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Holy Crap! I saw today's strip here before checking the site itself, and honestly thought Umbra Dubium had just shopped something to mess with everybody. This is...I did not see this coming.
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Apr 16, 2011 00:50
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This strip was beautiful. Just beautiful. Alchenar posted:He used to be 'Homer Simpson' dumb, now he's... ADHD dumb? He has plenty of insight now so his dumb moments seem to come from him either not paying attention or just noticing something irrelevant but new. Hmm. Reverse Flanderization?
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Aug 17, 2011 21:52
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Okay, hands up if you thought that the punch-line was going to involve the Belt of Gender-Bending. 
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Aug 30, 2011 06:07
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MikeJF posted:Hey, will Haley have been awake and aware of her surroundings whilst stoned? According to experts, she'll be awake but kinda drowsy, and intensely aware of (and interested in) the most minute details of her surroundings. Afterwards, she'll get really hungry. Elan had better figure out a way to get those levels back quick, or he could end up being a hindrance to the group. On the other hand, didn't Roy just lose some levels too? Maybe the whole team is going to be de-leveled eventually; at least that way, they'd be even. 
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Sep 16, 2011 05:44
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So...are we supposed to wonder about the guy sitting 5 rows down, 3 columns over in the sixth panel?
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Oct 5, 2011 09:05
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Effingham posted:
All yawns are communicable, you silly person. Also, Elan has not considered the possibility of a sister named Lena. I'm sure that as we speak, thousands of teenage fanfic writers are rectifying this.
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Oct 24, 2011 21:59
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Elan's happy ending: His father ends up re-married to his mother and they adopt Roy, thus making Elan and Roy "for real" brothers. Roy gets to live with Elan and Haley and their brood of mini-Elans forever and ever and ever and ever...
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Feb 12, 2013 06:49
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I admit, I'm on the fence as to whether the comment foreshadows Malack or not. Bony, yes; Black robe, check. Scythe, though? Not unless he keeps it in hammerspace, from what I can see. And while Rich does do a lot of subtle foreshadowing, Roy's line *could* just be about Belkar dying, and therefore the Grim Reaper connection *could* just be a coincidence. After all, Roy wouldn't know *how* Belkar is going to die, so his comment there can't be as significant as "I have an important client flying in" or "When the goat turns Red strikes true".
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Feb 15, 2013 04:15
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jng2058 posted:I don't think anyone's saying they think Roy is making a legitimate prophecy here. I do, however, think it's possible that Rich planned to have Malack whack Belkar and threw in a clue about that in advance. Oh, I get that, I do; I didn't think Roy was meant to be prophesying (other than "Belkar will die"). I just felt that it was more likely to be a coincidence than the example of "There are two black dragons" followed by "and here is the second one!" Even if Belkar does end up dying at Malack's hands, I'll probably remain uncertain about whether that line was a deliberate clue, or just a throw-away gag that bears some accidental resemblance to a later plot development. (Although, if Malack does suddenly pull out a scythe, that would tilt the odds in favor of "It was intentional foreshadowing".) Rich is a genius; I'm not disputing that. I just don't know how tangential his foreshadowing gets, since the only examples I'm aware of have more solid connections between the type of hint and the pay-off (e.g., the oracle stating he was expecting a client, and the dragon stating she visited the oracle). By contrast, David Willis once foreshadowed that a character was an alien by having a poster in the background which contained an arrow which happened to be pointing at the character. Now *that* was tangential foreshadowing, since no-one in-universe would have had a reason to see it as a clue, and If I knew Rich had handled foreshadowing this way before, I'd be more swayed. Does this make sense? Sorry, it's rather late, and I'm trying to explain my thoughts as best I can.
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Feb 15, 2013 07:07
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jng2058 posted:No, no, I get it. Thing is, I'd swear I read in some of those chapter notes in the books that Rich does play those kind of subtle hint games, purely for his own amusement. You're right! I think I found one: Eric with the toy Black Dragon in #600, pretending it's eating someone, no less. Not a direct Chekhov's Gun like the oracle's comment, but definitely foreshadowing. Ergo, I stand corrected and thus find it that much more plausible that Roy's line could have been a nod to Malack. I'm not 100% convinced, but it's at least over 50% now.
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Feb 16, 2013 06:07
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Caerulius posted:Why is your Hroar naked? It's so he can be invisible! Weren't you paying attention?
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Feb 17, 2013 19:08
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sebmojo posted:The Order of the Stake. I'd read it.
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Feb 19, 2013 03:22
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Patchwork Shaman posted:Malack clearly said he should make more childREN, which is plural. So maybe Mr. Scruffy's getting the bite next. Can vampire rangers have vampire animal companions in DnD? Also, I'm tweaking my prediction of Elan's happy ending: Malack turns the entire Order before all is said and done, but Elan decides that being a Vampire is actually pretty cool, and the best part is that, since Malack is their "father", he and Roy are now Vampire Brothers! ETA: Either way, I am calling it now that he and Roy will end up somehow related. Is there a (clerical?) spell in DnD that lets you change who your relatives are? Because I think that's where Elan is going to take Roy's advice to "find family among those who are good". (I also wonder how significant it is that Roy speculated that Eric would have been a bard had he lived. And that both Eric and Elan's names begin with 'E' and are two syllables long. Come to think, they pretty much act the same age, too.) TheAceOfLungs fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Feb 20, 2013 |
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Feb 20, 2013 07:14
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Call Now posted:Yes, but the choice is very limited Okay, that is just awesome. Now I wish I could gm a DnD game just so I could say "...and out from the shadows steps the count, accompanied by his squid familiar."
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Feb 21, 2013 03:12
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CapnAndy posted:whose rule would be handed down to Elan and Elan's heirs, who would slowly but surely make the unified continent into someplace that isn't horrible and reliant on constant wars and slaving. For some reason, I read that as "constant wars and shaving".  I don't think Elan could rule a country well enough to fix the problems caused by both his father and the region's own natural state of being. Haley might be of some help, but I just don't see either of them as monarchs. Well...competent monarchs, anyway. Also, given that Belkar is unconscious and Durkon is not a vampire, they are clearly both toast right now.
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Feb 27, 2013 07:23
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jng2058 posted:Nope. When a paladin says you're a "good man" then you're at worst Neutral, maybe even Good. No way is MitD actually Evil, especially since O-Chul can magically determine if that is so. But then why would Xykon have him on the team?
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Mar 2, 2013 19:57
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Brannock posted:I always figured she was a woman after we met Inkyrius who is pretty clearly a man. Yeah, Inky struck me as a bit masculine, too...although, so does V, a little. (Of course, this perception could just be an effect of all the anime/manga I used to follow).
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Mar 3, 2013 23:28
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Pyrolocutus posted:Malack vamps Durkon, Durkon vamps Belkar, Dukron and Belkar gang up on Malack and pulverize him, then set off into the world in a spinoff entitled Durkon and Belkar's Lovably Whacky Vampire Adventures. Stop tempting me with awesome comics that don't exist!
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Mar 5, 2013 06:27
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Guys, I think Durkon returning home as a vampire might just be what fulfills the prophecy... By the way, what's this about the previous gate-keepers being trapped in a gem, and where in the comic has this gem been seen?
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Mar 9, 2013 04:19
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tripwood posted:Died? Or was taken by the rift? All this time, I'd thought the rift had turned Kraagor into stone. Only just now did I realize that was probably just a statue.  Re: Alignment Debate - can we agree that Rich is deconstructing the notions of Good and Evil, and get back to guessing what will happen to Durkon or the gate? I'm wondering if Rich is going to subvert our expectations of the final showdown happening at the last gate, and if it will be resolved here after all just because we think it won't. Also, given that the fiends specifically own V's soul and not necessarily his body, is it not plausible that V will merely be yanked out of his body and bound to another wizard/sorcerer, the way those other guys were bound to him?
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Mar 14, 2013 20:40
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Zonekeeper posted:In the event they manage to break out of the spell, I think Belkar will be instrumental. He's not savvy enough to realize he can disbelieve illusions to get rid of them, but of everyone in the group I think he's the most likely to realize something's wrong here. The dream is designed to keep you inside by giving you everything you ever wanted and putting you in a situation where you'd never want to leave the illusion. Belkar got screwed over, so that aspect of the illusion can't prevent him from wanting to break out. This is so brilliant, that it's probably better than what we're actually going to get. Personally, I think Elan is dying; for real, punch-the-audience-in-the-stomach dying. This is his happy ending, and since Elan is a nice boy who wants his friends to be happy, he's including what he knows they want as well. He knows Haley wants to fix the thieves' guild. He knows Roy wants recognition. As for his mother being named Elan's mother, everyone knows that a mom's real name is Mommy. We're dwelling on this fantasy because it's the last chance we'll ever get of seeing Elan, much less seeing him happy, so the best kindness is to milk it for all it's worth. This is what I foretell. Also, did anyone notice V is clearly wearing a dress? ETA: ^^I see someone else caught it, too. TheAceOfLungs fucked around with this message at 17:33 on May 17, 2013 |
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May 17, 2013 17:29
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Kajeesus posted:From a narrative perspective, it won't work. "Belkar will draw his last breath" can pretty much only be satisfactorily resolved with his death or subverted by his becoming a non-breathing creature. "...Because he's going to change his name to Steve," "...Because he'll gain a point of wisdom on his next levelup and change alignment to chaotic neutral and become a totally different person" or "...Because even though he'll live for another 60 years, he's going to end up travelling back in time and dying in the pyramid as an old man" are all possible subversions of the prophecy, too, but none of them are going to happen because they'd all be really disappointing. Actually, the time-travel thing would be pretty neat. (Sadly, it goes against "He shouldn't invest in his 401K".)
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May 18, 2013 01:00
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Well, good thing I don't gamble, or I'd have lost all my money. I was so sure this was Elan's curtain call. Still, this was some good character development for him, and frankly, I'm glad I was wrong. Er...does he still have Oracle Immunity after all this, do you think? After all, this clearly wasn't an actual ending, but then again...JohnnyCanuck posted:It'd be pretty lovely if Belkar died while they were all tranced. Isn't there an old wives' tale about dying in your dreams? On the one hand, he is still standing up, but on the other hand, we can't see his eyes. Would it even be possible for him to be dead yet still standing up? ETA: Undeath aside. TheAceOfLungs fucked around with this message at 00:43 on May 21, 2013 |
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May 21, 2013 00:40
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sebmojo posted:It just occurred to me that the pyramid full of illusions is where everyone is seeing things as they actually are. Well, let's see: Elan realizes the truth about his family, so Ok. V gets a revelation about the Draketooths' connection to the black dragon, so s/he can count towards that, too. You could also include Durkon finding out his BFF is a vampire, if you feel so inclined. Roy and Haley haven't really had any eye-popping revelations or realizations, though, and I'm not too sure about Belkar. That's only half of everyone, then (Although, the night is still young). Still, the biggest moment of truthiness happened for Elan, who is himself the illusionist of the group. An illusionist seeing things as they are in the pyramid of illusions? Does that work just as good?
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May 22, 2013 05:31
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So Roy thinks Belkar is Frank Millar? Fascinating.
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May 26, 2013 04:17
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As much as I love strip speculation, we have an official statement on one of the forum threads concerning whether or not Belkar dreamed about being in CG paradise:The Giant posted:It's not the afterlife. It's Shojo's quarters, as previously seen in one of the bonus strips in War and XPs.
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May 26, 2013 06:06
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ColdPie posted:I don't think he was trying to call you silly. He was just clarifying. The strip as it stands is ambiguous, but I'm not sure it really matters. Yeah, that's the impression I get. It's probably just a minor gag that Rich doesn't feel is important enough to elaborate on in the strip itself, and while anybody can get the gist of it, only those who buy the books will get it completely. I can respect that...in theory. Given all the fan-theories flying around about Belkar's fate and state of mind, having a panel like that here is like smoking next to a leaky gas pump.
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May 26, 2013 22:22
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Johnny Aztec posted:Then you should make your own "Gender issues in Webcomics" thread, and leave it out of here. I'd follow that thread. Personally, I never noticed anything amiss with women in OotS. The women are strong characters who get to do much more than just look pretty and serve the men, and there's never been an indication that women as a group are inferior to men as a group. As a feminist, I'm satisfied.
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May 28, 2013 19:39
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W.T. Fits posted:The translation note for that particular cryptogram in the printed collection is: Okay, so the joke is that it's a four-letter word. The end. I think we can agree on the following: 1. Gender politics is complicated. 2. Some people are too over-sensitive to these issues, while others are too insensitive. As for whether Rich is a misogynist; if we interpret that to mean "One who actively hates women and/or sees them as insignificant/objects", the answer is obviously No. Rich's female characters are too nuanced, competent, and plot-important to support that belief. Is he sexist, though? Maybe. I don't know the man. For what it's worth, I think the Avenue Q song about racism could probably be applied to sexism as well. Regarding his word choices, I never thought anything of it before, since calling someone a bitch/whore/etc. generally means "You are a bad woman," whereas a racial insult like the n-word means "You are black, and that itself is bad." It's not really the same thing, context-wise. *Steps down from soapbox*
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May 29, 2013 03:08
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RentACop posted:History's greatest monster Well, what else is there to do between updates?  ETA: Ponsonby Britt posted:I don't think it's useful to label people as racist or sexist or whatever. People are complicated - they act differently in different situations. And people can say racist or sexist things without intending to be sexist. I think it's better to label the act as sexist or not. This way, we recognize that even people (like Burlew) who generally act in non-sexist ways can slip up; and we keep the focus on the specific harms of the sexist act in question, instead of getting sidetracked into long, unproductive arguments about what the author really meant or whether the author should be pigeonholed as sexist or feminist. I actually disagree with this. A person can hold a deep, internal opinion: that group X is a certain way. This belief will result in certain actions being done or words being said. It can be anything from "this is how X talk" to "X are inferior to Y and should all die horribly". Actions are symptoms, not isolated cases independent of each other. Ponsonby Britt posted:So I think that we can definitively say that the use of gendered insults is sexist. Gendered insults are, to me, a subtype of gendered language. Just as the spanish use Chico/Chicka and Amigo/Amiga, we English speakers use Jerk/Witch and their stronger counterparts. It does not convey anything about the gender, other than that the target is a member of it. Although, I do acknowledge that the word "whore" is a product--only a product, mind you--of sexist biases. Ponsonby Britt posted:We use "bitch" as an insult, because it literally (and metaphorically) compares a woman to a sub-human animal. But we don't use "dog" as an insult for men, because men are the baseline definition of human. (And when we do call men "dogs", it's usually a compliment about their sexual promiscuity.) Only in English, my friend. Try calling an Arabic-speaker a dog, and see whether he high-fives you or punches you in the face. Also, I think the logic you apply here could be reversed: Calling a woman an animal brings her down, and is therefore an insult. Calling a man an animal has no meaning, because men are animals anyway. Ponsonby Britt posted:And I have to disagree with your gloss on "bitch/whore/etc" versus the n-word. It may not happen in your social circle, but there are plenty of people out there who use "bitch" or "whore" as a blanket, negative descriptor of all women. Hm, perhaps. The words themselves still carry specific meanings, though: "dog-like". "Promiscuous". It's not like the n-word, which only told you a phenotype and left you to fill in the "obvious" short-comings yourself. TheAceOfLungs fucked around with this message at 05:29 on May 29, 2013 |
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May 29, 2013 05:10
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jng2058 posted:Now this is something worth talking about in this thread. Oooh, I hadn't thought of that! Well, the pyramid is kind of like a maze, anyway, isn't it? Could the LG simply be lost? ETA: Sorries for my contributions to the derail; I like a good debate, but I can see now that this topic is too big for casual discussion on a webcomic thread. Handshakes all around? TheAceOfLungs fucked around with this message at 19:40 on May 29, 2013 |
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May 29, 2013 19:38
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That was the best punchline we've had in a while.  Poor Elan, so unused to praise.
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May 30, 2013 19:57
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Ursine Asylum posted:That makes me wonder if there are going to be any other "life lessons" learned from the time they "spent" in there that will end up applied retroactively. "Hey, guys, remember that scene in the dream where we resurrected the Draketooth clan and they told us everything about how to control the gate?"
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May 31, 2013 02:32
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Cliff Racer posted:latte mushroom Super Mario Bros. just hasn't been the same since Starbucks bought the franchise.
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Jun 3, 2013 03:14
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Hmm. What are the odds that the skeleton they searched wasn't really Girard after all, just a decoy, and the gate really is between his cheeks?
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Jun 19, 2013 04:26
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Is it too soon to start asking if Rich is okay?
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Jul 5, 2013 17:40
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Colon V posted:Yeah, give it until the thread goes off-topic. Other Posters posted:Stuff about Hetalia, MLP, Homestuck. Ahem. Gee, I hope Rich is okay.  (...Did it work?)
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Jul 9, 2013 00:15
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e X posted:Oh come on guys, the last strip is barely even a week old. I know the "summon update by worrying about Rich's health" was a fun little game to pass time when the comic was on semi-hiatus, but when you do it while we are on a pretty regular schedule, it just comes across as whiny. Fair enough, though given the high stakes surrounding these most recent cliff-hangers, I reserve the right to whine just a little bit. [whine]  [/whine]Okay, I'm done.
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Jul 9, 2013 03:23
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Magnificent. Simply magnificent. Hrm, where did Redcloak put the real phylactery, again? I know Xykon hid the fake, but did Redcloak actually say what his plans were in that regard?
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Jul 11, 2013 21:20
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Okay, as someone who's never had an opportunity to actually play DnD, can someone please explain to me this concept of negative hit points? I mean, if hit points are basically your health, and you have 0, then you're effectively dead, right? What's left to take away? I just don't understand.
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Jul 12, 2013 00:01
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