Original Commentary

And the first half of Final Battle Adventure Online is available in the bonus comic archive. The second half is available only as a bonus book, I believe for August. We had originally planned on Neverwinter Nights being the online RPG of choice in the ND Universe, but I like this better. Lets us make things up as we go along, and any details we leave out come across as "unimportant background knowledge" instead of "something important that we assume you know". And Isabel worries about trademark issues using another company's name in our comics. And we can add or remove features from the game as the plot requires - Terrence

Modern Commentary
And we're going back a few hours, I think? We're not overly concerned with timekeeping. I assume Brisbane took the bus; I'm not sure how late it is but it's got to be dark out - especially in November. But this should take place during Kimberly's first visit to Lola's.

And I assume that when Robert said "We're playing Final Battle Adventure Online and you should join us" he didn't mean "join us in person" but he'll take what he can get. - Terrence

Original Commentary

I ended up tweaking the script to this comic the entire day. There were little changes, like adding a little foreshadowing (not telling where, sorry :P), an explanation for why Robert was not surprised to see Brisbane at his door unannounced (first panel) and making him look a little more clueless over all (the entire comic). Roberts a funny guy- he makes a guy like Brisbane look more together (of course, right now Brisbane is falling apart, but, well, every other time Robert has shown up he has). I'm sure Robert hasn't even noticed Brisbane's box, considering there are so many in his place already. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Dude wasn't expecting company but Robert is up for an in-person LAN party. It's the weekend and his schedule is flexible. Again, no cellphones which is why Brisbane didn't call ahead. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Five points if anyone recognizes where they have seen Jake's character before... of course they are expired, but they are five points all the same.

This comic gives the impression that Robert doesn't get the chance to have his own morale stance defied by women much (other than those on-line, and he don't trust those). -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Jake's character showed up in Final Battle Adventure Online, a NamirDeiter.net bonus book. He was on the Sherup server. Blue's character flirted with him and he gave her a hundred magic potions.

I'm not entirely sure when we decided that Sherup and Hippedown would have separate servers. That doesn't prevent the You Say it First and Namir Deiter folks from meeting up online but it makes it a bit more complicated.

Also, I'm not sure why we chose "brood" instead of "party" or "guild" or "group". The terminology hadn't really been settled just yet and we figured we'd strike out in a new direction. I think we had just decided that FBAO was its own thing and, therefore, had its own terminology. - Terrence

Original Commentary

This has, of course, been one of the prevailing viewpoints we've seen from our fans. Someone asked why Brisbane didn't go stay with David. Mainly because David might live with Emily, which would be very awkward. Or, at very least, Emily watches David closely and drops by unannounced. Having Brisbane there would make things unpleasant for David. I'm sure he'd be willing to let him live there, but Brisbane would feel bad about it - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Brisbane has the right to say no if he feels he's not ready.

Kimberly is a good-looking woman, but that is an unrelated fact.

I kinda wish we had shown Kimberly putting a little more pressure on him, though, have Brisbane try to explain himself but fail.

Regarding the original commentary, Brisbane didn't go stay with David because David is a college student who lives in the dorms. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Brisbane's soliloquy in the second panel actually got expanded a bit today, to explain his point of view a bit more - Terrence

I was so tired while doing this that I could've sworn that the screensaver on the background in the first panel was actually moving. I'd look at out of the corner of my eyes and think it's moving. Seriously, I'm going crazy. That's the same screensaver Terrence has - Isabel

Modern Commentary
Brisbane is a homeless hopeless romantic. He's spent a lot of time trying to set up The Perfect Moment. He believes he's ready for sex if everything goes magical.

But magic can't survive contact with reality. He's really not emotionally ready for this and I'm not sure he fully understands that.

While he has the right to say no to sex, he has signed a lease with this woman. They've been living together for several months. "One-night stand" is not what you'd call it here. Neither of them are leaving after the night's activities because they both live there.

If he could've just calmly sat down and discussed this with Kimberly, that would've saved us about 70 comics.
But if he could've just calmly sat down and talked this out, he wouldn't have been early-YSIF Brisbane. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Well, Brisbane is only human. And staying with Kimberly is inviting an awful lot of temptation. A two years or so ago, back in the Unlike Minerva days, Brisbane would've suspected that Kimberly was trying to break his morals, mainly for the sake of doing so. Would he have been right? No, probably not. That'd be too far to take things. Their relationship has matured a lot and I don't think about how much it's changed very often.

And it's a running gag that Robert's house is filled with boxes. He's a pack rat and people keep giving him computer equipment. There's probably one, maybe two boxes of stuff that he actually cares about. He just has too much to do to finish unpacking - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Nowadays, those boxes would've been from a variety of online retailers, full of things he didn't need but got at a tremendous discount. But free shipping was less of a thing then. Half the stuff in there is technically obsolete but still usable and Brisbane has absolutely no idea what's what.

But yeah, dude has been thinking hard about why he said no, and he's not entirely sure himself at this point.- Terrence