In case you haven’t noticed, most of the comics on this site come paired with a bitesize bitch fest courtesy of yours truly. I love gaming, but I make it my hobby to complain about it. So yeah. This comic is about me. Fighter is a jerk, and today I am Fighter.

It’s in my nature to criticize media. I was an English major before I was a gamer, and I’ve been trained to pick apart the things I love. Show me a Marvel movie and I’ll tell you how its villains are forgettable. Give me an epic fantasy novel and I’ll tell you how it’s derivative. Run a game for me and I’ll tell you how you’re having bad-wrong-fun. All this in spite of the fact that I ostensibly enjoy these things.

That’s the trouble with criticism. It’s fun to discuss our passions, but we run the very real risk of talking all the fun out of our favorite pastimes. I know that I’ve driven home from more than one session with Laurel in the passenger seat beside me, going back and forth over all the little hiccups that made the game less than perfect.

“Can you believe our GM was giving the paladin’s storyline so much attention?”

“Yeah!”

“And what’s with the weird unsolvable mystery? Throw us a bone, you know?”

“I know!”

“And can you believe how our friends go out of their way to spend their free time entertaining us?”

“Those jerks!”

No. It is I who am the jerk. I’m striving to get better about it though. Because I want to enjoy my hobby for the long run, and the last thing I want is to suck the joy out of gaming by being a grump about it.

Am I the only one that has this problem? Do any of you guys find yourselves turning into joyless, overly critical fun-sucks, or do you only acquire that template after you start writing a gaming blog? Let’s hear it in the comments!

THIS COMIC SUCKS! IT NEEDS MORE [INSERT OPINION HERE] Is your favorite class missing from the Handbook of Heroes? Maybe you want to see more dragonborn or aarakocra? Then check out the “Quest Giver” reward level over on the The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. You’ll become part of the monthly vote to see which elements get featured in the comic next!