The wear and tear of campaigning

Hard traveling men.
Credit: Wikipedia.

Inspired by this post I read last night from Erik Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern: Does Anyone Use Real Life Illnesses / Viruses in Their Campaign?. Oh, the things one thinks of when they're sick.

As I sit here, waiting for my next "call to nature", it occurs to me that the only times I've seen illness / viruses / flus and the like in an RPG campaign, it been as part of a plot hook.

I don't ever recall an adventuring party getting sidelined by dysentery, a flu, the norovirus (love ya dude, but you are more than welcome to take your leave now) or any such run of the mill illness.

It got the gerbil running in its wheel and I started to think about the other riggers a hard traveling, hard fighting party of adventures might face. Footwear, for example, would probably have to be replaced at least once or twice a year, depending on what kind of paces they're put through. Clothes would likely fair worse, especially given frequent combat. Then there's personal hygiene. Questing would work up a mighty sweat and unless a party bathes regularly, villagers (and monsters!) would undoubtedly smell them coming from a mile away!

What the super ladies of DC Comics do when they're not fighting crime

Credit: Kyle Latino.

I found this on Rended Press while perusing Gothridge Manor's blogroll. This piece of awesomeness was drawn by Kyle Latino and it is just great. I really like the retro touches - the old style Mountain Dew cans, the Pizza Hut box (mwschmeer of Rended Press pointed that one out in his blog post) and Wonder Woman's DM screen. Class wise, I think Batgirl would probably be a rogue class. Alternatively, maybe a paladin. Black Canary a bard, Zatanna would obviously be a wizard, and Hawkgirl a fighter.

This is awesome.

There's a new webcomic called Table Titans and it's about D&D

Valerie Bronzebottom is a delight.
Credit: Table Titans.

Table Titans is a comic created by Scott Kurtz, who writes and draws another webcomic called PvP, and Wizards of the Coast. It's based on a storyline he did for PvP that I posted about last year where a trio of D&D players play through a almost mythical module for fame and to be unbanned from their FLGS. The storyline proved to be so popular, WoTC asked Kurtz if he'd do a new series revolving around the characters.

Credit: PvP*.

I can't really pass judgement on the comic yet, since it just started and aside from the original storyline, there are only two new strips. However, the original strips were pretty good, so I sort of recommend it. What's interesting about Table Titans, though, is the "Tales from the Table" feature. People can submit their favorite D&D stories (no idea if you can submit tales from other tabletop games) and they'll be posted on the site. I've read the ones they have now and honestly, most aren't all that great. Some are amusing, but the rest just aren't. There's another feature called Bestiary, which talks about different D&D monsters.

So, what do you think? Is Table Titans worth reading or an epic fail?

*I'll linkback to the strip as soon as Kurtz fixes his website.