1 Mordekai: 'Tis strange, Alvissa, how we always seem to come across orcs in these parts.
2 Alvissa: Not strange at all. The GM can only send us against monsters he has miniatures for.
3 GM: {foul look}
4 Allosaurus: RAAARRRHH!

2011-11-04 Rerun commentary: Ooooh! A background! I... have no idea what that is!

I think it might be a photo of a mountain range from a book or something. I vaguely recall experimenting with holding books behind the miniatures as I photographed them. I soon abandoned that as impractical and not very convincing, but there'll be a few more examples coming up, I dare say.

Other firsts: Alvissa's name is revealed. And we have the first appearance of what would become one of the most popular characters in the entire comic (despite being able to say only one thing): the Allosaurus.

The Allosaurus is standing behind a tree - at least that's the intention. I used one of my own bonsais for the tree. It looks like a juniper of some sort. I no longer have that particular bonsai.

I've also established my penchant for changing which game book I'm hiding behind as the GM character. In the previous strip it was actually the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Monster Manual. Here, it's GURPS Magic.