[PA Comic] Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - One Explanation

Geth

One Explanation
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/04/18

Gaslight

Hmm. One week after I got around to reading that myself. Looking forward to the accompanying newspost.

Rehab

Gabe intentionally making Tycho scowl all week!

Fatty McBeardo

The best book.

Kagera

Second panel. So snotty.

Tofystedeth

Rehab wrote: »

Gabe intentionally making Tycho scowl all week!

My favorite part is how the look on his face shows he's actually genuinely concerned.

Maz-

dat panel 2 face

Gaslight

Maz- wrote: »

dat panel 2 face

We have, I believe, finally found a worthy counterpart to the famous smug hipster Gabe.

KalTorak

Maz- wrote: »

dat panel 2 face

it's really incredible how accurate that face/dialogue combination is. We're looking at 100% synergy here people.

KalTorak

Also the one-leg-up pose. Fantastic.

Tleilaxu

Gaslight wrote: »

Maz- wrote: »

dat panel 2 face

We have, I believe, finally found a worthy counterpart to the famous smug hipster Gabe.

"The Winds of Winter" huh. Pfft, I read that book when I was thirteen.

Cabezone

KalTorak wrote: »

Also the one-leg-up pose. Fantastic.

Except he's got the wrong arm on the leg...try actually doing that.

KalTorak

Cabezone wrote: »

KalTorak wrote: »

Also the one-leg-up pose. Fantastic.

Except he's got the wrong arm on the leg...try actually doing that.

Gettin' a good stretch...

Aurich

Just now, huh? We know Gabe's read Snow Crash. He really took his time working around to Neuromancer.

...my spell check just thought I was trying to spell necromancer. How unlearn'd.

Rehab

KalTorak wrote: »

Maz- wrote: »

dat panel 2 face

it's really incredible how accurate that face/dialogue combination is. We're looking at 100% synergy here people.

I've noticed this happening a lot more often with the comic lately.

Also really liked panel 3 here.

Delzhand

That Iconica game looks pretty neat, but I'm having a hard time figuring anything concrete out! Is it a deck building game? Strategy? It's like they're trying to do some cool world building stuff there and they talk about balancing content consumption with creation.

I want to know more. But why are they selling it through Etsy? When I checked they had nine (9!) copies of the game left - are they even prepared for PA level traffic?

Cthulhu Calamari

Oh man! I got Neuromancer when I was 13 too! I've read it about once a year since. Gibson actually spoke at my university the day I graduated and he signed a book for me & when I told him I got that book at 13 all he said was "I hope it didn't do too much damage."

CBattles6

Delzhand wrote: »

That Iconica game looks pretty neat, but I'm having a hard time figuring anything concrete out! Is it a deck building game? Strategy? It's like they're trying to do some cool world building stuff there and they talk about balancing content consumption with creation.

I want to know more. But why are they selling it through Etsy? When I checked they had nine (9!) copies of the game left - are they even prepared for PA level traffic?

I've been researching Iconica today as well. To the best of my knowledge, it's a 2-4 player strategy game where each player chooses a team of three heroes, rolling a die to determine which of their heroes' abilities will be used during a particular turn.

The problem, as you've adequately pointed out, is that it's a one-man operation, and he's going to be seriously unprepared for the PA boost. You can't even get a copy of the first set from the Etsy page, only the expansion sets.

jottinger

You should try reading the book Daemon by Dan Suarez.

“Greatest. Techno-thriller. Period. Experts have long feared the Internet doomsday scenario. Daemon is arguably more terrifying.”
— Billy O'Brien, former Director of Cybersecurity and Communications Policy at the White House

TychoCelchuuu

jottinger wrote: »

You should try reading the book Daemon by Dan Suarez.

“Greatest. Techno-thriller. Period. Experts have long feared the Internet doomsday scenario. Daemon is arguably more terrifying.”
— Billy O'Brien, former Director of Cybersecurity and Communications Policy at the White House

...is that you, Suarez?

MisterEnsues

Is - is there a punchline in this strip?

Tofystedeth

Yes. It's that bit of text in the third panel.

doubleonad

CBattles6 wrote: »

Delzhand wrote: »

That Iconica game looks pretty neat, but I'm having a hard time figuring anything concrete out! Is it a deck building game? Strategy? It's like they're trying to do some cool world building stuff there and they talk about balancing content consumption with creation.

I want to know more. But why are they selling it through Etsy? When I checked they had nine (9!) copies of the game left - are they even prepared for PA level traffic?

I've been researching Iconica today as well. To the best of my knowledge, it's a 2-4 player strategy game where each player chooses a team of three heroes, rolling a die to determine which of their heroes' abilities will be used during a particular turn.

The problem, as you've adequately pointed out, is that it's a one-man operation, and he's going to be seriously unprepared for the PA boost. You can't even get a copy of the first set from the Etsy page, only the expansion sets.

Yes, that's more or less how the game works. Each player (or team) alternates picking characters. Each character has a different suite of abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Teams take turns rolling a pair of dice to determine which action numbers are available, and then select which character's action they want to use for the round. The full rules are posted here: http://rynaga.com/static/extras/IconicaRulesVer5web.pdf
The mechanics are simple but there is a good bit of strategy to it. It's one of my favorite games.

Luckily, Series 2 is still a standalone product. You don't need Series 1 to play the game. Series 2 comes with all the necessary parts, rules, etc. I would bet that if there is a large demand due to the PA boost, he'll run another printing. To the best of my knowledge, things have been fairly small scale so far, so he couldn't exactly run off tons of extra copies with nobody to sell them to.

*edit - From a recent FB post "In other news, it's been two years since Iconica's release and we're also pondering a new run of Iconica Series 1. This would be our third print run of 500. Not bad when you consider we create, produce, and distribute independently."

dnns

I like to believe that I'm not some visionary genius today because I accidentally read _Necromancer_ instead of _Neuromancer_ when I was 13.

I like to believe that.

fullofwool

So, it happens that my boyfriend had been trying to convince me to read Neuromancer for most of the last year, and I recently got around to it. I had neglected to read PA for a couple weeks, and came back to find this comic... which was posted the very day I finished the book. G-damn eerie.