ahdok

I did once have a patreon, but it lapsed - literally nobody signed up for it in over a decade. These days, I'd feel a little bad having a regular payment, considering how little content I actually produce.

I don't need any financial support to keep doing this, I'm lucky enough to not need financial support, and I draw to relax. The absolute best way to "support the comic" is to introduce more people to it, especially on bluesky. https://linktr.ee/ahdok for the social media streams I use.

If you really really want to put financial support towards me, there is a paypal link on the comic site, and also a few t-shirts at the "shop" link at the top - but again, I want to stress that the comic is not dependent on donations in any way.

Konsi did have a necklace of fireballs for a while. She's used one of them, but eventually passed it off to Toron, since she has access to AOE magic anyway.

this is what the gauntlets of ogre power are for.

There's a lot of people here who are invested in the story now, I gotta keep them up to date!

I suppose you can have a bonus Konsi.

It's not particularly funny, other than as an extension of the current context. I needed to establish this as setup for the conversation I want the characters to have in the next strip.

Ongoing story be rough sometimes.

You still get a bonus Konsi though.

It's actually a mimic disguised as a trouser press.

I'm aware of ludonarrative and ludonarrative dissonance, and use these terms a lot when discussing games. I really like rules design where the rules themselves support the narrative of the game. If you want a really great example, I would recommend the board game Galaxy Trucker by Vlaada Chvatil. Guy's a master of this.

Another device that is commonly invoked in my group is something called "the abstraction layer." - Basically, while roleplaying, the details of an interaction either matter to your narrative and game or they don't. If something is consequential, it's "above the abstraction layer" and if it's not, it's "below the abstraction layer." Anything below the abstraction layer you just assume the characters accomplish in the abstract.

The abstraction layer moves as your characters progress and the scope of your story changes. Imagine you're a starting level 1 wizard on your first adventure and you want to cast Find Familiar. The spell claims it requires "10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier" as a component.

Per the rules, this is a costed component, so it's not in your reagent pouch, and you can't replace the requirement with a casting focus, so your character actually has to source these components, and use of a brass brazier, in order to cast the spell. As a level 1 wizard, there might be some interesting narrative the DM wishes to insert here, where you meet and talk with proprietors of various magic reagent stores, or you have to visit your school or academy to buy some from the stores, or any number of other options.

However, consider a level 15 wizard who's plane-hopping to race a cabal of Bane cultists to the pieces of an ancient artifact to activate a time-lost monoloth to wrest control over the heavens from the gods. Does your story still care about this 10gp of incense that you need to cast the spell? Or can you just assume that the wizard is capable enough to solve this problem off-camera? Do you even bother to mark down the 10gp cost on your character sheets when your party is rocking 150k of gold and art objects?

The important lesson is that the story you're telling should focus on the details that matter to your characters, and to the narrative itself. Players who take the time to think about the details, and insert flavour will often tell more immersive and interesting stories, and the rules provide opportunities to delve into narrative, but also consider whether the details you're bringing are pertinent and relative to the current narrative. It's good to focus on where the details you're adding provide context and support for your character and the narrative they're involved in.

Honestly, it's CR1. The guy has 18hp meaning you probably murk him in a round at any level. The most dangerous thing is the pit trap.

Bonus Konsi?

If you know what the Carabiner means, you know.

This one caused me so much trouble! I went into it thinking "this will be easy" but it's surprisingly hard to get right.

I don't think I 100% got it, her body proportions are too human (Konsi is 4ft tall) - but it was a lot of fun to try. Daily drawing challenges aren't about being perfect, they're about just getting the thing done and learning from it.

This was part of my october drawing prompts, the prompt was "meme pose"

Artist circles on Twitter (although now it's blue sky) have a bunch of "meme" drawing challenges. Most commonly "outfit" challenges where you have to draw your character wearing a specific outfit. These challenges are like artist "memes", seeing other people do them causes them to spread. Pose memes are less common, but there are a few.

This pose is the "cammy stretch" meme pose: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cammy-stretch

A long time ago I did spend a few months experimenting with ratios to make my own cookie recipe, it makes really good chocolate chip cookies. Not very christmassy though.

But, if we're going to get into DM advice, the way I'd recommend stopping "anything could be a mimic" from getting old is to have it constrained to a themed side-adventure, or a one-shot. For example: A wizard tower where the guy's one weird hobby was breeding and training mimics. In such an adventure, you want to start fairly tame, but towards the end, the more outlandish and ridiculous the better.

As for the constraints on mimic forms, most of my DnD based jokes use 5e as their basis, as that's what the majority of my audience are likely using.

Honestly, the system you run for new players should depend on who those players are, their preferences, and comfort levels with related things you can use to judge their preferences. A group of hardcore eurogame boardgamers are going to be a lot more comfortable learning a complex rule system than my in-laws.