The Kalem Society

Hey, there are two comics this week, hit the back button and check #14.

Also, from now on, the size on all the fonts in the comic will be increased slightly, to make it easier to read. Furthermore, from now on, and retroactively, the comic will include a transcript for the visually impaired or for those who have a hard time with the fonts.

Looking back, Lamar's complaint makes Geist sound a bit like a Mary Sue. "You don't make sense because you are too awesome." Making Geist sound cooler is not the intention of Lamar's complaint. The magic bullet joke still works, but there is another joke here that only makes sense if you know that these are RPG characters. Lamar is accusing Geist of having statistics that don't match up with his backstory. A relatively common problem for some RPG characters. Why should you be more skilled with the gun when you've used the sword longer?

The answer is that the Geist's gun, while much more potent then any handgun available in the real world, does less damage then any of his other attacks. To balance this, thus giving him a reason to use the gun at all, he has an ability that allows him to ignore the penalty to hit for called shots. The gun does little base damage, but he gets extra damage from calling head shots. The in-story explanation is that the first time Geist picked up a gun he discovered that he just happened to have a natural talent for shooting people in the face. Strange yes, but it's just one of those things. He doesn't always hit, but when he does hit, it's in the face, unless he deliberately aimed for something else.

But Lamar does not know why that they are RPG characters, so why would he say this? Well Lamar's guns are more powerful, and more accurate (unless he tries to make a called shot), but Geist's ability to ignore those penalties allows him to connect with difficult shots that are technically more impressive even though he is not actually more effective. Lamar has a bit of a gunslinger mentality so he's a little jealous. He recognizes that he couldn't have made that exact same shot under the same circumstances (that is, if he had gotten the same roll, been the same distance away, and also made a called head shot), so he is accusing Geist of "cheating" with magic to soothe his ego.

TRANSCRIPT

GEIST: Ha! I was right! You guys saw that, right?

LAMAR: What the hell are you talking about?

CAIRN: Huh?

GEIST: I was right. He died.

LAMAR: It died because you shot it in the head.

LAMAR: You hocus-pocus weirdos don't make any sense. Hey, here's an example. You've been using that sword for like two thousand years, you heavily favor it - you've had the gun for a tiny fraction of that time, and yet every single hit is a perfect head shot. How do you do that?

GEIST: Magic, head-seeking bullets.

LAMAR: Really?

GEIST: No.

^MAR		Apr 2008				^MAY
30	31	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10