In case you missed it, I decided to go with the version of these pages where the shark ogre is wearing armor. I had 2 versions, one with armor and one naked, and after some debate, I decided to go with the armored version. Sorry for the confusion!
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I have always wondered what the reasons were that attracted people to RPG games like Dungeons and Dragons. For me it was an escape from reality and all the different and amazing fantasy creatures and environments.
Another awesome update!
On a subconscious level, it's the character generation I like.
I won't lie to myself when I have approximately 5-6 times as many characters as I have played sessions of D&D.
Heh. I'm a forever DM myself, with five groups currently adventuring in a shared world. There's room in 'em, too if people want in when I return from a gaming break, but my world is so homebrewed it might as well be its own game at this point :P
There are a lot of things about tabletop RPGs that fascinate me. The mechanics, the settings, the art design, the storytelling opportunities, it all really gets my creative juices flowing. I’ve written up several pages of character templates and worldbuilding notes, and I have literally thousands of pictures saved on my computer that I could use as references.
In case you weren't aware, there are play-by-post communities online. They aren't for all, but you might find them to your liking. I don't have much experience with them myself, however.
I'm familiar with online roleplaying sites like D20, but I've never gotten around to using them. I've also done forum-based RPs in the past, but lately I can't find any places that are active and have stories I am interested in.
The main stumbling block for me is that I don't own any RPG modules, and I can't afford to spend money on kits I might never get to use. This means that when using an established system like D&D, I can't know all the rules. This makes being a player difficult, and being a GM virtually impossible.
Reg. rules, there are a few sites online like http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm which contain some rules and tools, which for some sites are ad-financed. That specific site has rules and information for D&D 3.5 edition as well as 5th edition, and some tools in the right-hand side of the index page. That said, it is of course only some of the rules, not all of them. There are also resources for Pathfinder, such as https://www.d20pfsrd.com/ .
I also think there are some systems that are partially or fully free, though they may of course not be that widespread or have lots of resources for them.
@Rocktopus
When Marblegate gate vanish(after the 75 days) do the people inside get expelled outside , the gate eats them or they get out into the world wherever that part of the dungeon connects through ? , ty for you time.
When Marblegate appears, it sticks around for approximately 100 years, not 75 days. Currently, it's on it's 75th year since its appearance, meaning that in approximately 25 years from the current date, it's will likely vanish again.
As for what happens to those left inside: all that happens is that the entrance gate disappears. Presumably, this means that those inside will simply be trapped within. However, in the current era, teleportation has been invented. So in 25 or so years, if someone gets trapped inside when the gate vanishes, and if they have a Town Portal Scroll, they (presumably) can still teleport back.
That's the assumption, anyways, based on the research of the mages and wizard college that studies it. A ton is still unknown to the world about the gate. A tremendous amount of arcane magic is involved in the dungeon, and decoding complex arcane scripts and runes in this world is a task that's already insanely complicated and time consuming. The fact that the dungeon keeps shifting and changing makes it almost impossible.
Ah, but is it growing? Adding new floors as they collect monsters and treasures... but how would they do that if the Marblegates simply vanish into nothing? Could it be possible that the gate rotate between realities to recruit, collect and grow? Like, is the Marblegates not a Dungeon but some sort of inter-dimensionnal ship that hop between realities to refuel? Every new floors gives more powers to travel farther before snapping back there?
But, if they WERE able to teleport out, wouldn't they be able to teleport in again? Also, if someone in the dungeon when it disappeared went to the top and came out of the gate...
What realm of existence would they find themselves in?
"But, if they WERE able to teleport out, wouldn't they be able to teleport in again?"
It's never been tried yet, so no one knows :) The teleporter is something new to this appearance of the Gate.
"Also, if someone in the dungeon when it disappeared went to the top and came out of the gate...What realm of existence would they find themselves in?"
Whenever you go down the stairs, you end up on a new floor. Whenever you go up the stairs, you go to the previous floor you were on until you eventually reach the surface. If there is no previous floor to go up to, you will end up at the gate. If there is no gate, once you pass your first floor, you just end up on a random floor with no way to get back to the floor you were just on below.
Monsters go up and down the stairs between the floors all the time... but almost all of them were born or created inside the dungeon. They were never on the surface. That means if they go down a floor from the one they were born/created on, they will end up on a new floor like the dungeoneers. Then, if they go up, they'll return to their previous floor that they were just on. But if they go up again, they'll end up on a new floor all together with no way to return to their previous floor, since going down always leads to a new floor (exception listed below). As for the dungeoneers, If there was no gate anymore; presumably they'd keep going up the stairs until they returned to their first floor, then if they went up again, they'd end up on a new floor all together.
Marblegate's "rules" are also not perfectly enforced by the dungeon itself. The dungeon seems to show some sort of "intelligence" when it comes to how the floor travelling works. For example, if one party member goes down a floor, then another person in that person's party goes down a couple minutes later, the dungeon seems to "know" that the two are part of the same group and will put the second party member on the same floor. If someone is being inquisitive or mischievous and runs up and down the stairs multiple times really fast, the dungeon will have that person end up on the same floor over and over again instead of cycling through new floors every time he goes down.
Hope that clears it up! I can't say any more without spoilers for the story, so the rest you'll have to speculate!
Besides, after the self-caused near-disasters they went through, like in page http://www.marblegate.webcomic.ws/comics/144/ , can you really blame us? :). That said, they seem to be doing well so far. Ozzi might have stepped up well to the task of leading the group or at least prevent it from being too dysfunctional.
Though I gotta say, taking on that shark ogre seems very dangerous. Trapping it is really smart, but it is really important to have one or more back-up plans in case things go awry... like unexpected shark men at the wrong time and place :).
Beautiful page once again. The perspective of the giant shark-ogre chasing the others down the corridors is very good. It really sell the size and how terrifying it must be.
But wouldn't it get wary seeing the corpses of his brethren on the floors like that?
And what are the small ones called? Sharkling-ogre? Shark-ogrin? Shark-orgrun?
And Ozzi? You guys should really have scouted the location more... rule number one: always watch your six.
> But wouldn't it get wary seeing the corpses of his brethren on the floors like that?
Nah, I think it is too angry (and hungry?) for that. And if it is like common ogres, it might not be too bright.
> And what are the small ones called?
Shark men? Though that might depend on whether they can grow to become shark ogres after enough time has passed. Some shark species can live and grow for hundreds of years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark .
Ozzi and Alex seems to be holding levers. It would be weird if the dungeon gave a convenient trap for adventurers to use on a bigger monsters further ahead. Like a GM who put the really obvious option to make the fight easier...
Perhaps it's not exactly a trap but it activate something else related to the setting that they indend to use as a trap. Like it would lower a giant grate onto the path that normally block the adventurers. There is a lot shark-dwarf corpses around, maybe they had to fight them to acces those levers.
Or it was a trap meant to be used by those teenager shark-ogres.
In other chapters it's Colleen who use a spell to illuminate their ways. There was a mention of torches in one chapter but torches are bad in some situations and don't last long so magic items ans lamps are a good idea if the floor your on doesn't have in built lights, practical glow in the dark fungus, enough fireflies, sun wells or a false sky.
But for a floor like this that the light seems to come from everywhere at once like the floor, the walls, the water and the very air? Well... good thing this world don't seem to know about radiation or else everybody would need good pipeweed to stop stressing. I mean, look at what it did to the local fishes!
I can see a lot similarities between those two stories. There is a level of practicality and required surviving skills both it's adventurers need to achieve in order to be successful (and survive).
Both have a feel that there something going on with the dungeon and there is a reason it's there and doing what it's doing. That discovering what those place are about is the actual reason for the stories beside the obvious personal plot of the characters.
Both are huge deathtrap that caused the development of infrastructures that supports the adventurers going in. From that infrastructure the party of quirky individuals come together to achieve their goals. (I could honestly seen the cast of Dungeon Meshi doing well in the Marblegates).
actor chevy chase played a skit on snl called landshark
landshark: knock-knock telegram
victim: your not a telegram your that landshark!
landshark: uhh.. candyram
Another awesome update!
I won't lie to myself when I have approximately 5-6 times as many characters as I have played sessions of D&D.
It's too bad I can't find anyone to play with. :(
The main stumbling block for me is that I don't own any RPG modules, and I can't afford to spend money on kits I might never get to use. This means that when using an established system like D&D, I can't know all the rules. This makes being a player difficult, and being a GM virtually impossible.
I also think there are some systems that are partially or fully free, though they may of course not be that widespread or have lots of resources for them.
@Rocktopus
When Marblegate gate vanish(after the 75 days) do the people inside get expelled outside , the gate eats them or they get out into the world wherever that part of the dungeon connects through ? , ty for you time.
As for what happens to those left inside: all that happens is that the entrance gate disappears. Presumably, this means that those inside will simply be trapped within. However, in the current era, teleportation has been invented. So in 25 or so years, if someone gets trapped inside when the gate vanishes, and if they have a Town Portal Scroll, they (presumably) can still teleport back.
That's the assumption, anyways, based on the research of the mages and wizard college that studies it. A ton is still unknown to the world about the gate. A tremendous amount of arcane magic is involved in the dungeon, and decoding complex arcane scripts and runes in this world is a task that's already insanely complicated and time consuming. The fact that the dungeon keeps shifting and changing makes it almost impossible.
What realm of existence would they find themselves in?
It's never been tried yet, so no one knows :) The teleporter is something new to this appearance of the Gate.
"Also, if someone in the dungeon when it disappeared went to the top and came out of the gate...What realm of existence would they find themselves in?"
Whenever you go down the stairs, you end up on a new floor. Whenever you go up the stairs, you go to the previous floor you were on until you eventually reach the surface. If there is no previous floor to go up to, you will end up at the gate. If there is no gate, once you pass your first floor, you just end up on a random floor with no way to get back to the floor you were just on below.
Monsters go up and down the stairs between the floors all the time... but almost all of them were born or created inside the dungeon. They were never on the surface. That means if they go down a floor from the one they were born/created on, they will end up on a new floor like the dungeoneers. Then, if they go up, they'll return to their previous floor that they were just on. But if they go up again, they'll end up on a new floor all together with no way to return to their previous floor, since going down always leads to a new floor (exception listed below). As for the dungeoneers, If there was no gate anymore; presumably they'd keep going up the stairs until they returned to their first floor, then if they went up again, they'd end up on a new floor all together.
Marblegate's "rules" are also not perfectly enforced by the dungeon itself. The dungeon seems to show some sort of "intelligence" when it comes to how the floor travelling works. For example, if one party member goes down a floor, then another person in that person's party goes down a couple minutes later, the dungeon seems to "know" that the two are part of the same group and will put the second party member on the same floor. If someone is being inquisitive or mischievous and runs up and down the stairs multiple times really fast, the dungeon will have that person end up on the same floor over and over again instead of cycling through new floors every time he goes down.
Hope that clears it up! I can't say any more without spoilers for the story, so the rest you'll have to speculate!
Besides, after the self-caused near-disasters they went through, like in page http://www.marblegate.webcomic.ws/comics/144/ , can you really blame us? :). That said, they seem to be doing well so far. Ozzi might have stepped up well to the task of leading the group or at least prevent it from being too dysfunctional.
Though I gotta say, taking on that shark ogre seems very dangerous. Trapping it is really smart, but it is really important to have one or more back-up plans in case things go awry... like unexpected shark men at the wrong time and place :).
But wouldn't it get wary seeing the corpses of his brethren on the floors like that?
And what are the small ones called? Sharkling-ogre? Shark-ogrin? Shark-orgrun?
And Ozzi? You guys should really have scouted the location more... rule number one: always watch your six.
Large number of mothers recruited to join adventurers into Marblegate, hired for the unique property of having eyes on the back of their heads.
Nah, I think it is too angry (and hungry?) for that. And if it is like common ogres, it might not be too bright.
> And what are the small ones called?
Shark men? Though that might depend on whether they can grow to become shark ogres after enough time has passed. Some shark species can live and grow for hundreds of years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_shark .
Just like in real life, these sharks are known more for their viciousness and blood frenzies aren't known for their intelligence.
Now that's what I call unexpected.
Btw.: Was panel 2 inspired by the film Jaws? :).
Perhaps it's not exactly a trap but it activate something else related to the setting that they indend to use as a trap. Like it would lower a giant grate onto the path that normally block the adventurers. There is a lot shark-dwarf corpses around, maybe they had to fight them to acces those levers.
Or it was a trap meant to be used by those teenager shark-ogres.
But for a floor like this that the light seems to come from everywhere at once like the floor, the walls, the water and the very air? Well... good thing this world don't seem to know about radiation or else everybody would need good pipeweed to stop stressing. I mean, look at what it did to the local fishes!
Everyone tells me it's "anime Marblegate"
I can see a lot similarities between those two stories. There is a level of practicality and required surviving skills both it's adventurers need to achieve in order to be successful (and survive).
Both have a feel that there something going on with the dungeon and there is a reason it's there and doing what it's doing. That discovering what those place are about is the actual reason for the stories beside the obvious personal plot of the characters.
Both are huge deathtrap that caused the development of infrastructures that supports the adventurers going in. From that infrastructure the party of quirky individuals come together to achieve their goals. (I could honestly seen the cast of Dungeon Meshi doing well in the Marblegates).
landshark: knock-knock telegram
victim: your not a telegram your that landshark!
landshark: uhh.. candyram