PLOT (Erfworld 16)

[Maurog]

If he stays the same, he is gonna be ridiculed by everyone for having a disproportionally small head. On a disproportionally large body. Hey!..

[SadiraWhitethorne]

pah! dissapointing :P real gamers dont use or touch anyones dice but thier own hard bought.

[Alchemistmerlin]

pah! dissapointing :P real gamers dont use or touch anyones dice but thier own hard bought.

I call BS :-P Free dice are free dice, I'll take 'em when I can get 'em considering how many I've lost.

[5tephen]

Ah! top work guys!

Can I just say that I think that this comic reads much better in one sitting than in drip-fed web-comic format? This is only the 16th page, and we have all the primary characters set up, all mostly in one place (what with Jillian being captured and all I assume that most of the characters will be in Gobwin Knob), and the key instigating twist has just occured.

That feels about right to me.

[SadiraWhitethorne]

I call BS :-P Free dice are free dice, I'll take 'em when I can get 'em considering how many I've lost.

meh, I would rather see my dice burned then even touched by another... because if they are touched by another the dice gods seem fit to jinx my dice luck, for that same reason I touch use or touch anothers.

[Tyrmadris]

Agree with SadiraWhitethorne. Generally having dice in the hands of another results in bad things. Especially when it's a cross player-to-DM dice contact. Players avoid touching my dice since, as the DM, it always seems my attack rolls suddenly shift toward the high end of the scale afterwards (I roll my dice in secret unless it hits a 1, 18, 19, or 20, in which case I reveal it), and they guard theirs jealously since their odds plummet if I should reach over and touch one of theirs, it roll off the table into my hand, etc.

We've got some amazing little gamer superstitions, ranging from my "Orange Die of PC Slaying" (invariably rolls 18+ whenever target PC has half or less life) to the dreaded saying "All you have to do is roll higher than X!," to which the end result is invariably either X or X-1 and involves the roller screaming fitfully at whomever said the "words of damnation."

Can't imagine Parson's group is any different. It must be sheer, unadulterated gamer's greed for that guy to call dibs on his dice--Parson must have several pounds of dice in his collection.

[zeratul]

Like many I found "PLOT" to be far to awesome for words.

Even though we could see this coming I particularly enjoyed this page.

However, am I the only one who wonders what Parson will look like in the traditional Erfworld art style?

im fairly sure parson is the blonde dude with the hammer controlling the army. i think the people at the table are all already established characters.

[chionophile]

im fairly sure parson is the blonde dude with the hammer controlling the army. i think the people at the table are all already established characters.

Gonna have to go with a big "I disagree" on this one. No way is Stanley the same person as Parson. Not even close.

[IlanaAeryn]

i was having some trouble following at first, but i find this one sucked me in a bit, and i plan to continue reading until this makes sense to me.

[Jorkens]

im fairly sure parson is the blonde dude with the hammer controlling the army. i think the people at the table are all already established characters.

In what way? Do you think that what we've been seeing "in Erfworld" rather than in Parson's world) is just a representation of what's going on in the game that Parson et al are playing? Or that it has a reality of its own but the characters are linked to Parson's friends in some other way?

[Mauril Everleaf]

Well, since the game hasn't really started yet (ep 16 was the first meeting of the gaming group for this purpose) I would assume that any action thus far in Erfworld was prepared backstory by Parson to st the stage for the group. Many of the characters may be linked to his friends, they may be what he envisions his friends to be if they were in this world, but they are not his friends, at least not yet. That's my view of things, at least.

[TheAnimal]

Nah, lord Stanley is far too incompetent to be a die-hard strategy nerd.

[teratorn]

Why does everyone assume that Erfworld is Parson's game? The names of the creatures and the kiddy stuff would not follow if it was as simple as that. It might be just close enough to Erfworld for Parson to be summoned by Wanda.

[SadiraWhitethorne]

Agree with SadiraWhitethorne. Generally having dice in the hands of another results in bad things. Especially when it's a cross player-to-DM dice contact. Players avoid touching my dice since, as the DM, it always seems my attack rolls suddenly shift toward the high end of the scale afterwards (I roll my dice in secret unless it hits a 1, 18, 19, or 20, in which case I reveal it), and they guard theirs jealously since their odds plummet if I should reach over and touch one of theirs, it roll off the table into my hand, etc.

We've got some amazing little gamer superstitions, ranging from my "Orange Die of PC Slaying" (invariably rolls 18+ whenever target PC has half or less life) to the dreaded saying "All you have to do is roll higher than X!," to which the end result is invariably either X or X-1 and involves the roller screaming fitfully at whomever said the "words of damnation."

Can't imagine Parson's group is any different. It must be sheer, unadulterated gamer's greed for that guy to call dibs on his dice--Parson must have several pounds of dice in his collection.

A gamer after me own heart

In fact my dice before each game go through a special selection ceremony and sometimes I even give offerings to the great dice gods for good dice luck during gameplay.

[Jorkens]

Well, since the game hasn't really started yet (ep 16 was the first meeting of the gaming group for this purpose) I would assume that any action thus far in Erfworld was prepared backstory by Parson to st the stage for the group. Many of the characters may be linked to his friends, they may be what he envisions his friends to be if they were in this world, but they are not his friends, at least not yet. That's my view of things, at least.

But the game has to have some reality of its own - otherwise he's just been hit by a spell from his own backstory...

[Nekkira]

Well, I decided to go ahead and read erfworld again. And the last few comics have been pretty good. This last one was darn funny!

[Mauril Everleaf]

But the game has to have some reality of its own - otherwise he's just been hit by a spell from his own backstory...

Yeah. And why is that a problem? The purpose of backstory is to provide the story up until the point in which the character's begin to participate, ergo, negative time. Time Zero is when the player's assume their character roles and start to play, all positive time is wrapped up in PC play time, all negative time is the backstory. So Parson created the entire alottment of negative time for his world (he has no life and this is all he does aside from Hamstard and Kinko's). Say he set T -5 to be when the spell goes off and summons the ultimate commander, so that he would be newly established when the PCs joined him or against him. Since he did not know that the spell would summon him, or anyone real for that matter, he planned it as backstory. Basically the two separate timelines (real world and Erfworld) coincided on that point due to fate, chance or design.

[teratorn]

So Parson created the entire alottment of negative time for his world (he has no life and this is all he does aside from Hamstard and Kinko's).

But if it is his world why the cutesy names and baby talk?

[Mauril Everleaf]

But if it is his world why the cutesy names and baby talk?

Because he is a sick, twisted fiend? I dunno. Why use a marshmellow peep to represent a griffon? Or marshmellow bits to represent a semi-goblinoid race of creaures? The guy likes furry porn and has an obsession with hamsters, why wouldn't he use "gwiffon" or "gobwin"?

[Jorkens]

Yeah. And why is that a problem? The purpose of backstory is to provide the story up until the point in which the character's begin to participate, ergo, negative time. Time Zero is when the player's assume their character roles and start to play, all positive time is wrapped up in PC play time, all negative time is the backstory. So Parson created the entire alottment of negative time for his world (he has no life and this is all he does aside from Hamstard and Kinko's). Say he set T -5 to be when the spell goes off and summons the ultimate commander, so that he would be newly established when the PCs joined him or against him. Since he did not know that the spell would summon him, or anyone real for that matter, he planned it as backstory. Basically the two separate timelines (real world and Erfworld) coincided on that point due to fate, chance or design.

Yeah, but for an Erfworld spell to have an effect on the 'real world', the two of them have to be in some sense on the same level of reality. You wouldn't expect a telekinetic character in a book you were reading to be able to move the objects on your desk around while you were reading it, for example...

[Mauril Everleaf]

Yeah, but for an Erfworld spell to have an effect on the 'real world', the two of them have to be in some sense on the same level of reality. You wouldn't expect a telekinetic character in a book you were reading to be able to move the objects on your desk around while you were reading it, for example...

Right, I don't expect that, any more than I expected Wanda's summoning spell to suck me into Erfworld. I am not denying that Erfworld has it's own time, dimension and version of reality, equal and co-existant with that of Parson. I am, in fact, supporting such a notion. However, it all comes from the creation and timing of Parson himself. He formed the Titans, who formed the world. He set time in motion, revolving about a certain point, the time in which his friends will assume the mantles of Erfworldians. Much like the time system of our world, which is essentially centered around one of two points, the creation of existance by whatever means, or the more recent, supposed date of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth* (the AD/BC split, or the CE/BCE split). Parson has decided that his time 0, or such a split, takes place a short time after the Croakamancer Wanda Firebaugh casts the spell to summon the Perfect Warlord. Since time zero would have coincided with the time where Parson's friends took on the roles of characters in Erfworld, the time that Wanda cast her spell invariably took place a short time before that event, summoning Parson.

Alternately (and this may be revealed if/when Parson returns to his real world), time may run on a truncated, non-linear scale such that the events, as Parson described/thought them, happened in that time. As soon as he decided that the Titans created the world, it happened, and as soon as he decided that Stanley would whack the walnut with the Arkenhammer, it happened. As soon as he decided that Wanda was casting the spell, it happened, which is why he was summoned away at that time.


*Two things. This is not religious commentary, just historical context. Also, I know that the more accurate date of his birth is along in 5-6 BC, not 0 AD.

[Dolash]

Saw the quote, saw the comic, knew I had to make one!

Sorry about the bump.

[Maurog]

Got a superficial ' there.

[Scientivore]

All other jokes aside - and there're a lot of good ones - look at the first frame. 'Dibs on his dice' is wearing a Kippah (if that's the correct term) with the bloodstained Watchmen smiley on it...

Thank you! I was really confused about the smiley face. Also, kippah is apparently the correct term, though I have only heard it called a yarmulka. So, I learned two things. Awesome!