One Night in Xag: Part Six
Chapter: Season Six
Thanks for your patience while I am doing freelance and paying the bills.
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Thanks for your patience while I am doing freelance and paying the bills.
Comments are closed.
HOVER-TEXT: They’re using tokens and not miniatures in the first session… just in case.
Do I smell poster potential?
Squish looks like a great formation for a lightning bolt.
Oh, it is, it is absolutely fantastic. I had a teeny terrifying kobold dual spear wielding paladin who opened with a pair of lightning javelins. Absolutely wrecked the party.
or exploding runes that trigger when they detect magic…OHHH *makes a note*
They’re in a hallway; I’m not sure there’s really any formation you can employ in a hallway that’s not lightning bait. Unless one or more characters can stick to the ceiling, or fly.
‘Course, I’m biased. My group tends to favor rogues and tanks pretty heavily, so any AOE evocation is little more than a minor inconvenience. Mind control, however, has become one of my favorite traps for exactly that reason.
I believe detecting something that might lightning bolt them and preparing the group for it is part of the Sneak’s job here.
That was my first thought as well.
I would not even call it “universal tactic”. It is just plain common sense.
Of course if you really want to mess with a team, let a trap/wall seperate them or have a delayed trap. So that the squishy get squished just between the defenses. Asuming teh Rouge did not get it or it was not a trap with convetional trigger (but one guys pulling a lever).
ANY time you’re in a corridor is Lightning Bolt time. No way around that. This formation is a classic because it works.
The only way I see to improve it is what they told us in Basic Training : keep 6 meters between every squad member. Keeps casualties from grenades (AOE) to a minimum.
That may not work so well in a setting where melee is common, though. You need to be close enough to support each other, and swords don’t have hundred foot range.
I say they don’t follow the principle of Grimstooth where sometimes the trigger is sometimes past the trap or just a decoy…….
But then, the “AOE spells” nation attacked!
Brett would be justified in choke slamming Trevor right there.
Why, because Trevor made a joke? If you’re an uptight bastard with no sense of humor you deserve to be teased every once in a while.
I just compared the layout for this conga line to something I know in real life, the store I work in. Luckily it’s got 12″ floor tiles, so I’ve been able to confirm that, generally speaking, the aisles are on a five foot grid (five feet of space, five feet of shelves separating aisles, five feet of space, another five feet of shelves, etc.). While other stores will have more or less space, this conga line of death is basically five and a half aisles long. Sure, five foot square work well for combat, but it really makes spacing unrealistic.
Yeah, the “1 square = 5 feet” thing always struck me as being weird. Yes, it’s convenient when using minis, but I have to wonder if the designers actually understand how far five feet is.
But it doesn’t force you to state exactly where in the 5′ you are. You could say that you are at the far ends of the 5′ and as such be directly adjacent. I have always viewed it as a speed mechanic, similar to pawns moving two squares on their first move.
That’s not my point at all – my point is that it means the maps and minis aren’t remotely to scale.
Let’s take the map from the comic – with the 1 square = 5ft. set up, the party is stretched out over 55 feet. For the sake of a mental image, picture them standing on an American football field. If Annabelle is at the goal line, Delya would be about half way between the 15 and 20 yard lines. They’d be stretched out over almost a fifth of the field.
I’m sure the corridor they’re going through is supposed to be narrow and cramped. But again, with the 1 square = 5 ft. scale, it’s about 10 ft. wide, which is pretty roomy. The stairs Annabelle is coming down are 10 ft. long. A door that takes up a single square is 5 ft. wide. A bed that’s only 2 squares X 1 square is 10 feet long and 5 feet wide.
Yes, I’m nitpicking, but I feel like this issue could easily have been solved if any of the designers actually bothered to use a friggin’ tape measure.
Actually for a skirmisher line it’s a good thing so as to keep from stabbing each other accidentally if attacked unlike modern squad tactics since we rely more on firearms now so we can be closer together…..
yep. last thing you want is to be backed/pressed into your own team member, then you both dead.
Clearly, people, the most important takeaway from this comic is that Brian needs to sell d20monkey tokens. Print-and-play or pro-printed, either way works.
Okay that was the first time I saw the term “paper tiger” so I had to look it up. So Brett is basically saying that Sam’s and maybe Carlos’ (not sure if his character has healing spells or not) characters are useless in a fight?
Agree, I think the intended phrase would be glass cannon.
Paper tiger is more analogous to the raptor in Jurassic Park that turns out to be a mural (before later being a raptor behind the mural…ignoring that part despite the awesome shadowplay).
“Aah, it’s a tiger! Oh, it’s only paper.”
I take ‘paper tiger’ to be the same as ‘glass cannon’: characters that can dish out damage, but have relatively low defenses/damage capacity. They stay in the safer middle and do damage or heal, while not subject to the brunt of the attacks/damage.
This is what I thought too, but upon looking up paper tiger, it really does mean “one who appears threatening but is ineffectual, unable to withstand challenge”. That’s not the same thing as a glass cannon at all.. harsh Brett.
It’s also possible authorial error, and that’s not a dig, but an acknowledgement that we all make mistakes. Glass cannon and paper tiger really do sound like they could mean the same thing.
Much as Brett can be a jerk, I think the more likely scenario in this case is that the wrong idiom was used.
As an addendum, I hadn’t thought of the definition of paper tiger in pretty much forever and didn’t give it a second thought as synonymous for glass cannon yesterday, and was only reminded upon reading these comments today. Very easy error to make.
Means: A tiger… but only on paper. So mages, and depending on the system archer/snipers, backstabbers, assasins. All might be deadly….on paper… but can’t deliver in a stand up – in DnD that usually because their low levels are nerfed as balance against their high level power. (or they’ve used/limited use power, so yeah “really really can kick your arse….but only one target per day” so save it for the boss … so rest of the time “paper tiger” …no use in the scrap, otherwise we’d have to stop to recharge/reposition)
Incorrect – the phrase is not referring to how something appears “on paper”, but is comparing it to a tiger literally constructed of paper (such as those used in various Asian celebrations); i.e., it appears fearsome, but has no substance.
This was especially true in old DnD… Where your first level made knew ONE spell, randomly determined…. And of course, where the cleric knew NONE… They didn’t get one until 2nd level. Truly brutal system, but I loved every minute of it! You just had to make sure to start each session with 2 or 3 characters already made… And not be too attached to any of them.
By the time we got to fourth level in one campain, the group’s motto was “Eh, I’ve got more character sheets.”
That reminds me of the story of the guy who brought six copies of his bard’s character sheet to a meatgrinder-themed session.
“You are dead.”
“Ah, no matter. His brother arrives to avenge him.”
…
“The brother’s dead too.”
“Oh, their sister will not be pleased to hear that.”
Did you ever get the chance to hide behind the pile of dead bards?
Works OK unless you have monsters that eat their way through rock and come out of the tunnel walls at you, then the squishies are no better off.
Is the spelling of ignorance in the first panel deliberate?
😉
We never called them ‘paper tigers’, though that’s a good one, it was always ‘glass cannons’.
This reminds me of a story I heard a while back. A guy was on a military base (or maybe a ship). He was IT support to some sort of special forces squad. He convinced them to play a modern zombie RPG to pass the time.
They used their well-honed small-unit tactics to DESTROY the scenario. Diamond formation, clear the corners, etc. It was supposed to be survival horror, with the characters desperately running for their lives. It turned into the characters pretty much ending the zombie horde.
The special forces guys LOVED it.
Now THAT would be an awesome session to watch. 😀
That’s so hilarious and great.
ofc, real special forces aint scared of no zombies. Bet they ended game at full health too.
I don’t get why Brett thinks this would be non-RP? Why wouldn’t PCs use the absolute BASIC formations as soon as they get to a potentially dangerous place? The formation isn’t even very militaristic, so that only PCs who were in the service would know it, but rather it’s common sense.
Your character is working with strangers in a crime caper in a world where mistrust and greed abound. Who are you likely to stand near, the spooky elemental-bonded wizard, the shady bakers, or your brother?
But really, I think it’s more that they’re stopping play to talk about strategy and the more mechanical side of things.
I do believe it was mentioned that only Gul’Ren is a stranger. Deyla and Annabelle started their bakery with the aid of the Dwellow Brothers, and if I read that correctly, still help them in their less than legal escapades.
Even Gul’Ren isn’t a stranger. His bio said he’s worked with the Dwellows before, and that they’re his only friends.
Good catch, gents.
Ok, first of all: If it could save my sorry neck, then yes (oh yes!) I would consider working together with complete strangers. There is safety in numbers. This was true 5000 years ago and it is true now. Cue to every war since the dawn of man all around the globe.
Second of all: I wouldn’t even consider stealing an apple with a complete stranger, much less breaking into a high-security building and getting my hands on the equivalent of the maltese falcon. Working together to stay alive? Yes. Steal something with a stranger? No. Why? Because everyone has survival instinct and will flock together against a strange enemy (and we’re talking D&D… there are much stranger things than codiac bears in D&D) but not everyone is “trustworthy” enough to steal shit with.
And third: Have you been paying attention? They are no strangers. None of them.
I honestly didn’t remember stuff from a month back, my memory is notoriously shite. But I was weighing the relationships as more acquaintances vs. family.
But you’re right. *shrug*
Don’t worry about our patience, Brian. It’s always worth the wait.
Speaking of “meta,” “ignorance” is spelled wrong. Or is that sort of “zen?”
You see my longest running play group had zero patience… and everybody attempted to build a badass which led to the entire party competing over who gets to be in front. Yeah this didn’t generally go well.
Especially coupled with our DMs favorite phrase. “Oh. I didn’t realize this monster could do THAT.”
A burrowing creature could hit from the sides, or a timed delay magic rune trap.
No formation can really protect against burrowers, and traps are the responsibility of the point-man (or woman in this case).
Speaking of the token/miniature debate, my group has decided that we like using lego-men for our mini’s. They’re customizable, recognizable, cute, and easily dismembered.
They make enough medieval & fantasy parts now that you have lots of choices for garb, weapons, armor, and headgear.
Yay for paying the bills!
In an unrelated note, you would not believe how hard I laughed at the presence of actual spittle flying out of Brett’s mouth in the last panel. 😀 😀
Great time honoured formation.
Doing LARP in underground tunnels, we had two muscle in front with lantern.
I was next… (no sneak factor, in game) but the Muscle forgot to warn us there was shallow trench in the middle of the floor…. I (second rank and middle) walked straight into hole. thanks for the “trap” warning y’bastards. The “DM” who walked with the party and described things/story to us, almost pissed himself laughing so much.
Good formation. Classic. also … never put the sneak (or in our case monk) at the back of the party…it’s the easiest place to make a grab and run when opportunities present themselves (ie easy escape, front is busy with monster). learnt, same tunnels…
I feel like the pause in the second-to-last panel is Brett deciding whether or not he wants to headslap Trevor for that one.
I remember when my party first tried that position.
Monstersfrom the ceiling.
Every. FREAKING. Encounter.
So wait, Deyla is the sneak and trap spotter? Because she was an investigator? Not Annabelle, the more stereotypical burglar assassin? Interesting stuff.
Deyla was a former cop (aka can sneak and still hold her own) the squish factor needs protection. Granted most of the rogues I played were tunnel rats and were used to fighting a bit,(much like deyla) where most rogues are semi squish and depend on their senses.