OOTS #1196 - The Discussion Thread

[Worldsong]

So are we hating on Eugene again?

[danielxcutter]

Belkar has never had any problems with sharing the food he cooks with other people, really. Pretty sure “cooking” comes right after “stabbing” and “taking care of Mr. Scruffy” on his list of favorite things to do.

[thomaszwanzinge]

I just wanted to add that the Comic title is really great, just as the Comic itself.

best regards,
Thomas

[Fyraltari]

This is all either wrong or irrelevant. There is such a thing as "classic folklore," as distinct from "modern fantasy," and I hope I don't have to defend this fairly obvious position. The rest is true, but irrelevant. Different words imply different things about functionally similar characters. To pick an obvious example, a priest and a druid might both be able to screw up evil spirits, but they're fundamentally different types of legendary characters.
Sure, one legend probably wouldn't have both priests and druids, but IIRC, "wizard," "sorcerer," and "warlock" all came from different cultures with subtly different understandings of magicians and the supernatural.

Also, thanks for cutting out the part where I explained that I wasn't saying that wizards, sorcerers, and warlocks had clearly-defined differences in classic folklore. Thanks for making me look like a moron!

You might want to tone down the aggression here, Wyrm, no-one is attacking you.
And I maintain that "subtly different understandings" and "technically different" doesn't mean anything. all these words are used to describe strange people with supernatural powers. At most some of them cast the charcter as a vilain.

There's a big difference between being good and being evil.
Let's take an example I'm confident everyone will agree with. There's this guy who fights for the good of his people, but also kinda doesn't care about anyone else. In fact, he wants to kill or enslave most of them, and acts on that desire. That's right, I'm talking about Magneto. Magneto acts good towards mutants, and evil towards non-mutants. Is Magneto good or evil? If you say he's only evil because he wants to kill/enslave a majority of humanity, what about the reverse situation?

Magneto is evil. magneto is also good. It all depends on what whoever is writing Magneto feels about him and is using him for.

People are not good nor evil actions are. Trying to cast judgement on someone's entire life, motivations and values is doomed to failure, and frankly, pointless.

It's incorrect to say that a single Evil deed prevents you from ever being Good...but it's easier for evil acts to make an otherwise good person evil than vise versa. There's a reason they call it "the straight and narrow".

I refer you back to:

The thing is, doing the right thing is in no way harder than doing the wrong thing but nobody asks the question unless the wrong thing happens to be the easier thing so people get the impression that being good is hard.
There have also been people who make a living convincing people that they cannot be good on their own and need to listen to them or else... And that’s all I will say on that particular subtopic.

[BisectedBrioche]

Holy Crap. Is Belkar actually passing the Celestia alignment test?

Belkar's trying.

I guess you could say that he's getting to a...Good Place!

[Windscion]

I still don't understand that, what does that have to do with the girdle of femininity/masculinity?

Just because multitasking is associated with females. What justification that has, IDK.

[b_jonas]

There's just one problem with Belkar cooking: he's really bad at it. He has points in the Profession (gourmet chef) skill, which means he can cook in "a fully stocked professional kitchen". They're on the road on a pirate ship far from any towns where they could get ingredients. To cook there, you need the Survival skill, and Belkar hasn't invested in that at all. The ship's cook can cook better meals than him. Even if Durkon uses a spell to summon "mass-conjured pseudo-food packed with artificial ingredients, it will taste better than what Belkar makes. (Except perhaps when Belkar makes food for Mr. Scruffy or Bloodfeast, because it's possible that those use his Handle Animal skill.)

[Alysar]

Wait, I thought Roy couldn't remember specifics about when he was dead.

[Schroeswald]

Just because multitasking is associated with females. What justification that has, IDK.

If that’s what that actually meant, that is in no way any sort of callback, because not only is multitasking not particularly feminine, it’s super wrong to say that the only way a dude could do it is to become a woman.

Wait, I thought Roy couldn't remember specifics about when he was dead.

He remembers no specifics of the mountain but he does remember what happened on the cloud, which is where that conversation happened.

[AstralFire]

There's just one problem with Belkar cooking: he's really bad at it. He has points in the Profession (gourmet chef) skill, which means he can cook in "a fully stocked professional kitchen". They're on the road on a pirate ship far from any towns where they could get ingredients. To cook there, you need the Survival skill, and Belkar hasn't invested in that at all. The ship's cook can cook better meals than him. Even if Durkon uses a spell to summon "mass-conjured pseudo-food packed with artificial ingredients, it will taste better than what Belkar makes. (Except perhaps when Belkar makes food for Mr. Scruffy or Bloodfeast, because it's possible that those use his Handle Animal skill.)

uhh. Where you linked "ship's cook", that looked like a fully stocked professional kitchen to me.

Not a hundred percent if you're being serious or facetious here.

Presumably Belkar likes what he makes for himself even if it's not amazing.

[danielxcutter]

Belkar cooked tropical birds that weren’t even intended for eating, and Haley seemed to like it. He’s got spices which I think gives a +2 circumstantial bonus to the check. I’d also mention the MitD liking his vulture stew, but we know that guy’s standards are so low(despite his claims to the contrary) you’d probably have to start from the Underdark and then start digging deeper so it doesn’t count. He’s good enough for his culinary knowledge to serve as a replacement for Survival checks on a friggin’ Semi-Elemental Plane, even if it was one of Ranch Dressing! He’s probably better than anyone posting here on this thread at the very least!

[Peelee]

Belkar has never had any problems with sharing the food he cooks with other people, really. Pretty sure “cooking” comes right after “stabbing” and “taking care of Mr. Scruffy” on his list of favorite things to do.

"Cooking" means preparing food. "For others" is not an integral part.

He didn't share those sandwiches he made, for example.

There's just one problem with Belkar cooking: he's really bad at it. He has points in the Profession (gourmet chef) skill

That kind of implies he's not really bad at it.

Also, it's not like I can outcook Gordon Ramsey in a galley.

[danielxcutter]

"Cooking" means preparing food. "For others" is not an integral part.

He didn't share those sandwiches he made, for example.

Well okay, but I was talking more about the “how good is he at cooking” part in that quote.

And honestly, the DC for making sandwiches is probably in the negatives.

[Jay R]

No, Belkar is not trying to become LG, or to affect his alignment at all. He is pretending to have character growth.

That "faking sincerity" thing is pretty useful too.

In this case, he pretended to have character growth by faking a sincere interest in Vaarsuvius's welfare, but dropped it too soon to be believable.

No, he is not trying to have actual character growth. [He's having character growth, because we tend to slowly become more like the thing we are pretending to be, but he's not trying to grow; he's trying to fake growth.]

Well, Belkar is trying at least. That's a lot coming from Belkar.

Oh Belkar, at least he trying which is a marked improvement for him.

Belkar's trying.

Yes, Belkar is trying.

Very, very trying.

[KorvinStarmast]

Given that he’s been using cinnamon, I’m guessing they don’t flavour the porridge sufficiently for his liking.

No true halfling would eat his porridge without cinnamon ...

Incidentally, I bet on chili. It's hearty, hot and good for cold temperatures and, yes, good recipes of it take some cinnamon.

I agree that cinnamon is often a good spice in chili. I make a vegetarian black bean chili every Lent for our suppers at church; and a touch of cinnamon is included. (One must not overdo it, IME, or it may overwhelm the dish).

Everyone is being so nice to each other. Something terrible must be about to happen!

+1.

Curious to see how the Greenhilt family drama plays out.

What drama?
Eugene: dead. Sara: Dead. Eric: Dead. Roy: Alive, was once dead. Julia: alive.

Eugene is hardly an antagonist for the epic tale; he's a dad (imperfect of course, as are most characters in this story) and he's on Roy's side vis a vis "Xykon needs to die/be stopped." Rich has chosen to portray one form of internal conflict in OoTS as 'daddy issues' for both Haley and Roy, and for Elan in a different style with that "twins separated" thing.

[danielxcutter]

Well, Elan had plenty of daddy issues himself, didn’t he?

[Doug Lampert]

No true halfling would eat his porridge without cinnamon ...

But would he put sugar on it? And does it make any difference if it is cinnamon sugar?

[KorvinStarmast]

But would he put sugar on it? And does it make any difference if it is cinnamon sugar?

Aaww, man, now we need to check out the various halfling splat books for 3e and 3.5e to figure this out ... arrgghh!

[danielxcutter]

Well, 3.5e’s book on the topic would be Races of the Wild. Not sure about 3.0e, though.

[bunsen_h]

It occurs to me that as soon as Xykon is finished off, the Blood Oath is fulfilled, Eugene scarpers off to his final destination... and Roy and Julia lose their communication. That may be an important loss of information, for whatever is left to the story.

I misread it as CATNIP and thought things were really dire in the ship to make the gourmet chef ask for catnip as food seasoning.

It's a member of the mint family and has a kind-of-minty taste. It could be used in cookery for humanoids. And it's not implausible that Belkar is preparing something for Mr. Scruffy.

A long term, high functioning sociopath would not call attention to the fact that he's screwed up that way.

Thing is, everyone around him already knows that he's screwed up that way. What he just said has the downside of reminding people about it, but the upside of showing that he's working on it.

[137beth]

That response from Belkar is something many real people I know would actually give (except without the magic part).

[Sir_Norbert]

Can we keep the textspeak out of the comics, please? "Moreso" is not a word in English.

[Jasdoif]

Can we keep the textspeak out of the comics, please? "Moreso" is not a word in English.

Pretty sure "moreso" has been a word in English longer than "textspeak" has. Moreso, it's obviously a word in Common....

[Peelee]

Can we keep the textspeak out of the comics, please? "Moreso" is not a word in English.

I'm sorry, but in the interest of retaining language purity, I only respond to comments made in the original gutteral grunts and groans.

[bunsen_h]

Pretty sure "moreso" has been a word in English longer than "textspeak" has. Moreso, it's obviously a word in Common....

This cites an example almost 200 years old.

[Grey Watcher]

This cites an example almost 200 years old.

Those dastardly 19th century authors and their smartphones! :shakes fist:

[Finagle]

I thought Roy didn't remember anything from when he was dead. Just a glow.

Isn't he supposed to insult Julia? And Julia insults him back? I thought we had established that is what passes for an expression of affection in their screwed-up family?

[Grey Watcher]

I thought Roy didn't remember anything from when he was dead. Just a glow.

I think that was just whatever happened on the mountain proper. He said he can remember the clouds parts pretty well, but the mountain itself is a big, happy blur.

[Worldsong]

It appears that being dead isn't what causes memory loss (as strange as that may sound), but the afterlife itself. The cloudzone is not the actual afterlife, it's the lobby in which you wait to be sorted into the appropriate final destination.

I think this has come up before.

[Elenna]

Well, Belkar is... certainly making an attempt, at least...

Roy got Eugene to agree to never visit the family once he finally (presumably) gets into Celestia. Eugene agreed, one might say worryingly quickly.

I feel like Roy not managing to tell Julia that almost has to be a plot point because Chekhov, but I can't figure out how

In Belkar's defense, he will likely share whatever delectable meal he makes.

Incidentally, I bet on chili. It's hearty, hot and good for cold temperatures and, yes, good recipes of it take some cinnamon.

For breakfast, though? I mean, I'll eat chili anytime, but it's not really typical breakfast fare...
Personally, I'm betting on French toast.