Expecto Webcomic-um! (Wands & Wizardry, a Screencap Webcomic)

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Just popping in to say I loved the latest comics and to confirm that the site is working a-OK for me, both on Chrome and Firefox.

[archon_huskie]

I just did an archive binge. Great job creating an enjoyable variation on the familiar story.

Love how you are what ages are the players? high school aged, college?

[miner3203]

Just popping in to say I loved the latest comics and to confirm that the site is working a-OK for me, both on Chrome and Firefox.

Awesome! Thaks for the feedback, both technical and literary. (I don't think "literary" applies in this case. Just insert whatever adjective means "literary" but applies to webcomics. Because I have absolutely no idea.)

I just did an archive binge. Great job creating an enjoyable variation on the familiar story.

Love how you are what ages are the players? high school aged, college?

Wow, an archive binge. I'm not sure if I could do that in one sitting, and I'm the one writing this thing...lol. Glad you liked it!

Looks like you have an unfinished thought in that second line there... But if I understood your question correctly--I'm operating under the assumption that they're college-aged, but it could also work if they're highschoolers. If one of them seems to click more with you, then just go with that--you're the reader, after all.

[DeadpanSal]

It gets way funnier if you think they're all seniors in their golden years living in a retirement home.

Glad to see this is still going!

[keybounce]

Okay, I've messed with the image hosting a bit--if that doesn't fix it, I don't know what it might be.

Out of curiosity, what browser are you using? It sounds like Chrome (since you're running extensions), but Chrome (to the best of my knowledge) does work.

I'm using Firefox ESR, 45.5.0 (current/up to date).

So, I checked the HTML. The images are tagged with "&export=download"; that seems to want to export them as a downloadable image, rather than a displayable image. If I remove that, I can see the image itself.

But, if I attempt to view the webpage with that bit removed, then I only see the left side of the comic pages, rather than the whole comic (my screen is 1024 pixels wide ,and the scrollbar takes up some of that.)

Now then: Page 97 of the campaign packet? How much over-developement did this GM do?

For that matter, what page of HP and the SS was Hogwarts mentioned on?

[miner3203]

It gets way funnier if you think they're all seniors in their golden years living in a retirement home.

Glad to see this is still going!

You, my friend, have just caused me to attempt to prove myself wrong and attempt an archive binge...unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I figured that my time would be better spent actually writing new comics. But imagining it in those kinds of voices made it so much more funny...

I'm using Firefox ESR, 45.5.0 (current/up to date).

So, I checked the HTML. The images are tagged with "&export=download"; that seems to want to export them as a downloadable image, rather than a displayable image. If I remove that, I can see the image itself.

But, if I attempt to view the webpage with that bit removed, then I only see the left side of the comic pages, rather than the whole comic (my screen is 1024 pixels wide ,and the scrollbar takes up some of that.)

Now then: Page 97 of the campaign packet? How much over-developement did this GM do?

For that matter, what page of HP and the SS was Hogwarts mentioned on?

Hmm. I have no idea why that might have been the problem, but since you appear to have mostly fixed it, I'll just smile and act like I know what I'm doing.

Oh, you'll find that over-development is something this GM is very fond of...

Well, now that you mention it, my copy first references Hogwarts on page 49 ("You'll know all about Hogwarts, of course" -Hagrid, minus the accent-type). Would've been cool if I'd thought to make them coincide, but alas, I didn't think of it in time.

Glad to see that people are still enjoying this, though! As always, thank you all!

[keybounce]

... and I was hoping that going to the website now, that "&export=download" would be gone from the page so I could see it. Nope.

... I know how to use stylish to override CSS. I don't know how to use grease monkey to re-write a page.

[DeadpanSal]

Hmm. I suspect the nargles are behind it.

[Kantaki]

Talking to time-travellers is fun. You never know if they already did your last interaction. Or who started that cycle of vengeance, you or they.

[Anteros]

I'm planning on giving this a read-through as soon as my finals are over this Wednesday. It looks interesting so far.

[miner3203]

Hmm. I suspect the nargles are behind it.

Nargles? Oh, just you wait... *evil grin*

I'm planning on giving this a read-through as soon as my finals are over this Wednesday. It looks interesting so far.

Ooh, another reader! Hope you like it!

[DeadpanSal]

The best time I ever used a spell to upset the DM was when we were trying to win back a brainwashed friend of ours - our former babysitter who was a warforged samurai/warlock gestalt badass... it was a complicated story. Anyway, he was sworn to protect us, then lost his body to a demon, and tried to kill us and we were like enemies, I think he unfriended us on Facebook, and then we clashed a lot and he got away...

Anyway, the DM gives us one more shot before he gets away after we've made a bunch of appeals and diplomacy checks to coerce him to prevail against whatever was controlling him and I stroll up with a spell. "What do you cast?" "Awaken Sin."

You could hear the rest of the arc being dropped.

...Anyway, great spell selection, Jim.

[keybounce]

Alright: Chocolate infused bacon? ...

[keybounce]

So, even in this comic, Hermione is a wall-o-text person.

And frankly, that doesn't sound like a big change in the plot. You had pro muggle vs anti muggle factions in the Wizengamot in the official books; Dumbledore comments on this more than once. Adding that Voldemort's rise to power is noticeable, and he isn't hiding in the shadow but is actively restoring his power base? It's a change, but all it does is move things from Malfoy's faction to Voldemort's faction.

But if it turns out that there are 6 eternity stones, one for each aspect of eternity, such as persistence, longevity, stability, order, continuity, and (ahem) magic, and each of the PC's/major NPC's is going to be matched to one of them ... (what, you don't think Hermione is "magic"? Harry could be persistence, watch him over all 7 books; Nevil Longbottom could easily be order ... I better stop before I give away good ideas.)

---

Hermione not going into RavenClaw? You're not the first person to notice this -- that was kinda the big thing in HP:MoR. I think the big reason was that on the train, when trying to find (I'm going from memory here) someone's lost ... something, the Ravenclaw Prefect was exceptionally unkind/unhelpful. This resulted in the whole group being turned off from Ravenclaw, and they are left with Gryffindor.

[keybounce]

First plot twist: Draco wants to make sure the orb gets back to Neville, and Harry wants to take it for his own use.

Restore honor to Slytherin? Rational Draco would be proud.

[keybounce]

On page 62, is the "Facepalm" supposed to be from the GM? It's in a player bubble, but not attached to any player.

[keybounce]

... and I was hoping that going to the website now, that "&export=download" would be gone from the page so I could see it. Nope.

... I know how to use stylish to override CSS. I don't know how to use grease monkey to re-write a page.

So in case anyone else out there is running into this problem, here's the solution.

First, a restatement of the problem: My screen is 1024 pixels wide. Between the menu on the left, and something in the HTML of the page, the far right of the image is clipped, and I only see about 2/3rds of the comic page. I cannot actually scroll left/right; the page is clipped to what can be shown.

The web pages use tables to lay out the left and right side. Ideally, I would have some way to re-write this one row, two column table as a one column, two row table instead. But I can't do that. (lack of knowledge on my part).

If I shrink/zoom twice, then I can see both the menu and the entire comic image. But I want to have the comic image a little bigger than that.

The solution is to use Stylish to make a CSS override for the table that eliminates the menu; this lets me get by with a shrink/zoon once, and I can see the whole comic.

Here's the CSS.

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document url-prefix("https://sites.google.com/site/emeraldorderdnd/wands-and-wizardry/") {
  td#sites-chrome-sidebar-left.sites-layout-sidebar-left.initial
  {
   display: none;  
  }
}

[keybounce]

Page 66: Voice activated chess: In a real sense, we have that now. The "boards" are computer displays, and the voice commands are normal voice recognition software trained to understand chess notation.

Heck, Wizards Chess can even be played out on those same screens, with animations of one piece destroying another. Even Star Wars had that.

Page 67: Geez, this is a PC's action? So we have a PC that took massive bonuses to flight skill, massive points in being super rich, and now spends some of that richness to come up with a magic item that is so far out of line from what the other players have?

... And, did something similar to get a super-fast broom.
... And, will do something similar to get an ultimate map.
... And, will ... lets see, communications mirror, magic sword ... probably spend his unspent XP points on anti-dementors at the last moment, and ... locate ancient artifacts to find those last few horcruxes at the end?

When you put it this way, Harry really does seem unreasonably overpowered compared to everyone else.

Page 70: Ahh, Snape / Quirrell. Unicorn blood. And Quirrell knows about the kids, and apparently Snape was trying to keep the kids out of the way. So what was Snape keeping the kids away from?

(Snape, snape. Serverus snape.)

Page 73: Ohh, is this a "Dark Side" mirror? Your Deepest desires ... and how to get them. Mwa-ha-ha ...

(StrategoMaster, SpellGiver, and what was Harry's class again?)

Page 82, panel 4, a nice mix of in-and-out-of character speech :-). I like how you turned this around from punishment to PC excessiveness.

Page 87. "Counterspell". Between this, and watching V over at OOTS, I clearly need to rethink how I make mage builds in the future.

Page 88: Well, if you are a Summoner, and your build is all about summoning what you need in any given situation, then you probably don't have a fireball. So you summon a 5th level wizard to cast it for you.

That's ... probably really pushing the limits of things :-).

[keybounce]

Page 129: Ohh, Lucius is a vampire ... with daylight immunity, right? :-)
(min-max the bad guys, to deal with min-max'd players)

Page 158: The down-arrow from panel one should be coming from panel 2.

Page 159: ... umm, where is page 159?

[keybounce]

Hold on: A "what-if" Harry is the big bad? With a map of Hogwarts?

...

Movie screencaps. Hmm ...

So at movie 7, Harry would be scouring the land for hidden items of power, and then goes to the castle for his base. Voldemort attempts to attack, to overthrow the evil Harry, and is defeated. Harry destroys Voldemort's wand, so that no one will have the power to challenge him.

... The sad thing? I've seen players that would accumulate power like this.

I think that would be a workable meta-plot. Heck, I *like* it.

[Kantaki]

Why is the GM so surprised they discuss the thing that chases them while they run away?
Seems pretty normal to me*.
Is there a rule against talking while walking?

And no GM, you can't get any surprises- not if you play the rules.
A good idea would be to homebrew a monster with a similar „makes Arachnids run**” tell and just pretend the players worked it out...
Ohhh...

*Okay, discussing it in character, maybe rolling whatever knowledgeskill applies there.
Checking the books? Not so much.

**Speaking of spiders, in my experience seeking out spider colonies to ask them for information never ends well. In four out of four cases they decide you make a good meal.

[DeadpanSal]

Wow, this DM has a brutal table.

I hope he learns to hit them with a bait and switch someday. Because Jim really deserves to be wrong on something he's banking on after ruining two plotlines.

[miner3203]

Wow, I leave for a two-week vacation and come back to all this...thanks to everyone for your feedback! I'm not gonna respond to all of the pieces of feedback individually, but I've read them all and I am striving to make this comic as good as it can possibly be. I probably won't be incorporating plot suggestions--I already have most of the plot planned out, there are just some minor things that need solidifying--but keep posting them and some of you may be able to say "Ha! Called it!" at some point in the future. Hope you guys are enjoying everything :).

[keybounce]

So where was the entrance to the chamber of secrets before it was moved into the girls bathroom just now?

I love how Hermione is regarded as being in character when she reread the history book rather than metagaming

[miner3203]

So where was the entrance to the chamber of secrets before it was moved into the girls bathroom just now?

Can't tell you--it's a secret.

[dadada]

love the comic,however it could use some more players,like draco maybe.

[DeadpanSal]

Wondering about where this comic is going with Draco and Snape are my favorite parts. Watching the canon changes are really fascinating and pretty clever. Especially Lockhart!

[keybounce]

So why do so many people hate monopoly?

I'm not saying it's a great game. But it's a lot better than a lot of people seem to think. Just need a 5 player group, or a decent variant.

(2 or 3 players, someone gets a natural. 4 players, even if no one gets a natural, chances are the trading is dull. 5 players? No one gets a natural monopoly, and 4 people will make trade pairs, so someone is left out ... no one wants to be the last, so trading is fast and opportunistic.)

[The Glyphstone]

So why do so many people hate monopoly?

I'm not saying it's a great game. But it's a lot better than a lot of people seem to think. Just need a 5 player group, or a decent variant.

(2 or 3 players, someone gets a natural. 4 players, even if no one gets a natural, chances are the trading is dull. 5 players? No one gets a natural monopoly, and 4 people will make trade pairs, so someone is left out ... no one wants to be the last, so trading is fast and opportunistic.)

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...e-actual-rules

Was a big involved discussion about exactly that in this thread, should read through it there.

[Hurkyl]

... and furthermore, Monopoly has become so iconic that people think it exemplifies the past time of board gaming. I've even heard complaints about this get to the point where Monopoly is blamed for ruining the board game industry in the U.S..