing this I would tell my GM, ‘Wait! I’m shooting the guy now. You can finish your monologue first, if you wish, but he didn’t *actually* get to say it as I shot him before the end of the first sentence.'”
In panel 2, Syr’Nj has the typical expression of a serious RPG player sitting next to a metagaming abuser.
Which is that she and HR are, respectively.
Engaging the metagamer in PvP is also a typical reaction, in those circumstances.
I’m pretty sure HR is Not invincible. Why was he worried that Frigg turned on him and kept her behind the barrier? Because she can seriously put on the hurt.
My guess is that the syringe will have effect, but not fast enough for stopping HR escape.
“Nothing is quite as deadly to you lot as yourselves.” How true is this? Let’s examine.
All of The Five have died (Byron twice). All have come back to life (it remains to be seen whether Byron will again).
Who or what killed them?
Gravedust was killed by Iver.
Bandit was killed by Berzerker Byron, but she’s not actually one of the 5 HR is referring to.
Berzerker Byron knocked the wind out of Frigg, but didn’t actually kill her I think.
Syr’nj knocked Byron out, but didn’t kill him I think.
No, I think Syr’nj, Byron, and Frigg were all killed by the Rebellion’s arrows.
Later, Byron was killed again by the cultists (arguably) and/or Bandit (arguably), who again is not one of the 5.
WAV here has certainly been injured badly by Frigg, but I assume is not dead yet.
Arguably the one case that most supports HR’s statement is Best, who you could say got himself killed — with the other four’s “help” — by his actions in the temple.
So mostly I don’t think HR’s statement is supported, unless you count the 5’s own arguably unwise actions (mostly walking into various traps) that indirectly led to their deaths.
I think that’s exactly what he means. Plus just because the Rebellion’s arrows are what got the final hit in doesn’t mean that they’re responsible for the deadly situation. It could be argued that without Byron zerking all over the place that the team could have easily dealt with that through planning/luck/being pcs etc etc. However the situation got deadly when Byron went berserk causing most of the party to be injured and unable to protect themselves. So yes I would agree with HR’s statement that they are the deadliest thing to themselves.
So, I guess HR let the Five create their own backstories, which were then made canon by the Evil Science Magic. The ESM had to warp the existing lore in order to fit this new information, while also conforming to gaming/storytelling conventions.
So Byron’s player created a curse. “He’s a really sweet, intelligent, sensitive guy. But he could snap at any moment and kill everyone he loves without meaning to. So sad. So lonely. So brooding.”
Maybe Payet Best’s player created a ancient prophecy(that actually applies to an NPC, because singular Chosen Ones don’t work in this setting/genre). “Also, I’m a bard who plays rock and/or metal.”
Syr’ng’s player creates a group of *field medics* because elfy-druid-healers are BORING. “I’m a princess who heals with SCIENCE.”
Likewise, the dwarven culture gets tweaked and suddenly there’s shamans! Only they’re all dead, except for Gravedust, so that avoids having to stretch resources on an entire new player class. “A dwarf who doesn’t follow any of the stereotypes!”
Frigg is basically the opposite of a paladin in demeanor(lecherous, hard drinking, and holds nothing sacred except for those first two things), but somehow still gets divine mojo to smite things. “Two words: Hedonist Paladin. And she says fuck a lot.”
This also implies that HR was a lot less consciously involved in the process. Probably acting only as a facilitator. I doubt the magic is going to let him keep up the god facade forever.
These look pretty sound to me, though I also woulnd’t be surprised if Payet’s player actually meant to have the prophecy be for another. He’s used to having a lot of personas, and as an entertainer it makes sense for him to put in flaws like that.
Stealing a prophecy could just be his sly way of writing in an acknoledgement that his character was inserted from out of the game. Especially given that so far he’s the only character whose backstory has had pretty much no repercussions, even compared to Bandit’s gnometown, I’d say he was fine with being taken less seriosuly on the OOC level.
-*ooc* FINALLY, a GM! There are so many things I need to tell you *unfolds 20-meters-scrol, starts reading*. For example, there are some things about the last patch I simply MUST complain about…
-What?! No, I’m not a GM! I’m …no one! And I really, REALLY must go now.
I really hope that HR learned his lesson from Lord British.
Now that is an arcane bit of trivia. Wonder who else is old enough to remember that.
wasnt there, but learned about it when i played Tabula Rasa (rip). the legend lives on!
I played Ultima Online in 1997.
Assuming the reference is ultima, you CAN kill lord british. If anything, I hope the heroes learned the lesson: if it has stats, it can be killed, even if it takes a gamebreaking bug.
Sure, you can now, but back in the day… And of course, the great infamous incident was when the “god” of Ultima had come down…
Ultima Online. Lord British was usually unkillable, but he forgot to turn on his invincibility after a server reset.
Slightly unrelated note, but for me, the greatest joy of Morrowind was that you could kill Vivec and carry his soul around in Azura’s Star. The greatest disappointment of Morrowind was that, despite having his soul in my pocket, absolutely no one in game would believe that I did it.
That was your greatest disappointment? For me, it was that Vivec’s soul was so valuable that it was effectively worthless. None of the merchants had enough gold to buy it, and it would have been wasted on any enchantment that wasn’t prohibitively expensive.
I take it you never heard of a guy called SR71 … who managed to determine the statistically most powerful enchantments in the entire game.
Some of them practically NEEDED the soul of either Vivec or Almalexia to carry more than a charge or two.
I contributed a few variants myself back in the day too.
Heh, I remember that one. Although all we heard was “Lord British was assassinated!”, and none of the details as to HOW.
Is this the tale that begins with a speech and ends with somebody trapped in between a wall of flame and an assassin? I hope I’m remembering that correctly.
Apparently he properly turned on invincibility.
If he didn’t, that would surely be the ultimate embarrassment, and he might need to make himself a new avatar.
I played UO from launch. I met my other half Online in UO. the 1st thing she ever said to me was “do you want to buy a fishnet?” Lord British is back at it with a new game world Shroud of the Avatar. it’s crowed funded and has a lot of player community backing and input. also lord British has learned many lessons over the years 1. never trust any big company (EA) that shows up offering large bags of money promising “creative control and freedom” 2. all game corps are about what the marketing people want. 3. be good to your players and they will be good to you. 4. never every let go of control of a company you own for any reason ever.
“Frigg, I’m not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I’d enter my own creation if anything in it could harm m–ooh, gettin’ dizz–” *KLUNK*
(I know, not going to happen. But how I wish it would.)
*Syr’Nj. You’d think after seven years I could avoid making a mistake like that. v_v
I did it thirty-five minutes ago. And I’ve been stuck fighting Frigg for thirty-two of those minutes.
Rude like a dude zerking in the nude.
(Syr hops to her left, putting HR directly in between herself and Frigg.)
“Sure, go on ahead – let her loose – I dare you!”
I think he already is in between them?
That was a reference, wasn’t it.
(The punctuation is deliberate!)
All the godlike powers in the world won’t save you from monologing, old man!
The BAIN of all Evil Boss Mobs!!!
(Also the key identifier to a boss fight)
“You sly dog! You got me monologging!”
So Byron’s real name is Eric. Good to know.
(One real name down, and four more to go…)
I could have sworn they released Frigg’s Sepia name, but all I can find is that her last name is Ackerton:
http://guildedage.net/comic/chapter-33-page-12/
(Well, maybe it’s Syr’Nj’s, but Mrs. Ackerton looks more like Sepia-Frigg in the next page than Sepia-Syr’Nj)
interesting, it might be Frigg’s Sepia name after all.
– Frigg’s is… Teenage in Rebellious Phase want to be free from her Mother (which perhaps indoctrinate her to be religious?) so she create a character that similar to her… with some twist of course
– ‘more parents’ might be a clue for Syr’Nj. at least we are shown that Syr’Nj got both ‘Father’ an ‘Mother’
– ex-wife might refers either to Gravedust’s or Byron’s, depends on the marriage. (though I’m sure that ‘friends’ refer to Byron’s since some people play to have fun with their friends)
– and bandmates… you know who
but after all, It’s just some assumption
It’s best to wait until Phil tell us the truth ~
Panel two nerd glasses plus discombobulated look FTW!
I completely agree – great expression! – though I’m going to guess it’s a deadpan look of, “I’ve seen this rambling ‘Hahah! I am death, destroyer of worlds!’ schtick before and I don’t have time for it. Have a tranquilizer, villainboss23841.”
:D
So I can’t tell, did he get hit or did he stop it just before it hit?
As he looked surprised, and then angry, and it’s still in that spot in the last panel, I assume it hit.
Yep. It’s still sticking out of his neck. Side note: that’s gotta hurt.
“Do you have any idea how impolite it is to tranq someone while he’s threatening your life with a friend that he just turned into a mindless killing machine? And while I was giving you my best ‘sleazy guy at the bar’ expression, too!”
Silly Syrnj! You can’t interrupt his cut-scene monologue.
And now we are all thinking what kind of tragic backstory Eric could have had that placed him in the tube of his own free will.
HR means that character creation for the game has players choose a background and Eric chose “tragic” for Byron, I think.
H.R. seems like the kind who’s much too articulate and competent to use “than” instead of “as.”
I missed that one… was still reeling from “watching all of your every move.”
This is what I get for making comics instead of sleeping.
You should really get come comic before you start working on sleep.
*some comic
No, the fans take care of the come comics. >_>
The Tedd (Tess?) avatar gets you +1! >_<
The correct grammar is “watching y’all’s every move.”
Time passing slowly in the home world means HR would have less of it, surely? You get the benefits of time to plan and observe if your hour is only five minutes in Arkerra, i.e., your time passes quicker.
Actually HR is right. I’ts just like Inseption, time pasing slower in the real world means something like 1 day in sepia equals 1 week being colored.
But in the sepia world the five are in tubes, safely under his control. Why would he need a time advantage to deal with them? The active adventurers, making plans, disrupting cultist activity, etc., are the ones he needs to keep ahead of.
It’s possible that he’s still looking to get them out, in the hopes that if he (or rather his assistant) can produce them outside the tubes before an investigation comes around, it’ll be less inconvenient than if a search warrant finds them still in tubes.
Which is why he needs to be in Arkherra. You can’t get ahead of somebody who’s moving at a significant clip more than you. By the time he’s fully figured out what they’ve altered about one storyline, they’re already most of the way through screwing up his next plan.
To make things more concrete…
Let’s assume the ratio is Skyrim’s 20:1.
For every hour of planning and acting the Peacemakers get, HR, until moving into Arkherra, had 5 minutes. By the time HR’d had his full hour, the heroes would have had most of a day. The hours that HR spent sleeping (given his sanity slippage, I think we can assume that was maybe 3 or 4 a day) would give them several days. They were out ahead of him from the start, and the gap was widening.
(Later thought: This is complicated a bit by the fact that when dealing with regular PCs, they’d necessarily be slowed down to sepia-time, but this merely blunts the advantage they have, it doesn’t shift it to HR.)
At least he wasn’t monologuing with his back turned, like Dr. Wily in ye olde Bob and George.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnvagVOwH1nbtEI6v0HI5Qg
“Foul!” – said Othar Tryggvassen
“Jeez, lady, can’t you see I am monologuing here? It’s rude to just interrupt people like that!”
Heehee, I was hoping she’d do that.
Monologuing… gets them any time as a proper Villain should!
Everyone hates a villain monologue.
Reading one in a book based on a role playing game, and I was thinking “If I was playing this I would tell my GM, ‘Wait! I’m shooting the guy now. You can finish your monologue first, if you wish, but he didn’t *actually* get to say it as I shot him before the end of the first sentence.'”
In panel 2, Syr’Nj has the typical expression of a serious RPG player sitting next to a metagaming abuser.
Which is that she and HR are, respectively.
Engaging the metagamer in PvP is also a typical reaction, in those circumstances.
>>Implying one cannot “powergame” and roleplay…
And the flaw in that (which we are likely to see next page) is that metagaming abusers are absurdly hard to kill due to being metagaming abusers.
I’m pretty sure HR is Not invincible. Why was he worried that Frigg turned on him and kept her behind the barrier? Because she can seriously put on the hurt.
My guess is that the syringe will have effect, but not fast enough for stopping HR escape.
“Nothing is quite as deadly to you lot as yourselves.” How true is this? Let’s examine.
All of The Five have died (Byron twice). All have come back to life (it remains to be seen whether Byron will again).
Who or what killed them?
Gravedust was killed by Iver.
Bandit was killed by Berzerker Byron, but she’s not actually one of the 5 HR is referring to.
Berzerker Byron knocked the wind out of Frigg, but didn’t actually kill her I think.
Syr’nj knocked Byron out, but didn’t kill him I think.
No, I think Syr’nj, Byron, and Frigg were all killed by the Rebellion’s arrows.
Later, Byron was killed again by the cultists (arguably) and/or Bandit (arguably), who again is not one of the 5.
WAV here has certainly been injured badly by Frigg, but I assume is not dead yet.
Arguably the one case that most supports HR’s statement is Best, who you could say got himself killed — with the other four’s “help” — by his actions in the temple.
So mostly I don’t think HR’s statement is supported, unless you count the 5’s own arguably unwise actions (mostly walking into various traps) that indirectly led to their deaths.
I think that’s exactly what he means. Plus just because the Rebellion’s arrows are what got the final hit in doesn’t mean that they’re responsible for the deadly situation. It could be argued that without Byron zerking all over the place that the team could have easily dealt with that through planning/luck/being pcs etc etc. However the situation got deadly when Byron went berserk causing most of the party to be injured and unable to protect themselves. So yes I would agree with HR’s statement that they are the deadliest thing to themselves.
I’m guessing she just thinks he’s being a bit tad crazy? saying he’s god and all weird nonsense.
Ha, Full House was the first thing I thought of too.
message for you, sir.
branthansen.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/message.jpg
note to self: needs a www. if its going to autolink a pic.
http://branthansen.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/message.jpg
Tranks for the Mummery
HR keeps forgetting that Talking Isn’t a Free Action in this universe.
The other gods think you’re an arrogant a-hole, so nope, no insolence here. From now on, firing arrows at you is part of a holy crusade.
So, I guess HR let the Five create their own backstories, which were then made canon by the Evil Science Magic. The ESM had to warp the existing lore in order to fit this new information, while also conforming to gaming/storytelling conventions.
So Byron’s player created a curse. “He’s a really sweet, intelligent, sensitive guy. But he could snap at any moment and kill everyone he loves without meaning to. So sad. So lonely. So brooding.”
Maybe Payet Best’s player created a ancient prophecy(that actually applies to an NPC, because singular Chosen Ones don’t work in this setting/genre). “Also, I’m a bard who plays rock and/or metal.”
Syr’ng’s player creates a group of *field medics* because elfy-druid-healers are BORING. “I’m a princess who heals with SCIENCE.”
Likewise, the dwarven culture gets tweaked and suddenly there’s shamans! Only they’re all dead, except for Gravedust, so that avoids having to stretch resources on an entire new player class. “A dwarf who doesn’t follow any of the stereotypes!”
Frigg is basically the opposite of a paladin in demeanor(lecherous, hard drinking, and holds nothing sacred except for those first two things), but somehow still gets divine mojo to smite things. “Two words: Hedonist Paladin. And she says fuck a lot.”
This also implies that HR was a lot less consciously involved in the process. Probably acting only as a facilitator. I doubt the magic is going to let him keep up the god facade forever.
Frigg’s clearly a cleric
These look pretty sound to me, though I also woulnd’t be surprised if Payet’s player actually meant to have the prophecy be for another. He’s used to having a lot of personas, and as an entertainer it makes sense for him to put in flaws like that.
Stealing a prophecy could just be his sly way of writing in an acknoledgement that his character was inserted from out of the game. Especially given that so far he’s the only character whose backstory has had pretty much no repercussions, even compared to Bandit’s gnometown, I’d say he was fine with being taken less seriosuly on the OOC level.
-*ooc* FINALLY, a GM! There are so many things I need to tell you *unfolds 20-meters-scrol, starts reading*. For example, there are some things about the last patch I simply MUST complain about…
-What?! No, I’m not a GM! I’m …no one! And I really, REALLY must go now.