The Weekly Life In Simon's Basement - An OotS Style Comic

[Salty]

YES! its back!

It's always nice to hear such excitement.

And I have today's update all ready!

32: Nightfall

Not as much humor as plot this time, I'm afraid.

[Ninjaman]

Heh, nice.

[Salty]

Oh, hey, turns out I'm alive after all! Here's a comic.

33: 6 Seconds Per Hour

[super dark33]

There you are!

Are the dougnuts stale because the comic was dead for more then a year?

[Salty]

There you are!

Are the dougnuts stale because the comic was dead for more then a year?

Haha, I like that. Yes, that is now the reason.

[Hamste]

Oh, hey, turns out I'm alive after all! Here's a comic.

33: 6 Seconds Per Hour

:O The exact same thing happened to my group... except I ended up shooting our cleric twice in the back because I got multiple ones.

[Salty]

It's been a while since I've been here. I've had a busy year, and then laziness, and so on. The point is, comic!

34: Triumphant Return

I'm going to go for once a week from this point on. Wednesdays, as long as I can keep it up. Thank you very much for your patience, and for reading!

:O The exact same thing happened to my group... except I ended up shooting our cleric twice in the back because I got multiple ones.

The cleric, really? That's the worst. Still, I love that as a GM.

[Salty]

34a: Wild Party

Technically it's the 52nd if you count 10a.

This comic may seem a bit filler-y but that's because it is. I wanted to take this time to announce a change in my archive. I will be making a few changes to past strips to improve the comic as a whole. Comics 1 through 8 will be consolidated into one big introduction strip. They were the first comics I wrote, so they were amateurishly written. Not to mention it is a very slow beginning, and I fear it scares away readers with lower-quality strips. Additionally, I'm eliminating the bonus strips. I enjoyed the concept, but realized I had no more planned, and I thought the imbalance between the frequent bonus strips in the beginning and the complete absence later on would be peculiar. The "Saving Paladin Jon" arc will be upgraded to plainly-numbered strips. The ones after strips 7 and 8 will be cut, since I feel their quality is sub-par, and the ones after 23 will be cut since they fix a few problems that I will retroactively cut. 31a will also be upgraded to a full strip. Oh, and this comic will be cut, too. This means that, all in all, the later strips will be numbered two higher than they currently are. Remastering old strips is a dangerous road that has killed many a webcomic, so I will be careful. I will leave the art the same, and only make some minor dialogue edits. These changes will be carried out over the next few days, and by next week this should be fully resolved.

I will, of course, keep the original strips online in some form, either here or on a separate page. It is also incredibly important to me that I get your feedback on this change; the entire purpose is to improve the comic, and the only opinion that matters is that of my readers. Thank you all so much for your support.

[Hamste]

Out of curiosity what game system is this comic based on? I half want to figure out the stats of some of them (I already know Wesly has 5 hp and a single point of con). Also there is a good chance that they have good dexterity and they have good wisdom.

As long a there is a way to still see those comics I am ok with the changes.

[Salty]

New comic! I ended up taking last week off after restructuring the archive.

39: He Must Have the Improved Interrogation Feat

It's a prerequisite for the Guantanamo Guard prestige class.

There's no hidden political statement one way or the other; "Enhanced Interrogation" just sounds a hell of a lot like a feat.

The archive restructure is officially done! I'm considering creating a small site to store all of the unedited strips, but for now, everything's up and running as it should be. I would love it if you look back through the archive and tell me what you think of the change.

Out of curiosity what game system is this comic based on? I half want to figure out the stats of some of them (I already know Wesly has 5 hp and a single point of con). Also there is a good chance that they have good dexterity and they have good wisdom.

As long a there is a way to still see those comics I am ok with the changes.

I've been using Pathfinder as the system as far back as I can remember, but I noticed a couple of the first comics seem to be made with 3.5 in mind (Simon's health, in particular, is remarkably low for Pathfinder). I would update it to make it consistent, but I just cut those strips, so it doesn't really matter now. And while I don't have character sheets made out for them, I have tried to be consistent whenever I make reference to any stats or mechanics, and I would love to see what you come up with!

[Hamste]

...so not much to go on so far. I have been focusing on Wesly's sheet so far though I have figured out both of Jon's feats and his dexterity.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetvie...sheetid=598638
It will fill out more as more information comes up

Also just pointing this out, in comic 38, a natural 20 in a skill check is not an automatic success

[Salty]

...so not much to go on so far. I have been focusing on Wesly's sheet so far though I have figured out both of Jon's feats and his dexterity.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetvie...sheetid=598638
It will fill out more as more information comes up

Also just pointing this out, in comic 38, a natural 20 in a skill check is not an automatic success

Impressive! I don't remember intending Wesley to have a sword, but can you tell me which comic you got it from? I'd be happy to clear that up.

I imagine solid info will be few and far between, I'm afraid. I'll probably be vague if I can get away with it; I don't want to accidentally limit future strips.

As for the automatic success thing, I had it wrong for a while when I started running games, and when I realized my mistake, I decided I preferred it the way I was doing and kept going. I don't think I've come across a scenario where 20+modifier wasn't enough. You could chalk it up to Jack being a new player was wrong, though, if you prefer.

[Hamste]

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20...ty-d2up2mg.png

He reaches for a sword on the wall in this episode, assumedly he kept it as he has not been in town yet and there is no reason to drop it.


I figured it was something like that just felt I should point it out. It is usually enough but sometimes it just doesn't make sense for something to work even on a natural 20 (For example a master thief who has trained all their life to sneak being seen by an untrained commoner with 5 wisdom who is not paying close attention at all)

[Salty]

New comic, finally!

40: Communication Delay

Knowing their luck, Other Jon did, too.

39-41 killed me in planning; I kept cutting them off at different points. It's the main reason the update schedule failed; I make up my mind. At one point, I think they were all going to be one big comic, but it made the jumps too awkward. I'm not wild about the ending to this one; it's more plot-based than humor based, and I don't know if I can pull that off yet.

Oh, and Simon's Goblin incompetence is a joke he's sure to bitterly give a fake chuckle at. It works on another level, though; I like the idea of making fun of sorcerers for being unintelligent. A wizard would get a bunch of bonus languages from his intelligence score, but Simon can't even get one right. I might expand on that sometime in the future.

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20...ty-d2up2mg.png

He reaches for a sword on the wall in this episode, assumedly he kept it as he has not been in town yet and there is no reason to drop it.


I figured it was something like that just felt I should point it out. It is usually enough but sometimes it just doesn't make sense for something to work even on a natural 20 (For example a master thief who has trained all their life to sneak being seen by an untrained commoner with 5 wisdom who is not paying close attention at all)

Oh, that's Jon's sword! Sorry if I didn't make it clear; he gives it back off-panel. I'm not too proud of the art there; if I was going to fix art on old comics, I'd definitely make it more clear that it's among Jon's possessions.

To me, it's very situational. Unless it's so outlandish that it's obvious a player's trying to take advantage of the system, I like that outside chance that something ridiculous could happen. It's dependent on the tone, though; in a fantasy game, some miraculous mishap/success seems fun and exciting, but it wouldn't be fitting in a gritty, modern game. One in twenty is a bit frequent for some of the more ridiculous happenings, but they come up so rarely I haven't had to worry about it.

Sorry about taking so long to respond; I feel guilty talking about the comic when I'm behind on updates.

[OoTLink]

Pretty darn funny :D

I like it!

[Salty]

New comic!

41: Stumpy Sure Does Suck

Hey, I've got a question for you guys! This is the spot where I normally add the comments and alt-text I have on most of the hosting sites, but before recently I would instead write a much shorter, unique comment here. Does anyone have a preference one way or the other?

Pretty darn funny :D

I like it!

I'm always glad to hear that!