Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic
is a webcomic by Rich Morris, following the lives and (mis)adventures of the
D&D monsters of the Black Mountain, and their interactions with the rest of the world. As the comic went on, more and more characters got added to the cast, and now plenty of "good" humans and other characters living outside of Black Mountain get their own arcs as well.
Notable for its sense of humour, sketch-like yet very nice artwork, and complex character development and interaction.
For the first several years of its existence, new episodes were published every day, seven days a week. Eventually, real life intervened, and Morris switched to a "when it's ready" schedule, which typically means about three or four episodes per week.
A word of warning for those who browse
TV Tropes at work: it has some
NSFW elements, mostly casual nudity.
Has a
character sheet, which is in need of
much love.
Tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: Everyone hates Ranna. Even the demons that have appeared don't like her. The only ones who don't are, naturally, her followers. And even then there are exceptions.
- Action Mom: Mrs. Bloodhand is by far the best fighter around.
- Aerith and Bob: Extremely prevalent, but summed up best with Lucas and Cadugan.
- Affably Evil: It'd be easier to list the evil characters who aren't this.
- Agony of the Feet: Yes, it can happen even to a god.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Actually, Lawful Evil. It's parodied in the school mini-arc when a young gnoll gets scolded by the teacher for being good in class.
- Amazon Brigade: Bound to show up any time the drow get angry... or bored... or just feel like killing and maiming some people.
- Anyone Can Die: Very apparent, especially in the Lost Valley arc, with a couple characters, including a half-brother to one of the main character's love interest being offed fairly early into the storyline.
- Anything That Moves: Charlotte
- Arbitrary Skepticism: "My place is haunted by 16 ghosts and they all say there n'aint no vampires!"
- Armor-Piercing Question: From Arachne to Lewstrom of all people.
Arachne: Must feel good, doesn't it?
After all these centuries,] to finally have what you've always wanted. I mean, it is, right? What you've always wanted.
To be king of the dead. Supreme ruler of all... That's why you
became a lich, right?
Lewstrom: I don't...
I don't remember. - Arranged Marriage: Multiple instances, including Glon and his wives.
- Art Shift: Twice.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Satyrs, and Cadugan's deertaur friend Buck.
- Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Both Gren and Bob and Clover and Eric.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Although there wasn't much need to improve their relationship with his wives, Glon looks even happier once he gets kids.
- Badass Family: Mrs. Bloodhand, her son Glon, his three wives, Glon's half-brother Lucas are a very dangerous foe, and that's without counting all the other allies each of those can bring in.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Lewstrom achieves total victory, essentially taking over the entire world and enacting a zombie apocalypse. The only reason it doesn't stick is that, with ultimate power over the fate of the world in his hands, he decides that it's not actually what he wanted after all and gives it up. Just to drive in how unambiguously he's won, the process of giving it up involves casually killing off his own god by feeding it to someone else's god. He's so casually practical about it that the entire Heel–Face Turn only takes three four-panel comic strips, to unweave a conquest that involved more than a year of content.
- Bag of Kidnapping: Clover is caught this way once.
- Barred from the Afterlife:
- The gods of Man and the gods of Orc couldn't agree on who should claim Glon the half-orc, and he convinced them to send him back to life so he could determine which of his two heritages was his "true" one.
Glon: And if I don't choose, do I get to live forever??
The Gods: Don't push it, kid. There are a lot of Hells, y'know.
- Glon's dying human father asked to be buried with three grave coins, instead of the usual two. This means that he was technically denied a proper burial, and therefore has an excuse to stick around as a ghost.
- Beam-O-War: That's how a magic duel between Kurassa the elemental wizard and Sha'ir Waleed is pictured, in the aptly named strip "Fire and Water" (with Splash of Color to boot).
- Being Evil Sucks: Lewie never wanted to be evil, and he is cursed for that with bad luck. The rest of the cast, however...
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Rannite worshippers forcibly convert prisoners with torture. After several torture sessions, most prisoners will break, swear their loyalty to Ranna, and completely mean it.
- Berserk Button: Several characters have these:
- Do not harm, attempt to harm or insult Glon in front of his mother;
- Do not harm, attempt to harm or insult any member of Glon's family where he can hear you;
- Do not steal from Arachne;
- Do not mess with Gren, it upsets Bob the Beholder;
- Do not sacrifice scorpii blood to Lolth!!! She really doesn't like the taste.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Bob is, all things considered, a fairly nice guy for an evil creature, and rarely causes much trouble beyond satisfying his own libido. That said, you still shouldn't forget on of the cardinal rules of adventuring: Never, ever, under any circumstances, piss off a beholder!
- Beware the Silly Ones: When Eric finally realizes his feelings for Clover, his adviser objects on the grounds that there would be no political or economic benefit. And then word reaches the Halflings.
- Black Comedy: Inevitable when the main protagonists in a comedy strip are bad guys; there's a lot of humor derived from situations that would in real life be anything but funny. Still, the trope isn't nearly as omnipresent as you might think.
- Boring Invincible Hero: Rich must have a crush on Maula Bloodhand. When she shows up, the fight's over. Maliciously subverted during the Cult of Jone arc, when Maula gets a nasty scar on her eye and a pronounced limp at the hands of Jone.
- Break the Believer: Averted, the members of the Cult of Jone don't have time to process their hero just decapitated them.
- Brick Joke:
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Arachne has troubles remembering princess Dewcup. Her brother Glitterbranch has to get more specific, too.
- The Cameo
- The Captain: Captain Safana
- Character Development: Damn near everyone. Lucas and Glon are currently Bash Brothers and ruler/heir of their respective realms, remarkable for a pair who started out like this.
- The Chessmaster: Louie, of all people. In-universe Maula Bloodhand has a reputation as this, though she's semi-retired at the start of the comic so we never really see her pursuing a strategic goal.
- The Chosen One: The high wizard of Northrealm places an axe in a stone to find who will be the next king. He is horrified to learn that it is Captain Fang who manages to pull the axe from the stone. To cover up his folly, he brainwashes Runt into thinking he's the one who pulled the axe out instead.
- Cloudcuckoolander
- Cap'n Fang. "My sandbox is crunchy."
- Most kobolds seem to have some of these traits, though none as bad as Fang.
- Coincidental Dodge: Princess Goldie escapes a crossbow bolt by leaning to pet a squirrel.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Well, most of the protaonists are members of canonically "evil" races, so...
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: In "Clover Does Her Thing, although underwear tends to be a rarity in this comic (for both men and women).
- Comic-Book Time: Averted, as some storylines relatively close together take place years apart (such as leaving Runt a teenager and returning an adult).
- Comic Trio: Chimera manages to be this all by himself. The lion head is the leader, the dragon head is the idiot, and the goat head is the complainer.
- Continuity Nod: Strip #1063 contains one in each of its 8 panels... in 8 of its 9 lines. Justified as it is a contest of bards, and bard...ing, aside of musical talent, is also a matter of spreading news with new songs. Thus each contestant presents a recent song of fairly recent exciting tales... Experienced first-hand by the cast of the comic of course.
- Could Have Avoided This Plot: Demonstrated in "Not the Blood of Coritanus", where the bard's polite request to a monster succeeds after her quest companions get killed when attacking the beast.
- Cuddle Bug: Cuddles, the Cloaker.
- Dark and Troubled Past: And one that Lewstrom had almost forgotten.
- Defeat by Modesty: In "Anything You Can Do", Giovanna defeats King Eric by cutting the belt of his pants. Hey, he started it, you can't slice at a lady's corset and expect no retaliation.
- Dem Bones: King Lewie and his minions.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Arachne is about to deliver the coup de grace to Ranna, with a weapon designed to make sure her soul dies with her body. Then she's tackle-glomped by the Drow-fied Princess Dewcup, giving Ranna room to throat-stab Arachne and return to her real body. And in retaliation for Arachne's attack, Ranna uses her restored full strength to destroy Black Mountain.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Queen Hyeesha lets the plan slip.
- Did They or Didn't They?: Wolf and Glon. No. Seriously.
- Did You Just Have Sex?: The entire crew could see it.
- Didn't Think This Through: A vampire tries to turn a cyclops, but didn't take into account just how much blood he had.
- Disney Creatures of the Farce: Princess Goldie, as a parody of Princess Classic, was bound to have such a moment.
- Disneyesque: The design of many a character is reminiscent of the style form Disney Studio. The tone of the webcomic is rather more adult than that, though.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Tends to happen a lot to Charlotte and Arachne... as well as quite a few other characters.
- The Ditz: Charlotte, and also Lolth.
- Does Not Like Men: Arachne, along with most other drow, publicly professes to look down on men and treat them as dirt. In private, though, she has a slightly different opinion.
- Dominant Species Genes: The child of a human and a halfling is correctly predicted as a halfling.
- Dramatic Drop: Maula Bloodhand drops the teapot she was holding when Glon reveals his name to her, and she realizes he's her son.
- The Drunken Sailor: Cap'n Corona of the Crown Jewel keeps himself constantly so drunk he mentally matches Fang.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Royal Family of Umbril showed up as C-listers in "Turg's Saga", over a thousand strips prior to "Reflections in the Sand".
- Elfeminate:
- Only the drow are on the safe side.
- Cadugan is repeatedly mistaken for a female elf.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Goddess of Evil Ranna is so horrible that even the orcs and drow hate her.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Apparently, Thomas the Bard is quite popular.
- Evil Is Hammy: Even Lewie's ring thought so.
Ring: (thought) Great. Ham and cheese. Am I the only one who can smell it?
- Expo Speak Gag: Pops up with Cadugan yelling at Lucas.
- Expy: "Me? A vampire? Inconceivable!"
- Eye Scream: On the very second strip, Gren pokes Bob the Beholder right in the central eye for daring to make the pun, "Beauty is in the eye of the—AAAAAAAEEEEEEIIIIII!!"
- Face Palm:
- Fanservice: Lots and lots of it; for both genders. Characters tend to lose their clothes a lot, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, and if they don't, there's a fair amount of Clothing Damage happening.
- The Fool: Fang apparently hasn't the slightest idea of what he's doing, but is ludicrously lucky, so usually he wins — and even when not, still manages to survive unharmed.
- Full-Frontal Assault:
- Charlotte, given that she was walked in on post-coitus.
- Mrs. Bloodhand, since she was removed from a drow torture chamber. When she went to get her armor back, it wasn't so much for protection as to lower the amount of marriage proposals.
- Fun with Acronyms: Glon is accepted into The Stunties and Halfbreeds Infantry Team.
- Gender Bender: Which leads, in the case of Cadugan, to Attractive Bent-Gender.
- Gender Equals Breed: Averted with Clover and Eric's son, who is all halfling even though he has a human dad. See Half-Human Hybrid for an explanation.
- Gender Flip:
- Genius Ditz:
- Bob isn't terribly bright and is easily Distracted by the Sexy, but he's a very competent fighter, especially where Gren is involved.
- It's not entirely clear whether Captain Fang is this or just incredibly lucky, but he manages to do pretty well for himself all the same.
- Gilligan Cut: Lucas suggests to Cadugan that he'd disguise as a woman to infiltrate Jone's camp, since being a half-elf he's the most androgynous of the two. Cadugan glares. Cut to Lucas in drag.
- Go-Go Enslavement: Seems to be standard for Drow Males, or slaves of the drow in general. Clothes are a privilege.
- Gonk: Glon's wives are drawn extra ugly, especially compared to his harem of willing girls. He soon learns to appreciate their other qualities.
- Groin Attack:
- Half-Human Hybrid: Most notably Glon and Jone, but also Cadugan and Taidor. Clover and Eric's son is just a halfling. In YAFGC universe there are several groups of species that can interbreed and the offspring will be a fullblooded member of one of them. These include human/halfling, goblin/hobgoblin, hobgoblin/bugbear, gnoll/flind and others. The author will write pages and pages of details about the subject if asked.
- Hand Signals: In strip #242, they demonstrate that quite a lot can be got across with a few gestures.
- Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: All but name-dropped in strip #1682.
- Heel Realization: Hell of a thing for a self-admitted evil character, but Lewstrom finally remembered why he wanted to become a Lich in the first place... and realized he had been manipulated by Kila for all this time. Suffice it to say, he doesn't take it well.
- Here There Be Dragons: Here there be "a deadly labyrinth filled with creatures most foul"
- Heroism Incentive: In strip 1950 (NSFW), the halflings traveling with the Elf maiden aren't too happy about diving into the ocean... until they see the topless Sea-Elves waving to them.
- His and Hers: A pair of Orcs do it with their swords.
- Hit So Hard the Calendar Felt It: The rise of the sunk city of Ruun and the destruction of the Black Mountain mark year zero of the Height Age.
- Homage: The entire "Lich of the Rings" arc is a tribute/parody of The Lord of the Rings.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The same crystal that allows Kila to manifest is also used to bring Lolth into the world, and after Lewie realizes she has manipulated him, Kala no longer has Lewie's faith to protect her from Lolth's predations.
- Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Turg and the Sphinx. Turg is the Skitty in this case, oddly enough. And in strip #1506, we see exactly how it works. And the Sphinx is pregnant — daawwwww. Turg lampshades it in response to Glon's understandable befuddlement:
Glon: But she's... so... and you're... If you ever wanted to... how would you...???
Turg: There is magic in our world, Glon. Anything is possible.
- Hot Teacher: Miss Steatoda, Hot Drow Teacher.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Though Eric isn't particularly huge for a human, he's twice as tall as Clover.
- Human Mail: Charlotte, after one too many millstone moments, is packed into a wooden crate and shipped off as a slave.
- Hurricane of Puns: In the appropriately-titled "Com-pun-ionship"
- Hypocritical Humor: Arachne hates when people's prejudice stands in the way of love.
- Ice-Cream Koan: What is it with kobolds?
- If It's You, It's Okay: Seems to be how Lucas views his relationship with Cadugan. When his father ('s ghost) is shocked that Lucas is sleeping with a man, he explains — "You want to know if I like boys. I don't know. I like that boy."
- Ignored Epiphany: Charlotte in strip #1845.
Charlotte: Even trying to sate my old hungers, I couldn't shake my feelings for Lotharia. And then the obvious solution hit me!
Lucas: Release the sacrifices and confess your true feelings to Lotharia?
Charlotte: No! Carnal excess! More sacrifices!
- Improvised Weapon: Gadgia decapitates several Gi-Ants with a CLOAK.
Gadgia: A true orc is never unarmed.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Arachne's near-death at the hands of a berserk Glon has a rather different reaction than expected.
Glon: I... I've got... wives and... I'm... go.
- Insult Backfire: Wolf have a good answer to the questions about the place of a male warrior in a matriarchy.
- Interspecies Romance:
- To the point where it's easier to count the exceptions to this trope than the ones that play it straight. Hell, the comic started out with a romance between a goblin and a beholder.
- All of the generally human-shaped races (so far: several elf types, humans, halflings, dwarves, orcs, and goblins) are clearly the same species, and can freely cross-breed with each other (except orc/drow, apparently). Gnolls and humans are apparently distinct species: a gnoll/human political marriage requires concubines for both parties to produce heirs.
- Jaw Drop:
- Jeanne d'Archétype: Jone Half-Orc is an ultimately harshly deconstructed version.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Lewie the Lich gets a moment of this when he points out to Queen Maula that she needs to stop worrying about her son and start worrying about the kingdom. Maula's reaction is a shocked "By the gods... Lewie is right."
- Kick the Dog: Just in case you started to think of Jone as a (relatively) innocent bystander in her "army's" slaughter, there's the random slaughter of one of her devotee, just for a dagger.
- Literal Genie: The genie in the Arabian Nights Days story arc. Not out of malice, though, but extreme stupidity.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: Even the cast of Black Mountain would count, then you have two kingdoms, a barony, the bards, the pirates, the desert cities, and now we've added a handful of Nordic-esque dragon slayers to the list. So much they have an own forum section just for that, with one topic per character... and the overview spawns several pages. The author has been so kind as to do a Where Are They Now-style recap. The number of characters and stories contained within this single comic is truly staggering.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Most of the evil characters, and a fair few of the good ones. It'd probably be quicker listing all the characters who didn have some traits of this.
- Love at First Punch: Lady Adwen and Sir Catianus are rather... evenly... matched.
- Mama Bear:
- Never mess around with Glon if his mother is even theoretically able to see it, and don't insult him either.
- Same with threatening to make Jone into a prostitute.
- Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Prince Glitterbranch, turned into a female drow by magic, can't help it but check the goods.
- Marshmallow Hell:
- Masochism Tango: Glon nearly killed Arachne, a fact which turns her on.
- Meaningful Name: The Drow tend to have names related to spiders: Anancynote named after Anansi, the spider god of African Mythology, Arachnenote named after a character in Classical Mythology who ended up turned into a spider and where we get the word arachnid, Charlottenote from Charlotte's Web, and Wolf note a breed of spider.
- Mind Screw: The Displacer Kitty tends to evoke this reaction.
- Misplaced Sorrow: When Meegs loses her apprentice, she's apparently inconsolable. Because...
Meegs: (thinking) By the gods!!! Now I have to go through that damned apprentice audition process again!!
- Minion with an F in Evil: Charlotte initially, "a little bit evil" but mainly The Ditz. But not anymore...
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: The Mirror of True Reflection.
- Monochromatic Eyes: The drow appear to have no pupils.
- Monster Adventurers
- Monster Town: Black Mountain.
- Ms. Fanservice: The Drow have a matriarchal society with No Nudity Taboo, adapted directly from their description in the setting rules.
- Nymphs and Satyrs are this both in-universe and out, since they're fertility spirits.
- Harpies are an all-female species that can't wear shirts (only one ever manages to actually get a shirt over the wings).
- Some of the female gods of humanity are depicted Roman-style, with one bare breast to symbolize honesty and/or fertility. Not strictly this trope, but inadvertently qualifies.
- Mouth of Sauron: The annoying, insane kobold who follows Jone around, as Jone herself is either mute or simply refuses to speak to anybody.
- Multiple Head Case: Multipe cases.
- The Chimera: the dragon head is an idiot, the lion head is a Cloudcuckoolander, while the goat head is quite smart but doesn't control the body and thus is often very frustrated with the other two.
- Though even the Chimera isn't as bad as the hydra.
- There is also a small story arc about a couple of ettins having love troubles, since both heads of the female ettin like the same head of the male ettin but not the other. The male ettin ends up asking the Chimera for advice.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: Duke Owen Grayfort convinces the goddess Ch'thier to let him have one final conversation with his sons, Glon and Lucas. In order to ensure he can continue to help Lucas in the afterlife, he tells Lucas to bury him with three coins instead of the traditional two, and proceeds to tell Ch'thier that the third coins made for an "improper burial," and therefore grounds for a haunting!
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Implied in "Survivors".
- Nay-Theist: The Drow and the Orcs reject their respective patron gods in the wake of their war due to said gods' behavior.
- Nipple and Dimed: The comic does not shy away from showing women's (or men's) nipples.
- Noodle Incident: That Bawdy Song about "the lady and the sausagemaker". All we know is that it's extremely Intercourse with You.
- Not So Different: Arachne has a rather dim view on "good" folk. Broch is even less optimistic than that.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain:
- Lewie the Lich, who turns out to be a Knight of Cerebus. And managed to pull this the second time, on his return.
- Charlotte, once she gets a taste of real power in the Lost Valley arc.
- Now or Never Kiss: Lucas and Cadugan share a passionate clinch while being charged by Jone.
- Nude Nature Dance: Several characters run into some satyrs and nymphs in the woods, and get caught up dancing with them. When Gren decides to take a break, she is surprised to find that she's naked.
- Oh Crap!: A suitably epic one for the drow queen "The Agony of Defeat".
- Omnicidal Maniac: Jone. The fact that her first victims are men (and jerkass) make the women think she's a defender of their cause.
- One Head Taller: Lucas is taller than Cadugan. It's not so much an implication that Lucas is more dominant, but works considering that Lucas has greater rank than Cadugan.
- Our Monsters Are Different
- Out with a Bang: The last tenant in Gren and Bob's new lair got into the Harpy cave and died of exhaustion.
- Outdoor Bath Peeping:
- Panty Shot: "Kingdom of the Dead" — note that this is the only time Gren actually has underwear.
- Pirate Girl: Giovanna
- The Power of Love: The one thing all of the characters can agree on, good or evil, is that you should protect your loved ones. Although the evil characters try not to show it.
- Princess Classic:
- Lampshaded, and possibly lampooned, in "The DinSea Princess" sequence, starting with strip #2200.
- Princess Dewcup also starts out with echoes of this model.
- Pun: Only 2 strips in, and we get a beauty of a pun.
- Put on a Bus: Turg the Minotaur. He's back as of comic #1496.
- Really Gets Around:
- Wolf, who's slept with just about every drow in a position of power, his goddess, Mrs. Bloodhand, and (possibly) Glom. Though it's somewhat justified as it's how he climbs ranks in drow society, and later gets personally involved in their repopulation.
- Mrs. Bloodhand has no shortage of eager young men (due to her prestige as a famous general's widow), unlucky thieves, and even Wolf.
- Rescue Romance: Went both ways in regards to Clover and King Eric.
- Right Through His Pants: Played straight in "Love, Political Intrigue Style", but averted everywhere else.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Lucas is right about Cadugan's jealousy. We find out later that he's wrong about who Cadugan was jealous of.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Played With, as Glon has a "visitation dream" from Owen, combined with a routine one of him as an infant. The result unnerves Owen a bit.
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Both the Fox and the werewolves retelling the history of the kingdom of Shallmar at the same time.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: A long-time running gag comes to fruition.
- Vapor Wear: Underwear seems to be rare in this world, and bras don't seem to exist at all. Many women wear clothes with Absolute Cleavage that demonstrate this, and those who don't tend to suffer Clothing Damage (or lose their clothes altogether) that shows their lack of undergarments.
- Villainous Rescue: Lewie, of all people, saves everyone from Jone.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Young Wolf narrowly escapes this.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Wolf, Clover, Charlotte, Glon... a lot of characters wind up either partly or entirely naked for extended periods, making an Archive Binge a somewhat NSFW endeavor.
- Warring Natures:
- Glon is half-human, half-orc. He seems to be accepted by the monsters of Black Mountain, but that might be more out of respect and/or fear of his mother , orc matriarch Maula Bloodhand.
- It's established that all orc-human hybrids in this universe suffer this to some extant. They have a tendency to slip into a berserker rage if they lose control of their tempers (it's all part of the Orc-God's plan to breed a super-warrior to conquer the world in his name).
- Weaksauce Weakness: Cyclops' lack of depth perception can lead to some Epic Fail moments.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Meri-Tai scolding Caudigan and The Fox for trying to rescue Lucas from the werewolves by themselves. Then she calls Caudigan on his refusal to call on the king for help, reminding him that Lucas is one of those royals he hates and mistrusts.
- What's Up, King Dude?: Arachne refers to the drow rulers as "Queenie".
- Woman Scorned: Charlotte.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: As noted above, Jone gets all kind of undeserved crap heaped on her, but when she finally sets off on her Roaring Rampage of Revenge, she goes too far. She goes way too far.
- Would Hit a Girl: "Women may rule here, but braggarts always go down."
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Princess Goldie thinks she's in a fairy tale rather than a high fantasy setting.
- Yaoi Fangirl: Apparently, this is why Queen Hyeesha has a harem.
- You Are Number 6:
- Drow males have numbers tattooed on their arms. Wolf's changes often.
- Elzear'bith eventually gets an infinity symbol as a divine sign of her permanent demotion.
