YMMV / DM of the Rings

• Fridge Brilliance: Why did the DM put the fate of the story in the hands of a distant NPC making a Will save? Because Frodo was originally a player character, and the DM had likely intended all along to have his player perform the roll and create tension during the campaign's climax. However, all of the hobbit players (including Frodo and Sam) quit at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring arc, resulting in the planned suspense coming across as a "Shaggy Dog" Story.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Despite the other players wanting to leave as soon as possible, the person who roleplayed Gimli is fully willing to give the GM another chance and play another one of his campaigns, and says "Just get some better source material. I'm sure it'll be great."
  • And in the rant at the bottom of the final page, the creator of the comic, Shamus Young, puts a goodbye speech styled after Bilbo's speech at the beginning of Lord of the Rings:
    Friends! I will not keep you long. I am writing this to you for a purpose. Indeed, for three purposes. First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that one year is far too short a time to write a webcomic for such excellent and admirable readers. I don't know half of you half as well as I would like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
    Secondly, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of this strip. I should say, OUR strip, since the comments and suggestions you've given over the last year have been as entertaining as the strip itself. Together the strips score one hundred and forty-four. One gross, if I may use the expression.
    This month is also, if I may be allowed to refer to ancient history, the two-year anniversary of the start of this site. Two years ago this site began in utter obscurity, with me posting a narrative of a D&D campaign to nobody in particular. But today the site is thriving and I can now say, "Thank you very much" to the thousands of you who read this.
    Thirdly and finally, I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT. I regret to announce that, though, as I said, a year is for too short a time to spend on a webcomic, this is the END. It is over now. GOOD BYE.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: When Frodo gets fed up with the game, he suggests that they play Star Wars d20 instead, and soon the hobbit players collectively quit to go try it. Sure enough, one of the most well-known webcomics to take off from DM of the Rings is Darths & Droids.
  DM: Look, if you guys want to play Star Wars so bad, I'll write you a Star Wars story as soon as we're done with this one!
  Gimli: Woah there, chief. NOBODY is asking for THAT.
• Moment of Awesome: It's rare, but any time the group manages to outsmart the DM. For instance, Legolas almost turns the entire campaign into an Anti-Climax by killing Gollum before he even shows up in the story proper by rolling a crit/max damage.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Talked by the author in this strip. The author notes how there are a lot of good jokes that can be pulled in this scene, but the Witch King and Éowyn are NPCs played by the DM, who takes his own story completely seriously.
• Values Dissonance: The frequent use of the word "Retarded" to describe something as groanworthy, has NOT aged well, given that the word is now considered one of the most heinous slurs that one could use, especially in an ableist context.
  • The remaster lampshades the slurs usage, and goes out of its way to remedy this, replacing it with words like "Asinine".

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