Fun Fact: It takes 8 hours to make one of these, something I discovered late last night.
Today's comic bridges the gap between Character and Player. Because everything in literature means something, (or else why would you bother writing it?) the point of this comic is to introduce the Players as comic relief. Those who have played tabletop games are already familiar with this concept: Grimfang the Barbarian gets himself into all sorts of trouble, be it orc slaying or big game hunting, yet his player Steve is probably cracking jokes the whole time. At least, that's been my experience.
Handling players may be a problem for some Game Masters. Players making fun of your NPCs? Players won't brave the dungeon full of monsters and traps to get some treasure that isn't worth their lives? Players spend their time arguing about what silly thing to do next while a dragon is bearing down on them? The first tip I can provide is simple: Players are motivated experience points. Just like you're easy to manipulate (if you're anything like me) with pizza and chips, your players are equally motivated by gaining experience and levelling up.
