UPDATED 04/01/09
Hey, remember when I said I was working on a Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha RPG? Probably not, but it's way back there in the archives somewhere. Anyway, DKellis at
Moe Check! is doing a screencap webcomic based on the third series,
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. The concept is supposedly to follow in the footsteps of
DM of the Rings and
Darths and Droids; which is to say that the webcomic is presented as if StrikerS is an RPG being played by several people. I'm not really sure he is succeeding on that count; except for a few obvious instances you never really feel as if you're reading about players interacting with a GM. There is a lot more of a free-form storytelling element to the comic; and the commentary is a lot more about the series than it is about roleplaying or gaming (which is fine if that's what you want). However, the comic is still pretty good, although I think it will primarily entertain those familiar with the series, at least in the long run.
UPDATE: Just wanted to add a couple of things. One, just to make it clear, the comic is really good. I still think you have to know a bit about the series beforehand to know where many of the character jokes are coming from, but a lot of the humor stands on it's own. Also, the comic is really well done; the quality of the screencaps is fantastic. I've found a few facial expressions that I didn't remember from my own multiple viewings of the series. Two, while DKellis did originally mention doing something like Da&Dr and DMotR, he also specifically stated that the original impetus of his comic work was a City of Heroes comic contest. A lot of the "RPG" elements of Nanoha GamerS does recall more directly to CoH (and other online MMORPGS, in general) that it does tabletop RPGs; so my criticism concerning the lack of "gaming" content is only half-fair.
This is the link to the first comic.
Personally, I see a lot of potential in presenting Nanoha as a webcomic more in the vein of the aformentioned DMotR and Da&Dr. Presenting any of the series as a pre-configured universe for your average tabletop gamers to inhabit (using pre-generated characters, of course) would present some interesting situations to test gamer foibles. For example, either Nanoha or Fate, or possibly both are clearly played by males...which would go a long way toward explaining why there is an obvious romantic interest. I mean, gamer-stereotypically speaking, that's what women in RPGs are for, right? They either kick ass, or you rescue them. Both, if you're of the more enlightened variety.
Please don't complain; just be aware that I'm messing with cliches and stereotypes here.
I mean, we've all seen the jokes about what happens when one of the all-male or mostly-male gaming group decides to play a female...or
has to play a female. Imagine a game using pre-generated characters that are *ALL FEMALE*(except Yuuno). (Yes, I know they exist...but
you know as well as
I that they AREN'T the rule.) Imagine even further, when all of the male players also find out that all of the main characters are
PRE-TEEN females. (except Yuuno...although he may be an NPC.)
I really need to think about this.
