"Darths & Droids" web comic

Anyone ever read the webcomic “Darths and Droids?”

It’s EXTREMEMLY high concept. The premise is a role playing game group are playing the story of (roughly) the Star Wars movies, with no pre-knowledge, as the story takes place in a world where the Star Wars movies don’t exist.

There’s also several sub-storylines involving glimpses into the lives of the players, that we only get bits and pieces of.

Its extremely funny, with jokes being about Star Wars, sci-fi cliches, RPGs, and all sorts of other things.

Re-reading a lot of their archives though, it occurred to me that despite being intentionally silly, the plot they put forward for RotS is in many ways, more dramatic and easier to invest in emotionally than the actual movie, and contains some really bitchin’ dialogue over the final lava duel.

Even in a parody, these lines are better than "I hate you" "From my point of view the Jedi are evil."

The OT part in D&D is a little weak. Mostly because they reverted back to the early wacky adventure strips of their version of TPM, whereas the PT part has completely revamped characters and story (probably because the PT are crap).

Maul, Fett, Palpatine, Windu, none of them are like their theatrical versions. The plot twists were brilliant, and many of the concepts of both AotC and RotS are far, far, far better executed in the webcomic than in Lucas' movies. Just to put an example, by the time Windu went to fight against Palpatine I was actually paranoid of *all* characters and their intentions, and while I knew Anakin would eventually fight against Obi-Wan and became Vader, I didn't know how the rest of the story would eventually end.  And I love some of the meta-humour (Annie, who had no roleplaying experience, playing Anakin).

By contrast, the OT-exclusive characters (except Chewbacca) are just exagerated versions of themselves (Han is dumber, Luke is cockier, etc).  And once Pete's newphew became a regular player all the rich player-to-player interaction and story was scrapped and the movie's adaptation became more straightforward.

It's still funny, there's still brilliant concepts, but overall the best part are up to the end of RotS.

I can't decide if I should avoid it so as not to steal ideas, or if I should read it so as to have ideas to steal.

Just flip a coin. Best three out of four wins.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Best three out of four wins.

Heads.

Tails.

Heads.

Tails.

....

Oh.

Rox64 said:

By contrast, the OT-exclusive characters (except Chewbacca) are just exagerated versions of themselves (Han is dumber, Luke is cockier, etc).  And once Pete's newphew became a regular player all the rich player-to-player interaction and story was scrapped and the movie's adaptation became more straightforward.

 I'd say that was true with the Episode IV part of the comics, but with the recent revelations in the Episode V part of the comic, I don't think that's really true anymore.

doubleofive said:

 HA!

(not showing up)

doubleofive said:

Wow, I have a blank post for maybe 45 seconds and this is what happens.

 Sorry about my ADD.

I'm not really sorry.  And I don't have ADD.  But I actually laughed.

bkev said:

Damn you, Boost.

I'm addicted.

 No one's said those words to me since college... and it wasn't about a comic. 

doubleofive said:

Don't miss the commentaries under each comic. I like that they sometimes get into recommendations for actual D&D campaigns.

 I'm going to play some RPG game next weekend. Going to switch names and climates around and play the Darths and Droids Phantom Menace game.

We'll be using the old Marvel Superhero RPG rules, which are the single easiest rules to play of any RPG. 

Danfun128 said:

Do your friends know that you are basing your campaign on Darths and Droids? If not, it would be nice if you recorded your game on audio or video, as I bet the other players would end up going a completely different direction than you expected

No, my pals are unaware of the comic, but they always go in a completely unintended direction.

I wouldnt be surprised if they end up performing the exact plot of the REAL Phantom Menace.