Why Campaign Comic?

“What if [Popular Media Franchise X] didn’t exist as we know it, but was instead created from the ground up as part of a tabletop role-playing game?”

A Saga Begins, But Not As We Know It...

First, there was DM ofthe Rings, which imagined the concept as applied to The Lord of the Rings – a strangely natural question, given that LotR is effectively the godfather of tabletop role-playing as we know it. And it was good. Not without its flaws, and missing many of the elements that have become commonplace since, but still good.

Certainly good enough to spawn a successor – Darths & Droids, which refined and then applied the concept to Star Wars. And from there, a minor sub-genre of webcomic was born. They are, in effect, the webcomic version of the Abridged Series genre of web videos.

When done right, they’re a hilarious look at both tabletop role playing and popular culture – especially for those who are familiar with the franchise that’s being rewritten. It’s not, however, a concept to be undertaken lightly – I should know, I’ve done a one-off page myself, and it’s harder to pull off than it looks or sounds, even when you’re not trying do do a single page without concerns for any kind of continuity. Not only do you have to worry about the normal concerns of writing something entertaining, you also have to write to existing imagery in a way that makes sense.

On the bright side, at least when you’re only writing a script for one you don’t have to go to the other trouble of picking out just the right frame and then fitting it to your page as well.

But then, the one page I made was a lot larger than most of them tend to be.

As always, if you have any interest in trying your own hand at this weeks prompt, either taking it at face value or taking the ever popular route of playing with the prompt in some fun and unexpected way, feel free to post your own script in the comments section below!