Nodwick
Cover art for Nodwick Chronicles V Tour of Doodie.
Author(s)	Aaron Williams
Website	http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/index.htm
Launch date	April, 1998 First strip
Genre(s)	Fantasy, Role-playing game, Comedy

Nodwick is a comic strip created by Aaron Williams, based around the conventions of fantasy role-playing games, in particular Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages April holidays and events National Poetry Month - in United States National Sexual Assault Awareness Month - in United Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist Aaron Williams is a cartoonist He is most famous for his comics Nodwick, PS238 and Full Frontal Nerdity. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Role-playing game (RPG originally designed by It debuted in Dragon magazine issue #246 (April 1998), first with short strips, and later receiving a second strip in Dungeon magazine, making fun of one of the adventures published in each issue. Dragon is one of the two official Magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game and associated products Dungeon Adventures, commonly called simply Dungeon, is a Magazine targeting people who play Role-playing games particularly In Dragon #270 (April 2000), Nodwick was expanded to a two-page spread and replaced Knights of the Dinner Table as a full page comic that served as a parody of D&D adventuring. Knights of the Dinner Table ( KoDT) is a comic book/strip created by Jolly R It later became a single page strip, related to the issue's theme; later, the strip was removed from Dungeon, but still appeared in Dragon, now unrelated to the main theme of the issue, until Dragon ceased print publication late in 2007.

The titular character, Nodwick, is a henchman (as opposed to a hireling) in the employ of a typical Dungeons & Dragons-style adventuring party. Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Role-playing game (RPG originally designed by Nodwick is published in Dragon Magazine and on Nodwick. Dragon is one of the two official Magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game and associated products com, along with a "sibling" comic, Full Frontal Nerdity. A Nodwick card game is also available.

A bi-monthly comic book was published by the author, which ran for 36 issues before its cancellation. The strip has since become a back-up strip in Nodwick's more popular sister title PS238, although collections of the comic book are available as trade paperbacks. PS238 is a Comic book that follows the lives of both teachers and students at an Elementary school for metaprodigy children or children with super powers In Comics, a trade paperback ( TPB or simply trade) refers to a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format ^[1]

A "reinvented" version of Nodwick and his adventuring group have also appeared in a City of Heroes based comic strip as the superhero team "Q-4orce. City of Heroes (CoH is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the Superhero Comic book Genre, developed by "

Main characters

Nodwick: A short henchman, Nodwick has served the adventurers for many years. The word henchman (Germanic irregular plural hench men) referred originally to one who attended on a horse that is a Horse groom. As the artist's style evolved, Nodwick grew shorter and his nose grew larger; according to Artax, Nodwick's nose grew to create balance for the oft-ridiculous weights he is forced to carry (generally orders of magnitude greater than his own weight). As most of the other henchmen in the strip look very similar to Nodwick, this seems to be a relatively common phenomenon.

Artax and Yeagar frequently use Nodwick to set off traps, or to distract or bait monsters. Nodwick has died numerous times, but each time Piffany manages to revive him with her duct tape of healing, usually wrapping him from head to toe to put him back together (in one occasion, Nodwick was reduced to a pile of ashes, so the group poured his ashes into a "Hench Mold" with the words "Just add water" written on it; about the only time she hasn't used the duct tape); so Yeagar and Artax usually don't worry about tossing him into gruesome traps, feeding him to dragons, etc. , if it will advance their quests. At least one comic has mentioned that he has also been cloned several dozen times by Artax when Piffany was unavailable. Nodwick isn't as knowledgeable as Artax or as wise as Piffany, but he possesses the most common sense in the group, and is the most likely to protest their hare-brained schemes.

Over the course of his travails, Nodwick has developed a dry sense of humor and a jaded wit, and lost whatever fear of death he ever held. According to the 2nd edition character sheet for Nodwick, if he ever encounters a deity, there is a 20% chance that the deity in question recognizes him from his all-too frequent trips to the hereafter. He still, he prefers to avoid dying if he can. (The trade paperbacks include a "Rest Index Peace" at the end of each volume, listing all the ways Nodwick has died up to that volume, this Index doesn't include Nodwick's deaths from Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, nor from the online comic)

Yeagar: Buff fighter with muscles between his ears. In the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game, fighter is one of the base character classes. It is often Yeagar who drags the party off on life-threatening looting runs. Yeagar's exploits frequently involve consuming large quantities of "Skull-whomper ale" and making a fool of himself and his companions. Yeager is portrayed as a proficient warrior who is nevertheless overly eager and impetuous, lacking in brainpower, and all too willing to use Nodwick as monster-bait; in one notable episode, his companions realized that Yeagar had been replaced with a doppleganger when he opted to throw a rock at a switch across a lava bed instead of throwing Nodwick at it. A doppelgänger ( or fetch is the ghostly double of a living person a sinister form of Bilocation. Noted for his chainmail body stocking and very large spiked shoulder pauldrons.

Artax: Tall, skinny wizard with a pointy green hat and an extremely long moustache. Magic-User redirects here See Spellcaster for magic users or below for the old Dungeons & Dragons character class Long on intelligence, short on wisdom, and Yeagar's best friend. Artax is ostensibly the leader of the outfit, directing their efforts, but just as often Yeagar and Piffany just do as they please. Artax is not as impetuous as Yeagar and more inclined to question the advisability of his friend's scheme, but usually caves in and goes along with whatever Yeagar has in mind. Like Yeagar, he frequently uses Nodwick to set off traps, lure monsters out of their lairs, etcetera. When at home, Artax frequently uses Nodwick as a laboratory assistant (or guinea pig).

Piffany: Small, bespectacled cleric of good. In the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game, the cleric is one of the base character classes. Unfailingly honest, Piffany is also unwilling to seriously harm any living thing; the closest she comes is whacking things over the head with her staff while screaming "NAUGHTY! NAUGHTY! NAUGHTY!" She spends a lot of time putting Nodwick back together with her "duct tape of healing" and is probably the closest thing he has to a friend among the party. Although she possesses a great deal of wisdom and is the purest soul in the universe, Piffany isn't quite the brightest bulb in the box and is commonly manipulated by her companions.

Piffany is the only member of the party who treats Nodwick with any kind of dignity, but Artax and Yeagar often take advantage of her natural gullibility to use Nodwick to trigger traps "for the greater good. " When she isn't patching Nodwick together or scolding Yeagar and Artax for their general naughtiness, Piffany spends her time proselytizing in the name of niceness and baking the universe's best cookies - the recipe of which was used to settle a dispute among the gods once. Despite their differences with the young cleric, Artax and Yeagar are actually quite protective of Piffany and would never let any harm come to her.

Other characters

Aaron Williams, creator of Nodwick, at Gen Con Indy 2007. Gen Con is the one of the largest Despite a recent lawsuit from Lucasfilm and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 15, Photograph copyright 2007 by Alan De Smet.

• Count Repugsive: A recurring villain, similar in stature to Yeagar, wearing a skull-faced helmet. Described as an "anti-paladin. This is a list of Prestige classes in the 3rd edition of the Dungeons and Dragons Role-playing game. " Repugsive is not a very effective villain; his schemes are often incomplete or downright silly, such as creating zombie hordes to move into cities, thus lowering property values so he can take over by buying at cheap prices^[2]. Should Repugsive die, he has the power to re-form in about a week, as was discovered after he exploded upon fighting a paladin (they canceled each other out). Recently, Count Repugsive was fitted with the Gauntlet of Supremacy, wiping his mind and channeling the spirit of the dead swordsman Utharr, Yeagar's evil counterpart. It was also recently discovered that Repugsive is in fact a woman, and not a man as we had all been led to believe over the comic strip's history. She claims that she allowed the charade to continue because "evil gals are only taken seriously if they're hot"^[3], which she apparently wasn't even before her death. In the same story arc, he/she also admits to being the inventor of "healing strips", better known as Piffany's duct tape.
• Claret Copin: A bard Nodwick's run into a few times. In the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game, bard is one of the base character classes. She writes epic ballads about the group's heroic exploits, such as feeding Nodwick to hydras, sundering ancient seals with his head, and so on, which tend to make the four even bigger laughingstocks than they were before. ^[4]
• Bezzler: An elf or half-elf thief who worked with the group before they hired Nodwick; they disposed of him when it came out that he was stealing from them. In the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Role-playing game, elves are a fictional humanoid race that are one of the primary In J R R Tolkien 's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Half-elven ( Sindarin singular Peredhil, plural Peredhel, Quenya In the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game, rogue or thief is one of the base character classes. Bezzler came back seeking re-employment, but Nodwick managed to catch him stealing again, and so he parted ways with them once more - after stealing the clothes off Nodwick's back. ^[5][6]
• Frigg: A kobold encountered by the group on a couple of occasions. Kobolds are a fictional species featured In the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying game. Nodwick met Frigg while scouting ahead in a dungeon and struck up a conversation, but when he returned to the party with Frigg in tow, Nodwick's companions attacked the kobold. However, when they learned that Frigg was an economics major who could increase the value of their loot, they welcomed him with open arms. They ran into Frigg once more after that, when the kobold came to complain about Yeagar trashing his accounting firm. ^[7]
• The Brotherhood of Evil Henchmen: A cabal of unsavory hirelings who desire to recruit Nodwick so they can learn from his "skills in the art of object transportation" (ie, schlepping vast quantities of loot), in addition to their own talent of finding even the most strange, rare and unusual things for the use of their masters. The Brotherhood is "a band of humans, humanoids, and other mostly ill-spirited races, bound to serve those who strive to bring chaos and wickedness into the world. " All of the Brotherhood's members have the same short, big-headed stature as Nodwick, although they lack the big nose all good/neutral henchmen develop. They are led by Theobor, a mysterious robed figure with glowing yellow eyes (actually, Baphuma'al in disguise). Theobor's chief lackey is Beobor, a dim-witted hunchback.
• Henchmen's Local 246: The henchmen's union, it is run by a (figurehead super-powered female) hamster that enables the adventurer's guild to deprive henchmen of their rights. One of several recurring staff members is Heathwick, a clerk of sorts. The Henchmen's Union also underwent an April Fool's Day ordeal every year at the hands of the wizard's and adventurer's guilds until the pranks got out of hand, unleashing a scourge upon an anti-prank parade and carnival Piffany's sisterhood was holding in front of the Henchmen's Union Hall. Piffany and her sisters then marched to city hall demanding action, with a resulting declaration of all April Fool's Day festivities being capital offenses.
• Baphuma'al: A dark god of foul magic, he appears every so often to give a glimpse of his multiversal plan to envelop the world in darkness. He was trapped in Nodwick's world for centuries after a wizard accidentally used a magical pillow on Baphuma'al's face at the stroke of midnight, summoning a tooth fairy who stole two of the deity's teeth, giving him a lisp. Upon regaining his teeth he returned to his home plane. ^[8] When Nodwick was hurled into a parallel universe by the Cleft of the Cosmos, it was to a world dominated by Baphuma'al. ^[9]
• Rowen: An attractive and intelligent woman with whom Yeagar is in love (he believes secretly, although it is obvious to all). Rowen and Yeagar were childhood friends and there are unanswered questions about some parts of her history. It has also been hinted at that Rowen might be less noble than Yeagar's idealized image of her is (as indicated by an incident with an illegal dragon mount).
• Orville: Rowen's riding dragon. Too dumb to defend his mistress in times of danger unless verbally alerted, and has a tendency to gobble up everything he finds edible, including Nodwick.

There's also an evil group who closely resembles the party, however, this group doesn't employ a henchman, except for their first appearance, when they tried to loot the Henchmen Cemetery. ^[10]

• Utharr: Evil fighter and worshipper of Baphuma'al, he was lured to his death by Nodwick (who slapped a steak on his back and suggested he checked a well that contained a tentacled, Lovecraftian monster), later revived by Elonan, and killed again in an avalanche. Currently, he inhabits Count Repugsive's body, controlling his undead army. One of the few persons who have elicited a fearful reaction from Yeagar "The accessories on their warrior! My spiked shoulder plates are no match for his blade-festooned finery!"
• Elonan: Elonan's evil career as a worshipper of Uthok ended when Pifanny covered her armor with smileys, however, after losing her deity's favor, she started again as a cleric of Baphuma'al. According to Piffany, Elonan "Smells like the lead electric mandolinist for `Crossbows and Roses`".
• Ildomir: After Pifanny destroyed his book of black magic, Baphuma'al gave him a new one, even more sinister. During their first encounter, Artax was quite impressed with his "permanent pyrotechnic effects", meaning glowing eyes with an energy release.

The group was defeated by the party in two separate occasions before they turned to worshipping Baphuma'al, and their power has been raised by the evil god.

The party has also run into various characters from classic D&D adventures and novels, such as Raistlin Majere from Dragonlance, Elminster from the Forgotten Realms, and Count Strahd von Zarovich from Ravenloft, as well as the game's creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Raistlin Majere is a Fictional character from the Dragonlance series of Books created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman Dragonlance is an immense series of Fantasy Novels, with over 190 novels printed and is accompanied by a supplemental Campaign Elminster Aumar (born c 212 DR) is a Fictional character in the Dungeons & Dragons -based Forgotten Realms setting The Forgotten Realms is a Campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D Fantasy Role-playing game, created by Count Strahd von Zarovich is a fictional character originally appearing as the feature villain in the highly popular Advanced Dungeons and Dragons adventure Ravenloft is a Campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying game. Ernest Gary Gygax ( July 27, 1938 &ndash March 4, 2008) ( IPA:) was an American Writer and Game designer David L Arneson (born October 1, 1947 in Minnesota, United States) is an American Game designer. They've also encountered characters who appear to be from other sources as well (a pageful of cameos including Xena and Harry Potter in one issue, Death from The Sandman appearing in another, Spider-Man being chased by Lolth in a comic strip in Dragon Magazine, etc). Xena Warrior Princess is an American Television series that aired from September 15 1995 until June 18 2001 Harry Potter is a series of seven Fantasy novels written by British author J Death is a Fictional character from the DC Comic book series The Sandman (1988 - 1996 The Sandman is a Comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published in the United States by the DC Comics imprint Vertigo Spider-Man is a Fictional character appearing in Comic books published by Marvel Comics. Lolth is a fictional Goddess in the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy Role-playing game.

References to the comic

• "The Armory", a weapons supplement for Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing system, contains a "Nodwick attack table," showing damage resulting from henchman throwing in the same format as normal weapon damage in that system. Rolemaster is a Role-playing game published by Iron Crown Enterprises.
• The background artwork for the Monsters chapter of Book of Vile Darkness contains two bone creatures preparing to ambush a party of adventurers that resemble the principal cast of Nodwick. Book of Vile Darkness is an optional supplemental sourcebook for the 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing game.

See also

Other roleplaying comic strips:

• Knights of the Dinner Table
• Order of the Stick

References

External links

• Nodwick Official Site