This Is a Good Stick
The Dungeon: #8
Of Sticks and Staffs
The impetus of this week’s strip was rather mundane: we realized our wizard wasn’t properly outfitted for adventure.
Robe ✅
Point hat ✅
Staff ❌
A wizard without a staff is just an old man in a bathrobe. It’s unnatural. Perhaps even a bit unseemly.
You may have thought the inspiration was the long-held tradition of boys turning mundane sticks into guns and swords and objects with other, more phallic purposes. Maybe that’s even what happened here. I’m not Freud; the subconscious is a foreign place with alien intent.
The one thing that was an intentional decision: the title of the strip. “This is a good stick” is a callback to Aragorn at Helm’s Deep trying to cheer up a teenager who’s facing death holding the equivalent of a sharp stick. The moment is meant to drive home the danger, to give the battle stakes in the form of a gawky kid who hasn’t even started shaving. Humanize the drama. And it does. But after you’ve seen The Two Towers a dozen times, Aragorn holding an obviously rust-pitted sword with a straight face becomes hilarious.
To come full circle, and round back to D&D: last year my friend Chad rolled up a new character with awful stats. Which led to one of my proudest creations:
Regale Us With Tales of Your Own Adventures
What’s your favorite item you’ve ever received in a game? It doesn’t even have to be magic. It could just be a stick you believe is magical. Let us know in the comments!
Thinking of noteworthy items the biggest one for me would be the magic maul my wizard found that turned him into a paladin because I wanted a respec based on the direction the campaign was going and paladin just fits my play style better.
Not my game but the Acq Inc Wizard Unknown session where Viara found a rock the kind of looks like a dog was awesomely hilarious.