That's pretty clever.
I think that these AI scrapers might be smart enough that this doesn't really work though - at least if I were designing them I'd have them all come from dynamic IPs and not have any of them bother hitting the same target more than once. These things are very dedicated to acquiring content without consent, and if they're capable of causing problems for (say) Reddit, I'm not sure my little website is going to have much luck deterring them.
Honestly a better strategy might be to just glaze everything I draw.
I'm making comics as often as I can - this plotline has a fair few left to run.
I suppose as a coda... Real world conspiracy theories often take root more strongly when they don't make complete sense. They're often self-selecting for irrational actors.
If rational people are quick to point out flaws in your conspiracy theory, it feels more like there are powers trying to cover something up.
Well that, but also she's still a goblin. Religious institutions in the Forgotten Realms traditionally view goblins as less than worthless, and most people in Waterdeep think of Goblins the same way, regardless of the person's actual accomplishments.
Most people would assume that the church would be willing to abandon a goblin at a moment's notice to protect their reputation - especially if they're not familiar with the people involved, or the full extent of her deeds. Honestly, most people in Waterdeep think the church is tarnishing its reputation by having a goblin in their ranks in the first place.
those guys would probably like her :)
most of these AI scrapers don't respect robots.txt, so I'm not sure that really helps much, but... we have tried doing all of these things.
Some ideas for GMs of high level parties:
- Low level party seeks our your party for advice, or help with something outside of their abilities
- Newspaper reporter seeks interview for puff-piece about adventurer lifestyles
- Newspaper reporter seeks interview so they can write hit-piece on a party member
- Fans of the party's exploits show up and ask for autographs
- That play scene from Avatar the Last Airbender
- Merchants keep pitching increasingly plausible investment opportunities
- Party encounters someone dressed up as the most famous member of the party, using their identity to claim free drinks at the pub
- Unskilled squire requests to join party to help with their adventures
- Legendary Swordsman seeks out party member for a duel
- Everyone you meet asks for money
Here's a short little "meanwhile" comic as a bonus, since it's been a while.
Oh, apologies about my personal website. My hosting is done by a friend with a small server, and... well basically every wordpress site in existence is now under constant effective-DDoS by AI bots trying to scrape all the data. They're not subtle about it, and just try to download all the pictures simultaneously. My server is too small to handle that load, so just reboots when that happens (it's usually down for about a minute).
The fact that it's near constantly down is just a product of how often I'm getting these requests.
Konsi wouldn't shame you for that, but she might quietly take you aside and privately ask you to not do that. :)