Friendship is Dragons
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Page 356 - Friendship Lessons
Author Notes:
Guest Author's Note: "Hey! You might remember my previous guest comic from friendshipisdragons.com/comics/187! No? Well fine I didn't remember you either! Anyway, if you want to get a better look at their updated designs, take an ogle at frostedwarlock.tumblr.com/post/65306244774!
"Story Time: Make up a story about how your party broke all the rules and completely conquered the DM with your awesome silver tongues and golden dice."
Newbiespud's Note: By the way, that's it for Guest Comics Round 3, folks! I told you it'd be awesome. Your regularly scheduled Friendship is Dragons, featuring Feeling Pinkie Keen, starts this Thursday!
And that's terrible.
And now, the exciting conclusion...
Didn't realize how prescient that would be. Very entertaining, frostedWarlock.
I'm pretty sure it says it says 5 twice five times.
Especially since she did it with her bro all the time before? :D
I don't really have any stories about us conquoring a DM and breaking these rules. Not as a group anyway. There's always that one player, but even then it's not any of the major rules.
The closest I guess was at the end of me running Expedition to Castle Raveloft when half the party wanted to follow the NPC bard out of town (even though they knew she was a red dragon in disguise). The other half of the party talked them out of it though.
speaking of clever, I did like how the backgrounds relate to the characters. Pinkie's "Derailing" one is my favorite.
Story: I tend to be the problem player in a moderately sane party. I like to destroy things the GM REALLY doesn't want destroyed.
"But if you didn't want us to blow up the computer, why did you have it taunt us?"
"Dude, that guy was SO evil. He's hiding in the shadows and threatening us. What? He was warning us? Yeah right."
"Look, either I had to die or they had to. I don't care if I was your little pawn, the bad guy always loses."
Difficult to argue, though I recall how often in 1E players were expected to jump to such conclusions and be punished for them from on high by... a very different sort of DM. Would that this sort of thing was entirely in the past.
I love that he finally even used that verbal tic against her, yes.
They took a vote, she kept saying, "No, yes", and they would record her as a yes vote.
Hilarious, yes.
I also want an official Grand Line cross over arc, when Natalie decides she wants her character to be Chaotic Evil. The ep would be, of course, Magic Duel.
There aren't many other Season 1 stories with adventure or mystery in them, so, yes, I think the next arc after Feeling Pinkie Keen will be from Season 2 c:
Just for comparison with some actual peppers, jalapenos are around 3,500–8,000 Scoville units, habaneros are around 100,00–350,000, and the current hottest pepper on Wikipedia (the "Trinidad Moruga Scorpion") is about 1,500,000–2,000,000. So that was one hot piece of weather RD pulled off. =)
Also, I just wanted to say that I really like the art in this comic. It's simple and stylistic – very nice.
And...yeah, I think I can probably handle maybe 1000 Scoville units, tops. Stupid over-sensitive taste buds...
NINJA'ED!!
Alright, the PCs are infiltrating the castle of the BBEG (a black dragon lich). This dragon has built a magic item that collects magical life forces like a battery. He had 6 of them, but the PCs have slowly been destroying them at his other hideouts (breaking the battery without discharging it first causes a nice fiery explosion however).
So the PCs manage to get past all the lizardmen guards outside this castle. Then, They. Split. The. Party.
The rogue uses his ring of invisibility and hides in a secret entrance he found on the first floor (without telling anyone else). The warlock flies to the third floor to grab the 'battery' (without assistance), and the rest of the party hides in the basement (without inspecting the bags and barrels they're hiding behind).
Warlock triggers a trap when he grabs the battery. An elder black ooze lands on him from a ceiling hatch. So, that's fun. The lizardmen on floor 2 hear the trap go off. They were trained to head for floor 1 to prevent any intruders from escaping by ground so the lizardmen proceed to rush to the ground entrance. The rogue gets stuck in the secret door so he's useless. The rest of the PCs come out of the basement and collide with the lizardmen. A fight breaks out.
On round two of the fight, the elder ooze dissolves enough of the battery that it explodes while the warlock is holding it. Since the warlock was still engulfed by the ooze on top of him, he becomes a shape-charge exploding downwards from floor 3 to floor 2. So he's chunky salsa and floor 2 is now on fire. The rogue starts attacking lizardmen (even though he's still pinned by the secret door). So, yay for massive hits), but it distracts enough lizardmen for the PCs to retreat back into the basement. The party figures using fire is okay now since floor 2 is on fire. The basement has been a larder of sorts, with a lot of grains and flour bags. One fireball later and the dusty basement detonates, finishing everything in the basement.
Pathfinder game, start of a new campaign, no one has even met up yet. And everyone is getting arrested by Hellknights. First off my wizard confused the crap out of the Hellknights sent after her ('And where were you three last night?! A stange orc came into my room late at night and almost ruined my virtue! I demand you track the swine down and arrest him!'). Then when she's tied up (she's Chaotic Good and didn't want to hurt anyone by pulling out the fireballs... yet.) I'm looking through her spell list. Somehow, because I didn't put it there, a spell called Summon Mad Monkeys ended up on the list. It basically summons a massive horde of ticked off monkeys. No damage, but AMAZING as a distraction.
Next turn, and I had the DM laughing so hard he could barely breathe as he described a bunch of Hellknights being mobbed by a thousand monkeys. Poo everywhere. Gave enough of a distraction for my character to get free, and he admitted later that if it had been anyone BUT Hellknights, they would have all turned and ran for the hills.
And then the Alchemist (the only one not to be arrested) goes on to BS the guy in charge of the Hellknight jail to let the entire party go. By threatening their beer supply.
The party was defending a castle under siege, when the outer wall they were on collapsed. It was intended to be a "scripted" TPK, but one of them had the presence of mind to get their rod of web and activate it. Yes, they survived a plot-mandated death Looney Tunes style.
Have someone doing that in my current game :P
Player: "I move 5' and roll Listen and Spot"
DM: "You hear and see nothing unusual"
Player: "Then I move another 5' and roll Listen and Spot".
Needless to say, it went on for a while before everyone got fed up and the character failed to see or hear a boulder coming from above.
I actually had the BBEG leave from bordom waiting on them.
Expected response: YEEEAAAHHH!!!
As far as I understand it, ideally, an RPG is best when a party of players AND the DM all work TOGETHER to make an exciting and memorable experience for everyone involved.
Why do so many people see it as the party vs. the DM? I know some DMs see it this way as well, but still, I would hope that's not the majority.
-Nice guest comic today too BTW. I found it entertaining to see one interpretation of how so many episodes would've fit into an RPG mode.
So it's of an alien concept for many to accept that the guy throwing every orc in the universe (and a few he borrowed from next door) is not your adversary, even if your GM isn't the sort to mark PC kills down on the outside of his screen.
Drinking games are a very different
drunkduck. Play with caution, as some folks are downright nasty when it comes to determining who lost.1)Threatening Ioun in an alternate dimension where we needed him to return home.
2)Accidentally destroying the entire starting town within two days. No repercussions. (It was actually scripted).
3) Burning down and murdering an entire army that was lead by a dragon about 12 levels above us.
4) Being hunted by aforementioned dragon for days.
5) Caving in the roof of a castle on top of a different, three headed dragon.
6) When he landed on the roof the later, The wizard (me) stood in front of him, and collapsed the roof onto both of their heads.
7) Breaking character every 2 minutes.
1)Threatening Ioun in an alternate dimension where we needed him to return home.
2)Accidentally destroying the entire starting town within two days. No repercussions. (It was actually scripted).
3) Burning down and murdering an entire army that was lead by a dragon about 12 levels above us.
4) Being hunted by aforementioned dragon for days.
5) Caving in the roof of a castle on top of a different, three headed dragon.
6) When he landed on the roof the later, The wizard (me) stood in front of him, and collapsed the roof onto both of their heads.
7) Breaking character every 2 minutes.
This session, had us up against a human Gravity Warrior/Monk that the DM had introduced to us previously by showing him body slam a full grown dragon. Intimidating? Immensely.
First turn, the GW/Monk attacked our GW. When that players turn came, He full round attacked, critted on both attacks, and rolled nearly max damage. The DM stared sadly at his fallen GW/Monk.
Needless to say he was upset about losing this npc he had put a lot of work into, and proceeded to sic a bunch of Dire Apes and druids on us. the rest of the part got away. My assassin? Got hugged to death...
DM gone shock for a few days then sent the following:
"A dozen of nuclear missiles land on your country, evacuating starts and panic breaks out. The enemy state does not says it is an attack, but they claim that the rockets had a malfunction. What you do?"
We wanted them to clean up the wastes and rubbles, send medical aid and so. DM rather made up another bunker, next to us, which launched the counterattack.
GTW lasted about 2 hours and pretty much demolished the world we could play in. We played around a bit until the DM bored on that we continue the living and communicate to everyone via radio, and said that other bunkers died off by radiation or mass suicides. He was now bent to bring us to the surface.
Our reply was to remain down and, just to be sure, look around by the computer cameras... He then said that we ran out of water supplies. We claimed that then, we pretty much lost anyway, since we won't get water from above. He then gave up and said that he wished us to have a Fallout-esque, mutant-ruled planet and fight for it, while we simply gone "realistic". The game not just got derailed big time, but it ended this little try to foray into emailed games.
It was still a lot of fun. :3
Fluttershy is that time she got more assertive.
The DM is a big believer in 'if it makes sense in character, you can at least try'... and the party is really good at succeeding at what they try.
All our foes are now our minions; or they were until reasons had to be contrived for why they couldn't be.
All our combat encounters have a CR that suggests that a party should only have a 25% chance of victory... if it was twice our size.
The rails have been discarded in favor of a rail GUN; it fires diabolus ex nihilo after diablus ex nihilo at the party... which we typically profit from.
The globespanning conspiracy to take over the world was SUBORNED, not foiled.
The entire party is alicorns - despite half of them not actually being ponies initially, we might have accidentally deleted death itself, our outfits are made of the hide of the previously oldest living dragon, DM mandated nerfs to a combat combo that resulted in 50 dice being rolled failed to hamper the party, and I think everybody is just trying not to break character while we see where this roller coaster goes.
The party healer reverse-engineering an artificial alicorn project in a montage provided by the bard?
The party monk breaking a mountain in half because going around would take too long?
Accidentally unsealing an eldritch horror and then dating it?
...Discussing philosophy for 30 minutes with king Sombra's father?
Where do I sign up?
The campaign is nearing its conclusion so there isn't really a way to sign up; but there might be a sequel on the forums someday:
http://ponytales.forumotion.com/f7-roleplaying
I'd like to see the comic - or a guest comic or alt-script - of the Iron Will episode for a table explanation for the change in Fluttershy's behavior. Any ideas, anyone?
a.) The session mirrors real life, in that she recently went to a seminar/read a book/whatever that convinced her of aggression being the path to assertion.
b.) She's had a very stressful few days because of RL problems, and they take their toll at the gaming table.
c.) She's the same as ever, but is learning to play the game better, thus decides to try roleplaying her character differently.
So she sets up the Jerk Pony Conga Line, which doesn't quite work. She then introduces Iron Will, whose seminar gives an ADDITIONAL +5 to Intimidate as long as she spouts one of his catchphrases beforehand. With the additional encouagement (and a few more Jerk ponies), Fluttershy starts getting into the swing of things. Much to the chagrin of Pinkie and Rarity.
When another player who was from the living world asked which direction our home country was, I responded with "If you go far enough in one direction, you find yourself where you began."
And everyone just stopped and looked at me.
Granted, it would have been better if AFTER accepting it Twilight had continued to research the WHY of it; but incredibly poor decision making seems to be a main character trait of hers that apparently had to be acknowledged. (Also I guess we don't know that she DIDN'T continue the research. Just that she accepted it, utilized it, and was able to be happy about it.)
Showing all of that handled properly would have been as much fun as an episode about reading tax code.
After the hydra attack, Twilight says outright that the "doozy" has definitely convinced her. But Pinkie's tic hasn't stopped, so she employs the infuriating rhetorical technique of moving the goalposts. We are treated to a perfect depiction of the reaction that usually elicits, a reaction that means "GAH how do I inject logic into something so IMPENETRABLY STUPID" but is interpreted by believers, and apparently Polsky, as "you have defeated my arguments with your brilliance." Pinkie gets to choose what corresponds to the ceasing of the twitches, and it's "you believed!" And we Twilights watching at home explode AGAIN, because that is not even a thing that is happening for the first time (see start of this paragraph)! But the sloppy wrap-up _says_ it is, and appropriately enough a lot of viewers believed what they were told instead of what they observed.
First off, Twilight really DIDN'T accept the validity of Pinkie sense early on. She acknowledged that it was 'a thing' but refused to accept the known utility of it. Even after the hydra disaster, Twilight 'explicitly' goes to the explanations of luck and coincidence first.
Next, I don't think Pinkie is 'moving the goalposts'. She doesn't really have a 'goal', and the tic didn't stop so from experience she knows to expect something else. I'm not sure how Twilight would be moving them either (your grammar was a bit ambiguous.) Twilight CHANGES her goals, yes, but the fallacy of moving the goalposts is about refusing to accept a claim in the face of evidence by demanding more evidence... Actually I guess you could say Twilight did that with NOT agreeing with Pinkie for so long...
Pinkie isn't trying to be brilliant at the close. Twilight doesn't consider it 'impenetrably stupid' just that it doesn't make sense. Pinkie isn't choosing what corresponds to the cessation to further some agenda, she is making a correlation to the best of her abilities.
I will grant that the letter to Celestia bit seems... off. It almost seems like Twilight misunderstanding her own lesson (but she would never do thaaat~.) Still, as far as choosing to believe in things goes; it isn't like you didn't choose to believe that 2+2=4 Yeah it seems obvious and inherent to you now, yeah there's evidence, but ultimately everything one believes is something one chooses to believe in; and hey, Pinkie Sense had evidence, too.
It was highly effective.
Although it looks like they used the main site link instead of a permalink to the comic page. Uh-oh!
This count??
I'm strangely inclined to think that Twilight's player is called Tara, Rarity's is Tabitha and Applejack and Rainbow are two different girls with the name Ashleigh. Yep, voice actors. Aren't I original and clever.
As for Pinkie and Fluttershy... Well, Andrea has some sort of weird flippant bipolar thing happening, and always played DnD while in Pinkie-mode. Now it's become much more erratic and she can't play without inviting Flutter-mode to the table. So her two halves play her two characters. It was hard for the others at first but they've learned the subtle but and hardly noticeable differences between her super-shy and super-crazy personalities. The joys of roleplaying!
I once GMmed an RPG that began with the PCs being ordered into a cave by the army they were in. The mountain range was infested by goblins, the army was there to clear them out.
The party took twenty minutes to decide that they were going to hide just inside the entrance of the cave until nightfall, then come out claiming they had cleared the cave of goblins.
The campaign was renamed "The Deserters" from then on.
And I still imagine Discord as a jackass killer DM who is PURPOSELY trying to get the girls to quite playing the game, by hitting the with in game scenarios that hit WAY TOO CLOSE to their real life problems!
I also really like the way he draws mouths...
I think I just really love this guys art style...