Dungeon Run: Shot to the Heart
Chapter: Comics, Season Five
The note:
“Sam, it is something you said in the RP/flavor text. Tyraxion called himself ‘ Tyraxion The Undying’ and it made me think. She may not care about little mortals like me but the last dragon of Karthun, cheating death? That would be a big GET for the Mother of the Dead. So I am praying to her and ratting these fuckers out. Let the dice fall where they may.”
This was going to be it’s own strip but I felt the explanation in the arc would slow it down in this format. If this ever sees a collection, I may add the strip in as a bonus.
Oh joy. So now we find out Dove is using a weighted die?
Mind you, this would explain his higher-than-normal rolls of late.
Very right. No one scores that high that regularly.
I wouldnt be surprised if he is the type of person who cheats at all his sessions. This kind of thing will exclude him from a lot of future stories im sure.
I KNEW IT! I pointed this out a few strips back! My Personal D20 and my Magic D20 NEVER hit 20 that often!
*opens the envelope*
Dove, you said you rolled a Natural 20. The lie detector test says that’s a lie.
*audience goes “OOOOOOOOOOH”*
Regardless, Dallas should get the win. She wasn’t using the weighted die (If it is one) on purpose.
Plus she had an awesome plan.
Where words cannot do justice…
http://youtu.be/bW7Op86ox9g
I believe this may also apply.
Thank you I will now have the queued up for D&D 100% of the time.
Kinda bummed that it looks like we’re going to find out Dove’s a cheater. It was foreshadowed in the earlier strips, but I think it makes him too easy to dismiss now. He would make for a greater antagonist if he was just really good at gaming.
I agree.
Just because he may be a cheater doesn’t mean that he might be easily dismissed.
He does seem like a planner. “Oh, they found out about my d20? Well, I shall find another way to undermine these lesser gamers.” He may not take the action himself, but gather those who are like-minded thinking that the “Darlings” are still treated unfairly, even if during this tournament they weren’t. He may even use underlings to do his dirty work.
*treated differently…. didn’t type what I was thinking…
It might in that he’d be black-balled. Anyone who’s ever cheated at either of the shops I frequent was banned from the premises, and from all games that group had the right to run for whatever length they could.
If he’s going to start harassment of the group, I could see them getting the police involved (or various supernaturals, given the setting).
I think, at that point, he loses all credibility.
I was thinking the same thing. I’ve never seen an outed cheater welcomed back to any shop I frequented.
To be a continued threat, Dove could open his own game shop. Especially if he was banned from this one for being a cheater.
Brian did say that Dove was a jerk (or words to that effect) who knew how to throw down.
If nothing else, his workaround in the first round of the Dungeon Run seems to show off his skill.
If they can demonstrate that die is loaded, though, his tournament career at Dragon’s Den is going to be considerably shorter.
Agreed. While Dove definitely does not show any respect to any other people, he has always seemed to be the sort who respects the game. This kind of flies in the face of that idea, and feels out of character.
I knew it!!! he is a cheating cheating cheater!!! tho if she manages to roll that good with her own dice, the ending would be wonderful!
We got the Monkeynomicon, absolutely love it! cant wait to see more of Karthun and do a campaign there someday. Thank you so much for your amazing art.
Can I make a standing request? I love the image text, they add such flavor to the strips, but mobile breeders just don’t allow you to read it. Can you add it as a comment too?
Sorry Mike! I normally add it as the first comment on every comic now but I forgot tonight. Let me fix that. I will keep doing this just for the mobile folks as well.
We do appreciate it. 🙂
Brian I really like the new format that endcomic.com as recently started using. It’s pretty much a spoiler box in effect and allows people to see it on all platforms. I use a laptop and alt-text fades after a few seconds unless I keep moving the mouse around the image so it’s very helpful.
Awesome thanks! “mobile breeders”? nice typo…
HOVER-TEXT: I hope the Chain Lord had his mouth closed when that heart exploded. Ew.
Don’t you mean mouths?
The thought of Dove cheating hadn’t even crossed my mind until I read some of the previous comments!
My thought was just that it was going to be a dramatic twist. Something to the effect of “You win, congratu–” “Sorry, that wasn’t my die; I won’t feel like it counts unless I roll it on my own die.” [roll own die (poorly), game ends with no victor]
Well, I’m kinda neutral that Dove may be found out to be a cheater. I agree that cheating weakens him as a possibly-recurring villain. On the other hand, fuck that guy.
So, now that Dove’s die is suspect does Dallas have to reroll her to-hit?
DM’s vote!
I say, “nay.” First of all, it was an innocent mistake by Dallas, but mostly I would rule that sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander
I had posted a few strips back on my split feelings about Dove’s “luck”.
He may just have dice he knows roll good for him, or he may indeed have a weighted d20.
One thing I can see happening is, even if Sam knows it was an innocent mistake and allows Dallas to keep the 20, I don’t see Dallas wanting to keep it, for the following reasons:
1) it wasn’t her d20. She would probably feel that it wrong to use to another player’s dice to roll something.
2) If it *is* shown that Dove was using a weighted d20, she wouldn’t want to keep it because she’d feel like she was cheating, as well.
What is sauce for the goose can be sauce for the gander, but maybe the gander doesn’t want wrongly earned sauce.
*shrug* We shall all see come Wednesday how this all plays out!
If the die is weighted, then we can asume the entire last sequence is invalid. Sam already said he can get Dove banned from a lot of competitions.
He might have multiple weighted dies (some roll to 19, 18 and that one too 20) to avoid suspicion (as someone mentioned that 20 and 19 are on opposite sides of the D20).
Or maybe she just did not want to “win” with dove’s die casting the good roll. Even if it is not loaded, that would be a bit like winning with Dove’s help.
Maybe it is only about “rolling this again using my own dies, even if I loose”. We will see, next D20-time, same D20-channel.
19 and 20 are not directly opposite each other on a d20. Opposite sides add up to 21, so 20 is opposite 1 and 19 is opposite 2. I see what you mean, sort of… They’re not next to each other, at least.
I’ve seen ‘cheater’ dice. They aren’t weighted, but rather have extra numbers. 2 20s, 19s, and 18s. They still have a 1, but lack a 2, 3, or 4. The extras are spaced out so you never see more than one at a time, of course. You have to be careful to notice them.
Of course, if you’re really pushing your luck, you can go with 4 extras of the high five, with no low numbers…
Considering her opponent is Dove and the move wasn’t deliberate…then I’d have to say the roll stays and Mr “I have a right to read that note” can go play with his tiddlywink.
Even if it doesn’t, there’s still the “last (wo)man standing” clause. If all are dead, the person who got farthest wins.
Shenanigans! This explains a whole lot. I really hope Dove sticks around to become a Fu Manchu kind of nemesis…”I’ll have my revenge! Hahahaha”
Great Mulligans, I think Dallas would rather roll her own die in this matter. I believe she rather win fairly instead of a Dove way of things.
That’s a valid point.
Also, I think Dallas would rather take the chance at losing fairly, rather than winning with a loaded die.
I’m imagining that Sam’s threat to blackball Dove will come into play soon. This is assuming Sam’s Dad doesn’t get to him first. An old school gamer like him finding out someone is cheating and using weighted dice in HIS store? There is no canister in this world to hold the sheer amount of wrath he would unleash.
And it’s easy to tell if it’s weighted. Turn it so the 20 is facing sideways and spin it like a top. If it wobbles and spins off balance, you got yourself a polyhedron of cheat.
I was always told that you bite it. If it breaks, it’s weighted. A non-weighted one won’t break.
I actually tested a d20 like that once because I got a TON of 19s-20s in a row and the source of the d20 was suspect. [It was in a maker’s copy of a game. Basically the equivalent to having the Teacher’s Edition of a textbook, imo, so I wondered if the dice were suspect.]
That’s gross. I’ve gamed with people who are persnickety about others touching their dice (and I will scoff at them to the end of my days), but I would draw the line at someone wanting to gnaw on my dice to prove their validity.
I think Dove having cheat-dice kind of takes the wind out of the sails, but he now he can eventually have a Heel-Face Turn while he learns about sportsmanship or real friendship or some such. But first, he has to be shunned and wallow in abject misery.
As long as Dallas never ever falls in love with Dove at the end of it. I would honestly puke.
Also, that is a great way to chip a tooth.
Hmmm. That sounds to me like one of those pranks you play on people to see if they’ll do it. Like telling someone that it’s impossible for a man to kick himself in the balls to see if they’ll try.
The line you are looking for is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaZmdZACMNo
“There are no words in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Man for this treachery!”
One more thing: Brian, authors (and actors) are often better-known for a spectacular villain than for a good protagonist. You really hit one out of the park with Dove. Just look how many comments that pataQ has generated.
This whole arc has been one of your best, and I’m deeply engaged with the ensemble cast as well. The growth in your style and writing over the years really shows. Good job, young fellow!
All of my that ^
I’m not so sure Dove is cheating as such, or rather, cheating deliberately.
I don’t think he’d use a deliberately weighted die. But he’s the sort of gamer who would buy 100 dice, then roll them 1000 times, and keep the best. And hey, if he found one that consistently rolls 20s all on it’s own, well he’ll keep that one and consider it fair, right?
Thats not how probabilities work, like, at all. Fairly made dice will average a score (roughly) of 10.5 if you roll them 1000 times. I mean if you find a d20 that scores you high when you really NEED it and want to call it lucky, then fair, sure. But dice don’t naturally land near or on 20’s ALL the time, unless their weighted of course.
So he’s the sort of gamer who would find and keep randomly bought weighted dice. I don’t see that much of a difference.
There is a pretty big difference–the difference between gullibility/naivete (Dove implicitly trusting his supplier for whatever reason), and simple in-it-to-win-it-mindedness (Dove never bothering to actually check whether it’s loaded, always pointing to the “clearly good, honest, and noble nature” of the dice seller as being the reason why he doesn’t ).
Given surrounding things about Dove (ex: how he thinks of other people; how he talks to them), the more likely scenario is that he wanted plausible deniability and planned to use the die indefinitely, with intent to throw his supplier under the bus if the duplicity was ever discovered.
I’ve loved this arc, lots of gnashing of teeth, and Sam has really done a great job running the event.
Though it seems inevitable right now, I had really been hoping Dove wasn’t cheating. Dove is already unlikable enough without this additional flaw in his character.
Everyone else has these sophisticated analyses of what makes a good villain and where this all falls in Dove’s characterization within the strip as a whole, and all I can think is . . .
I knew it! Shenanigans! SHENANIGANS!!!
Yeah, I was kinda hoping that we would discover that Dove wasn’t cheating. He’s a fantastic villain already, but I feel that finding out he’s cheating reduces him to the level of a child. On the other hand, I feel GREAT that everyone in that room can physically assault Dove, and he knows it.
I’ve seen a lot of comments where people hoped Dove isn’t using a loaded dice, But I think cheating is in character for him. Think about the way he has treated everyone he encountered since his intoduction. The man clearly has an inferiority complex, takes delight in belittling others and doesen’t give a shit about any other players around him.
The way I read the situation is this. His cheating and his unwillingness to settle things peacefully are linked. Because for Dove this all about rubbing his victory in the noses of everyone he defeated and if he cheats AND WASN’T CAUGHT then that means for him he beat them all twice.
And now, it will get out to the entire RPG community that he is a cheater. People he has gamed with will compair notes. And, in my experience, someone who will cheat at RPGs will be a little light with their fingers around others stuff. What do you want to bet they all had stuff disappear when he was around.
Notice his insistence on ‘fairness’, the ‘rules of order’, and such. Typical of one who has no honor, they demand it from others.
Notice also, that he mentiones recording his dice statistics. Again, placing the veneer of respectability. “Why no, I am not cheating, and have three binders of dice results to back up my statements.”
“Where is your honor, dirtbag? You are a disgrace to the entire unit!” – Sarge
Shot to the heart
and you’re to blame
You give Dove a bad name
Well Well Well What do we have here? An arrogant, homophobic, (3,000 other problems with Mr. Dove lack of ethics or for that matter a soul) cheating to ensure defeating lesser and favored gamers. Shocked I am that Dove is cheating (probably gets his dice from his snooty eatery’s back room!)
Shocked! Shocked I am!
Also Dallas’ Plan and use of backstory to this setting was perfect
It could be a double 20. I have a number of them from some Crystal Castle pound of dice assortments. There is no 1. I keep them well segregated from the rest of my dice.
That he might be cheating didn’t actually occur to me until I read the comments. I just thought Dallas might be someone who doesn’t like to use other people’s dice, no matter the roll she gets.
Shot to the heart!
And the die’s a faaaaake
Dove will have a bad name
Weighting a d20 is tough. Easier to melt it just a little bit in the oven. That way you can get two or three good rolls off the same die.
We had a cheater in our gaming group a while back. He would use a variety of methods. He would ‘forget’ to record damage to his character. He had dice that were hard to read (Steampunk style, small numbers, busy background), and would pick up his dice to ‘squint’ at them before proclaiming them to be a high number.
He also cheated at card games. His Magic deck was carefully stacked, and he would use a ‘side shuffle’, while peeking at the cards. Lots of ‘search your deck’ cards in there, which let him re-shuffle clusters of cards to the top.
To give you an idea of his brazen cheating, ever played Dominion? At the end of the game, he had a deck with 8 action cards, and 35 prestige cards… yet he kept getting the same 7 action cards in his hand (which let him draw out the rest).
After I caught him at that, I made it my mission to not let him cheat. I would sit next to him, and watch his rolls, keep track of his damage, that sort of thing. “A seventeen, you say? Funny, that looked like a *three* to me…” With the additional scrutiny, his performance dropped signifigantly.
So yes, Mark, if you’re reading this, you are a cheating asshole, and everyone knows it.
I played (past tense because we have a three strikes policy) with guy who had a d20 that always rolled 18s, which took a while to catch because it was less suspect than twenties. He also made sexist comments on a regular basis (our GM, one of them, is female), and in the end I think he wound up being persona non grata within multiple local gaming circles.
one of our gamers has very bad eyesight (he is in his seventies, really cool old dude by the way) and he has a set of BIG dice with BIG numbers, those might be a solution to the reporting “errors”.
Discussing how the old mob Vegas dealt with dice “little cheats” (not big enough to be worth a desert retirement home) might also unnerve them. It involved a flat head screw driver, the number of nerve endings in human hands and the pain from such injuries that arise from these home building accidents. Loudly giving such history lessons is always good and raises the level of every one’s knowledge {NOTE Never be serious on this kids}
I would never knowingly harm another unless they took a swing at me, HOWEVER (I wanted italics but I can’t figure those out in this system) in the past I have accidentally dropped the core book and supplements on the hands of people who have been cheating. I might have to borrow your Vegas stories tactic though.
Given most gamers game in person because they like their friends and the community they belong to pre-mediated cheating really hurts for 2 reasons:
First most people (especially gamers in their group/community) hate confronting people in real life with serious dishonesty. People have a wide range of views (heck some people were arguing Dove was being Railroaded by the Chain Lord when Dallas’ play was nearly flawless for using situational modifiers) and in a close or like minded community real life allegations not only hurt the crook/scum/worthless cheater but due to human nature can also hurt the accuser/discoverer of the issue and other members of the group for a variety of issues. This is unfortunately true given human nature.
Second the mere act of cheating or other dishonesty hurts the sense of community. Given the fact that we proud nerds are not fully accepted in the bigger world having one of “ours” (even if he is a pain) actually doing something improper in the real world’s terms is a violation of our group.
Good for you for your kind and creative method of attempting to “fix” the problem.
I however am an attorney in real life and enjoy making “inappropriate people” sweat so in my groups I am given the job of trying to fix the problem first and them if that fails “eliminating” the problem. Miscreants like Dove deserve little mercy. So Sam and Dallas have fun.
PS Dove might have a very snarky way out that might work. goes like this: “Hummmm I, a respected gamer, am accused by a 12 year old girl who is know to hate me and a DM whose lover i killed in spectacular fashion in “his” tourney. Great deal of credibility here in these undocumented charges.” If all the others have left the table after death (from the sexting message that seems to be the case) and Dove quickly reclaims his “lucky die” (which unfortunately this is his right), this at least leaves Dove the ability to fight fire with fire and possibly stay at some tables
Given that it’s a tourney, I’m guessing there’s people watching. I know I’d be watching if I was there, even if I’d lost early on.
Well Dove you know what this means, you have to wear the Hubcap of shame, and don’t forget about the dance and the song when anyone asks you what it is.
Nice to see a Knights of the Dinner Table reference.
http://www.kenzerco.com/free_files/kodt/K142_preview.pdf
She may be saying that because Dove slipped out unnoticed without his dice and she feels slightly bad. But probably not.
So why is everyone on the “he’s a cheater wowowow” train?
Wouldn’t it be cooler if since, I’ts Dove’s dice, he DID win somehow. Last remnant of his spirit doing some shit SOMEHOW and he wins.
“But that’s not satisfying since he’s the biggest dickbuttigan and this just shows he’s a dick that cheats”
Yes, BUT; wouldn’t it be cooler that he won through dice roll, but it would be a hollow victory for him. He might brag etc, but the local gaming scene all know that he fucked up big time (and perhaps on blogs too so it might spread) that a powergamer got fucked over through lore, destroying his self esteem.
Especially if Dallas herself says “hey it’s Dove’s dice, so I think he should win”
PLOOOOOOT TWIIIIIST *Dove’s self esteem shatters*
Why on earth would it being Dove’s dice mean that he should win?
Here’s my reading of Dove from all the years of comics. Dove sees himself as inherently superior to these other gamers. It would be inconceivable for him to lose an event like the Dungeon Run. And yet…his dice might conspire against him. In his mind, I don’t think it’d even really be cheating. It’d be assuring that the natural order of things, with him on top, was maintained.
Why let something as fickle as chance get in the way of his superiority?
A shot to the heart, but it’s too late, Dove give roleplay a bad name.
Wouldn’t him using weighted dice make his entire gameplay moot? Sort of just remove his rolls entirely or such, and salvage the game as best they can with Dallas trying for another roll? She wins either way since she got the closest, likely, though I’m not sure how that would play out or if it would all be considered an invalid game due to Dove’s cheating causing so many issues throughout the campaign?
Not sure how I feel about literal Deus Ex Machina for the win. Especially since aforementioned Deus Ex Machina leads to one of the GM’s friends winning. I mean, it would be one thing if Deus Ex Machinas are a game mechanic that everyone knows about and can attempt to invoke, but it’s not clear that that was the case here…
I’d be interested to know what the “Ask the God of Death to help me” chart looked like and what the roll that determined this result was. It just seems a bit off/unfair from my perspective as a reader, not having been made privy to the “you can pray for divine intervention” rule until now. Without knowing about any existing God-Invoking rules in this game, it seems a bit to me like.
-Asshole player does something legitimate to make his victory likely.
-DM’s friend player asks for a god to help her.
-DM decides that the god would intercede to help his friend’s character, and “Rocks Fall You Dies” the asshole player.
And sure, it is now revealed that Dove was cheating, but it still seems a little unfair for the whole “Chain Lord shows up to save the DM’s friend” ending to have merit.
Actually I respectfully disagree. I actually agree that Dove’s tactic to win was legitimate and could have been bold, IF he was not using cheating dice to eliminate all risk and invoking his own Deus Ex Machinas, the Dragon-Coin Lich. However putting that aside, I would have been surprised given these circumstances if the Chain Lord did not show up.
First, given the Mythos we know of, the Goddess of Death hates and has her servant actively hunt down wayward souls who do not go to her afterlife. Therefore she is very actively interested in entities such as our Dragon Friend.
Second the Dragon was, and, is a large and powerful threat to the world and possibly the Gods, so not only does she get a number of missing souls, she takes down a threat.
Finally, there is a good storyline for this. One PC gains the favor (by cheating) of an uber powered evil dragon and another merely drops a dime on them. Well played Dallas
The Deus Ex machina was invoked originally when Dove sided himself with (as the other person above me) a practically all-powerful being (who fed off the souls of those who participated, most likely) whose breath attack warranted needing a roll in the top percentile of the dice to survive.
Dallas realized that Dove was going to go be a selfish person and decided to, as stated above, “drop a dime” on him. Yes, it does seem like Deus Ex Machina, but it also fits into the lore or the world.
As people stated, Dallas fought OP-with-rules with lore. And I have never seen a world where players can’t try to invoke the assistance or aid of a god when gods exist. The numbers are either extremely high (top percentile, like this instance) or a random number chosen by the player (out of a d100 or d1000).
Since Dallas had ninja noted her mention, Sam had to roll so that Dove wold not try to edge even further into finding out what she was doing.
All in all, it was fair due to Dove’s betrayal action, and I’d rather see Lore win out over min-maxing a new system.
Dunh…Dunh… Dunh… Loaded Die!
The quick way to test a possibly loaded die is to drop it into a tall glass of water. As it sinks, it will consistently rotate so the heavier side is down; the resistance of the water means that the number it’s loaded for will come up nearly every time.
Or, since they are in a Game Store, they should have a digital scale for figuring out postage on packages they are mailing out. Weigh out a couple d20’s just to get a baseline and then weigh the d20 in question. It should be noticeably heavier if it’s rigged.
I seem to remember there being a prize involved for winning. Cheating to get that prize should get him banned from the store minimum. I doubt Sam will hesitate to drop the dime on Dove to other groups.
actually it doesnt need to be loaded. just a shaved or damaged point, as there is a video on youtube by the guys behind the former game science dice, that discusses that when polishing dice after coming off the runner, sometimes you would get dice that had been flattened or rounded to a point that they would consistently roll either very high, or very low. my friend, Greg, who was running a D20 Conan game had this issue as his attempts to hurt the pc’s were thwarted by the dice he used, after replacing them with a new set, the problem went away.
now, i remember calling out Dove, but then i thought about it, he’s a competitive gamer, likes being the ‘big man in Campaign’ and likes to lord his record. having an obvious loaded die is something that WOULD be investigated, so it wouldnt surprise me that he would avoid the loaded die and instead favor a shaved or clipped die. especially if he’s like me and carries two or three sets of dice with him and two of those sets look alike. this way he can offer a similar looking die if someone wants to ‘test’ his die, while still keeping his ‘magic’ die separate.
I think Dove’s greed got the better of him, especially if he left his dice where just anyone could pick them up. plus, i mean, c’mon, who DOESNT get excited when someone rolls a nat 20? Dallas’ reaction is the common one. to sit and say ‘oh. nat 20′ over and over and over, and be blasse’ HAS to have something going on.
Can’t wait to see Dove try and weasel out of THIS. I’m expecting an audience around the table still to see who comes out on top after all their characters have died in the run. I see this going one of three ways:
1) Dove tries to logic/reason out of this situation and fails miserably, getting blacklisted from all events.
2) Dove tries to muscle his way out of this. He tries to grab the dice from Dallas before they can test/confirm if its weighted which only further sinks him to new lows as he just fought a little girl (and would most likely injure her) just for a dice, which the audience/staff would certainly take offense to.
or 3) Dove just bolts before anything can be done about the situation, and the group render judgements befitting for when he next shows his face.
I think a lot of people may be assuming too much. True, it could be that the die is loaded and Dove is a cheater mccheaterpants
OR
Dallas wants to win on her own dice. Is it really her victory if she uses anyone elses dice? There is a lot of symbology that could be applied here. Imagine not only does Dove get squashed by a woman, but her sparkly pink and purple d20 rolled perfect and scored her a decisive winning blow. That just adds another layer of go fuck yourself to dove’s loser cake.
*shrug* Guess we’ll see in the next strip.
I think it is primarily the latter. She shall not give Dove any amount of credit, not even so much as one of his dice. Reroll that Dallas! Seize victory with your own die! Even if it’s a natural 1 you still win as you are the last woman standing.
But we all know Dove’s been cheating, it’s just a question of will his outrage of having her touch/win with one of his dice cause him to spill the beans.
Oooh…weighted SPIN-down die? Sometimes called “counters” used in card games a lot to keep score–the low numbers are grouped to one end of the die, so you can tilt it one face for your next point. If the “low” end is heavy, it will regularly show a high roll, since those will be right side up. Conventions ban them at RPG tables even though they aren’t weighted because they don’t add up to 21 on opposite faces and aren’t “random enough.”
HE GAVE YOU LOADED DIE?!
Hear that defeaning silence? It’s the sound of absolutely nobody being surprised that Dove was cheating with loaded dice.
Indeed. I suspect they all knew it. I hope someone gets out an “It’s the only way you have a chance to win” comment.
It’s pretty much a given that everything he’s ever done will be tainted by this. Even successes he won through actual skill will have THAT mud thrown all over them.
Is it even physically possible to load a 20-sided die? It seems a little tricky with that small of a face. Aren’t two of the numbers right next to 20 2 and 6?
Just replace the 3 with another 20. People will notice if you never roll a 1, but would you notice that someone never rolled a 3?
The set-up for a loaded die seems pretty obvious, but for as much as I hate Dove, I’m still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt as far as this goes. To quote Brian from a couple months ago: “There is a reason Phillip F. Dove is a champion gamer, folks. […] when it comes down to it, he is a douchebag but he is a douchebag that can throw down.” I personally wouldn’t put it past the slimy little prick to cheat, but at the same time I don’t think Brian would bother lying about Dove actually having gaming skill.
I didn’t read all the comments so this might already be mentioned, but instead of a weighted die, could it be a die with multiple 20s and/or 19s?
What I don’t get is, if the Chain Lord was sent for the dragon, why did it even bother with attacking a gnat like Dove, instead of going straight for his quarry? Dove isn’t an escaped soul, and he is hardly preventing the Chain Lord from carrying out his mission. It seems to me that the Chain Lord would have just as much reason to go for Dallas as Dove; either squash them both or ignore them both. Singling one out and bypassing the other seems like a bit of preferential treatment by the GM.
But you have to remember that Dove became Tyraxion’s herald. Perhaps in the chain lord’s mind, Dove is also responsible for the souls being stolen from the mother? Its a stretch, but its possible. Or, perhaps if he had just kept his mouth shut, the chain lord would have ignored him. But he tried to ally himself with the mother right after he allied himself with the dragon the chain lord was sent after, which might have pissed off the mother enough to order the chain lord to squish him.
The Chain Lord wasn’t exactly around for Dove’s allying with the dragon. I’m pretty sure that Dove wasn’t instantly clad in the dragon’s livery, or waving a large sign declaring “I’m with charcoal-breath”, so how exactly does the Chain Lord have any inkling of where Dove’s allegiances lie?
Well one of the humans was the ally/herald of the Coin Dragon/escaped soul. I think that makes target choices clear. Remember if given the chance shoot deputies first! (look up the song)
The major difference was that Dove tried talking to it while Dallas has pretty much stayed out of its way. If a squeaky little thing was getting in the way of your mission, you’d squash it. If it was standing in the corner, not so much.
It’s quite possible the Chain lord wasn’t after him and he could have avoided it completely had he not tried to draw attention to himself with his ridiculous charisma modifier.
If an actual obstacle gets in the way of your mission, you squash it.
If a “squeaky little thing” gets in your way, you ignore it and step over it; it’s just not worth the effort. Especially in a turn-based system where taking the time to swat at a gnat means that your real opponent will probably get the first shot at you.
And Dove wasn’t even getting in the way of the mission; he was offering to help achieve it. That help may not have been sincere, or even significant, but he was far from hindering the Chain Lord’s task.
It could even be construed that Sam had begun rolling the attack before Dove even spoke, so that may not have even been a factor.
The more I think about it, the only reason I can come up with for the Chain Lord smashing Dove is GM bias. He doesn’t like Dove, so he’s taking an opportunity to remove him within the game mechanics.
Oh come on! I hate it when this happens. You find a new webcomic. You know you have years of archives to dive through. You read with confidence, foolishly blinded by the power of “catching up”. And then BAM! _cliffhanger_!
Does this mean I’ll have to keep coming back to see that other storyline I want to see explored? Fine, where is that vote button?
Updates are Monday-Wednesday-Friday. We will likely have an update tomorrow, sometimes we even get the update an hour or two before midnight.
It’s coming… oh, it’s coming…
OH… there is no vote button… ummm… this is awkward.