King of RPGs

The Hundred Years War: Part 9

jason — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:30:23 +0000

The Hundred Years War: Part 8

jason — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:17:53 +0000

King of RPGs Rejected Strips #2

jason — Sat, 12 May 2012 01:57:52 +0000

Here’s another not-quite-ready-for-continuity King of RPGs strip which I’m putting up for your criticism and (if possible) entertainment. This, like Wednesday’s strip, is also set back during the debate between advocates of Mages & Monsters James Fenimore Cooper’s Pathfinder. Honestly, as a collector of D&D minis, I was sad when D&D4e canceled their miniatures line, but it’s leading to interesting rumors that minis might not be part of the equation in D&D Next. (At least not in the core rulebooks… although all I know is what I read on enworld.) I played D&D without minis for years and years, but 3e and later 4e got me back into using them; it’ll be interesting to see how the new edition manages the minis/not-minis roleplaying/tabletop-game balance.

King of RPGs: Rejected Strip

jason — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:15:52 +0000

Since I don’t have a new continuity strip today, here’s an older strip I haven’t put up before. Inspired by too much reading of RPG messageboards, in retrospect I thought it was too fanboyishly obscure. But what do *you* think?

King of RPGs Sketch Day!

jason — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:19:13 +0000

I have to miss a day today (sorry all!), so I decided I’d upload some sketches instead. Each page of King of RPGs goes through two or three iterations before the final version is drawn. Then, Victor takes my sloppy sketches and converts them into beautiful, print-worthy graphic novel pages. Here are some sketches of the scene in Volume 1 where Shesh and Mike go into Theo’s room:

Often I’ll change scenes during the storyboarding process. In the original draft of Volume 1, Chapter 2, it began with Shesh standing on the window ledge of his room as if… GASP!… could he be contemplating-!?!?

Gradually it mutated into the final printed version, in which Shesh is crawling through a dungeon (actually the UC Escondido storm drain system), before taking a bus, passing through a protest rally, and finally emerging in another part of campus, all in an attempt to escape his hapless Game Master.

Here’s an alternate version of another scene in Volume 1. This was a bowdlerized joke drawn due to concerns that the original idea was unprintable in a 16+ book. But thankfully, my first editor, Kaitlin Heller, made the right choice and allowed me to print the original idea which now appear in the printed version! If you haven’t read the book, I will say no more.

Another random scene from volume 1. Shesh has knocked himself unconscious in a fit of roleplaying and runs into some people out in the hallway. This page was cut for flow and pacing. It’s fairly sane on the scale of King of RPGs craziness, actually.

King of RPGs will return with a new strip on Wednesday! See you then!

The Hundred Years War: Part 7

jason — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:04:44 +0000

King of RPGs Now On iTunes and Nook!

jason — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:30:25 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

King of RPGs Now Available for Nook & iTunes!
Volumes 1-2 of the New York Times Bestselling Del Rey Graphic Novel Series
Now Available in Digital Editions

Seattle, WA (May 3, 2012)—The bestselling Del Rey graphic novel series King of RPGs by Jason Thompson and Victor Hao is now available digitally! Two ginormous volumes of the satirical gaming/shonen-manga mashup are now available instantly on the Nook and iBooks stores. Written by Jason Thompson (Manga: The Complete Guide) with art by Victor Hao, King of RPGs is the epic tale of a young man’s quest to escape his crippling World of Warfare addiction and his friend’s quest to become…the greatest game master in the world!

VOLUME 1: THE GREATEST GAMER ON EARTH
“Really awesome. Funny and maniacal …nerd rage with a sentimental streak. Reminds me a lot of Evan Dorkin’s Eltingville Fan Club series, but updated for a new generation.”
—Annalee Newitz, io9.com
At the University of California, Escondido, no one would guess that freshman Shesh Maccabee is a hardcore gamer—and in recovery to boot, following a court order, a wireless ban, and months of therapy. Everything’s going according to plan…until he visits the campus gaming club, where they meet Theodore, whose one goal is to run the greatest Mages & Monsters campaign ever GMed. Soon Shesh and his friends Mike and Jen are dragged into the world of hardcore gaming, where cops, lizard men, fanatical Gothémon collectors, and twenty-sided dice collide into the wildest dark comedy adventure ever rolled!
240 pages: $10.99 US
VOLUME 1 on iTunes
VOLUME 1 on Nook

VOLUME 2: RETURN TO WORLD OF WARFARE
“Awesome last-minute reversals of fortune and grand displays of role-playing at its best…It’s tons of fun, and even though it’s part of a continuing series, Thompson introduces all the players and keeps the story self-contained, making for a satisfying volume that works fine on its own…readers will be likely to want to jump into a role-playing game themselves.”
—Matt Brady, Warren Peace Sings the Blues
After an intense World of Warfare (WoW) bender, college freshman Shesh found himself completely consumed by the persona of his character, the mighty Moggrathka. Now, after months of therapy, Shesh is unsteadily back on his feet, focusing on passing his classes instead of slaying orcs. While Shesh’s friend Theodore tries to get Shesh back into his Mages & Monsters campaign, a new rival appears, and the WoW executives devise a sinister scheme to use Moggrathka in their plan for gaming domination…
272 pages • $10.99 US
VOLUME 1 on iTunes
VOLUME 2 on Nook

After you’ve read volumes 1 and 2, visit the King of RPGs Facebook page for more upcoming news about the King of RPGs series. Plus, explore the between-books new adventures of Theo, Shesh and the rest at King of RPGs: Chronicles, a webcomic updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday! Grab your dice and muster your fiery determination to join the legend of Earth’s greatest gamers!

****************
Jason Thompson (www.mockman.com) is the author of King of RPGs and the Eisner-nominated encyclopedia Manga: The Complete Guide. As a manga editor for VIZ and Del Rey, he has worked on the English editions of titles such as Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball Z, Hana-Kimi, One Piece and Shaman King. He is also the artist of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and Other Stories and The Doom That Came to Sarnath.

Victor C. Hao (www.VictorHao.com) is the artist of King of RPGs as well as Art Director and UX/UI Artist at Rocket Ninja. Victor currently resides in San Francisco and has an addiction to MMORPGs and Facebook games.

The Hundred Years War: Part 6

jason — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:44:54 +0000

The Hundred Years War: Part 5

jason — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:15:27 +0000

The Hundred Years War: Part 3

jason — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:10:59 +0000

Special last-minute (because I just remembered) news: I’m going to be at the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Oregon this weekend! I’ll be sharing a table with my friends in the Couscous Collective, so look for that name, or look for the big King of RPGs banner. Or for the big poster map of H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands. Either way, I’ll be hanging around. I may even be running a game of something… despite Stumptown having NO GAMING FACILITIES WHATSOEVER. How, you ask? Come to the show and ask me!