10/18/07

Happy 100, Purplefire,

Before writing this, I worried about confusing the readers by even posting a rant. “Wait, here’s Blueentity, at the bottom of the page.” In this comic, Blueentity is a minor prop, like the Earth in Star Trek:Voyager or Lost in Space; something to drive the story but doesn’t have any real impact until the very end. If revealed too soon, the author runs the risk of ruining the suspense. Now, I don’t have any problems reading the end of the book first, but some readers prefer to not have spoilers (or at least be “warned” by a spoiler alert).

However I wanted to comment since I found the size of the item pile amusing. It’s too small. Four adventurers, and that’s all you’re bringing? (Now, I’m not complaining about the art - there’s no way I could even come close to drawing an appropriate item pile for a group of stalwart adventures.) Since this story is in a quasi-medieval setting, there probably won’t be stores or marketplaces along the way. Unless this party has other assets or they picked up some gold returning from the bar, most of what they need will have to be in Spam’s backpack, or the magically enhanced bag on someone else’s back.

I think I saw a bedroll, but what about the tents? Anyone who’s ever spent at least a weekend outdoors in the rain knows how valuable a dry place to sleep can be. I remember one wet summer trip when the constant rains soaked my tent and sleeping bag. Fortunately, there was a nearby copse of pine trees where the ground in the middle remained surprisingly dry. The ground was a little pokey to sleep on, but I was able to sleep dry.

Preparing for a journey takes a while, whether it is an RPG or real life. There is a d20 game that I have started to run on Wednesday evenings. The players caught a rumor of a vampire in a nearby cave and panicked,

“We need magical weapons.”
“No, we need silversheen for our weapons.”
“No, that’s too expensive. We should just buy silvered weapons.”
“What about the local shrine’s supply of holy water?”
“Can this small village even afford to have this stuff?” and so on. They discussed for close to 30 minutes trying to decide what to bring. There isn’t going to be a vampire for quite some time, but after watching all of their hard work and planning, I’m considering moving it up to reward their efforts.

For real life, trying to get 5 kids and 2 adults ready for a long trip isn’t too bad. If the trip is longer than one night away, make sure everyone has packed clothes and toiletries the night before. Day of trip, pack food and water and we are pretty much ready to go.

It is the, “Oh, wait, we forgot one more thing.” One more thing? I’ve lost track of how many times “One more thing” equals one more hour of packing. Then again, every time I’ve responded with “That’s enough, let’s just go!” inevitably we will arrive and I will ask for the very item “we” forgot. Fortunately Pink is gracious enough to not say “I told you so”.