The Order Of The Stick: January

[SeanHeavyfoot]

What is that thing that the dwarven blacksmith is holding in his left hand? Perhaps some sort of metal ore... in which case Roy must have failed a spot check seeing as he made the comment of the blacksmith not having any metal.

[Grey Watcher]

What is that thing that the dwarven blacksmith is holding in his left hand? Perhaps some sort of metal ore... in which case Roy must have failed a spot check seeing as he made the comment of the blacksmith not having any metal.

I assumed that thing was a shard of the Greenhilt Family Blade.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

So, err, can we now without a doubt say that Belkar is Chaotic Evil? That bout cinched it for me. :-X

[ShadowDragon8685]

I'd bet money on it.

[The Giant]

Don't forget, there's an all-new OOTS every weekday. Vaarsuius is shopping as we speak...

[Aedan]

Don't forget, there's an all-new OOTS every weekday. Vaarsuius is shopping as we speak...

Love it!

I love the V gender reference in there. Personally, I beleive that V is a male, and I'll take the comment as the shopkeeper already being too stupid to tie their own shoes. Of course they'll hav problems about guessing V's gender!

[Cap_Hardman]

:oSHE?!? :o

They Called V "SHE!"

I am so confused... :P

[cherry]

They are just stupid...
V says "my conscience is now appeased"
... I wonder if it's because they decided to do a sale or because they think V is a girl

[Invariel]

It's because V did the best V could to convince them that they were losing money, and when they decided to do the "smart" thing and have a sale, V figured they were too far gone to be worth the trouble.

[Wanderer]

V... first rule. Unless you're lawful good AND a paladin or something, do NOT tell the shopkeepers when they deliberately cheat themselves. If you try too hard, they might actually take your advice. Just think for a second about what that means for any potions you need to buy...

And surely you all realize that The Giant threw in that gender reference solely to add heat and confusion to the gender debate. :P

[Circon]

My comment on Vaarsuvius' potion purchase:

"Groan of Greater Groanage".
(turns up regularly in our games)

And that's not a bird, it's a dreadful monster that got away!

[GeeVee]

V... first rule. Unless you're lawful good AND a paladin or something, do NOT tell the shopkeepers when they deliberately cheat themselves. If you try too hard, they might actually take your advice. Just think for a second about what that means for any potions you need to buy...

And surely you all realize that The Giant threw in that gender reference solely to add heat and confusion to the gender debate. :P

You must remember how suspectible V is to insults about his wizardry profession. V hates incompetent wizards, as proven by him scolding Elan.

[Cap_Hardman]

... Guys... u missed the point...

[glow=red,2,300]V IS A GIRL!!![/glow]

[RawBearNYC]

V... first rule. Unless you're lawful good AND a paladin or something, do NOT tell the shopkeepers when they deliberately cheat themselves. If you try too hard, they might actually take your advice. Just think for a second about what that means for any potions you need to buy...

And surely you all realize that The Giant threw in that gender reference solely to add heat and confusion to the gender debate. :P

I wonder if you actually know what "good" means. Taking advantage of simple shopkeepers because they're not bright enough to know better wouldn't be a "good" act in my game :P Vaarsuvius did the right thing, then, realizign that these people would be better off out of business, tried to help them along...RESPECT.

[Tarlonniel]

At last, undebateable in-strip contribution to the V gender debate! I love it :D

[The_Oz-Man]

... Guys... u missed the point...

[glow=red,2,300]V IS A GIRL!!![/glow]

From the FAQ...

Q: Is Vaarsuvius male or female?

A: I will never reveal the truth! Bwahaha! Keep in mind that while certain other characters might refer to V as being male or female, that simply reveals their perception—not the actual reality of the situation.

Sorry, but no. V remains a very V-ian V, neither M nor F, but merely V.

Perhaps we should start calling V a vemale?

[archon_huskie]

Let's keep the V is female, not V is male debate to the thread deicated to it.


Now the only way these two wizards can make it is if creating the potions in bulk or acquiring them in bulk costs less than making each potion individually. In that instance, the wizards are right and they are probablly raking in the money.

There are a few stores around here that can do that, but they reduce the cost of acquiring the goods through questionable, if not illegal means. And they don't pay their employees enough.

[madhatter66]

I think this comic held one simple purpose: to show that some people, however well-meaning, just shouldn't breed. :P

[Sundog]

The truly scary thing is, I've actually MET people who fell for the "make it up in volume" fallacy. They didn't stay in business long.

[hmoulding]

It's because V did the best V could to convince them that they were losing money, and when they decided to do the "smart" thing and have a sale, V figured they were too far gone to be worth the trouble.

Nah. V was trying to get them to drop their prices even further, knowing all along that s/he was dealing with complete morons. That last was just an ironic comment.

[Nim]

Actually, it's quite debatable. Haven't you yet noticed that those shopkeepers have about 2 total points of Intelligence between them? Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that their Wisdom is average (because average-Wisdomed people can't figure out what gender V is), so they could be unusually perceptive. But I think then they would have noticed their profit going down.

[Caledonian]

I think it must be their Wisdom that's deficient. Even people who aren't that quick on the draw understand the concept of a profit margin -- there's a reason the Profession skill relies on Wisdom, not intelligence.

Plus, if their intelligences were truly that low, they would never have been able to become functional wizards in the first place.

Was there some kind of magical plague that sapped the Wisdom of people in this kingdom? They can't all have evil twins who smacked them in their soft, soft skulls during childhood.

[Caledonian]

And now that I think about it, it's ridiculous to apply economic thinking to magic item generation. There's really no economic reason a Potion of Mage Armor must always cost 25 GP to make. If the potion is ingredient-based, then there are surely ways to make it more efficiently.

This is precisely why I've always favored using craft rolls to add "value" to raw components, using that to make magical items instead of just spending a set amount of gold.

[yrro]

That is, of course, a big part of the joke. It makes very little sense for economics of scale to have no factor in the cost to make a potion. In game rules, there's no way you could ever brew a big vat of healing at once.

It's a wonder potion stores can stay in business. Weapons traders I can understand, since they get most of their money through the lack of a medieval ebay, and their guild monopoly allows no adventurer to ever get more than half worth for their plundered goods (with of course the lucky exception of those with a massive Bargain skill).

[Caledonian]

Incidentally, V should have used the word 'with' instead of 'on' in the fifth panel. If they lost more and more money on each sale, then their prices would have to keep dropping even lower the more they sold. The intended meaning seems to be that the total amount of money lost increases each time another potion is sold, and that equates to losing money with each sale.

[LeadPal]

Weapons traders I can understand, since they get most of their money through the lack of a medieval ebay

Actually, such a thing does exist. It is called Yebay.

[SeanHeavyfoot]

Perhaps Rich has inserted an inside joke-like meaning in this strip... after all, he just put his book up for sale. Maybe someone tried convincing him of something stupid like that.

[ShadowDragon8685]

And let's not factor the XP lost into the equation. While it is theoretically possible that you could make potions for no GP cost, if you acquire the components via question at no cost, as opposed to the generic "you go to the magical supplies mart and drop 25 GP," there's still lost XP to consider. That's a pretty hefty price to pay, and most wizards are gonna want money to make it up.


I would do what V did in the end, though. Give them an honest shot at economic theory, and if they screw it up - well, I'll just buy everything in the store. :)

[Maelflux]

Rofl!

Fantastic Monty Python tribute today Keith! It even forced me to make to register to salute you!

Thanks :)

[The Giant]

Who the hell is "Keith"?