I just discovered Travis Charest’s Spacegirl comic strip online. I’ve been a fan of his artwork for years, and I can’t wait to read this space opera. It sparked the following two notions:

Notion 1) The Villain’s Lair

We see villain’s like this in many books and movies – the guy in the dark chamber, spying on the heroes and doing his best to thwart him. Perhaps all those wandering monsters that adventurers are dealing with aren’t wandering at all – perhaps they are directed by a secret Villain and can provide a clue to where the Villain is hiding. You can make capturing intelligent monsters pay off if every (or many) captured monster has a piece of the puzzle – and a specific piece as well. So, to find the Villain requires the adventurers to discover three pieces of information – information that can be found through dangerous exploration, or by interrogating (or searching for clues like a certain kind of mud on their paws in the case of non-intelligent monsters) the second, fourth and seventh wandering monsters that they come upon on certain levels of a dungeon. This makes spells like comprehend languages (and intelligent characters with a wide range of known languages) or even speak with the dead more useful spells, since they can save adventurers a lot of time and trouble when they’re after the Villain and/or his horde of treaaure.

Notion 2) Pulp Sci-Fi Role-Playing Games

If you’re in the process of creating a retro sci-fi sort of game, how cool would it be to blend the game with art from this series. I wonder if a deal could be struck up between an enterprising game designer and Mr. Charest to feature some select panels in the game – not reprinting the entire thing, but maybe an image of a spaceship to illustrate the chapter on spaceships, etc. It would help the game product by making it more attractive, and could be a source of exposure for Charest (who, admittedly, probably doesn’t need much exposure). I mean, the web-comic is free, so maybe he would be open to such an arrangement.