Stat the characters of Darken! [3.5]

[SilverLeaf167]

I don't really know where this topic belongs...
I've been reading the webcomic Darken. It isn't exactly about DnD, but it's a fantasy comic in which most races, monsters, classes and gods are clear references to the game.
So, this topic is about statting the main characters of the series. You can do this anyway you like, varying from simple race/class to even feats etc.

I'll go with the basics:
Gort Human Fighter, CE, some kind of eldritch blast (too strong to be a warlock dip, but Gort has no other invocations)
Mink Half-Dragon Cleric of Hextor, LE
Casper Human Rogue, CN/NE
Komi Drow Fighter/Rogue (kinda unclear), NE

[Glass Mouse]

I think Komi is pure fighter. Maybe ranger, but that may just be because he's drow

And how can you not suggest CE for Casper? That seems so self-evident to me.

I agree with the rest. Not a lot of doubt there. Jill, however, puzzles me. There may be a fancy prestige class that I haven't heard of, but rogue seems pretty likely. High charisma, high intelligence, no magic, decent fighting abilities, pimped up social skills, and the whole sneaky, backstabbing attitude.
There could be some kind of devil template, if she really is the daughter of Baal - which, of course, isn't for certain at all.

So...
Jill Human rogue, LE, maybe some kind of devil template.

[SilverLeaf167]

Well, I guess I didn't suggest CE for Casper BECAUSE, (at least at the part where I am), I don't remember him doing anything actually evil... except if you count hanging around with evil people. I don't really think that's enough to affect your alignment...

BTW, I'm at the part where SPOILER!

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the second disciple of Mephistopheles (or whatever-his-name-was) was just introduced and obtained the Crown of Regalia.

Feel free to correct me.

[Glass Mouse]

Well. He definitely doesn't "respect sentient beings and life" (all right, I don't remember the exact wording )

I've got a specific example in mind: Here, he takes pleasure in the prospect of slaughtering good soldiers. "That's what makes it fun." Also, second panel here.

Dunno. Such sadistic tendencies generally classify people as "evil" in my book. His charm just makes it forgivable

What really puzzles me, though, is that you slap NE on Komi, but feel that Casper is Neutral. Komi is way nicer than Casper.

[Komiyan]

I, ah, might be able to help you out here ;) Hello, I am the person that does this comic!

It was based on an actual game we played, and with the exception of Casper (true to form, he stole away with his!), I actually scanned a few of the sheets some time ago. It's been something like 6 years since we played the campaign.. Shall I post them and give the game away? I must say I rather like the guessing! As a hint, there were 2 wacky prestige classes at work, and the bear had at least 3 classes at one point.

The alignments were pretty fluid, the ones we wrote down didn't really apply when all was said and done, and the game is way different to the comic, too. On paper, Gort is netural evil! Pfffh!

4e might be easier, to be honest, maybe Komi would be less made of paper, Gort would actually be able to mark things instead of shouting at them and hoping they go for him, and Michaelus wouldn't be so utterly brokenly tough..!

[SilverLeaf167]

Yay! The REAL Komiyan!
Yes, it's true that Komi is clearly nicer than Casper. I guess I didn't really think of it that way at the moment... like Glass Mouse said, Casper's overall attitude an personality kind of outshadow his actions.

I don't think I even want to try guessing Prestige Classes... there's just TOO MANY OF THEM.

[Glass Mouse]

Komiyan! *keeps fangirling in check*

I think it would be extremely cool to see their character arcs (even if it's not really... them). But if you'd rather keep us guessing, I guess I can't really do much

Regarding alignments, I think fluid is definitely best. You're never able to put surefire alignments on people in real life, so it seems like there's a rule here: the more complicated and "real" a person/character is, the more fluid their alignment is likely to be.

But alright, back to guessing. For prestige classes, I think:
Gort Blackguard; though that doesn't explain how he can cast spells - his wisdom just can't be in the positives
...
All right, I'm out of ideas. Damn me and my only-core interest in D&D!

[SilverLeaf167]

As I said earlier, I don't think Gort's really a spellcaster of any kind. I've only seen him make a basic ray attack and a tiny flame.

[Lord Raziere]

I, ah, might be able to help you out here ;) Hello, I am the person that does this comic!

It was based on an actual game we played, and with the exception of Casper (true to form, he stole away with his!), I actually scanned a few of the sheets some time ago. It's been something like 6 years since we played the campaign.. Shall I post them and give the game away? I must say I rather like the guessing! As a hint, there were 2 wacky prestige classes at work, and the bear had at least 3 classes at one point.

The alignments were pretty fluid, the ones we wrote down didn't really apply when all was said and done, and the game is way different to the comic, too. On paper, Gort is netural evil! Pfffh!

4e might be easier, to be honest, maybe Komi would be less made of paper, Gort would actually be able to mark things instead of shouting at them and hoping they go for him, and Michaelus wouldn't be so utterly brokenly tough..!

oh hey, I read this comic. Funny story: I once came up with a character I had named "Komi" but I had forgotten about Komiyan when I came up with it. Then when I reread it I saw it and had to change the name to "Shanami". Memory is strange sometimes eh?

[Glass Mouse]

oh hey, I read this comic. Funny story: I once came up with a character I had named "Komi" but I had forgotten about Komiyan when I came up with it. Then when I reread it I saw it and had to change the name to "Shanami". Memory is strange sometimes eh?

Ohh, I hate it when that happens. The worst part comes when the name is so implemented in your mind that you can't rename your character. That way, I once wrote an entire novel with a main character named after a Disney animal.

@SilverLeaf, how would he cast rays and flames if he wasn't spell caster?

[Komiyan]

Hello nice peoples!

I'll just post the first sheets since frankly the feats don't matter a lot ;) We weren't all different levels at the same time, I just used the first sheets I found, and Jill had to quit the campaign quite early.

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He's got levels in Disciple of Mephistopheles! That's where the zappyness comes from. Yes that says 'Profession: Surgeon'.




Dervish was a wonderfully broken class.






38 strength, that boy was a monster

The rest of them are here :) No Casper, sorry, but he was a rogue/fighter mix. I have no idea why I scanned Komi's so small, except to minimise the awful preliminary doodles of him I guess! I kinda like showing these just because everyone's handwriting kinda fits their characters. Also the random 'fat monkey child' on Jill's sheet.

[Glass Mouse]

Random thoughts:

"Profession: Surgery"? Ah-hahahahaha!!!

...Wait, Mink was a guy?!

Woah, nice Komi portrait! I wish I had stuff that nice on my sheets.
Ha, ranger! My gut feeling rocks!

Huh, Jill is a lot more... plain rogue-ish than I expected. Did you tweak her in the comic, or does the sheet decieve?

Why were there two bears? (and where did Adrian go when his character died? New, non-comic character?)

....Wait, Michaelus was evil?

You're right about the handwriting. Gort/John's in particular - that's awesome! But, well, I guess it's natural if everyone was just "playing themselves with the proverbial gloves off."


All right, enough random thoughts! Thanks a lot for posting these - they are a lot of fun to go through

...Wait, does this mean that the thread is over? Aw.

[Komiyan]

Yeah, everyone but Gort, the bear and Zathras was playing the wrong gender :P

Jill is straight-up rogue, because of the sheer amount of skills rogues needed in 3.5, her and Casper were basically half a rogue each- One could find the traps, the other could disarm them. Most of her 'flavour' comes from the fan, since it was an exotic weapon it had a bunch of weird stuff it would do for being a hidden weapon. On the back of her other sheet you can just see the start of her debtor's list- She'd lend money, with interest :P

The two Michaeluses (Michaelii?) are the human form and bear form, look at those insane stats! Technically he was evil, yeah, but I wrote him as neutral good being pressured into what he was doing because of the werebear thing :) And three classes, haha. I just noticed he listed his age as 2, I guess he forgot to do the rest!

Gort killed about two or three of his player's characters since he kept making things that didn't get on with the main party. He made a mage after the bear was killed, but I haven't included her in the comic since she wouldn't really fit. He also made a wyvern rider, a shapeshifting thing that turned into a hag, a cleric..

Hey, I'd rather the thread wasn't over too ;) I guess you guys could use it for general discussion of the comic, that would be awesome! People speculating about the plot makes me go hooray!

[Deliverance]

Thanks for the stats, Komiyan. That was greatly appreciated.

They surely were a quite powerful bunch by their mid-teens, so long as they were faced with challenges that could be surmounted by brute force.

[Glass Mouse]

The two Michaeluses (Michaelii?) are the human form and bear form, look at those insane stats! Technically he was evil, yeah, but I wrote him as neutral good being pressured into what he was doing because of the werebear thing :) And three classes, haha. I just noticed he listed his age as 2, I guess he forgot to do the rest!

Ah, of course. I actually really liked the storyline about Michaelus' downfall. It seemed so... fitting that

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he tried to scheme and manipulate within the party, but was completely crushed by the true master, Jill.

Gort killed about two or three of his player's characters since he kept making things that didn't get on with the main party. He made a mage after the bear was killed, but I haven't included her in the comic since she wouldn't really fit. He also made a wyvern rider, a shapeshifting thing that turned into a hag, a cleric..

Haha! Suddenly I understand why you keep saying "poor bear"! Poor, doomed guy...

Hey, I'd rather the thread wasn't over too ;) I guess you guys could use it for general discussion of the comic, that would be awesome! People speculating about the plot makes me go hooray!

What a great idea! I think that Ellie will manage to save Lyam, Silvador will defeat Baal by simply ripping through his slime - c'mon, those claws gotta be good for something - and then Gort will enter at the right moment and banish Baal, thus saving Tyr! Yeah.

Oh, you want realistic predictions? Fine. Silvador will either be killed or simply incapacitated - it certainly doesn't look good for her right now.
Baal might interrupt the healing of Lyam and force Mink to choose between fleeing and healing. I could see Vargo make a heroic sacrifice for his siblings; all that wonderful arrogance dissolved the moment Lyam was in danger. Maybe Mink would have to choose between Vargo and Lyam.
But of course, this is only if Baal decides to go for the kids. Maybe he'll be content with one trophy dragon head.
About Jill... I honestly have no idea. It feels like she should have at least one proper betrayal in - she's schemed at the party's behalf so many times now that, I dunno, it's pretty illogical, but I'm just waiting for her to slide in the knife. But, yeah... it's Jill.

Oh, btw Komi, could you spoiler the images? They stretch the screen and make my router cry - and I such hate seeing technology cry

[Komiyan]

Spoilered it all up! I haven't really lurked this forum much so I wasn't aware I could, sorry!

Jill will return soon! I couldn't possibly keep her away. There's only one more page of this chapter left, then it's all final chapter from there, which is really very scary, I have no idea what I'll do afterwards..

[Fallbot]

This is handy, I was wondering whether to post on formspring asking this very question. Can I ask something else instead? How closely does the plot of the comic follow the original campaign? A couple of things, like the beholder fetch quest (complete with random giant encounter?), feel like they've come straight from a game, but I don't get that impression with too much of it, and from the sound of it quite a lot was changed characterization-wise.

[Komiyan]

Hi!

The early stuff really did stick quite closely to the game, but as I started getting a better sense of the characters things spilt off quite drastically. The only similarity between what's happening in the comic right now and what happened in the game is that Baal is around. In the game Tyr wasn't involved, no showdown with Silvador (I think Gort actually killed her, and since it was just a game the guy playing Mink just went 'eh'), I can't even remember if Mink's brothers had names, Shard was called Loki (it seemed just too obvious) and instead of possessing some other dude he'd possessed Komi and got his hand cut off by Gort as a result. Also Jill had left the game before Leon showed up, Mink and Gort were more actively trying to kill each other, and Mink had had a random baby (??).

From about chapter 13 especially (the one with Casper's cursed amulet and the drow trying to kill Komi) it was just me running with the characters and it had no actual basis in the game at all.

Basically, D&D is a fine base for a story, but in a comic the way you tell a tale has to be different. People enjoy reading stories about people, telling them too, and when you're playing D&D, unless you're an awesome roleplayer, the interaction comes from you and your buddies, not so much your characters. I think things have gotten better the further I've strayed from the plot of the game, since while it was a really fun game to play, to have it told straight up as a comic wouldn't work as well.

Ramble ramble.

[Ignition]

Just coming in here to say I love this comic I only found it a few days ago, and binged through it at eye-splitting speed, haha. Great art (which actually gets better over time!) and I love the characters, especially Gort - as his megalomania neatly matches my own - and Jill - because I love a woman who can triple-cross people without breaking a sweat .

I did have a few questions (which are probably answered elsewhere, but I can't find them):

1. How much planning do you do for the storyline? I know you said this was inspired by a campaign, but how far are you going with it? Or have you decided yet?

2. I get that this is more or less D&D Amalgam World, but how much of the world 'exists' outside of the plotline? As in, what else besides where we've seen in the comic is actually defined somewhere else?

3. Is the unresolved sexual tension between Mink and Gort intentional, or am I imagining things? It looks like Gort has feelings for Mink - though I'm pretty sure Mink doesn't exactly feel the same way - but it's entirely probable it's platonic partnership.

I'll ask more as I think of them. Thanks, and great job with the comic thusfar!

[Komiyan]

Just coming in here to say I love this comic I only found it a few days ago, and binged through it at eye-splitting speed, haha. Great art (which actually gets better over time!) and I love the characters, especially Gort - as his megalomania neatly matches my own - and Jill - because I love a woman who can triple-cross people without breaking a sweat .

Haha, glad you like it! Triple crossing, pffh, that's child's play to Jill!

I did have a few questions (which are probably answered elsewhere, but I can't find them):

1. How much planning do you do for the storyline? I know you said this was inspired by a campaign, but how far are you going with it? Or have you decided yet?

I had the whole basic thing planned from the start- It's all been leading up to Gort getting the Regalia and Baal's little plot. We're actually coming up to the end now- we're about to start the very last chapter! I think I'll be tying up all loose ends neatly, due to the forward planning. It's my firm belief that all stories should have a beginning, middle and end, and webcomics don't get a pass on this!

2. I get that this is more or less D&D Amalgam World, but how much of the world 'exists' outside of the plotline? As in, what else besides where we've seen in the comic is actually defined somewhere else?

Honestly? I'm dreadful at worldbuilding, or at least I have been with this comic.. Darken is a peninsula, there is life off of it but it's not really been explored, boats tend to go and not come back, which is considered offputting. That's as far as I got

3. Is the unresolved sexual tension between Mink and Gort intentional, or am I imagining things? It looks like Gort has feelings for Mink - though I'm pretty sure Mink doesn't exactly feel the same way - but it's entirely probable it's platonic partnership.

Oh, it's intentional, and much complained about by the guys who played them originally I don't really want to expand on what each of them feels for the other as it could almost be considered spoilers- Just rest assured you'll have a firmer answer by the end of the comic!

[Ignition]

It does my cold, black heart good to know you've got an actual planned end for the story, and in fact, planning at all Especially that my questions about Gort and Mink will get answered eventually, haha. Can't wait to read it!

Fair enough on the worldbuilding though; it's kind of my hobby, and I certainly understand how irritating it can be when you've put a ton of effort into a world, and then find one twist or glitch or snag that invalidates all that work. Feels bad man. I like what you've shown of the world in the story, and was just wondering what else existed. *thumbs up*

*roots for Gort* Go Team Tyrant!

[Komiyan]

Yep, the end is incoming like about 40 pages, which is probably just under a year's time at my glacial pace :P It's going to be half relief, half sadness when it's over, it's basically been a huge chunk of my life for the last 7 years.

I hope to do more worldbuilding with my next comic- It's an art if you can do it right, it really is. Kudos to you if you can manage it!

[Fallbot]

Thanks for the answer!

and Mink had had a random baby (??).

Well...Did Silvador at least get to see her grandchild before she was offed?

[Glass Mouse]

I'm really gonna miss Darken when it ends. It definitely has some of the best-written character interaction I've ever seen.
Sigh.

What's your new project gonna be? Any hints, or is it top super hush hush secret?

[Ignition]

I'm really gonna miss Darken when it ends. It definitely has some of the best-written character interaction I've ever seen.
Sigh.

What's your new project gonna be? Any hints, or is it top super hush hush secret?

My name is Ignition, and I endorse this post and everything it contains

[Komiyan]

Well...Did Silvador at least get to see her grandchild before she was offed?

Can't recall, sorry. Silvador was barely a character in the game

I'm really gonna miss Darken when it ends. It definitely has some of the best-written character interaction I've ever seen.
Sigh.

What's your new project gonna be? Any hints, or is it top super hush hush secret?

Oh, I'm going to miss it too! I'll probably do a few little short stories after the end since there's a couple of things I simply can't let go without drawing, you'll know these things when you see them :P (no I don't tease people with secret spoilers who could suggest this )

I'm really glad you like the character interaction, it's my favourite thing to write, and it's cool to know I'm doing ok with it!

As for my next thing, I honestly don't know yet, all my energies have been going to giving Darken a good ending, I've barely had time to think about it. All I know is that I want to set out a world and do shortish stories within it that may not be entirely connected apart from the setting, a bit like Discworld, I just.. haven't thought of the setting yet D:

[Aidan305]

I'm really gonna miss Darken when it ends. It definitely has some of the best-written character interaction I've ever seen.
Sigh.

Gotta agree here. Darken is one of my primary influences when I think about how I'd like a game to go.

I just wish I could get my players/fellow players to play that way.

I'm certainly loving what's happening at the moment, though I'm sorry that Silvador's probably going to die. I like her as a character. I hope that Lyam survives. I like him.

[Glass Mouse]

New page.

Yay, I was (kinda) right about Mink's choice. Poor Mink, though. I kinda get the feeling that she won't appreciate the gift...

However, it's good to see Gort be... Gort-ish again.

Speculation time: Maybe Baal is just trying to sow conflict between Mink and Gort. I mean, they're already at each others' throats, and if Mink is in a position of power, she might not be so willing to let Gort treat her as "a minion."
Why fight your enemies when you can make them fight themselves?

[Ignition]

Holy crap, evil people ACTUALLY being corrupting influences rather than Republic serial villains? What is this madness?! Sparta etc.

God I love this comic. Baal!Tyr is rapidly becoming one of my favorite characters.

[Komiyan]

I'm glad BaalTyr is going over well, re-reading I seemed to forget to give Tyr a personality of his own, so I'm trying to claw it back a bit now