Mountain Leopards: An Adventuring Story

[Jubal]

An Introduction

Welcome to Mountain Leopards! This is a webcomic written and arted (taking the term art loosely) by James 'Jubal' Baillie. It is based on a mix of classic D&D and fantasy gaming tropes, with obvious heavy inspiration from Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick in style and presentation, and also on the folklore, literature and legends of the Caucasus region. It follows a cleric and a group of misfit acquaintances he makes. The comic will probably never be 'finished' and updates on an as-and-when basis, though haranguing me to make more of it might actually work as a persuasion tactic and comments are very welcome.

Note that whilst this comic is largely funny (and always punny) it does include the sort of levels of violence normal for a fantasy adventuring tale and does also handle some serious and heavier topics, most notably unfreedom & slavery and their impact on some of the characters.



Episode List:

• Narrative Voice
• I Shot The Cleric (But I Didn't Shoot the Ordinary)
• The Man Upstairs
• Service de-liver-y
• Travel Proposal
• Best Foot Forward
• It's probably a Maille-ard
• An Uncomplicated Fellow
• At least it wasn't a wink-face
• Some of them want to use you
• In Charge
• Now You See Me
• It's Half The Battle
• No Rescue In Sight
• Meaningful Conversation
• Faay, Enchantress
• Spies In All Four Walls
• Administration of Justice
• The Beard Helped, Though
• Baggage Handling
• Hystrix Indications
• Appropriately Spiky
• Meat Shields
• Shields Meet
• Cracks Opening
• Should've Toad The Line
• In Darkness
• Some Comics Don't Have A Punchline

1. Narrative Voice

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[Silver Wolf]

I guess he should have invested in his passive perception a bit.

[Jubal]

I guess in gaming terms Botso would be some kind of cross-class cleric/bard, considering he has enough plot sense to converse with the narrative voice.

I've also worked out plans for two more strips of this story, if anyone wants to hear what happens next?

[comrade_general]

Do the thing.

[Tusky]

It's good! Made me chuckle too. I'm not precious about my fourth walls

Would definitely read the others

[beebug_nic]

Very much raised a smirk :-) Keen to see another!

[Jubal]

Thanks guys! OK, as requested...

Ep 2: I Shot The Cleric (But I Didn't Shoot the Ordinary):

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Feedback welcome as ever I'll start a list of episodes in the OP.

[beebug_nic]

Enjoying Botso's dialogue - and loving the detail on the clergy/cleric :-)

[Tusky]

Interesting! I like it.

So you've only got one more to conclude? I'm sure you could probably spin the story out if you wanted :]

[Jubal]

I've only got one more planned - it certainly doesn't conclude the story at all, I just haven't had any ideas for where to go after that!

I've got a lot of general thoughts on some kind of a plot, and three other characters drawn up who I want to flesh out and introduce, but it's keeping the dialogue light/humourous enough that I'm struggling with. I can't just make D&D punchline gags because they're all 200% overdone and I don't even know the rules well enough, and I need to build up a fair bunch more comics/characterisation before I can start making internally referential humour within the comic world either.

[SLiV]

Ooh, this is neat. 

As a point of critique, I think the fonts could be clearer, maybe by using fonts with anti-aliasing.

[Jubal]

Ep 3: The Man Upstairs

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Another one out! In which Botso has some troubles with authority.

I now have an idea for another five or so strips, and I've basically finished #4. I'm wondering if I should actually slow down from this point and make this (initially) a weekly-ish thing? There's no way that in the long run I'm going to produce these things faster than once a week on average, and I think keeping to a regular-ish routine is more likely to get me to keep going than just doing them when I feel like it and ending up with something that always gets bumped down the queue or has a short burst every quarter of a year or something. Thoughts on that?

Ooh, this is neat. 

As a point of critique, I think the fonts could be clearer, maybe by using fonts with anti-aliasing.

Hm, I'll have a think about that - I've tried messing with other fonts but none of them seemed to improve it really. Does the font still look unclear to you if you look at the image in full-size? (Click on it in a web browser to enlarge).

[Caradìlis]

Hihi, that guy just made favourite god of the week... Sarcasm and bookworminess, Caradìlis approves...

[Tusky]

haha Otarid has some sass

[Glaurung]

I like this very much, and would enjoy more of it.

Also I feel the comic deserves a name of its own, not just "In which Jubal...", but I'm not sure what it should be.