Erfworld 153 - tBfGK - 140

[reignofevil]

In most turn based wargames, each side's turn lasts a turn which takes as long as it takes for the player to finish. The overall length of the gameturn is not affected -- it still lasts as many player turns as there are players.

The moving player always finishes his turn, since not to do so simply causes the game to be suspended. In Erfworld this would be a compulsion on a side's leader to end turn.

It's also possible a turn is ended automatically once all a side's units have performed an action.

Thus it is possible that the flow of time during a turn can vary considerably, and that specific time limits are not involved.

And when your playing a game thats all fine and good.
But none of that stops a kingdom (lets call it gobwin knob) thats surrounded by.... oh..... A very very large amount of angry people (Lets call them the Red Radish Coalition) from just.... not.... ending their turn.
And lets pretend our completely hypothetical tool of the titans (lets call him... Stanley) is JUST vain enough to stop everyone, everywhere, from doing anything ever again.
See why we generally beleive that there is a set time for turns in erfworld?

[dr pepper]

The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins

Gag! Nimoy must have been really broke to do that one.

[dr pepper]

Janis reminds me of Janis Joplin for some reason.
Except she is prettier.

It's been the consensus here that that's who she is from the time she first appeared.

[BourgeoisJerry]

Okay, either there's something a bit odd about this thread, or I'm just seeing things very differently from everybody else. Haven wondered on the very first post why there was no charge on the four thinkamancers, and I kept expecting people to point out what seemed fairly obvious to me, but after reading the first page of this forum and scanning the other pages for a certain name, it appears the impression I got of the last panel is very different from the impression everybody else got.

The impression I got of the last panel was that Sagan was receiving a think-a-gram from Charlescomm. Granted, Charlie has more reason to be interested in Parson than the other three, and he may have no idea that Parson went through the portal, but if he didn't completely rule out that possibility it does make sense for him to check in with the Magic Kingdom, and if he thinks he can get to parson and that mathamancy tool of his I don't think he'll really care about a few rands.

Maybe this is me jumping to conclusions simply because thinkamancy was mentioned and thinkamancy happens to be Charlie's thing. Either way, it seems odd that as far as I've seen nobody seems to have even brought up the possibility.

[Zeku]

I'm going to cast a vote against the probability of seeing Professor X. The real bottom line is what fits Erfworld's style, and Xavier takes himself a little too seriously to be Erfed. His defining characteristic is that he's reasonable, respected, and in charge of himself. The only way we'd see him is as a diplomat.

It's definitely premature to say that #3 is Harry Potter. It's probably evidence of my cultural ignorance, but the first person I thought of was Hugh Jackman.

All of the wizards were good choices. Among the missing were Moses, Rasputin, Black Mage, Raistlin, Tessa/Tabasa, and of course Saruman+Gandalf. Who else?

[Fjolnir]

of course he's a hippiemancer, he's not in the peace love and such style but more the direct action, undermine the status quo, hummer burning, tree spiking style of hippie. you know an anarchist

[Godskook]

Wow. Just wow. Ok, I'm now expecting to be pissed when this ends. We've just had enough new setup the storyline could continue like this plot for another, what?, 200 comics? By all told, TBfGK isn't going to last that long and the next plotline is going to have 'narrative distance'. Combined, that sounds to me like loose ends are on going to be left loose, and that always angers me. Argh!

[Oracle_Hunter]

The impression I got of the last panel was that Sagan was receiving a think-a-gram from Charlescomm. Granted, Charlie has more reason to be interested in Parson than the other three, and he may have no idea that Parson went through the portal, but if he didn't completely rule out that possibility it does make sense for him to check in with the Magic Kingdom, and if he thinks he can get to parson and that mathamancy tool of his I don't think he'll really care about a few rands.

Maybe this is me jumping to conclusions simply because thinkamancy was mentioned and thinkamancy happens to be Charlie's thing. Either way, it seems odd that as far as I've seen nobody seems to have even brought up the possibility.

Hmm.. possible. If the four master-class Thinkamancers turn out to be Archons, then I think Parson is going to freak out when he wakes up

But I doubt it, since Charlie is currently watching a huge number of his Archons get incinerated by an impossible volcano trap and feeling very, very angry with Parson for screwing up his plans.

IMHO, there's no charge because everyone likes Sizemore. He's clearly spent a lot of time learning about different schools in the Magic Kingdom and he's a likeable, if meek, guy. It is also possible that Sagan got a Thinkagram from Bunny (or someone in the loop) and they want to find out what happened, exactly.

[fractal]

And when your playing a game thats all fine and good.
But none of that stops a kingdom (lets call it gobwin knob) thats surrounded by.... oh..... A very very large amount of angry people (Lets call them the Red Radish Coalition) from just.... not.... ending their turn.
And lets pretend our completely hypothetical tool of the titans (lets call him... Stanley) is JUST vain enough to stop everyone, everywhere, from doing anything ever again.
See why we generally beleive that there is a set time for turns in erfworld?

Well, I think we also have evidence that you don't even perceive the turns of sides you're not interacting with. For example, Transylvito and Charlescom never interrupted Bogroll's breakfast before. That's why, in a game with many sides, individuals don't spend almost all of their subjective time waiting.

To apply it to this context, even if there is no hard time limit for sides, sooner or later even a recalcitrant side will end their turn (maybe they get hungry?), and other sides will continue at that point as if nothing out of the ordinary every happened.

[Fjolnir]

oh and bunny is a play on the other name for transylvito, TV, it's a reference to "rabbit ears" antennae which take in broadcast signals for television.

[memetoclast]

I highly suspect the hippymancer was a quick lie.

That's quite likely, but looking at the chart in Parson's Klog, it's interesting to see how all the Gobwin Knob casters' disciplines cluster in the centre. If Parson is a signamancer that would create the link to join them into a solid block (or it would if Misty weren't dead).
Wanda and Sizemore also mention that the summoning spell pulsed with fate magic, despite being woven by both predicatamancers (fate) and findamancers (erf).

[MuthSera]

You're kidding, right?

Urh....

I lol'ed. Hard. Every time I see it, I laugh again. -_-

[Doshi]

Maybe the reason Janis thinks Parson is a Hippiemancer is because she just saw him practicing Hippiemancy? In this page of the comic, Parson is trying to persuade people not to attack him. And until Hippiemancer Janis and "Spock" show up, he's succeeding, despite the fact that his lame excuse, "Maybe I'm really a mathamancer and just didn't know it!", doesn't make a great deal of sense. So why was he able to stop all of those hostile casters from shooting him? Maybe his efforts to calm things down caused him to unconsciously generate flower power?
I suspect that Parson's special ability is the innate ability to generate a variety of magical energies that affect Erfworld units in various ways. If Janis had seen Parson back in Gobwin Knob, when he was trying to make people fight harder, rather than calming things down, she probably wouldn't have thought he was a Hippiemancer, because he wasn't generating flower power there.

[DragoonKain]

Maybe she's trying to explain his bizarre behavior and lack of stats as a hippiemancer spell gone wrong. He could be quite "stoned".

[Kreistor]

Actually, I have a suspicion Rand comes from RAND. Note the parallels.

The organization has long since expanded to working with other governments, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial organizations on a host of non-defense issues. RAND is known for its rigorous, interdisciplinary, and strongly quantitative culture of problem solving, which is a result of its pioneering leadership in translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the hard sciences into novel applications in other areas, effectively spawning the modern field of operations research. To date, 32 recipients of the Nobel Prize, primarily in the fields of economics and physics, have been affiliated with RAND at some point in their career.

What's the Magic Kingdom but a place of research for individuals that provide services to governments, for sociological, economic, and/or militaristic policies?

Rand=random? That suggests the rand has a highly chaotic value making it useless as currency. Even Ayn Rand makes more sense than that.

[Kholdstare]

As a Whophile, I'm really hoping to see the Doctor make an appearance as a caster. Maybe something related to time. Or maybe even one of the master class thinkamancers called in!

Either way, great strip as it finally shows what happened with parson. That and I'm a fan of the Strange.

[Kreistor]

The impression I got of the last panel was that Sagan was receiving a think-a-gram from Charlescomm.

Receiving from Charlie? Not possible. You can't cast uness it's your turn, or you're under attack, and Charlescomm turn was over long ago while no one we know of is attacking them. Further, Charlie doesn't know about the link, or he wouldn't have had to ask Parson about the mountain, so how does he know to send help, even if he could off-turn? And why would he send help when he could charge Stanley for the service? And we do not know if Archons are capable of becoming master casters of any school.

This was a sending to (not receiving from), and if they want the link severed quickly, they want Thinkamancers that are on the Magic Kingdom right now: they don't want to wait for Charlescomm turn tomorrow. He's just summoning anyone that happens to be nearby.

The Magic Kingdom appears to be a safe haven for any disbanded casters. With their capture and forced employment being acceptable, it only makes sense that some casters that escaped that fate sought to create a safe place away from the world for casters to escape to easily when threatened with capture. That means that there will be casters staying there semi-permanently while they work out contracts with potential employers, or some with large cash reserves taking an extnded vacation.

The chance that anyone involved in this link break actually works for a side is very slim. Using power in that way would make it unavailable to their employers, violating contracts.

[fendrin]

Perhaps Janis claimed Parson was a hippiemancer so that he would become subjected to flower power, hopefully negating the ruthlessness of the sword...

As for Nimoy/Spock being a hippiemancer, don't forget Spock's 'disguise' in The Voyage Home.

EDIT: I would love to see Bester show up to deal with the link.

[abb3w]

"...and after unraveling the link, I'm going to need every master class Thinkamancer available to unravel this mess."

[Crazy Ivan]

While Kriestor may be on the money about RAND and Rands, I still maintain that they are the baisic unit of construction for Spells/Items. Otherwise, it invalidates the maintnence of a secondary currency, and, further more, we are tasked with what would make a spell 'pop'.

Perhaps a caster could spend turns 'constructing' a spell, or perhaps they may just pop like christmas presents, but the Rand=Spell theory (in my mind) is what would keep someone, like Gobwin Knob, or FAQ from hording crafted spells due to their high number of Casters/highly skilled casters, and then being able to Uncroak volcanoes or something equally silly.

[Soronhen]

The black haired caster is definitely not Harry. His hair isn't messy at all. He's more likely to be a real-world magician because he's wearing a tux (you can tell from the sleeve) and wielding a magician-style wand with the white tips.

[Oracle_Hunter]

The black haired caster is definitely not Harry. His hair isn't messy at all. He's more likely to be a real-world magician because he's wearing a tux (you can tell from the sleeve) and wielding a magician-style wand with the white tips.

So who is he - James Bond?

[Fjolnir]

oh it's harry alright, Harry Blackstone, though I dunno if it's senior or junior and he's the hocus-pocus 'mancer for sure

[Jon Pander]

I would have major problems feeling intimidated by Orko.

[Jon Pander]

Maybe she's trying to explain his bizarre behavior and lack of stats as a hippiemancer spell gone wrong. He could be quite "stoned".

Maybe he is a hippiemancer.

After all, the inhabitants of Gobwin knob AND its attackers are experiencing peace now.

Peace of the gwave... er... grave. :)

[Lamech]

Actually, I have a suspicion Rand comes from RAND. Note the parallels.



What's the Magic Kingdom but a place of research for individuals that provide services to governments, for sociological, economic, and/or militaristic policies?

Rand=random? That suggests the rand has a highly chaotic value making it useless as currency. Even Ayn Rand makes more sense than that.

Ayn Rand and the RAND corp. are both good choices. So why not both as the reference? It could even have something random about it as well. All three could be correct. I think it is probably a referance to ayn rand, but it doesn't preclude other reasons.

[ishnar]

of course he's a hippiemancer, he's not in the peace love and such style but more the direct action, undermine the status quo, hummer burning, tree spiking style of hippie. you know an anarchist

There is a huge difference between those that call themselves anarchists and those that are called anarchists.

An anarchist is an idealist that believes that groups of people acting in self-interest do not need a government. The "wild west" is an example of the anarchist's ideal state, not because anyone can commit crimes, but because in many places the government was not around or strong enough to make a difference, so self-interested people would form a group and fight off invasion or criminals. An anarchist believes that government is more of a problem than a solution.

I'm a realist so I've a few issues with any policy based on idealism.

[Fjolnir]

I am aware I was applying a label that wasn't correct to parson there, but it was for ease to most people, not due to misinformation. As a member of several "socialist libertarian" groups (not my preferred term but still) in my area, I know the difference, however if you were to talk to some of the people in these groups, you would get a fairly big hippie vibe from a lot of them.
While this is not my viewpoint alot of the time, the fact that there is a visible effect to your actions both positive and negative and this effect is fairly immediate is satisfying. I did food not bombs for a number of years and am an active antiwar protester as well as working with a group to prevent a bioweapons lab in the roxbury district of boston through protests and legal means.(I live in providence but a problem there would be catestrophic for people living in new england in general concidering that boston is a major trade hub AND the amount of urban sprawl in the area)

though that was pretty much the response I figured I would get

[Occasional Sage]

Though it'd be pretty funny if he was a hippiemancer, someone who brings peace. Of course, one could argue that's precisely what he's meant to do...

You don't need to be a hippy to make peace. Paraphrasing from Robert Frezza's A Small Colonial War: "If we can't make a peace, we'll make a solace and call it peace."

[Oracle_Hunter]

oh it's harry alright, Harry Blackstone, though I dunno if it's senior or junior and he's the hocus-pocus 'mancer for sure

Hmm... junior, if this Google Image Search means anything. The hair looks like it should be browner though...