The Monstrous Misadventures of Rusty & Co.

[RustMonster]

seed money for the Plushie project. maybe?

Thanks Glyph! As for the plushies, PatchTogether works primarily on user demand. The best way to get those Rustys made is to get as many upvotes as possible. I've gotten a pretty good start, but we're not there yet!

[BiblioRook]

Thanks Glyph! As for the plushies, PatchTogether works primarily on user demand. The best way to get those Rustys made is to get as many upvotes as possible. I've gotten a pretty good start, but we're not there yet!

Bribe money for upvoteing then

As for the wins, you certainly deserved them.

[Poil]

Why are snake women always so awesome in webcomics?

[Scarlet Knight]

They work for scale?

[Keld Denar]

Gratz Mike. I voted for you (and the Rusty plushy as well) if it matters. You really got a good thing going here, and its good to see talent get rewarded. Keep up the good work!

Quick question...do you like it when people make puns in the comments section under the comic? Cause it seems to have caught on and is becoming a trend...

[RustMonster]

do you like it when people make puns in the comments section under the comic? Cause it seems to have caught on and is becoming a trend...

That's half the fun.

[The Glyphstone]

How close are you to getting that plushie funded? The site says average score of 3.75, but what's the cutoff needed?

[Scarlet Knight]

"Ga ga ga ga! Blow me down ! Guess she's one o' dem flying snakes..."

[RustMonster]

How close are you to getting that plushie funded? The site says average score of 3.75, but what's the cutoff needed?

There's no specific score or number of votes, there just needs to be enough interest to convince the PT staff the design will sell a few hundred plushes. Fortunately, there's no time limit either to get those votes.

The downside with PT is that the vote of a long-standing member counts way more heavily than a new register. If you averaged the scores evenly for the Rusty plush, it would be more like 4.75. (51 votes, 47 5s, 4 1s.) so my only real hope is getting more exposure and a whole lot more new registers to help out.

[Gamall]

By the way, will that...

evil-santa commented on 22nd Jun 2011 (Report Spam)

I love the design and think it could be rather successful. The problem is that (I would assume) copyright for the Rust Monster design, anatomy and characteristics belong to Dungeons and Dragons and WotC by extension. Therefore the toy would not be allowed to produced.

... be a problem? I'm not fluent in lawyer-think (I blame the lack of Baatezu blood for that), but he may have a point.

The Rust Monster is apparently part of d20 though (link), so it should be under the Open Game Licence. But the licence seems to make a clear distinction between game mechanics and product identity, the latter specifically including creatures characters, ... and being subject to normal copyright (source).

So, yeah, I've got a bad feeling about this.


edit: although it might fly under the Game System License; but I really think you would be well advised to get someone on board who actually knows how that stuff works...

[RustMonster]

So, yeah, I've got a bad feeling about this.

It's a fair concern, Gamall. I've done a lot of research on it, and I can't find any indication that rust monsters are a copyright of, a trademark of, or a product identity of Wizards of the Coast, or TSR before that, or even of Paizo publishing. In fact, on the d20 site you linked to, rust monsters are NOT on the list of monsters considered product identity of WotC. (Second question on the FAQ.)

I'm confident I'm good to go on the legal side, now I just need to rustle up more votes.

[Gamall]

I'm confident I'm good to go on the legal side, now I just need to rustle up more votes.

Okay, that's good to hear/read! (Already voted )

[Gez]

I think you're safe with a rust monster toy; because it's not like TSR/WotC/Hasbro had the copyright on the rust monster's predecessor.

Some handy and entertaining links:
http://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=146298
http://www.thiel-a-vision.com/?p=327
http://www.bhkwt.com/open/acaeum/

[Poil]

So, does a potion of Spinach Strength give +6 or +8?

[Scarlet Knight]

Don Polpo! I love it! I also noticed he didn't stop eating...

[Agi Hammerthief]

... noticed he didn't stop eating...

you think they should point this out?

[Gez]

Looks like the illithids ceremorphed the Michael Jackson from Thriller and made him a butler.

[Scarlet Knight]

Good thing she was able to butter up the Tenticallis! Those guys are sooo fried!

[The Glyphstone]

The puns in this week's comments section were particularly groan-worthy.

[Alaba Blackveil]

I'm just reading this comic and i'm laughing my ass of
Very nice references and absolutely my style of humor.
Thanks very much and keep up the good work!

[Scarlet Knight]

I'm assuming that Rusty was the first character you created for the comic. What made you realize how funny a rust monster could be? Especially his speech pattern?

[RustMonster]

I'm assuming that Rusty was the first character you created for the comic.

Not at all. The first strip was actually just a one-off joke I'd made in a now-defunct forum, where a few oldschool D&D players were charmingly griping over the tendency of newer D&D editions to encourage monster PCs. There was no intent to do a story.

But a week later, the dudes were still arguing about how ridiculous it was that monsters could be adventurers. "How could a monster go into a tavern and mingle?" I responded by creating the second strip. Every few days, whenever the inspiration struck, I created a new strip for an audience of like five people. I didn't really have a plan (and it shows), until I'd done about twenty of them and realized "Hey, I think I'm on to something." and registered the domain. You can see in the archives at that point I dropped the copy/paste+gradient lazy art and started treating the project more seriously.

As for Rusty's speech pattern, rust monsters are just inherently funny creatures. A giant, metal-obsessed, slightly-smarter-than-a-dog bug is going to have a very limited... I mean, specialized vocabulary.

[Keld Denar]

Mike, one of my friends recently asked a questions on facebook.

Who would win in a fight: The Borg? Or a small colony of rust monsters?

As the foremost leading expert on rust monsters, how do you weigh in?

[RustMonster]

Who would win in a fight: The Borg? Or a small colony of rust monsters?

Well, rust monsters can't eat molded plastic.
And rust monsters are not laser-proof.
And Borg don't fight amongst themselves.

Gonna have to put my money on the Borg there.

[Gez]

In reply to the alt-text, I would watch that movie.

[The Glyphstone]

Sir Malevolus is an awesome character. Can he be the human sidekick for Level 6?


EDIt: I was half-joking, but this would actually be awesome.
1) He's clearly going to be unemployed after this story arc.
2) It's an untapped gold mine of 'evil PCs' jokes, especially since he's rather bad at being evil (or at least unmotivated).

[Scarlet Knight]

But if the rust monsters won initiative... Think "Trouble with Tribbles" but with intelligent rust monsters in the ducts ...

[Gez]

Sir Malevolus is an awesome character. Can he be the human sidekick for Level 6?


EDIt: I was half-joking, but this would actually be awesome.
1) He's clearly going to be unemployed after this story arc.
2) It's an untapped gold mine of 'evil PCs' jokes, especially since he's rather bad at being evil (or at least unmotivated).

He might need one of these fancy belts of sex change first. The sidekicks so far have been Princess the Princess (a chick), Madeline the Paladin (a chick), Roxanne the Bard (a chick), Stabs the Rogue (a chick) Princess the Princess again (still a chick) plus Roxanne the Bard one more time (who kept up being a chick), and finally Presti the Wizard (a chick).

There's a trend there I think.

[The Glyphstone]

He might need one of these fancy belts of sex change first. The sidekicks so far have been Princess the Princess (a chick), Madeline the Paladin (a chick), Roxanne the Bard (a chick), Stabs the Rogue (a chick) Princess the Princess again (still a chick) plus Roxanne the Bard one more time (who kept up being a chick), and finally Presti the Wizard (a chick).

There's a trend there I think.

Which is my point 3) It's about time we got a male sidekick, just for variety.

[Keld Denar]

Hey Presti, heads up!

PS, Illithid in a track suit is hillarious. Nice bling!