DM of the Rings

October 27, 2007 1:19 PM

DM of the Rings (comic). The Lord of the Rings if it were a Dungeons and Dragons game.

Mentioned twice in comments on MeFi, but never actually FPP'ed.

posted by Bugbread (65 comments total)

This is probably one of the funniest comics I have ever read. Good writing, and fine attention to detail.
posted by KokuRyu at 1:22 PM on October 27, 2007

If? What do you mean, if?
posted by loquacious at 1:33 PM on October 27, 2007

"Please, please don't say we met in a tavern."

LOLZ.
posted by brain cloud at 1:51 PM on October 27, 2007

Darths & Droids
posted by homunculus at 1:53 PM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Is this something I'd need a neckbeard to understand?
posted by phrontist at 1:57 PM on October 27, 2007

Oh man, I just got infected with dorktastic and now my Charisma is only 6.
posted by Nelson at 2:02 PM on October 27, 2007 [3 favorites]

My fave webcomic. Surprised it hadn't been fpp'd.
posted by dreamsign at 2:13 PM on October 27, 2007

aragorn has a +4,239,258 on teh hott.

he can cast his magic missle at me anytime.
posted by CitizenD at 2:16 PM on October 27, 2007

Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D

Epic fail.
posted by Slothrup at 2:22 PM on October 27, 2007

Wow, the bickering between the DM and the players is spot on.

It’s great that you took the time to come up with “Count Devron Masuvius Beldamor the III, High Magester of the Realms of Greeenwood”, but you need to realize that the players are just going to refer to him as “that wizard guy”, or simply, “Mister fancy-pants”.

Something about this rings true, and I have a newfound sense of gratitude for the Dungeon Masters who--through their vivid imaginations and descriptive skills--brought nuance and complexity to memorable NPCs such as King Jerkface, The Half-Elf's Brother, Woman Who Can Tell Us Where the Secret Passageway to the Vault Is, and Dude We Are Supposed to Kill.
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 2:31 PM on October 27, 2007 [7 favorites]

My monitor barely escaped getting covered in a mouthful of coffee when I got to "I say we kill the fat geezer and sack the town."
posted by lekvar at 2:41 PM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

...good times. good times. =)
posted by ZachsMind at 2:42 PM on October 27, 2007

"The best geek site on the internet. [citation needed]"

I'm really liking this twentysidedtales overall. Surprised I haven't found it before now.
posted by ZachsMind at 2:56 PM on October 27, 2007

Don't miss the special cameo from one of MeFi's Own in the comments of Episode 13...
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:01 PM on October 27, 2007

I loved the DM coaxing the party to camp out on the Weathertop.
posted by slimepuppy at 3:28 PM on October 27, 2007

Shamus and I go way back. I FPPed something else he created one time, and linked to DM of the Rings in comments of that thread.

He's a witty guy. With the end of DM of the Rings, he's now teamed up with an artist to create a different comic. It got off to a rocky, and rather controversial, start, but now it's up to ep 15 and beginning to find its feet. I think it's going to end up being pretty good.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:34 PM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

This is great. Sort of manic, but really witty and well done.
posted by cmgonzalez at 3:40 PM on October 27, 2007

"My own suggestion for the 4.0 edition rules: Anyone who quotes Holy Grail during a session should be made to eat their own character sheet."

Pie Jesu domine dona eis requiem *bonk*

You have not lived until you are witness to a stereotypical D&D gaming session that launches suddenly and without warning into a chorus of We're knights of the round table! We dance whene'er we're able! We do routines and chorus scenes with footwork im-pec-able! We dine well here in Camelot - we eat ham and jam and spam-a-lot!" It's the damnedest thing.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:42 PM on October 27, 2007

Holy shit, is the hand-closeup on this page a real frame from the movie? Peter Jackson sneaked a dice set into LOTR?
posted by Anything at 3:45 PM on October 27, 2007

I attack the darkness!
posted by Balisong at 4:01 PM on October 27, 2007

Uh, I guess not. I'd probably've spotted the Star Wars rulebook.
posted by Anything at 4:04 PM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Awesome. Just awesome. Thanks for the link!
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:06 PM on October 27, 2007

I hate to admit how funny this comic is. I haven't even played D&D in twenty years, apparently it hasn't changed much since then.
posted by octothorpe at 4:12 PM on October 27, 2007

Man, this is awesome. Thanks for the link!
posted by m0nm0n at 4:41 PM on October 27, 2007

Holy shit. That was seriously the funniest thing I have read in ages, It's funny because it's true.
posted by GuyZero at 6:00 PM on October 27, 2007

[this is good]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:41 PM on October 27, 2007

Metafilter: Made from the hide of a Dire HellCow, granting +2 AC
posted by jbickers at 7:02 PM on October 27, 2007

Wow, I just wasted three hours reading that whole thing. Funny stuff but I had planned to get some things done tonight.
posted by octothorpe at 7:07 PM on October 27, 2007

Wow, I just wasted three hours reading that whole thing.

Yeah. No kidding.
posted by GuyZero at 7:57 PM on October 27, 2007

This is just awesome. I would've kept reading if the server hadn't've gone down, as so many have fallen before it.
posted by flatluigi at 8:03 PM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

I make no apologies for my double contraction.
posted by flatluigi at 8:03 PM on October 27, 2007

man that was freakin awesome... right up until the WordPress server choked :(

thanks bugbread.

"My own suggestion for the 4.0 edition rules: Anyone who quotes Holy Grail during a session should be made to eat their own character sheet."

a-fuckin-men.
posted by lonefrontranger at 8:05 PM on October 27, 2007

I usually don't want T-shirts that say anything, but now I want a T-shirt that says "rocks fall everyone dies." That'd so rock!
posted by ZachsMind at 8:05 PM on October 27, 2007

...did we break his server?
posted by ZachsMind at 8:05 PM on October 27, 2007

oh and...

desperately needs a 'nerds' and/or 'dorks' tag, kthxbye!
posted by lonefrontranger at 8:07 PM on October 27, 2007

...we just crashed his server, didn't we? Why do I get a sudden twinge of sick sadistic glee out of that? BEHOLD the power of MeFi! Be mentioned on the front page and watch as your servers crumble! WE ARE METAFILTER! FEAR OUR CLICK! Muahahahahaha!


...he's just down for routine maintenence isn't he? We had nothing to do with this, did we? I'm so disappointed.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:09 PM on October 27, 2007

I had just reached the final strip when the server crashed. Yay.
posted by Memo at 8:16 PM on October 27, 2007

This was serious, concentrated lunch break humor for many weeks and I'm glad to see it appear here on MeFi. I found it was significantly funnier when I avoided the commentary and just stuck to the comments.
posted by christopherious at 8:22 PM on October 27, 2007

Er, just stuck to the comics, not the comments. :)
posted by christopherious at 8:22 PM on October 27, 2007

Pushes the ruptured thing back into his abdomen...
posted by Samizdata at 8:36 PM on October 27, 2007

I have no experience with Dungeons and Dragons, but this all applies almost as well to nethack.
posted by turing_test at 9:42 PM on October 27, 2007

Er, just stuck to the comics, not the comments. :)

Yeah, the commentary made me think he's maybe not such a good GM.
posted by lekvar at 9:45 PM on October 27, 2007

I usually don't want T-shirts that say anything, but now I want a T-shirt that says "rocks fall everyone dies." That'd so rock!
posted by ZachsMind at 10:05 PM on October 27

We had a DM who was fond of saying "Okay, night falls. Everyone take d6 damage."
posted by Ynoxas at 10:11 PM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

I love Shamus' commentary, and the reader comments. The guy's commentary reads to me with similar narrative flair to Watterson's Tenth Anniversary Calvin & Hobbes book. Sometimes humble and sometimes arrogant but always funny.

The comments by other readers is fun to delve into now and then, but over a hundred of them for each strip got old real fast. I skipped most of them but was thankful for the ones I skimmed. Nice input.
posted by ZachsMind at 10:28 PM on October 27, 2007

It's 1 AM and I am now done reading this. A useful waste of my time. Haven't played D&D in a long, long time, but recognized many of the DM tricks, game "features" and player traits...
posted by caution live frogs at 10:54 PM on October 27, 2007

Hmm. I knew the first 30 or so well, having read them on several occasions, but the later stuff really does make me wonder about the DMing skill of this guy.

If you’re having trouble with wayward players derailing your carefully designed plot, you can always fix this by making the game non-interactive.

Non-interactive?! I'm not sure I believe any campaign could withstand this level of railroading.
posted by dreamsign at 1:17 AM on October 28, 2007

Reminds me of The tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo.
posted by Harald74 at 3:45 AM on October 28, 2007

dreamsign writes "the later stuff really does make me wonder about the DMing skill of this guy."

True, but I think it's self-effacing humour. He isn't recommending railroading people because he thinks that's best, he's just taking a poke at his own shortcomings.
posted by Bugbread at 4:24 AM on October 28, 2007

A day later and I'm still reading these and laughing to myself at work. A lot more than I probably should.

How I ever got laid, I will never know.
posted by slimepuppy at 5:12 AM on October 28, 2007

Ynoxas: Do I know you?!?

Wait, of course not. d6 is way too low a damage grade for night falling. It was always several d6s.
posted by absalom at 5:31 AM on October 28, 2007

That brings back so many memories... shouting out to hit scores, having lucky dice, getting told off for being out of character when we started chatting out what was on the TV last during the boring bits and especially having a high-ranking NPC on us and kicking him into every room first, to the annoyance of the DM.

I thought we the only ones...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:00 AM on October 28, 2007

What a hoot! Thanks, bugbread!
posted by Quietgal at 11:24 AM on October 28, 2007

Shamus is a filthy IP thief. A parasite making a name for himself using the creative content of others without compensation. The MPAA should have him locked up for the unauthorized use of their client’s intellectual property.
posted by Tenuki at 2:51 PM on October 28, 2007

Help yourself Tenuki. Just be sure you roll for that initiative and remember that snitches get stitches.
posted by slimepuppy at 3:21 PM on October 28, 2007

Tenuki writes "Shamus is a filthy IP thief. A parasite making a name for himself using the creative content of others without compensation."

Naw, it's cool, there's compensation: Shamus has google ads.
posted by Bugbread at 4:27 PM on October 28, 2007

Why do I have this sudden urge to give Tenuki a hot foot? I'm not a violent man, really. Tenuki must be a troll trying to pick a fight in here. As Shamus puts it, "I don’t know if they didn’t notice or didn’t care, but I am so glad they didn’t unleash the lawyers and spoil our fun." If he was literally telling the story verbatim, I'd see a reason to complain, but he was telling an entirely different story. This is parody. This is satire. This is making fun of not the movie or the books, but the concept that D&D is arguably supposed to be derivative of Tolkein's work -- and the two are very dissimilar. It's like comparing Scooby Doo to Agatha Christie.

So switch to decaf, Tenuki. Save me from having to light that match.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:34 PM on October 28, 2007

By the way, Weird Al Yankovic didn't do half the songs he's been accused of singing. He's just the only name famous enough where everyone assumes he did the stuff that scores of other song parodists have recorded. Last I checked, none of them were carted off to the big house for intellectual property theft. If they were, they'd all point at Al and go "he did it!"
posted by ZachsMind at 4:37 PM on October 28, 2007

ZachsMind writes "This is satire."

I'm pretty sure Tenuki's comment was as well.
posted by Bugbread at 5:14 PM on October 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

*blink*

Yeah. Well. I uh.... Like I said before, he had to have been trolling. Yeah!

Besides, Chainmail Bikini is promising to be an improvement on the concept. Think of DMotR as a dress rehearsal. This is the real thing.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:24 PM on October 28, 2007

My comment was meant tongue-in-cheek but silly as it sounds the comic probably does violate current U.S. IP laws. It’s more satire than parody and satire doesn’t quite get the same fair use protections that can apply to parody.
By the way, Weird Al Yankovic always gets permission for his parodies. It keeps him from getting sued.
posted by Tenuki at 5:26 PM on October 28, 2007

What tipped me off was the MPAA part. Since when is Gary Gygax affiliated with the MPAA?
posted by Bugbread at 5:26 PM on October 28, 2007

And as always ladies and gentlemen this is an exhibition and not a competition so please, for your sake and the sake of your ancestors and decendants, we beg of you, no larping.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:33 PM on October 28, 2007

Well, I still wanna give Tenuki a hot foot just for grins.

*lights a match and throws it at Tenuki*
posted by ZachsMind at 5:35 PM on October 28, 2007

I think it's self-effacing humour. He isn't recommending railroading people because he thinks that's best, he's just taking a poke at his own shortcomings

Yeah, I do get that, which is why I find most of these scenarios funny rather than annoying or sad, but here, just for the core anecdote to have occurred -- ignoring what your players have said and moving on -- incredible.
posted by dreamsign at 8:23 PM on October 28, 2007

Ah, DMotR was quite the timesink the first time I saw it. Very, very good, and I don't even have a lot of D&D background (the most I've been in this neck of the woods is MUDding during college). Dude runs a great blog too. Hope Chainmail Bikini is as entertaining.
posted by stumbling at 11:21 PM on October 28, 2007