OOTS #387 - The Discussion Thread

[Sebastian]

Now, an insufficiently funded town guard that can't afford a strong jail, let alone anti-magic fields, is reasonable to assume. Similarly, poorly paid guards that don't care enough about their jobs to bind the hands of a suspect spellcaster is plausible. Guards that believe that decorations require jail doors to be ripped apart and mangled? Um, no. That it costs 2000 GP? They're not going to believe anybody pays that much at all, especially for an badly underfunded department.

Obvously, you have no experience on how public amministrations works.

[Brawl]

Not fair - Prates of the Carribean ;] and Thog the Superhero :P owww i can't stop laughung.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

Woot!
Was that "ding" a ding of epiphany or a ding of leveling up? 'Cause it happened right after he mentioned new class abilites... Which can also be explained by using Thog. *Shrug.* Ah, well. Great flashback.

It was a Idea DING with a torch above him.

[Bruenor]

This Comic is Great, Thanks Giant. My first post too, Not long time reader, but for a while and finally decided to join. This place is Awesome...

how thogs pants turn purple?

And then they punched a clown!

Great stuff...

[NotNale]

No, Thog is merely from a different end of the alignment spectrum. Since Elan is Chaotic Good, that leaves 3 other "ends" to choose from. Chaotic Evil is a pretty safe bet.

Actually, Fractal, I'm going to go with Chaotic Neutral, which I think is more the opposite of Lawful Good than is Chaotic Evil. I could be wildly wrong, but Thog doesn't seem evil as much as destructive. Other than the Celine Dion episode, that is.

[fractal]

Actually, Fractal, I'm going to go with Chaotic Neutral, which I think is more the opposite of Lawful Good than is Chaotic Evil. I could be wildly wrong, but Thog doesn't seem evil as much as destructive. Other than the Celine Dion episode, that is.

That might make sense, except that Elan (always the most reliable source) thinks Thog is from an end of the alignment spectrum. Chaotic Neutral is partly in the middle, and certainly not a different end from Elan's Chaotic Good.

[bosssmiley]

Revelation of Thog's love of Spice Girls: rage and betrayal fills my heart!

Thog Hulks out (complete with iconic purple pants): "Oh Thog (and Giant), how can I stay mad at you?"

Win!

[geez3r]

Best. Cross-over. Ever.

[NotNale]

Maybe. I guess I think of the alignment spectrum as less of a continuum from evil to good with neutral in the middle than a polyhedron or some weird shape with good and evil, and law and chaos on opposite ends. As has been pointed out elsewhere, lawful good and lawful evil characters have almost as much in common as lawful good and chaotic good. That's why chaotic neutral made sense to me ... but I've been wrong before.

[Jazzvader]

When you decide to make a post just announcing "Quad post!", I reckon the edit key will be the last thing on your mind. ;)

Actually I just started

[SteveMB]

I even tried singing Spice Girls songs if they didn't let me free.

OMG -- proof positive that is more civilized than !

[SteveMB]

Obvously, you have no experience on how public amministrations works.

Yep -- before I realized that it was a joke about one of those home-renovations shows, I thought of the scene in Back To School where the Rodney Dangerfield character points out to the economics professor that he omitted a bunch of costs involved in building a factory ("grease" for the zoning board, the union bosses, etc).

[Querzis]

Maybe. I guess I think of the alignment spectrum as less of a continuum from evil to good with neutral in the middle than a polyhedron or some weird shape with good and evil, and law and chaos on opposite ends. As has been pointed out elsewhere, lawful good and lawful evil characters have almost as much in common as lawful good and chaotic good. That's why chaotic neutral made sense to me ... but I've been wrong before.

Thog kill people for fun. Nale let Thog break stuff.

It doesnt matter if he like puppy and ice cream, he killed lots of innocent people and he is evil, no matter how you look at it.

[Ronald_saveloy]

loves Clowns, right? So what about this:

Spoiler

Show

has shown Banjo to and now worships Banjo!

[Ironfist Orc]

Just too funny.

I wonder if, or when, Belkar uses his Rage ability, if his skin will turn grey? (Yes, the Hulk joke probably only applies to but I'd find it funny if was applied to the ability.)

[Leo_Forestclaw]

Guards that believe that decorations require jail doors to be ripped apart and mangled? Um, no. That it costs 2000 GP? They're not going to believe anybody pays that much at all, especially for an badly underfunded department. They're not going to believe anyone bothers redecorating a prison in the first place. They'd be surprised if it got cleaned on a regular basis.

Actually, I found this particular line to be a great spoof of TLC's "Trading Spaces." A team of decorators, 2 days and $2K to redecorate your best friend's room.
Once I had made the connection, in an episode with plenty of great lines, this has almost become my favorite for it's latent subtlety.

*D'oh! Looks like this has already been pointed out - at least I'm not the only guy was was drug into watching that show...*

[Grey Knight]

Maybe. I guess I think of the alignment spectrum as less of a continuum from evil to good with neutral in the middle than a polyhedron or some weird shape with good and evil, and law and chaos on opposite ends.

If you mean a tetrahedron with Law/Chaos/Evil/Good on the vertices, and the edges as the "secondary" alignments (with True Neutral in the centre), then that would give you the same as the regular aligment grid, except with two new secondaries: Evil Good and Chaotic Lawful. Which I suppose would keep Bor happy.

[Caractacus]

Superb!

Thog is wonderful - Rich'll never be able to do anything to him without SERIOUS flak from the readers...

Now we have to see if Pompey tries to stop them.

By the way, if Elan wants one of his girl illusions to work for a change, I can't think of a better target than the desperate-dater Pompey...

[warmachine]

Obvously, you have no experience on how public administrations works.

Underfunded office workers not caring about mayhem or bizarre stories makes sense but these are guards, whose job is to be suspicious of criminals, what they might get up to and confront them. They're probably dumb enough to fall for Elan's fast talking about vapourising flu but they would wonder where the decorators are that are creating the mess. They'd believe that managers divert money for manager creature comforts but they would complain about money being spent on prisoners and not them. Underfunded, public administrators, including policemen, complain about where money is spent all the time.

[TigerHunter]

Underfunded office workers not caring about mayhem or bizarre stories makes sense but these are guards, whose job is to be suspicious of criminals, what they might get up to and confront them. They're probably dumb enough to fall for Elan's fast talking about vapourising flu but they would wonder where the decorators are that are creating the mess. They'd believe that managers divert money for manager creature comforts but they would complain about money being spent on prisoners and not them. Underfunded, public administrators, including policemen, complain about where money is spent all the time.

1: It's a comic. It's funnier this way.
2: You forget how much Charisma, and therefore Bluff skill, Elan has.
3: This is a society were even USING magic on a prisoner is an illegal search and seizure. They obviously pride themselves on civil rights and humane treatment of criminals.

[Halcyon]

: prison changed thog.
: We were only in there 40 minutes.
: prison changed thog quickly.


Anyone notice anything strange about that dialog (apart from the fact it's the funniest exchange in the history of the OotS, if not the world)? Normally it's Elan saying something stupid and Roy providing the voice of reason. But this time... Elan is the voice of reason?!? HAS THE WHOLE WORLD GONE MAD?!?!?!

[Angela Christine]

If Thog got that mad over punching a clown, just imagine what he would have been like if Elan claimed the bars had kicked a puppy!

[Arakune]

Underfunded office workers not caring about mayhem or bizarre stories makes sense but these are guards, whose job is to be suspicious of criminals, what they might get up to and confront them. They're probably dumb enough to fall for Elan's fast talking about vapourising flu but they would wonder where the decorators are that are creating the mess. They'd believe that managers divert money for manager creature comforts but they would complain about money being spent on prisoners and not them. Underfunded, public administrators, including policemen, complain about where money is spent all the time.

wrong. they complain why the money are NOT in their pockets.

also, GO ELAN

[mikeejimbo]

OMG -- proof positive that is more civilized than !

Well, Nale is Lawful and Elan is Chaotic.

[AyuVince]

Being "civilized" (what constitutes that anyway?) is not a question of whether you are free-spirited or a law-abiding traditionalist.

But the new strip rocks! Can't wait to see how they got to Azure City and found out Haley's location in such a short time frame.

vince baffled by thog's simple solutions to complex problems.

[luneix]

"Wow that IS good, Roy only gives me half an hour...."
LOL!!!

[krossbow]

3: This is a society were even USING magic on a prisoner is an illegal search and seizure. They obviously pride themselves on civil rights and humane treatment of criminals.

Normally, I'd agree on that except for the line

"He died from the poor conditions"
"Another one?"

doesn't sound too humane to me...



But this synches it; Elan needs to somehow end up with the linear guild and Nale needs to stay with the order. Nale's funnier being incompetent in the order, and Elan is comedy gold with thog!



Heh, but then there'd be no , so nahh.



but on the guards:

D&D guards are the epitemy of stupidity. You can hide behind a stool in your cell and they'll think you've escaped. These guys could be bluffed into thinking that Cthulu ruptured up out of the ground; they're dumber than rocks.

Elan should of easily gotten that one.

[Helgraf]

I heard onec, that way back at 1 edition, half-orcs has soem racial abylity that grounded there int dwon to 1 but boosted a mod of +7-8 str for 2 turns, but they attacked anythign at site a that point so nobody technically used it, seeing the casters usually died in the proces.
Maybe thats it?

Having been around since first edition (and basic d&d before that), I can tell you it wasn't an option in the basic book.

[Kriel]

If Thog got that mad over punching a clown, just imagine what he would have been like if Elan claimed the bars had kicked a puppy!

Would there even be a Cliffport left after that happened?

[krossbow]

Would there even be a Cliffport left after that happened?

will there be a cliffport left anyways after elan and thog?