It’s possible, but I’m not sure it’s been established. This night – the one interrupted by kidnapping – was the first time she deliberately tried to stay up. We saw Amber wake up the previous morning (after AG’s fight with Blaine and Ross) and we know Amazi-Girl’s been going out at night fairly regularly, but I don’t recall any previous signs of exhaustion or even that AG’s been more active at night than before.
Even when they were talking (or earlier when less divided) AG was still out patrolling at night.
If it had been a 1 then Amazi-girl/Amber would have managed to hit herself or someone else with the hook.
Jamie
Yeah, this is more like a 3 against a TN of 18.
JetstreamGW
That is not really a rule that exists in most versions of D&D. It’s more something some GMs are really fond of and think is in the rules.
Arian
Or know very well is not in the books/SRD, but put it in their games anyway, at which point it *is* part of the local rules. Rule 0 trumps all.
Leo
And is an awful home rule I hate, which is so punishing to multi hit attackers when dms think its fun to have it in combat.
Fighter rolling 4 attacks per turn has nearly a 20% chance of attacking a teammate each round. If each fight only lasts 5 rounds, that’s a 67% chance of happening every single encounter ~yayyy fun
Enaluxeme
It’s a horrible, horrible house rule that fucks with classes that make more attacks. With the nat 1 = bad stuff rule a level 20 fighter is more likely to hit himself than a commoner.
If you are the DM and you like this house rule, you understand nothing of game design.
Lys
That said, a DM that sets up a house rule and doesn’t tweak it understands nothing of game design either way. I’m sure there are plenty of ways to make it fair. From “add a saving throw, or even two, for critical failures if there are many checks” to “there’s a feat you can take that removes critical failures”
Khyrin
See, the DM gets to PICK the bad thing…
This came up in a game of Exalted I run last Friday. Critical Failures are actually part of the rules, and someone managed to crit-fail in combat( a phrase which here means “you have more 1’s than 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s”): The result: “Your bowstring came loose. As you are a chosen of the Unconquered Sun, I say that you can spend an attack action fixing that, and then take your final shot in your three-arrow flurry attack.”
Hephaistos Fnord
In my 5E games, I use proficiency dice instead of flat modifiers (per Unearthed Arcana), so a level 1-4 character rolls 1d20+1d4, going up to +1d6 at 5-8, +1d8 at 9-12, +1d10 at 13-16 and +1d12 at 17-20, with expertise adding an additional die (so, for example, d20+2d6). A fumble only happens when the d20 and *all* proficiency/expertise dice roll ‘1’s. For multi-attacks, this actually makes the chance of mishap scale *down* with level rather than up, as the probability of rolling ‘1’ on successively larger dice tends to outscale the number of attacks being made.
Mopey
5e Dungeon Master’s Guide, page 242: “Critical Success or Faliures”
Sure, it’s optional and suggested only for saving throws and ability checks, but i IS in the books.
Zaxares
I use that rule, but with the addition that a Natural 1 in and of itself is not necessarily TOO bad. Getting 1 means that you roll again. Missing the target again means that something went wrong; you either hit the person next to them (which could be an ally, or another enemy). Getting a SECOND 1 means that something went VERY wrong, like you stabbed yourself in the leg.
Johnny Austin
I have only played a game for 10 minutes, I was passing through a house where a game was going on and died a few turns after my first encounter.
With a flower, of all things.
It seems, to me in my total ignorance, that these events occur as opportunities for experience points for other players. And to give high powered characters problems that need some other solution other than force.
Depending on your actions the story changes course. Maybe the dragon can talk. And has no interest in the loot in the cave. He’s just crashing in the cave for the weekend, he’s on his way north to spawn.
He tells you of the dragon life cycle.
After being spawned onto a volcano they form oyster like shells
These hatch out tiny dragons , many of which are eaten by birds and other creatures.
Maybe one in a thousand will survive till adulthood.
After spawning it dies.
It says, for being so kind as to share the deer you killed fo dinner it will repay you in allowing you to loot its corpse.
It informs you that, because it is giving you itself willingly, armour made of its scales will give the wearer the power to fly.
Or you can fight it and get 1000 gold each, or a chance at throwing a natural 1 and being a liability.
…I think dotty’s jacket would fit amber. If Walky switched shoes with her the blue boots would disappear into his ensemble.
Then she’s just a tired girl In yellow pants passed out from shock.
Commenting on the art (“creative”) this is about the best example of “exhausted” face I have seen in comics in a long time. And has been established I’m Old with a capital “Ohhh”.
She still has to be physically capable of throwing the hook. It looks like her technique was okay, but that van must be going close to 50 MPH and still gaining speed. Even if she wasn’t so tired, there’s no way that would connect.
The last couple strips have just been acts of desperation. Blaine got away as soon as he started the van.
No, but the van had a bumper sticker that said “My Daughter Is An Honor Student” except “Honor Student” was crossed out with sharpie and replaced with “miserable failure who will never amount to anything and I bet she ends up being some low ranking stooge for the Korean mob and her glasses look stupid and I’m not projecting, you’re projecting!”.
There can’t be more than, like, two or three of those on the road.
Dumbing of Age book 10: My Daughter is a Miserable Failure Who Will Never Amount to Anything and I Bet She Ends Up Being Some Low Ranking Stooge for the Korean Mob and Her Glasses Look Stupid and I’m Not Projecting, You’re Projecting!
This is a comic where two of the characters routinely jump out of windows, one attackes a man with a rifle by pretending to be a raptor, and college freshmen are smarter than other adults, and you’re worried about “realism”?
I’ve been concerned about realism since Blaine got kicked in the chest by Amber and physics got totally disregarded because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Bulletproof doesn’t mean kickproof. Kevlar is designed to disperse the kinetic energy of bullets, not kicks or punches. Unless he somehow managed to get the ceramic plates, but even then, it’s still not really designed for that. He’d still get most of the impact.
Needfuldoer
I think it’s probably an armored, Kevlar-reinforced motorcycle jacket. Not bulletproof, but designed to protect against abrasion and (to an extent) spread blunt impacts out over a larger area. They’re also readily available, reasonably priced, and easy to get hold of.
I think they’re implying if you want a more gritty and realistic story to make it yourself.
Dark
I don’t want a gritty realistic story. I want a story that makes sense and doesn’t just throw logic and reason out the window.
Y’know. A slice-of-life story.
Suzi
Pretty sure this has never been slice of life. This has been about Joyce and her overcoming her religious brainwashing, with a smorgasbord of other fucked up kids trying to figure their shit out.
Rani
That’s also a great story idea. Jesus, I wonder where it went?
thejeff
It’s still around, don’t worry. It’s just not exactly this arc.
Though we’ll see it tie in when Joyce talks to her mom about her kidnapping.
ktbear
Jeez Dark, it’s a comic strip not a freakin reality TV show. Does Superman being able to fly make sense to you? Or the fact he can get hit in the chest by a tank gun and not even be knocked back a step make sense to you? Cause it doesn’t to me, but I seem to manage to enjoy the stories anyway.
Lumino
Superman isn’t billed as a “Semi Normal” comic. It’s billed as a superhero universe, which is why we don’t flip out when Superman catches somebody at the last second and doesn’t kill them anyway due to inertia.
When you start blatantly ignoring physics and reality in a comic that’s attempting to play closer to reality, it can be jarring to the readers.
Nono
DoA usually has real life physics and deals with a lot of issues we see in real life – racism, homophobia, religious upbringing, etc. So yes, people’s mindsets are tuned to the idea that most of the things happening in DoA are things you’d expect to be able to happen in real life. Even Amber’s superhero antics are usually explained in-story; she took self-defense classes, her trauma has a backstory, and so on.
So when Amazi-Girl sequences happen and most of those ‘realistic’ things get thrown out the window, yes, people are going to notice that shift, and it’s going to affect them. This isn’t new – it happened during the car chase when Becky was kidnapped, but people gave it a slight pass. This time though, it’s going on for a much longer period of time and it’s going to be bothering people more, especially since for half of this stuff to happen a lot of the characters are holding the idiot ball.
Sombrero
Slice-of-superhero-life is kind of a little bit different.
Um, wow, that’s pretty harsh. I kinda feel like Dark has a bit of a point?
I’m a-okay with suspending my disbelief, I just wanna be aware of when I should be suspending it.
That said, it doesn’t detract much from the comic for me personally.
I agree. I understand folks saying this isn’t usual, but Willis literally said as much at the beginning of the arc and even told folks when to come back if it wasn’t going to be their bag. I don’t find this less realistic than hanging onto a car via a bat-hook.
Nono
I think people expected the warning to be more ‘hey this may be a little distressing, it’s okay to come back later’ and less ‘hey this might throw physics out the window’.
Johnny Austin
Does anyone know what happens when you throw physics out the window?
Do it’s own laws apply to itself at that point,
The laws no longer apply within the framework from which they have been thrown.
Or are they like a phone, they only stop working when they hit the ground,
(Sorry been reading a comic about metaphysics….)
I always thought the people in comics could do all that stuff because they were two dimensional and made of ink.
As was shown in the slice of life documentary film “who framed roger rabbit?”
DoA was originally billed as a more realistic take compared to Roomies and Shortpacked. It’s been realistic for a long time.
thejeff
It’s also had a superhero doing superhero stunts and using superhero tropes practically as long. It lacks the Walkyverse’s aliens and powers, so it’s certainly more realistic in that sense, but it’s never been a strictly slice of college life strip.
Reaver
Plus at this point, telling Willis it’s bad and you don’t like it is just..silly, the buffer is huge, and he’s proven time and time again that he knows people might not like it, but damn it he’s telling his story anyways.
He’s not just gonna read a comment and go ‘Oh dang they’re right this is getting a little crazy cakes, time to start re writing the plot”
I seriously doubt Blaine will hurt Joyce if only because he needs a living hostage. Either way, fleeing the scene is only a temporary solution. What is Blaine going to do next?
243 thoughts on “Grappling”
Ana Chronistic
what, extreme exhaustion doesn’t grant inhuman second wind superpowers?? D=
I feel like my night owl strategy has some flaws
Newllend(henryvolt)
I guess it doesn’t…. Well shit.
Stephen Bierce
My brother: “We need to make Rivendell by nightfall.”
Me: “I am already Knight, fallen.”
CJ
I haven’t counted, but I think Amber/Amazigirl‘s body hasn’t rested in days, so ist most likely already the fifth wind leaving.
thejeff
It’s possible, but I’m not sure it’s been established. This night – the one interrupted by kidnapping – was the first time she deliberately tried to stay up. We saw Amber wake up the previous morning (after AG’s fight with Blaine and Ross) and we know Amazi-Girl’s been going out at night fairly regularly, but I don’t recall any previous signs of exhaustion or even that AG’s been more active at night than before.
Even when they were talking (or earlier when less divided) AG was still out patrolling at night.
Yet One More Idiot
Amazi-girl is grappling…with failure. But not with that van. xD
Pylgrim
It’s more like that’s not Amazi-Girl but Amber.
Reaver
You need to pick the right class for the second wind feat
abacuswizard
aw
Doctor_Who
Bad time for a Natural 1.
Kyrik Michalowski
If it had been a 1 then Amazi-girl/Amber would have managed to hit herself or someone else with the hook.
Jamie
Yeah, this is more like a 3 against a TN of 18.
JetstreamGW
That is not really a rule that exists in most versions of D&D. It’s more something some GMs are really fond of and think is in the rules.
Arian
Or know very well is not in the books/SRD, but put it in their games anyway, at which point it *is* part of the local rules. Rule 0 trumps all.
Leo
And is an awful home rule I hate, which is so punishing to multi hit attackers when dms think its fun to have it in combat.
Fighter rolling 4 attacks per turn has nearly a 20% chance of attacking a teammate each round. If each fight only lasts 5 rounds, that’s a 67% chance of happening every single encounter ~yayyy fun
Enaluxeme
It’s a horrible, horrible house rule that fucks with classes that make more attacks. With the nat 1 = bad stuff rule a level 20 fighter is more likely to hit himself than a commoner.
If you are the DM and you like this house rule, you understand nothing of game design.
Lys
That said, a DM that sets up a house rule and doesn’t tweak it understands nothing of game design either way. I’m sure there are plenty of ways to make it fair. From “add a saving throw, or even two, for critical failures if there are many checks” to “there’s a feat you can take that removes critical failures”
Khyrin
See, the DM gets to PICK the bad thing…
This came up in a game of Exalted I run last Friday. Critical Failures are actually part of the rules, and someone managed to crit-fail in combat( a phrase which here means “you have more 1’s than 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s”): The result: “Your bowstring came loose. As you are a chosen of the Unconquered Sun, I say that you can spend an attack action fixing that, and then take your final shot in your three-arrow flurry attack.”
Hephaistos Fnord
In my 5E games, I use proficiency dice instead of flat modifiers (per Unearthed Arcana), so a level 1-4 character rolls 1d20+1d4, going up to +1d6 at 5-8, +1d8 at 9-12, +1d10 at 13-16 and +1d12 at 17-20, with expertise adding an additional die (so, for example, d20+2d6). A fumble only happens when the d20 and *all* proficiency/expertise dice roll ‘1’s. For multi-attacks, this actually makes the chance of mishap scale *down* with level rather than up, as the probability of rolling ‘1’ on successively larger dice tends to outscale the number of attacks being made.
Mopey
5e Dungeon Master’s Guide, page 242: “Critical Success or Faliures”
Sure, it’s optional and suggested only for saving throws and ability checks, but i IS in the books.
Zaxares
I use that rule, but with the addition that a Natural 1 in and of itself is not necessarily TOO bad. Getting 1 means that you roll again. Missing the target again means that something went wrong; you either hit the person next to them (which could be an ally, or another enemy). Getting a SECOND 1 means that something went VERY wrong, like you stabbed yourself in the leg.
Johnny Austin
I have only played a game for 10 minutes, I was passing through a house where a game was going on and died a few turns after my first encounter.
With a flower, of all things.
It seems, to me in my total ignorance, that these events occur as opportunities for experience points for other players. And to give high powered characters problems that need some other solution other than force.
Depending on your actions the story changes course. Maybe the dragon can talk. And has no interest in the loot in the cave. He’s just crashing in the cave for the weekend, he’s on his way north to spawn.
He tells you of the dragon life cycle.
After being spawned onto a volcano they form oyster like shells
These hatch out tiny dragons , many of which are eaten by birds and other creatures.
Maybe one in a thousand will survive till adulthood.
After spawning it dies.
It says, for being so kind as to share the deer you killed fo dinner it will repay you in allowing you to loot its corpse.
It informs you that, because it is giving you itself willingly, armour made of its scales will give the wearer the power to fly.
Or you can fight it and get 1000 gold each, or a chance at throwing a natural 1 and being a liability.
…I think dotty’s jacket would fit amber. If Walky switched shoes with her the blue boots would disappear into his ensemble.
Then she’s just a tired girl In yellow pants passed out from shock.
woobie
looks like a Doc Ock arm.
Queen Anthai
shit
OtterBoy1
I have no creative comments at this point
Opus the Poet
Commenting on the art (“creative”) this is about the best example of “exhausted” face I have seen in comics in a long time. And has been established I’m Old with a capital “Ohhh”.
Mra
Sleep deprivation is catching up to her.
Doctor_Who
‘Bout the only thing catching up in this strip.
Strangeshapes
Well, and this is Amber, not AG; she’s not the one trained for this, is she?
Needfuldoer
She still has to be physically capable of throwing the hook. It looks like her technique was okay, but that van must be going close to 50 MPH and still gaining speed. Even if she wasn’t so tired, there’s no way that would connect.
The last couple strips have just been acts of desperation. Blaine got away as soon as he started the van.
ValdVin
Yep. If it’s going 50mph, she has to throw it faster than 75 feet per second. That’s a heck of distance and speed with a grappling hook.
Some1
That’s about what I expected. Good show.
Yenklette
Yeah, and probably the best-case scenario.
Mra
I don’t suppose anyone caught the licence plate?
Doctor_Who
No, but the van had a bumper sticker that said “My Daughter Is An Honor Student” except “Honor Student” was crossed out with sharpie and replaced with “miserable failure who will never amount to anything and I bet she ends up being some low ranking stooge for the Korean mob and her glasses look stupid and I’m not projecting, you’re projecting!”.
There can’t be more than, like, two or three of those on the road.
Reltzik
Unfortunately it’s kinda hard to make out that distinguishing feature, given how small the writing is.
Needfuldoer
Dumbing of Age book 10: My Daughter is a Miserable Failure Who Will Never Amount to Anything and I Bet She Ends Up Being Some Low Ranking Stooge for the Korean Mob and Her Glasses Look Stupid and I’m Not Projecting, You’re Projecting!
Dark
Finally, some realism.
Far too late, but y’know. Take what we can get.
Antonio Tyler
This is a comic where two of the characters routinely jump out of windows, one attackes a man with a rifle by pretending to be a raptor, and college freshmen are smarter than other adults, and you’re worried about “realism”?
Nathan West
Me, thinking about many of the college freshman and many of the adults I know: eh, I’ll allow it.
Dark
I’ve been concerned about realism since Blaine got kicked in the chest by Amber and physics got totally disregarded because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Drakontis
Bulletproof doesn’t mean kickproof. Kevlar is designed to disperse the kinetic energy of bullets, not kicks or punches. Unless he somehow managed to get the ceramic plates, but even then, it’s still not really designed for that. He’d still get most of the impact.
Needfuldoer
I think it’s probably an armored, Kevlar-reinforced motorcycle jacket. Not bulletproof, but designed to protect against abrasion and (to an extent) spread blunt impacts out over a larger area. They’re also readily available, reasonably priced, and easy to get hold of.
Fay
Yep, and the kick would still knock him back, and that vest wouldn’t do much for him slamming into the wall/ground, especially if he hit his head.
Jamie
Go write a story about slowly dying while breathing out of a ventilator or something, geez.
Dark
…What?
Kyrik Michalowski
I think they’re implying if you want a more gritty and realistic story to make it yourself.
Dark
I don’t want a gritty realistic story. I want a story that makes sense and doesn’t just throw logic and reason out the window.
Y’know. A slice-of-life story.
Suzi
Pretty sure this has never been slice of life. This has been about Joyce and her overcoming her religious brainwashing, with a smorgasbord of other fucked up kids trying to figure their shit out.
Rani
That’s also a great story idea. Jesus, I wonder where it went?
thejeff
It’s still around, don’t worry. It’s just not exactly this arc.
Though we’ll see it tie in when Joyce talks to her mom about her kidnapping.
ktbear
Jeez Dark, it’s a comic strip not a freakin reality TV show. Does Superman being able to fly make sense to you? Or the fact he can get hit in the chest by a tank gun and not even be knocked back a step make sense to you? Cause it doesn’t to me, but I seem to manage to enjoy the stories anyway.
Lumino
Superman isn’t billed as a “Semi Normal” comic. It’s billed as a superhero universe, which is why we don’t flip out when Superman catches somebody at the last second and doesn’t kill them anyway due to inertia.
When you start blatantly ignoring physics and reality in a comic that’s attempting to play closer to reality, it can be jarring to the readers.
Nono
DoA usually has real life physics and deals with a lot of issues we see in real life – racism, homophobia, religious upbringing, etc. So yes, people’s mindsets are tuned to the idea that most of the things happening in DoA are things you’d expect to be able to happen in real life. Even Amber’s superhero antics are usually explained in-story; she took self-defense classes, her trauma has a backstory, and so on.
So when Amazi-Girl sequences happen and most of those ‘realistic’ things get thrown out the window, yes, people are going to notice that shift, and it’s going to affect them. This isn’t new – it happened during the car chase when Becky was kidnapped, but people gave it a slight pass. This time though, it’s going on for a much longer period of time and it’s going to be bothering people more, especially since for half of this stuff to happen a lot of the characters are holding the idiot ball.
Sombrero
Slice-of-superhero-life is kind of a little bit different.
Opus the Poet
Realism, for this reality.
Kinoko
Um, wow, that’s pretty harsh. I kinda feel like Dark has a bit of a point?
I’m a-okay with suspending my disbelief, I just wanna be aware of when I should be suspending it.
That said, it doesn’t detract much from the comic for me personally.
Reaver
Why are you expecting gritty realism? This isn’t a DC comic where no fun is allowed..
Strangeshapes
I agree. I understand folks saying this isn’t usual, but Willis literally said as much at the beginning of the arc and even told folks when to come back if it wasn’t going to be their bag. I don’t find this less realistic than hanging onto a car via a bat-hook.
Nono
I think people expected the warning to be more ‘hey this may be a little distressing, it’s okay to come back later’ and less ‘hey this might throw physics out the window’.
Johnny Austin
Does anyone know what happens when you throw physics out the window?
Do it’s own laws apply to itself at that point,
The laws no longer apply within the framework from which they have been thrown.
Or are they like a phone, they only stop working when they hit the ground,
(Sorry been reading a comic about metaphysics….)
I always thought the people in comics could do all that stuff because they were two dimensional and made of ink.
As was shown in the slice of life documentary film “who framed roger rabbit?”
Kintrex
DoA was originally billed as a more realistic take compared to Roomies and Shortpacked. It’s been realistic for a long time.
thejeff
It’s also had a superhero doing superhero stunts and using superhero tropes practically as long. It lacks the Walkyverse’s aliens and powers, so it’s certainly more realistic in that sense, but it’s never been a strictly slice of college life strip.
Reaver
Plus at this point, telling Willis it’s bad and you don’t like it is just..silly, the buffer is huge, and he’s proven time and time again that he knows people might not like it, but damn it he’s telling his story anyways.
He’s not just gonna read a comment and go ‘Oh dang they’re right this is getting a little crazy cakes, time to start re writing the plot”
Mehe
Oh no.
Ucchan
Well … ☹️
Bicycle Bill
All together now…..
DAMN YOU, WILLIS!!
abysswatcher1993
I AM NOT GIVING HIM THE SATTISFACTION.
FUCK YOU WILLIS!!!!
Kyrik Michalowski
I seriously doubt Blaine will hurt Joyce if only because he needs a living hostage. Either way, fleeing the scene is only a temporary solution. What is Blaine going to do next?
Mra
I don’t think much forethought was put into this action
Doctor_Who
Yeah, basically nothing we’ve seen so far has painted Blaine as someone who carefully considers the consequences of his actions.
Ron again
Or someone capable of making a quick and correct decision…