Who Is Ellen - 68 - HD
Added 2022-12-06 04:00:04 +0000 UTCOf course!
Commentary
Whether George is being an agent of chaos, staying in-character, or both, is a matter of interpretation.
If I'd had the room and inclination, Nanase could have elaborated further.
One reason such a random opportunity would require so much luck is that the bad guys would have had to stumble upon the knowledge that a guard was sick, and take advantage of that information without anyone else knowing he was sick.
If they found this out by keeping an eye on whoever made the guard's schedule, then someone else would have naturally been expected to take his place, and it wouldn't have presented the proposed opportunity.
So not impossible, but perhaps less probable than "a magic cleric did it" in a world that actually has magic clerics.
(It's also probably not the best plan just in general, but that's not on me. That's on the fictional writers of this introductory adventure. I'm in the clear.)
Comments
Actually, George is following the best practice here. I'm fairly certain of this, because I've been in the GM friendly player role enough to have tried this multiple ways. If George the player called them on this, it would be a disruption from the play and everyone who didn't see it would have difficulty enjoying the game for a while due to their annoyance with George. Other people could also take this as suggesting that he doesn't have faith in Ellen's ability to GM. The two viable options for George is to have his character disbelieve the cleric is responsible, which would require an in universe reason to not suspect the cleric, and to simply go along with it. If George the Sorceress doesn't believe the cleric is responsible - The rest of the party could decide to suspect her, especially since Larry and Rich don't seem to be capable of having their characters not act on information that their players know but the characters don't. - Knowing she's a half-demon sorceress, could decide she's just trying to sow discord. - Even if they believe her, they would then expect her to know where to go next. George isn't interested in being the party lead either officially or not. As such, whether or not he knows what the next logical step would actually be, he doesn't want to actually provide it. - Even if they believe her, their players could see this as George the player trying to take leadership of the party. There's a lot of possible bad outcomes that could have come from George explaining what he realized, and in the context of this particular game with this set of players, I'm not aware of possible good outcomes that could come from it.
Some Ed
2022-12-06 15:43:44 +0000 UTCGeorge knows exactly what he's doing here. The players have invented a perfect plot hook, and making proper use of it would be a great way for Ellen to demonstrate her improv skills (an important part of bieng a good GM). And if she can, it gets the players firmly invested in the story, and provides everyone involved a more interesting time.
Gorbash
2022-12-06 14:07:16 +0000 UTCAs one of my characters likes to say "Any spell is reversible. Be nice to healers."
Rodford E. Smith
2022-12-06 13:33:27 +0000 UTCAnd that's a great way to DM, really - if the party figures something out that they're really into, roll it into your plans, so they get to feel like they were right all along and you still get to do what you planned. :)
M.
2022-12-06 12:42:16 +0000 UTCGeorge knows this is a good test of a DM, so he’s letting it ride. Either Ellen plays it straight and the cleric is a dead end, or she throws it in and makes it part of the plan. If it were me, I would have the cleric have been blackmailed to make the guard sick, thereby allowing the DM to still guide the party back to the main villains.
Thisguy
2022-12-06 11:03:30 +0000 UTCGeorge be like "I know what the GM is actually doing, but I'm going to go with the rest of the party anyway"
KC
2022-12-06 07:14:04 +0000 UTCThis comic is so good! I love George's interesting decision and I love how his facial expression is drawn.
Eli Lebow
2022-12-06 05:39:51 +0000 UTCMy favorite part of this is that George knows exactly what is going on, but is following along because he can't be bothered to point this out. That and stuff like this is exactly what a GM needs to be aware can happen.
Paul Rendell
2022-12-06 05:09:37 +0000 UTCYes, go torture the Cleric and make him confess to his terrible crimes against poultry! Poke him with the soft cushions and force him to sit in the comfy chair!
wargrunt42
2022-12-06 04:58:16 +0000 UTCIt is my experience that being honest with your players when you throw thhem a deus ex machina is best. Though I suspect Rich might make a fuss of Ellen not being a "real" gm considering how this arc started in the first place.
FinalBossBowser
2022-12-06 04:51:53 +0000 UTCGeorge is not being an agent of chaos, he is helping the group accept pointless busy work and giving Ellen room to think up more stuff.
xwiry
2022-12-06 04:20:55 +0000 UTCGeorge can EASILY be an Agent of Chaos and be staying in character. They aren't mutually exclusive by any means 😁
AstroChaos
2022-12-06 04:20:39 +0000 UTCWhy did I read "Of course!" in the voice of General M. Bison?
Stephen Gilberg
2022-12-06 04:19:17 +0000 UTC
