‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 456

Colors by Audrey. Everything else is by me.

Wisps don't have a lot of intelligence.

For those that didn't get she's Mani, it's okay. I actually wasn't expecting people to guess it quite yet, but some commenters already had. Don't worry, though. More information on all the alignments is still forthcoming.

31 Comments

Nice touch with the wisps. 😀

Mani are manipulators, I feel dumb.

OMG there are no comments… FIRST!

Also: Well that girl has to be bad a mani-ing, gotta learn from littlefinger :p

Wait, how exactly does casting Influence work on players????

The game maybe a virtual reality environment but its still effectively an MMO. meaning there are going to be systems in place for the game to “take over” the avatar for periods of time as mind control/loose control effects are cast. Given the Technology used to control the avatars/enter the game its possible that the game system can even temporarily influence the physical player to make them behave in accordance with the spells rules.

Also, being a virtual reality environment it would be incredibly easy for them to see what she wants them to see and feel what she wants them to feel (since we’ve already seen that game Specials can affect emotions of the players). Getting someone to believe something untrue in a virtual reality is as easy as changing the images they’re seeing.

it would also be very simple, from a programming standpoint to force another player to attack what you want them to, even without hijacking them with an AI. you just make them enemies with what you want them to attack, and friends with what you don’t want them to. then you mani what you want them to attack into attacking them, and they have no choice but to retaliate or risk death.

I do not know if understimating the Dude so such a good idea:
– We don’t know what his special does anymore then Kleyas “Ha!” special.
– Before the toutorial he indicated that “his entire style” relies on specials. And those seem exeptionally well crafted (according the Kleya)
– And since he came to the allignment conclusion himself, it means he does know quite a bit about the game mechanics.

He might be selling his own abilities a bit short. And the longer the other group talks, the bigger the chance that Jane/BM sneaks up on them for a surprise attack…

Mmm, speaking of Bandit, we haven’t seen his body for a while.

Who also think that she will be turned into a tree soon?
Kleya must have some insight into her fathers AI, thus she could easily manipulate it into coming the her “rescue”, the upside a tree is still alive, so no dmg done to the Erbana %

But would that be nice?

Well. Killing her would not be nice. Therefore, ending her threat without killing her would be a nice thing to do!

It’s the crap-eating grin smile she had the whole time. She seems like such a… charming person.

So is there actual low level mind control stuff going on with mani’s? Wonder how that works on pc’s…

Now that I think about it… “Don’t diss the wisps!” … Are we about to see the wisps or something related to the wisps (taking on account the island is in crontrol of a mani maybe she just angered a dead one…) attack her in the next pannel? I really hope so.

like cuccos?

The suspense is killing me! I need to know how Kat can handle 5 people peacefully!

Well, with the mechanics behind a Mani partly revealed it makes sense for them to be the alignment opposite of the Erbana (pacifist) alignment over Morto (murders) now.

Though I’m in the mindset that thinking of Erbana as a pacifist alignment to be wrong- instead it’s just nonlethal. We will likely see Kat show off just how aggressive you can be on that route. Mani and Erbana make a good mirrored pairing as both follow a path of nonlethal means with potentially devastating results.

Will be interesting to see just how aggressively nice Kat can be and how she will literally kill with kindness.

Kat is already showing she’s pretty good at buffing and defending herself and her team mates.

In panel 4, she’s countering the ‘main-effect’ and it is obvious she was doing it from the beginning of the encounter

Does pointing to the fangs on a vampire make it any less dangerous? Does pointing out someone is mani make them any less of a hazard?

Knowing that she’s mani might not be enough to save them.

well if someone is telling you and your friends “come over here and let me look at your necks” then pointing out they have vampire teeth might help your friends who haven’t noticed them already *cough*danni*cough*

knowing the exact nature of a hazard makes it easier to avoid

Most likely it depends on whether or not the warning comes soon enough. If it’s based on what she says, they could now stop listening; if it’s an area effect, they could run away; if it requires active focus, they could knock her out. There is probably a point at which it’s too late to do anything – but there’s a good chance that the point of no return is also the point at which it becomes obvious even if you’re not looking for it, in the interests of game balance for the players and a good narrative for the watchers.

Under that assumption, catching on before control is achieved means there’s the potential to do something to stop her.

Fundamentally yes. Pointing out that a vampire has fangs indicates that, perhaps, it would be a good idea not to look at the eyes and to maybe start up a sharpened wooden stick doused in holy water / oil collection. As, otherwise, if you’re a newb (Like that one member of their team), you might have problems.

Although I do agree that ‘knowing that she’s main’ might not help terribly much, they’ve pegged out the alignments of two of their enemies, because their enemies have been ridiculously patient. They went from having the advantage of a surprise attack, having a quantity advantage and having the advantage of knowing what their enemies are (because I can guarantee you, if they’re camping like this, they know most, if not all, of the enemy team’s alignments minimum), to only having the latter two advantages, they’re starting to lose the third advantage as the knowledge equilibrium turns and the second is questionable as well, as Jane could pop up any second, the longer they delay the worse things get, although they do still have a level advantage…in theory.

Another note, although not precisely a direct counterquote to you, it’s a good quote from a favored vampire. “If you’re going to live a million years, then every million to one chance you leave open will eventually come to fruition.”

Panel 4.

The area-effect mani-field was ALREADY being countered.

I’d say ‘flower-power’, but it’s old hat by now

Dude IS useful!

Dude does seem to actually have a lot of knowledge about the Game. He’s just been trying really hard to make himself seem more casual, friendly….approachable, even. But his whispers and conversations with Bandit make it pretty clear he’s a lot smarter than he lets on. It’s actually even relieving to seem him actually show it for once. He has been successfully pulling off comedy relief pretty well, but wow, lookit him go.

ensnare, not ensare. 🙂

Dude and Danni make for great reasons to explain to the reader.

Oh, good catch! Fixed the typo!

Did anyone comment, but not get it approved yet, regarding her snide remark about the Bandit having whispered to the Dude?

This plus previous “Viewers don’t like it when we whisper,” says to me, “Potshot at the popularity stats.”

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in hoping a few “karma points” send this to come back and bite her in the butt. Literally (albeit in the context of The Game) for extra author points for Aneeka. 😛

I thought sense motive was a wisdom based skill, not an intelligence based skill…

This chick needs a curb stomping. No death, just take her ego down a notch.

Kat! Get on it!

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 456