This Wednesday’s Web Comic of the Week is an epic fan undertaking, and the first comic in this series that is a completed work rather than an ongoing. What happens when you mix The Lord of the Rings with table top roleplayers? You get-

The DM of the Rings

Written and assembled by Shamus Young

Images from New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings film adaptations

Website: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale

Updates: Completed

DM of the Rings is based on a simple premise-retelling the Lord of the Rings as though it were a game of Dungeons and Dragons. The DM would probably be better of writing a fantasy novel, since his game is not offering the players much chance to interact with the world. As such, the players then attempt to break the game as often as possible.

The characters exhibit behaviors that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever quested with dice and graph paper. Aragorn is always trying to score. Legolas appears to be constantly on some energy drink. Gimli is a veteran player with complete mastery of the rules and no qualms about comparing this campaign to others. And of course, Frodo is convinced his dice are cursed.

Shamus Young is a programmer who has also created the web comic Chainmail Bikini. You can see his work at his site. His current project is Stolen Pixels for the Escapist.