Hoooooowwwwwwdy ho!!!! It's WEDNESDAY MY DUDES! And you know what that means! A big fat STACK of webcomic panels, dripping with RPG sauce all over them!!
If you didn't know that's what that meant, then get with the program.
I said I'd update you on my thoughts on the Mario movie! I personally thought it was absolutely dreadful. Just, bad in every way. Except for the visuals. Those were just about perfect. But yeah rest of it was terrible. BUT! Everyone else likes it. People in the theater were shouting and laughing and loving it. Every YouTuber I've come to trust on movie opinions like it. So I feel like I'm being gaslit that it was actually a good movie. But it wasn't!! If you think it was your subjective opinion is objectively wrong!!
Poor Syd. He's always getting outshined by people who have zero training in his specialty.
By the way I think someone theorized that Syd is Galgarion. I don't hate that theory! Will I make that canon? No. COULD I have? Absolutely yes. Mua ha ha ha haaaaa
I'm exactly chaotic and flakey enough that any crack ship or theory can be instantly added to canon. Just ask Artful Dog why there's going to be 30 pages of Howard/Detestai slow-burn now.
Also this page title couldn't work on more levels if it TRIED
Okay, it probably is, but you can reduce the waste by using victory poses well. Maybe you're taunting the next foe, to try and bring them into range. Or maybe you don't want to face the next foe, so you're hoping to intimidate them.
As that annoying GURPS fanboy who reads this strip, it is time for me to force that tabletop RPG system into the discussion. You can stop reading now, and nothing of value will be lost. XP
Glutton for punishment, eh? I don't know if it can be used for a fancy/tricky re-holstering technique, but an oft important Skill in GURPS:
Fast Draw
This Skill is exactly what it says; it allows you to quickly draw and ready your Weapon. In combat, GURPS uses 1 second turns. So, if your weapon is not already unholstered and "Ready", you lose at least one turn doing so. Exactly how long depends on the weapon; unsheathing the sword at your waist is going to take just one turn, but if you have to string your bow, get it into position, notch an arrow, etc. it can take multiple turns.
The good news is that it is an Easy Skill. Spending just a single Character Point (CP) on it, the "currency" GURPS gives you to initially build (and later, to improve) your character, lets you learn the Fast-Draw Skill at a Level equal to your Dexterity. The bad news is that you must specialize based on the kind of weapon. Two different pistols can use the same Fast-Draw Skill, though you might be at a penalty the first time you try using a different model. However, Fast-Draw (Knife) is different than Fast-Draw (Pistol).
Even GURPS Basic Set Characters, the most "fundamental" of GURPS books, has eight different Fast-Draw Skills listed: Ammo, Arrow (arrows, crossbow bolts, darts, etc.), Force Sword (generic light saber), Knife, Long Arm (rifle, shotgun, etc.), Pistol, Sword (any one-handed blade larger than a knife), and Two-Handed Sword. Ammo is particularly variable. In the days of muskets, it covers powder and shot drills. In the modern day, it would cover magazines. For ultra-tech or "futuristic" settings, it would cover power cells.
How does any of this tie into the above strip? Well, getting into the victory poses aspect, making sure your weapon is good to go for your next opponent can be a good idea, and I'm pretty sure you can accept a penalty to your Fast-Draw Skill check to make it... fancy. ;)
When I host TTRPG games, I use a loose FASERIPL system (fighting, agility, strength, endurance, reason, intelligence, psyche, luck - these can all be tweaked for your game needs), which is a d100 system. Instead of specific classes, moves, levels, etc, you just determine what powers a character has, and the semi-leveling system involved allows for growth of that. For example, instead of being a D&D wizard who can cast Fireball once per encounter, blah blah, I can say "You are a fire sorcerer. You have fire powers." So like, shoot a fire arrow? Heck yeah. Fireball as much as you want? By all means. A fire whip? Roll for it! Fire tornado?? That's gonna cost you some special points (default is Karma) but let's do it brother!
It's way looser and more fun. I remember playing a rogue in d&d and specifically having to take a feat to use what was essentially pocket sand. I thought that was absolute nonsense.
Hmm, maybe it'd be fun to host a game for the Discord..
GURPS can be as detailed or granular as you want. It helps to think of it as a do-it-yourself kit for a custom RPG.
Want to Keep It Super Simple?
GURPS Ultra Lite is a free, 2-page .pdf. Oh, and one of those pages? The instructions for folding the other page into a small pamphlet. XD
For a little more depth, there's GURPS Lite. This time, it is a free 32-page .pdf.
While GURPS Ultra Lite does simplify a few things that would otherwise be core rules, anything you build using GURPS Lite is compatible with regular GURPS. Past this point, everything else is there so you don't have to completely "do-it-yourself". So if you don't want to try and work out the stats for [insert thing], you buy the book which contains said stats.
GURPS doesn't use levels or character classes. Either you pitch your character to the GM, who builds the character according to the role you want that character to play... or you're given a Character Point total to use to build your character. That second option is the norm, and still requires the GM sign off of the character.
The default "magic system" doesn't give you spell slots. Spells are a special kind of Skill; casting a Spell requires knowing the correct skill, with simpler spells being perquisites for more complicated ones. Most spells also require you have some Level of Magery (you buy Magery like you would any other Advantage; you spend Character Points on it).
Now, I said default earlier, and that's because GURPS gives you options. I've never gotten around to running one, but I think I'd prefer the GURPS Powers approach to being a mage. Which is basically "Spend your CP on Advantages you want your character to have via being a mage." Well, it is a tad more complicated than that; most Advantages in GURPS can be tweaked by Modifiers. For example, there's an Advantage called Flight. It lets you fly, as you would gather. If your character can fly because they're a mage, you'd apply the "Magical" Modifier. If they can fly because they're a super-powered being, that would be the Super Modifier. If they're the God of Flight, their Flight probably has Cosmic applied to it. Etc.
Hope the last bit didn't scare ya off. XD Use whatever RPG system you wanna use, but remember, GURPS is like a laidback version of the Borg. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated... or we'll conform to you. GURPS tries to use real-world units when applicable, so you can use their supplements in other gaming systems.
Syd be Galgarion...
There ain't no time travel in the original FF7!!!!11!
Just ignore that basically every other FF game has time travel. Including the FF7 reboot.
Granted FF7 had enough hallucinations and mind-swapping to allow anything to be presentable. Or you can do a Red Vs Blue with mind-cloning or mind-splitting or memory-swapping.
When I said that Syd was creating the next generation of peons it was a face-value comment. With the bonus jab being that Plum was become more and more Syd. A statement she would greatly appreciate.
Now that notion that Galgarion is becoming more and more like Syd came right out of nowhere. But is interesting.
"Just ignore that basically every other FF game has time travel. Including the FF7 reboot."
At the risk of ruining the joke, that includes...
spoiler warning
...wait for it...
...hopefully even fast readers have registered the 1st Spoiler Warning.
Hey! It has happened to me before, so yes it does happen! You're reading something engaging at full speed, but by the time the warning really registers, you're anywhere from one word to one paragraph ahead. Even worse when you're skimming because you weren't that interested.
Not the worst (it can always be worse), but definitely worse than what I just said, is when you asked one of the few fangirls who actually chats with you what she was doing, and she responds with "Reading" plus a link, so you start reading, get kinda bored about halfway through so you skim ahead only to realize it was guy-on-guy erotica and then you can no longer enjoy peanut butter until you forget that scene and... oh, that one was just me? Also, I kinda have to have peanut butter as part of my diet, so here's hoping I forget again in time. >.>
Anyway, back to that spoiler: the original Final Fantasy had a plot involving time travel. End Spoiler
Sucks about the Mario movie. I expected it to be bad, and here we are. Can't trust the minions people. Weirdly the pods I listen to about movies all said it was bad, so I wonder what the disconnect is.
You know if RPG World came out today you could buy new victory poses for Syd for the low cost of 4,000 gems or $3.00 American.
Most of the worrisome reports I heard were because of things various cast members had said, or done, or not said, or flubbed, etc.
Or the critics I've learned not to trust. No hate intended: this is a personal thing e.g. Critic A agrees with me a small part of the time, but disagrees with me the rest of the time (in different ways to boot!), so I can't really make use of their reviews. XP After I can watch the Mario movie for myself, I'll know if I should stop pestering DoomDragon6 to watch The Transformers: The Movie (1986), because our tastes may not align. ;)
Syd's animations are tied to his generic evil soldier outfit. He clearly needs a costume change, and then suddenly he'll become ridiculously competent. Because old RPGs tightly couple graphics to game mechanics like that.
Yeah, Mario 2023 was a bad movie. The plot was too fast and too slow at the same time, and entire arcs of it were rendered completely pointless in the scenes that followed. Luigi was useless, Luma was just 'there' for no reason, there were all sorts of references to death in the Mushroom Kingdom (and not game overs? This is supposed to be a children's film?), and they also retconned DK Junior out of existence (for a one-off buddy moment). That last one is quite nettling to me personally: Jr. clearly had a mid-life crisis and rebranded as Funky Kong.
People can enjoy bad things, but trust your gut. You don't have to enjoy it just because other people did.
Poor Syd suffering from being both a joke character AND being a promoted-to-playable random encounter. Maybe one day if he gets enough character development to change his character model he'll actually get non-generic animations.
"Because its a waste of time."
Okay, it probably is, but you can reduce the waste by using victory poses well. Maybe you're taunting the next foe, to try and bring them into range. Or maybe you don't want to face the next foe, so you're hoping to intimidate them.
As that annoying GURPS fanboy who reads this strip, it is time for me to force that tabletop RPG system into the discussion. You can stop reading now, and nothing of value will be lost. XP
Glutton for punishment, eh? I don't know if it can be used for a fancy/tricky re-holstering technique, but an oft important Skill in GURPS:
Fast Draw
This Skill is exactly what it says; it allows you to quickly draw and ready your Weapon. In combat, GURPS uses 1 second turns. So, if your weapon is not already unholstered and "Ready", you lose at least one turn doing so. Exactly how long depends on the weapon; unsheathing the sword at your waist is going to take just one turn, but if you have to string your bow, get it into position, notch an arrow, etc. it can take multiple turns.
The good news is that it is an Easy Skill. Spending just a single Character Point (CP) on it, the "currency" GURPS gives you to initially build (and later, to improve) your character, lets you learn the Fast-Draw Skill at a Level equal to your Dexterity. The bad news is that you must specialize based on the kind of weapon. Two different pistols can use the same Fast-Draw Skill, though you might be at a penalty the first time you try using a different model. However, Fast-Draw (Knife) is different than Fast-Draw (Pistol).
Even GURPS Basic Set Characters, the most "fundamental" of GURPS books, has eight different Fast-Draw Skills listed: Ammo, Arrow (arrows, crossbow bolts, darts, etc.), Force Sword (generic light saber), Knife, Long Arm (rifle, shotgun, etc.), Pistol, Sword (any one-handed blade larger than a knife), and Two-Handed Sword. Ammo is particularly variable. In the days of muskets, it covers powder and shot drills. In the modern day, it would cover magazines. For ultra-tech or "futuristic" settings, it would cover power cells.
How does any of this tie into the above strip? Well, getting into the victory poses aspect, making sure your weapon is good to go for your next opponent can be a good idea, and I'm pretty sure you can accept a penalty to your Fast-Draw Skill check to make it... fancy. ;)
When I host TTRPG games, I use a loose FASERIPL system (fighting, agility, strength, endurance, reason, intelligence, psyche, luck - these can all be tweaked for your game needs), which is a d100 system. Instead of specific classes, moves, levels, etc, you just determine what powers a character has, and the semi-leveling system involved allows for growth of that. For example, instead of being a D&D wizard who can cast Fireball once per encounter, blah blah, I can say "You are a fire sorcerer. You have fire powers." So like, shoot a fire arrow? Heck yeah. Fireball as much as you want? By all means. A fire whip? Roll for it! Fire tornado?? That's gonna cost you some special points (default is Karma) but let's do it brother!
It's way looser and more fun. I remember playing a rogue in d&d and specifically having to take a feat to use what was essentially pocket sand. I thought that was absolute nonsense.
Hmm, maybe it'd be fun to host a game for the Discord..
Want to Keep It Super Simple?
GURPS Ultra Lite is a free, 2-page .pdf. Oh, and one of those pages? The instructions for folding the other page into a small pamphlet. XD
For a little more depth, there's GURPS Lite. This time, it is a free 32-page .pdf.
While GURPS Ultra Lite does simplify a few things that would otherwise be core rules, anything you build using GURPS Lite is compatible with regular GURPS. Past this point, everything else is there so you don't have to completely "do-it-yourself". So if you don't want to try and work out the stats for [insert thing], you buy the book which contains said stats.
GURPS doesn't use levels or character classes. Either you pitch your character to the GM, who builds the character according to the role you want that character to play... or you're given a Character Point total to use to build your character. That second option is the norm, and still requires the GM sign off of the character.
The default "magic system" doesn't give you spell slots. Spells are a special kind of Skill; casting a Spell requires knowing the correct skill, with simpler spells being perquisites for more complicated ones. Most spells also require you have some Level of Magery (you buy Magery like you would any other Advantage; you spend Character Points on it).
Now, I said default earlier, and that's because GURPS gives you options. I've never gotten around to running one, but I think I'd prefer the GURPS Powers approach to being a mage. Which is basically "Spend your CP on Advantages you want your character to have via being a mage." Well, it is a tad more complicated than that; most Advantages in GURPS can be tweaked by Modifiers. For example, there's an Advantage called Flight. It lets you fly, as you would gather. If your character can fly because they're a mage, you'd apply the "Magical" Modifier. If they can fly because they're a super-powered being, that would be the Super Modifier. If they're the God of Flight, their Flight probably has Cosmic applied to it. Etc.
Hope the last bit didn't scare ya off. XD Use whatever RPG system you wanna use, but remember, GURPS is like a laidback version of the Borg. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated... or we'll conform to you. GURPS tries to use real-world units when applicable, so you can use their supplements in other gaming systems.
Plum: Implying there would be a "next"
Syd: **sniff sniff** you're mean.
There ain't no time travel in the original FF7!!!!11!
Just ignore that basically every other FF game has time travel. Including the FF7 reboot.
Granted FF7 had enough hallucinations and mind-swapping to allow anything to be presentable. Or you can do a Red Vs Blue with mind-cloning or mind-splitting or memory-swapping.
When I said that Syd was creating the next generation of peons it was a face-value comment. With the bonus jab being that Plum was become more and more Syd. A statement she would greatly appreciate.
Now that notion that Galgarion is becoming more and more like Syd came right out of nowhere. But is interesting.
At the risk of ruining the joke, that includes...
spoiler warning
...wait for it...
...hopefully even fast readers have registered the 1st Spoiler Warning.
Hey! It has happened to me before, so yes it does happen! You're reading something engaging at full speed, but by the time the warning really registers, you're anywhere from one word to one paragraph ahead. Even worse when you're skimming because you weren't that interested.
Not the worst (it can always be worse), but definitely worse than what I just said, is when you asked one of the few fangirls who actually chats with you what she was doing, and she responds with "Reading" plus a link, so you start reading, get kinda bored about halfway through so you skim ahead only to realize it was guy-on-guy erotica and then you can no longer enjoy peanut butter until you forget that scene and... oh, that one was just me? Also, I kinda have to have peanut butter as part of my diet, so here's hoping I forget again in time. >.>
Anyway, back to that spoiler: the original Final Fantasy had a plot involving time travel. End Spoiler
Wait this game was released the year I was born
You know if RPG World came out today you could buy new victory poses for Syd for the low cost of 4,000 gems or $3.00 American.
Or the critics I've learned not to trust. No hate intended: this is a personal thing e.g. Critic A agrees with me a small part of the time, but disagrees with me the rest of the time (in different ways to boot!), so I can't really make use of their reviews. XP After I can watch the Mario movie for myself, I'll know if I should stop pestering DoomDragon6 to watch The Transformers: The Movie (1986), because our tastes may not align. ;)
Yeah, Mario 2023 was a bad movie. The plot was too fast and too slow at the same time, and entire arcs of it were rendered completely pointless in the scenes that followed. Luigi was useless, Luma was just 'there' for no reason, there were all sorts of references to death in the Mushroom Kingdom (and not game overs? This is supposed to be a children's film?), and they also retconned DK Junior out of existence (for a one-off buddy moment). That last one is quite nettling to me personally: Jr. clearly had a mid-life crisis and rebranded as Funky Kong.
People can enjoy bad things, but trust your gut. You don't have to enjoy it just because other people did.
Poor Syd suffering from being both a joke character AND being a promoted-to-playable random encounter. Maybe one day if he gets enough character development to change his character model he'll actually get non-generic animations.