Page 1151 – Beverage Emergency

FAQ: “Hey Spud, don’t you miss the days of FiD where comic pages got three-digit comments almost every week?“

Me: “No, not really.”

So by now, the divisive Discord discourse is starting to cast for HP instead of mana, and I can see a few battle lines forming. As fascinated as I am by how various alternate interpretations have slowly entrenched into alternate realities, I gotta prioritize keeping my comic’s comment section a civil, unstressful place.

So do you want to know what I think about Discord? Well, I don’t know for sure yet. I haven’t finished writing him. Even if I do come down with a firm judgment… I’m the author. I’m dead. Some of you will choose to see what you want to see regardless.

You’re all seeing the DMs and the players through the lens of your own experiences. Sometimes awful experiences. Players who’ve been problem cases when DMs give it their all. DMs who’ve taken things way too far with total disregard for their players. Cases where there’s a clear villain, and cases where it’s just a matter of playstyles clashing or personal non-cohesion. Even with all the stories told over the many years this comic’s been running, I’ve never seen so many perspectives on this conflict that is perhaps the most central to tabletop roleplaying. I could never have expected all this when I started writing; I’ll admit that freely.

What is Discord, to me? I think I have to say something if I want this discussion to cool down for a while. At this moment, with just a small buffer in front of me, Discord is… well, in some ways, a parody of some of the “genius” DMs I’ve known and heard about over the years, their traits dialed up to 11… and handed a challenging target, which they pursue with all of their ability.

Discord isn’t acting with “evil in his heart,” in my mind… He’s an attack dog. He’s only paying attention to the characters’ reactions and emotions as much as it gives him data to further utilize against them. And he thinks it’s okay because he knows the players are supposed to win in the end and supposedly get a massive, well-earned catharsis out of it. That’s how it’s always worked, for the best villains of the “genius” DMs.

(awkward silence)

Twilight Sparkle: How… did you get here before me?

DM: This is my home. Side-note: I think the party Bard has been stashing mini-coolers around the place and thinks I haven’t noticed. Or maybe she knows I know and doesn’t care. Whatever.

Twilight Sparkle: What in the world are YOU upset about? Hasn’t everything, for once, gone according to your “master plan?“

DM: That’s just it. My old friend did exactly what I asked him. What I wanted. He put his own flair on it, but I’m the one who wrote the outline. So… this is me transitioning from “bargaining” to “depression.”