Anyone want to speculate what the next book will be called?

[Ornithologist]

Home is where the Harm is

Done.

[SirKazum]

The Gods, The Beards & The Ugly

Come up with some additional pun for "The Ugly" and I'm making that official in my headcanon

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Come up with some additional pun for "The Ugly" and I'm making that official in my headcanon

The sucky? [/no offense meant vampires of the gaming world please don't eat me for that horrible almost-too-bad-to-be-a-pun]

[D.One]

The sucky? [/no offense meant vampires of the gaming world please don't eat me for that horrible almost-too-bad-to-be-a-pun]

The Gods, The Beards and the Hubris?

[SirKazum]

The sucky? [/no offense meant vampires of the gaming world please don't eat me for that horrible almost-too-bad-to-be-a-pun]

Ah, that works. Thanks! Here's 100 XP, kid, good luck working on that 3rd level!

[Dreamscape]

"Hel of a story."

"Dwarven Detour"


"Suck up"

Okay those are all i've got.

[Pyron]

"To Hel and Back Again".

I like this one. But here's another:

"Song of Vampires and Ice" (Okay, that was bad, I admit it)

[The Giant]

"X runs in the family" is a fairly common English phrase: "good looks run in the family", "madness runs in the family", etc. So we have a book with X replaced by "blood": the implication is that "blood" is a quality that all of the family** possesses, and is unusual enough to be notable. But of course every family has blood in it, it's even how we refer to family metaphorically ("blood is thicker than water", etc), so saying that "blood runs in the family" is redundant and bathetic. It's basically the same source of humour as The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. It's not a pun, no, but it's clearly not the title of a serious book either.

Zyzzyva is right.

Blood Runs in the Family is intended to be, if not laugh-out-loud funny, at least a bit of wordplay. "[Trait] runs in the family" and "[trait] runs in the blood" are both two expressions that mean the same thing. "Blood runs in the family," therefore, combines the two phrases in a redundant way, like saying, "That pie was as easy as cake," or, "The drawing board got sent back to Square One," or "That cup of tea is really my bag," or "That dim bulb is really not the sharpest tool in the shed." (All of which are terrible examples that I just pulled out of my head.)

That it also fits, thematically, with the content of the story is why I picked it (including all the interpretations that allenw listed above), but I'm baffled that anyone could look at it and think it was an entirely serious choice. It's an absurd title. I might as well have called it, "The Dark and Stormy Night of the Dark Storm at Night."

EDIT: A better in-comic example that just occurred to me: Crystal yelling to Haley that she will "kill [her] to death!"

[Ron Miel]

I like this one. But here's another:

"Song of Vampires and Ice" (Okay, that was bad, I admit it)

Nah, The Giant hasn't read George R.R. Martin.

[Kish]

I suggest, for when the ancient FAQ is finally revised, these two entries:
"The fact that you do not like what happened does not mean that it is actually a red herring and something else is what is happening."
"The fact that it did not make you, personally, laugh does not mean it is not a joke."

[Reddish Mage]

It's an absurd title. I might as well have called it, "The Dark and Stormy Night of the Dark Storm at Night."

EDIT: A better in-comic example that just occurred to me: Crystal yelling to Haley that she will "kill [her] to death!"

I think the absurdity of Crystal tearing Haley's head off and hitting her in the face with it is much more relatable. Tautologies are just not as appreciated as contradictions.

Also new challenge: Book 6 titles that are tautologies, contradictions or (and think hard on this one) both!

[Gift Jeraff]

Dwarves & Deities

Alternatively, swap one or both for Death and/or Destruction.

[Mad Humanist]

Also new challenge: Book 6 titles that are tautologies, contradictions or (and think hard on this one) both!

I think if anybody can accomplish both they get a Nobel Prize or something for destroying all of mathematics.

Edit: As an afterthought it gets easier if it's a tautology, a contradiction AND A PUN.

[Reddish Mage]

I think if anybody can accomplish both they get a Nobel Prize or something for destroying all of mathematics.

Edit: As an afterthought it gets easier if it's a tautology, a contradiction AND A PUN.

If Thor cannot make it rain Hel will make him pour

[Turin_19]

I agree that most titles are not exactly a joke. Seeing the overall:

1. Dungeon Crawlin' Fools
2. No Cure for the Paladin Blues
3. War and XPs
4. Don't Split the Party
5. Blood Runs in the Family

Let's see, for example, NCftPB. It doesn't even include the downfall of Azure City or the death of Miko. It's all in 3.

So I'm thinking.........

Spoiler: Oh no

Show

I have no idea, but it's fun to write in spoilers

Of course, we only have something like 30 strips in this book so far, so, I could be totally wrong

[SirKazum]

Of course, we only have something like 30 strips in this book so far, so, I could be totally wrong

Yeah... this far into Book 5, for example, we wouldn't even know it was about "family" at all. Most guesses would probably involve "desert" somehow.

Hmm... I was going to say "No Cure for the Paladin Blues" works on multiple levels because said paladin arrests the Order, and the song it references is about jail. But on cursory research, it seems I got "No Cure for the Summertime Blues" and "Jailhouse Blues" mixed up. Oh well.

[Porthos]

I agree that most titles are not exactly a joke.

Jokes? No. Puns? Yes. Until Rich intentionally decided to break the emerging patten with Don't Split the Party. Paraphrasing, he said at the time that he didn't want to get pigeonholed into making literary/cultural puns and that he wanted room for other concepts if he felt it was right.

Which is a shame on one level because I still maintain to this day that "A Tale of Two Parties" would have been a fantastic title for Book Four. I'll just have to live with the satisfaction that it was strongly considered as a title before DStP was ultimately chosen.

As it is, Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales shows that Rich is still willing to go the pun route if he feels it is appropriate.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I think if anybody can accomplish both they get a Nobel Prize or something for destroying all of mathematics.

Martians from outer space?

If Thor cannot make it rain Hel will make him pour

That one is way cooler though.

(Although technically Hel will make him pour if he does make it rain. ;))

[Threadnaught]

The Gods, The Beards & The Ugly

The Gods, The Beards & The Undead?


All Dwarves go to Hel?


Come Hel or High Priest?

[Turin_19]

Jokes? No. Puns? Yes.

Yes! I agree. Although, as I've seen in this post, I hadn't quite understood all of them!

[DeliaP]

Dwarves & Deities

Alternatively, swap one or both for Death and/or Destruction.

I've been thinking that "Gods and Monsters" is the theme of this book, but unfortunately that phrase to the point without any humorous changes.... (and if the Giant is going to go non-humorous this time, that's my bet!)

But that's made me think: "Gods, Demi-gods and Vampires" or "Gods, Demi-gods and Monsters"?

I reckon this book is going to give us much more Snarl backstory revelations, and the gods themselves are going to be looking even less divine that they have so far as a result....

[Doug Lampert]

I've been thinking that "Gods and Monsters" is the theme of this book, but unfortunately that phrase to the point without any humorous changes.... (and if the Giant is going to go non-humorous this time, that's my bet!)

But that's made me think: "Gods, Demi-gods and Vampires" or "Gods, Demi-gods and Monsters"?

I reckon this book is going to give us much more Snarl backstory revelations, and the gods themselves are going to be looking even less divine that they have so far as a result....

How many readers will have even heard of "Gods, Demi-gods, and Heroes"?

Is there any point to a cultural reference that's such an in-joke that only a tiny fraction of the readers get it? Especially as a book title which is intended to appeal to a mass market?

[Ron Miel]

Goda & Rockers

[falsedot]

"Dungeon Crawling Beards"
"On the Origin of Beards"
"No Cure for the Bearded Blues"
"Beard of Darkness"
"War and Beards"
"Don't Beard the Party"
"Sticks, Snails, and Beard Tales"
"Beards Run in the Family".

Or:
Beard crawling fools
No cure for the paladin beards
Start of beard
Beard and xps
Dont split the beard

[Lvl 2 Expert]

To Hel and Back Again

[CaDzilla]

H E Single Hockeystick

[Buckethead]

"The road to Hel is paved with Gate intentions."

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Come Hel or High Priest?

"The road to Hel is paved with Gate intentions."

I think these two are my favorites right now. The real title will probably not contain the name Hel, there are far more important characters who've never been name dropped in a book title (...), but I really like these anyway.

[woweedd]

I think we're too early to guess, yet.

[Pyron]

Nah, The Giant hasn't read George R.R. Martin.

So? I haven't read George R.R. Martin, and that didn't stop me from thinking of it.