‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 394

It's not Kleya's style either, but she's gonna try!

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67 Comments

Bandit you conniving little…!

List of Kat’s Erbana responsibilities:
1. Keep Jane from killing Danni
2. Keep Jane from killing anyone else
3. Keep Bandit from blowing stuff up
4. Keep Dude from panicking and using a child as a weapon again, which could possibly kill them
5. Keep all the monsters in the area tame so that they don’t have to be killed
6. Keep Jane from killing the monsters anyway
7. Keep gathering and mixing herbs, even wile keeping track of her teammates to make sure no one dies
7. Keep her temper

I think the last one on the list is hardest. 🙂

You forgot “teaching Danni to be any other alignment that does involve her cool ballet style but not killing enemies”. This is going to be fun.

Panel 4 is genius, I must agree. Can totally hear the chuckling he must be doing internally as he says that.

Can’t let people perish within a certain range though…I’m now picturing Kleya using a teleporting Special to be a technical pacifist by teleporting dying enemies just out of range.

Doesn’t seem to be how Kleya would do it though, considering her direct hope to be a hero – perhaps get Danni to be Kesti by doing fetch quests for her to get people to a safe distance away? Turning Jake and Jane to have to resort to a game of hide and seek of sorts?

Although, if Jane and Bandit are Mortoing and Demoling a Bandit camp, perhaps Kleya could teleport civilians to her?

Man, now I wished I was able to play this game…

That and Kat’s annoyed exasperation in panel 5.

Not sure if exactly exasperation or just flat out annoyance.

But yes, he totally looks like he’s got an inner voice going “Ohh yeah…this is gonna be good….eheh…”

And she looks like she’s debating breaking the Erbana rule of “no killing” already. (Or at least stretching it….is Erbana also “no violent acts against anything”? Because she’s probably going to want to just hit them until they stop killing….)

Zoë: Preacher, don’t the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killin’?

Book: Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.

Yes.

Bandit actually looks evil on fourth panel.

Demoli ain’t a hero alignment.

Yep.

You likely already know that NAV lost the last round to SSSS but achieved the greatest voting so far with 2480 votes.

But this is not the end, now NAV is going for the bronze against Girl Genius and we are winning 809 to 654 at this moment. Let’s see if we can break records again 🙂

The voting closes TODAY and you can vote at:

http://www.comicmix.com/2015/05/07/mix-march-madness-2015-webcomics-tournament-championship/

Remember that the IP doesn’t matter, you can vote with as many different devices you have and even with different users and browsers. Ie you can vote once with IE, Firefox, Chrome, et cetera in the same machine, and also all again with a different user.

GO NAV GO! 🙂

Wow! 🙂

NAV: 1072
GG: 988

We are doing well, but still is a too little difference, GG reached over 1500 last time.

Don’t forget to vote, THIS ENDS TODAY 🙂

GO NAV GO!

And so I found out that I have four web browsers on each of my three devices. I always knew there would be a good reason to have a few, but I never knew I had twelve of those things… 😛 😀

Congrats!! It’s a treasure chest! 🙂

Hope somebody else can do the same because we are TIED at this moment:

NAV: 1205
GG: 1206

Vote please! 🙂

http://www.comicmix.com/2015/05/07/mix-march-madness-2015-webcomics-tournament-championship/

Oooh, that rule will make things interesting 🙂

grab popcorn

I’m expecting Kat’s popularity dip will abruptly, permanently, and overwhelmingly reverse itself in fairly short order, starting the instant she does some obscure Erbana thing no one ever knew about. People will hear about it, go “wait, Erbana can do WHAT!?”, and start watching just to see what other crazy completely unknown trick she pulls out next.

Should be interesting to watch for the real life fans too.

100% yes.

Oh, I would love to see that! 🙂

However that would ease things for Keyla and sadly I have the feeling that fate (ie the plot) still has in store hard times for her 🙁

That is indeed intrest how that go work out.

Nothing people love more than drama!

Bandit. Laying out the catnip. 😛

Okay, I bet Kat doesn’t see it yet, but this might make for a really interesting group dynamic.

No, panel 5 is a pretty good sign she knows exactly what she’s in for running with this group. Especially that Bandit is intending to give her a hard time on purpose, judging by the evil smirk right before it.

So, Erbana is a pacifist route where you can’t let anyone die? “Not killing anyone” I can understand, but how are you supposed to stop someone from murdering someone else without using violence as a last resort? And does this include NPC-monsters a.k.a. the main source of experience in most online games?

I could imagine an Erbana begging and making puppy-eyes to get their way, but I don’t think that’s an option for Kat either, though I would find it hilarious. XD

Or they could say “don’t do this or I will make very tasty food and drinks for everyone but you”.

And now that I think about it, magic is always an option of course. There are non-violent spells like Sleep, Blind, Confuse, Weaken, Paralyze, Mini, Transform (e.g. into a frog) or for defense you can Fly or become Etheral, you can cast all kinds of illusions,… I’m curious what kind of abilities Kat is going to have.

I’m guessing experience is gained in a different manner in this game. Since each alignment has a specialty, the experience is probably based on their specialty (Kesti – doing quests, Morto – killing, Erbana – plant work, Cardista – playing cards, etc)

And it mentioned that Erbana can’t allow anything to die within a certain range. We don’t know what the range is. Maybe it is a fairly small range that would encompass team members but not enemies the team members are fighting? She could also just walk away from the team as they do a fight and not have it hurt her (maybe go and pick up plants while the fight is going?).

It looks like a morto/erbana combination is going to be pretty hard; one kills all in sight, one can’t allow anyone to kill.

I agree. Since questing is what people normally do in online games, I have been wondering why it’s Kesti’s speciality. I mean, what is a group supposed to do together if not questing like Saisuke or fighting Heroes like Snowman? Living a normal life like they do in L.i.F.e, only in Big Brother mode and with weapons and magic? Since the only prerequisite to enter is the ability to fight, fighting has to be a large part of it. I am curious what kind of game Aneeka has in mind.

I want the Dude to eventually be able to play the “Finnish” card as his ultimate finisher (with Finnland’s flag as icon and everything). ^^

“Finnish” card. Nice.

I don’t think the game originally had fighting to be a prerequisite. It seems like the game has morphed from a semi-normal mmorpg before the ending into a popularity contest. You probably didn’t have to be in groups before (except for the occasional dungeon crawl) and so an Erbana player might play completely different than a Morto player. They might never even interact except for the cases where the Morto player needed some herbs or the Erbana player needed revenge on a player.

So, the fact that fighting is an important prerequisite today doesn’t indicate if it is actually important in the game. It is just an easy way to limit the number of players. Plus, it looks like fighting wasn’t really that important; specials were. All 5 had specials and I think they won mainly because of that.

And the fighting as a prerequisite in The Game probably is a huge reason why Erbana has died in popularity. The best Erbana players probably don’t enjoy fighting and so wouldn’t do well in the preliminaries. So the few people who are in the Game would have little Erbana experience and wouldn’t care about it except when necessary.

‘Play Nice’

Sounds like Kat has to show her babysitterskills.

So, what’s the difference between Morto and Demoli? Both of them appear to kill things.

The goal of Morto is to kill. The goal of Demoli is to destroy. The techniques would be very different, even though the goals appear similar. For instance, if a Morto encounters a cottage, they’d be thinking about who might be inside and how to take them by surprise and end them quickly, while a Demoli would start looking around for explosives, heavy objects or gullible wild animals they could use to wreck the cottage in the most exciting and chaotic way possible.

I think Morto is about murdering, while Demoli is about demolishing inanimate objects.

I wouldn’t think monsters would be included in the definition of “anyone” as they’re not people. And such a rule would make team play impossible as either one Erbana team member essentially forces the whole team to be pacifists or forces them to be at odds with each other. Why would you want to be on a team with someone you’d constantly have to work around to get anything done? It works in the context of a reality show like this but it makes no sense from a gameplaying perspective so that’s why I can’t believe that “anyone” includes monsters.

“…I can’t believe that ‘anyone’ includes monsters.”

That would contradict how Kleya played her Erbana route. No monsters were harmed.

That just shows that Kleya doesn’t harm monsters; not that Erbanas can’t harm monsters. And even if Erbanas can’t harm monsters that doesn’t mean that they have to prevent their teammates from harming monsters. Especially monsters that can’t be reasoned with or talked down.

Hey, I could be wrong. I still think it’d be a weird game mechanic to have a class that other classes have to maneuver around like that. I suppose that could be why it was so unpopular to pick to play in the past.

The Morto/Erbana alignment combination in the group seems to be unique. They are also on opposite ends of alignment spectrum. If the game is indeed made so that killing is a prerequisite only for Morto, and other alignments get other mechanics to achieve their goals, Erbanas could team up with others who don’t kill. Or each other. Or play solo. Groups are probably only a prerequisite now that the Game serves as a reality show rather than, well, a game.

Isn’t working around each other a rather normal situation for teamwork? Maybe not something you want, but something you often end up doing anyway. And games often mimic reality, so why not? I’ve played games where you don’t even know who’s on your team and who’s the enemy, and had a lot of fun!

Just a note that Kat specifically includes monsters among those who can’t be hurt.

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-365/

Again, that only says *she* can’t hurt monsters. Doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t let other people fight them. Until we know more, I don’t think we’ll be able to know whether she can let other people kill monsters or not.

I’ve lost the alignment explanation page… ^_^;;; Can anyone remember which it is?? I’m having trouble remembering what each alignment actually does, except Kat’s and Jane’s.

I wrote it in the Wiki a few days ago, including a link to the page you’re looking for.
http://notavillain.wikia.com/wiki/Alignment

Ahh… I had no idea there was a wiki for NAV! Thanks so much for that!!

You’re welcome. 🙂

I officially hate Jake now, because this stunt — while totally brilliant and should be used more often — shows just how much of a jack*ss he’s willing to be solely to prove that he knows who Kat is. There are so many better ways of going about it, and he chooses the one that’s going to cause the most strife.

What stunt? He didn’t know Kat would be Erbana when he chose Demoli – in fact it’s her favorite route so he thought he’d be playing along – and now he’s just stating the facts. That these facts happen to suck for Kat is not his fault, and being amused by the situation is not imo something he should be blamed for either. I’m amused too. It’s amusing!

My guess is that the Bandit wants to make Kat work hard to fulfill her alignment, though I wonder if even he knows what kind of lengths she will go to preserve her 100% status.

I can imagine some Special that basically sets HP to 1 for anyone with a certain radius would normally die. The rules may even think it’s balanced enough to allow it for a short duration. The Bandit destroys an orphanage full of people, and they all walk out with 1 HP… Jane is a little harder to address.

Some say Jake is being a jerk here, but I believe it is the opposite. He is actually enabling Kleya to play Erbana here, by making it interesting. Remember that they are playing a game! They both want an interesting game, they want to measure their skills with each other, of course they want to play against each other as well as along each other.

And I don’t think he has any hidden agendas either. I think he is after nothing else than to play along, regain her trust and find out what she’s up to. All what he has done can be explained by that, and wanting to protect her from those who want her dead. (or maybe I just want every story to be a love story)

I would agree. The real trouble is the one who is out to kill everything in sight including team members. At least Jake has restraint when needed and probably won’t go too far just for the conflict of their classes. Jane on the other hand, is going to be a problem as she simply doesn’t seam to care. She just want to kill, often and as much as possible, and team mates as well, starting with the apparent weakest one.

Yeah, I don’t think Kat needs to stop 100% of what Demoli does, just to make sure he won’t harm people. It’s a challenge, but it’s not a direct tug-of-war like Morto is.

The voting is totally TIED at this moment!!!

NAV: 1205
GG: 1206

Out of over 400 contestants NAV is between the final upper four. Will be the fourth? Will be the third?

Don’t forget to vote. The whole tournament ENDS TODAY, only hours, we are in the final stretch!

IT IS NOW! 🙂

http://www.comicmix.com/2015/05/07/mix-march-madness-2015-webcomics-tournament-championship/

GO NAV GO!

Just in case there’s no official results of the tournament yet, they likely will be publish them on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed 🙂

For those who celebrate it this sunday:

Happy Mother’s Day!! 🙂

The only alignment we haven’t been exposed to yet is Mani, right? Well with the way this group dynamic is forming, it seems that Kat will have to manipulate people pretty often in order to preserve her Erbana route. Were she to accidentally turn into Mani, a villain alignment, would create some pretty interesting character development and reactions considering how much she’s clinging to this hero self-image.

The only problem I see with this idea is that Kleya’s interpersonal skills are somewhat… lacking. Knowing her she’ll probably try to use force to ensure everyone around her is acting nonviolently. Jake on the other hand has definitely got the manipulating skills to go Mani, but he probably likes Demoli and provoking Kleya too much to switch over.

Bandit’s smile in the fourth panel made me laugh so hard. You can just see how he’s planning to make this work for him.

Erbana is really looking like a great way for Kleya to get control of her temper though. I’m getting really excited to see them in game now.

Oh goodness, the lighting turned Jake’s hair green and I got really confused by the angle. I thought he was Paddy in a big monster form and his shoulders were his foot with a white claw, and the hair his leg. Gracious. It’s not your fault, I just thought it was really funny that I messed that up lol

Trying to find a way to maintain her pacifist alignment while the others still pursue their own alignments and goals could result in absolutely fascinating game play.

It’s not Kleya’s style either, but she’s gonna try!

Now I’m imagining Kat’s alignment as Erbana, dabbling in Demoli…

Normally the complete pacifist, but punctuated with tantrums that destroy everything in a mile-wide radius.

Not that I see that happening in the comic, mind, just it’s an amusing concept to imagine.

Nothing says she can’t keep Erbana by demolishing objects nearby to fling opponents far enough out of range to perish safely.

Calling it now – Kleya’s new Special is a board wipe that throws everyone out via a non-Demoli-triggering explosion. Maybe just a force wave.

I agree with Jake preferring Mani.

We all know that all this Bandit thing is a setup, and there are several hints that Demoli is just part of the plan. In the other hand we have seen Jack manipulating people (letting aside Dude) every time he has had a chat with someone. Every. Time.

I think that while Kelya used to do Demoli and her mother Erbana, Jake used to do Mani.

The best thing about ComicMix is that it makes people wonder what’s so great about the other comics. I’m a long-time Girl Genius fan who got into Stand Still, Stay Silent through GG’s border ads. I only found out about NAV because of the voting, and I just read the entire thing in one sitting. (Oh, my butt!) The story line is VERY addicting. I am a little miffed that I can’t see any of the old vote incentives, just ‘cos I wasn’t into it then! Or is there some way to see all the old alternate stuff that a nearly-tech-illiterate like me doesn’t know? You have a very detailed, deep “world” built here. I just wish I didn’t have to wait for twice weekly updates to find out the (doubtless LOADS) rest!

There’s a bunch of old incentives over at http://navcomic.com/extras-2/.

Welcome aboard! 🙂

I think exactly the same, I picture people saying “Why is this comic so popular? (click)”. I myself have checked several comics in this and past tournaments for that reason. This time I ended becoming a reader of Property of Hate and Shotgun Shuffle that way.

I’m also a fan of GG from long ago 🙂 and a few months old reader of SSSS which I started thanks to A Redtail’s Dream (loved it). This last one I found through Top Web Comics.

BTW note we have a TWC link up there you can use to vote for 😉

You can see some of the old incentives in the “Extras” menu option, above the comic.
You can get ALL of them, among other things, supporting the comic through “Aneeka Channel”, there’s a menu option to read about it.

Glad to have you here, you happen to come when things are becoming even more exciting 🙂

Sorry, my brain glitched, it was the Amazon link what I thought to point out.

Doesn’t matter what the game is, from this to the tabletop – it’s just not a party without inter-party conflicts. Adds a nice spice to life.

The perspective and expression in the last panel go great with Sandra’s last lines. I think that’s my favorite panel in this strip. 🙂

Basically it’s a paladin with a chaotic, neutral, and lawful evil party.
This is going to be interesting.

I wonder if the Bandit is telling the truth about Erbana here….

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 394