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It's a better excuse than "because that's what I rolled on the D20 table in the book"...
(comicpress.socksandpuppets.com)
I really like random D20 tables of little character details and flavour accents - it only takes a couple of small details to make a character feel unique.
I'm only now following this comic series since I didn't follow any DND subreddits. Why did Konsi's tribe try to kill her?
I didn’t discuss this in the comic so here’s some details.
Our setting is basically unmodified Forgotten Realms. In FR, basically all goblins are spiritually bound to Maglubiyet. His priests teach goblins that all other gods are false (and their teachings are backed up by the other gods ignoring the faith of goblins.)
Goblins in FR have a specific hatred of priests, targeting them preferentially in battle.
When Konsi was very young, she found (trinket 58) a magical stick at the bottom of a swamp (this later turned out to be half of a celestial artefact) - she thought it looked shiny so kept it, and started having holy visions on occasion.
The tribe’s priest thought she was receiving Maglubiyet’s attention, so took her as an apprentice. However, more and more often, her dreams led her to question his indoctrination- and he grew to realise that she was connected to something else. He ordered her parents to drown her, which they tried do.
During the execution, on the boundary between life and death, is the moment Tymora spoke to her for the first time, offering to save her in return for service. Tymora made it look like Konsi had died (e.g. the “Feign Death” spell - causing the tribe to discard her body, and letting her escape.
As a more general thing about these comics.:
I've been drawing comics for a pretty long time, and I've always aimed for a mostly stand-alone format where every strip has a joke by itself, and you don't need to read anything else to understand them - with the content being a mix of bad jokes I've written, and nerdy stuff.
Over those years I've gone through multiple DnD parties, and characters, and generally I've used whichever characters I'm currently playing as a vehicle to tell DnD jokes, or I've made comics about funny moments in those campaigns - as such, I never really intended these comics to "tell a story" from one comic to the next, just to be individual funnies.
I try to make them "context free" so you can enjoy the joke in one strip without seeing the others, but sometimes when I need incedental dialogue (i.e. not directly part of the joke) I might make allusions to or reference things from the campaign, just to add a little depth to the characters for people following along and reading everything - That's why I feel comfortable posting them to a "memes" community, there's an individual gag in each one, and something to chat about, so I don't feel bad about posting them.
That was the plan at least - the most recent Konsi comics (while they all have a gag in them individually) work a lot better as an ongoing story.
Your comics are great and I'm always thrilled when a new one pops up on the feed. :)
Do you draw your comics on paper and color with pencils? I don't think I've ever seen coloring it shading like that before.
I do.
I use Bristol board for paper (an expensive super smooth super white heavy paper). Bristol board is very durable, so you can erase pencil work without leaving any marks.
I use a mechanical 2H pencil for sketching, because it’s very hard, if leaves fairly faint, erasable marks.
I use pigment liners to ink the black lines - these are disposable technical drawing pens, they produce a very consistent line in permanent black ink. They’re often referred to as Microns, as they are a popular brand- but I use Derwent Graphik and Mitsubishi Uni-Pin
I use coloursoft pencils for shade. Coloursoft pencils are a high wax acrylic pencil that puts down a LOT of vibrant colour very fast. This is great for comics. They also sharpen to a very sharp point. The downside of coloursofts is that they don’t blend well.
Then I scan, and tweak digitally.
Thanks for the info! My partner has done some pencil work before so I have some higher-end gift ideas if she picks that up again. :)
If you’re looking to get speedy,The Faber Castell polychromos (green in the picture) are very nice, and come in big sets.
If you want value, The Staedtler ergosoft (purple in picture are marketed for kids and are inexpensive, but really good. Downside is only 36 colours.
Ah! Makes sense! The goblins actually having proof that all other gods are false because they are ignored is much easier to swallow than what religious folks spout today. And tbh, I would kill for Konsi, she's a bean and I relate to her a lot.
Ty for taking the time to explain this for me! I personally don't play dnd but I do enjoy the memes and stories people end up with