OOTS #1028 - The Discussion Thread

[Wildroses]

Good triumphs over evil while neutral foots the bill is an awesome line. I pictured lots of good heroes swanning about after they have triumphed ignoring the mess and problems their victory has made, and any requests for labour or compensation made by people are told off for ingratitude.

Calling the situation the apocalypse of the week is probably a fair call for this world.

[BriarHobbit]

A fun light episode. The complaint by the crew could have been rephrased, "Good triumphs over Evil, while Neutral tries to turn a profit."

[GregTD]

200 GP each? Wow, they're cheap

[factotum]

200 GP each? Wow, they're cheap

Liquor Box worked out a couple of pages ago that the average income for a level 1 commoner with no particular skills would be 481gp a year. 200gp is therefore nearly half a year's salary--not bad going for a week's work!

[Wildroses]

A fun light episode. The complaint by the crew could have been rephrased, "Good triumphs over Evil, while Neutral tries to turn a profit."

I'm pretty sure the TV trope of that well documented fictional practice is called No Hero Discount. In fact this comic could be added to it.

[Quild]

Liquor Box worked out a couple of pages ago that the average income for a level 1 commoner with no particular skills would be 481gp a year. 200gp is therefore nearly half a year's salary--not bad going for a week's work!

It's actually Doug Lampert who did that :p.

But even if that was cheap, and even if they don't care about another weekly apocalypse thing, they might consider as Haley did in Origin of PCs that they can get some wealth from the actual adventure.

Bandana is happy enough with the reparations of the Mechane (probably wouldn't have been useful if they hadn't had HPoH on board in a first place, but maybe they got some amelioration as well). Her new dagger and the XP she got may also make her happy.

[TuringTest]

A fun light episode. The complaint by the crew could have been rephrased, "Good triumphs over Evil, while Neutral tries to turn a profit."

That's a good line for the strip summaries thread, you may propose it there.

[xroads]

200gp per pirate just for faring around some adventurers? Yeah, I think Andi's arguments are going to fall on deaf ears with the rest of the crew. Far more lucrative than piracy and arguably less dangerous.

Once Bandana gets her own ship, maybe she can turn this into a business.

[zinycor]

In general, I still think shes picking a fight for the sake of picking a fight. Bandana was the first mate, it wasn't an arbitrary choice to promote her.

If I were a pirate I would pick many fights for the sake of picking fights!

[Markozeta]

Truly, he was the Kiltiest.

I just realized while thinking about the Godsmoot and how, once this plots resolved, we're unlikely to go back to see the bodyguards again. TAKG was the one I was most disappointed about not seeing again :(

Throwing Axe Kilt Guy is awesome. It took a while to figure out who he was, but after looking at his short little life here it became clear he deserved a moment of silence for his awesome kilt wearing and axe throwing skills.

[8BitNinja]

Good triumphs over evil while neutral foots the bill is an awesome line. I pictured lots of good heroes swanning about after they have triumphed ignoring the mess and problems their victory has made, and any requests for labour or compensation made by people are told off for ingratitude.

There are heroes who would help out with fixing the collateral damage

[Shining Wrath]

I wonder how many vampires axe throwing guy kilt?

The question is made more difficult by the vampire's lack of life.

Also, did we ever figure out who TAKG was the bodyguard for?

[ClaimingLight]

So... what do we think would be widely accepted currency on the "elemental planes"? Players in my campaign may be assured this question has nothing, whatsoever, to do with a potential direction the main plot is driving towards.

Residuum would be a good choice. It's a powder that results from the intentional disenchantment of a magic item and can be used as a substitute for most material components.

It'd be the perfect neutral currency in a money market- a bit like the bitcoin. The only real problem would be the difficulty of exchanging particular amounts of powder for things. I'm sure you'd come up with an idea for that, if you were interested.

[Kantaki]

If I were a pirate I would pick many fights for the sake of picking fights!

Nah, why risk life and and limb when I don't get paid for it? Especially when I do get paid for something safe.
I'm with Gannji and Enor on this. High risk even higher reward and all that. And even then there is a limit.

[8BitNinja]

I wonder how many vampires axe throwing guy kilt?

The question is made more difficult by the vampire's lack of life.

Since D&D has rules for when a guy who is already dead can die again, I would rule -10 HP as killing the vampire

[LunarDrop]

I love how -because they're pirates- they would rather get a new eye patch with their newfound wealth rather than just getting their eye fixed.

[Doug Lampert]

Since D&D has rules for when a guy who is already dead can die again, I would rule -10 HP as killing the vampire

Undead Type
[SNIP]
Traits
An undead creature possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

[SNIP]
Not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is immediately destroyed.

Characters added to add character.

Edited to add:

I love how -because they're pirates- they would rather get a new eye patch with their newfound wealth rather than just getting their eye fixed.

Regenerate is level 7. A level 7 spell purchased commercially costs 910 GP. Good luck getting that with your 200 GP.

To continue to beat a dead horse, 200 GP is nice pay for a couple of weeks work, but it isn't life changing.

[LunarDrop]

Regenerate is level 7. A level 7 spell purchased commercially costs 910 GP. Good luck getting that with your 200 GP.

To continue to beat a dead horse, 200 GP is nice pay for a couple of weeks work, but it isn't life changing.

Oh, I didn't know that. Drat, that would have been pretty funny.

[Doug Lampert]

Oh, I didn't know that. Drat, that would have been pretty funny.

Adventurers at the order's level get the party cleric to cast it for free. In the unlikely event that they lose a body part, there are no rules anywhere in the game that would result in such a wound. (You can decapitate something with a vorpal blade, and you can cut heads off a hydra, but those are both special rules, I know of nothing that will cost you an eye.)

I had to look up the level, because I've never seen or heard of Regenerate actually being cast in a 3.x game.

[Hamste]

There is actually a good chance no one is missing an eye. Eye patches help keep one of your eyes used to the dark allowing you to switch over when going from top deck to below deck.

Now that missing leg they probably want to regenerate.

[pendell]

Characters added to add character.

Edited to add:
Regenerate is level 7. A level 7 spell purchased commercially costs 910 GP. Good luck getting that with your 200 GP.

To continue to beat a dead horse, 200 GP is nice pay for a couple of weeks work, but it isn't life changing.

Don't forget they're risking their lives on this venture; travelling with these adventurers has already seen them 1) Boarded by a high-level adventuring party from the Empire of Blood with the express intent of killing everyone on the ship. 2) Directly assaulted by Thor via lightning with the intent of either crippling or destroying the ship outright. 3) The destruction of a cabin by a vampire boarder.

By the way, the repairs to the airship? Were only necessary because this ship is transporting everyone's favorite bad luck magnets in the first place.

It appears to me that this adventure is placing the crew at a high degree of risk; they should receive hazard pay at least.

Y'know, when Prince Caspian was hiring for the Dawn Treader he offered an official title and either gold or land enough to last a life time. "The worker is worthy of his hire."

So all in all I'd say the OOTS is getting a bargain at 200 gp per crewmember. Who knows? Maybe they can find some evil monsters who need looting on the way.

And all in all, a good strip.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Lheticus]

Good triumphs over evil while neutral foots the bill is an awesome line. I pictured lots of good heroes swanning about after they have triumphed ignoring the mess and problems their victory has made, and any requests for labour or compensation made by people are told off for ingratitude.

Calling the situation the apocalypse of the week is probably a fair call for this world.

I know, right? I totally need to figure out how to work that line into a Facebook post or something.

[aurilee]

There is actually a good chance no one is missing an eye. Eye patches help keep one of your eyes used to the dark allowing you to switch over when going from top deck to below deck.

Now that missing leg they probably want to regenerate.

Hands up everyone who only knows about this from MythBusters.

*raises hand*

If I recall that myth was deemed "Plausible" but there was no actual record of this behaviour ever happening, and it was possible more of an urban legend than fact. IRL people will wear an eye patch to protect a healing eye, or sometimes to strengthen a weak eye.

But this is a comic, not real life, so whatever.

[8BitNinja]

Hands up everyone who only knows about this from MythBusters.

*raises hand*

*raises hand*

The second pirate special I believe

[zinycor]

Nah, why risk life and and limb when I don't get paid for it? Especially when I do get paid for something safe.
I'm with Gannji and Enor on this. High risk even higher reward and all that. And even then there is a limit.

Am not a very effective pirate xD

[8BitNinja]

Am not a very effective pirate xD

Not many people are, you have to be someone who can successfully fight off the king's men while drunk and underequipped, a feat not many can do

[zinycor]

Not many people are, you have to be someone who can successfully fight off the king's men while drunk and underequipped, a feat not many can do

i can do that no problem, the problem is that I would fight the King's men while drunk and underequipped, for no reason whatsoever.

Not a very effective pirate, but always in character xD

[Rift_Wolf]

Also, did we ever figure out who TAKG was the bodyguard for?

No, but let the speculation commence!
My guess would've been Hpo Vafthrudnir, based on similar beardery, but he'd probably be miffed his bodyguard took potshots at the Vampires, pulling them into internal church disputes. Hpo Freya, however, could be a better contender.

[Doug Lampert]

I think the difficulties of comparing the standard of living in a medieval setting to current standards of living goes beyond taxation. A comparatively large proportion of the income of American households goes to consumer goods of the sort that didn't exist in medieval societies. Most homes have smart phones for each of the adults, at least one TV, at least one vehicle (although that may be comparable to owning a horse), at least one computer or tablet, a number of kitchen appliances, a large collection of clothes for every person etc, etc. A person who lives a relatively normal standard of living (by first world standards) now days has a lot more stuff than an average person from medieval days. There simply weren't as many consumer goods available back then.

But in D&D land you can get raised from the dead. You can get healed of horrible wounds with a word. Disease is a thing only the poor need to worry about, at all.

It's perfectly possible that the standard of living is HIGHER in D&D land than in the modern USA. Look at the demographics, 1% of SETTLEMENTS are 25,000+ adults (that means a fairly high percentage of the population lives in such settlements, the percentage of settlements at the largest of several size categories is necessarily smaller than the percentage of the population living in those settlements, the population is in fact very, very urbanized, almost certainly more so than the USA when I tried to compare). And those places have high level casters available.

10% of even the smallest settlements have a high level druid or ranger. Magic is in fact widely available if you have the coin.

If D&D standards of living calculate as close to USA based on costs and wages, I would not assume that the D&D land population is living in medieval squalor, we might well end up envying THEM if we had a direct comparison!

[IntelectPaladin]

Good triumphs over evil while neutral foots the bill is an awesome line. I pictured lots of good heroes swanning about after they have triumphed ignoring the mess and problems their victory has made, and any requests for labour or compensation made by people are told off for ingratitude.

Calling the situation the apocalypse of the week is probably a fair call for this world.

I just cannot agree with the casual cynicality of this statement. It's making me cringe,
And I'm rather sure those new dark spots on my arm are cancer.

Let me make one statement. I, As a paladin, Have helped rebuild a good 20 villages, Made sure one criminal's family weren't seen as accomplices.

I'm sorry that you enjoy seeing something good as something wrong.