***Of course, this comics refers to the game, Project Ninja Panda Taco. Famed for its successful Kickstarter and mentioned on an episode of Gamer to Gamer.But, mostly, I'm poking fun at D&D Next. I hate the name "Next".It's kinda terrible. Yes, they just want to call it "Dungeons & Dragons" and avoid calling it "5th Edition" because of the negative stigma and connotations the gaming community has heaped upon the term "edition". Edition wars and the like.However, we've already had an edition that was just called "Dungeons & Dragons". In point of fact, we've had two edition just called "Dungeons & Dragons, which we refer to as "OD&D" and "Basic" as a means to differentiate between them and distinguish from discussion of the game as a whole. If they don't call it 5th edition, everyone will call it 5e anyway just to clarify what they're talking about.The only way to avoid calling it AD&D 5th Edition is to call it Basic D&D 6th Edition, or start a whole new line. Revised D&D 1st Edition or something.Anyway, this is all beside the point. Really, if you take away one thing from this comic and post it should be this: the Wizards of the Coast logo is hard to draw. Really. Give it a try. I tried a half-dozen times and it always looked terrible.
***A little 3rd Edition teasing today.It was noted in 3e that a cat was CR 1/4 while a human commoner was somewhere around CR 1/3. Which meant, all things being equal, a house cat could kick the crap out of a grown human being. Okay, the game only referred to "cats", which meant it could just as easily refer to feral cats living in the mean alleys of Waterdeep and not necessarily the contemporary domesticated and pampered Mr. Whiskers. Even then, the average medieval tabby kept as a pet was likely a skilled mouser and trained killing machine.
***The "bag o' rats" is one of the sillier ways some D&D players try and mess with the reality of their game world. I don't know of anyone who actually used a bag of rats, and personally consider it more of a "thought experiment", but you never know what a player will try.The bag works like this: the PC has a power that triggers off the death of an enemy. They kill something and a power triggers. Like a raging charge or extra attack or some other bonus. So, the cheap solution is to just carry a bag of rats and kill one whenever you need the power to activate.
***Vecna is a classic D&D villain.Not being a major D&D lore junkie, I'm uncertain if the artifacts attributed to him came first, or the evil plots and story. I believe it was quite late in the game's early history before he appeared in an adventure, but that doesn't mean he wasn't huge in a homegame or the magazines. Vecna is most famous for his artifacts. The Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna. The cool hook behind them was that they could replace missing body parts. You can imagine them being introduced to the game after an evil DM removed a hand from a player, oinly to have it replaced with an evil magic item. Although, there is the cool dilemma of finding the item first and then having to do some self-surgery to use the artifact. Amusingly, the day after I drew this comic I ran my Ravenloft homegame, and removed a PC's eye. Fate?
***I would just like to say, on my initial pencil sketching, the cow's head looked awesome. It was a great cow. It's cow mamma would have been proud. Somewhere when inking and tweaking I lost all the awesome. The body was always poorly proportioned and I didn't notice until looking at the much smaller picture.
