TSDM: Oh yeah, I forgot! During the round-robin sessions, Gilda's player returned for a cameo! That session was so much fun. She fleshed out a lot of the lore for Griffonstone, and–
Spike: Wait, don't jump backwards! What happened with Starlight Glimmer?!
TSDM: Well... it was a rocky start. I wanted someone to help round out the group after I became the full-time DM. The person I found... turned out to be kind of a known troll in the local gaming scene, but I didn't know that at the time. She basically joined us with the express purpose of ruining our campaign. And at the first opportunity she got, she nearly succeeded. It took a long, hard conversation to resolve things. Turned out she had some really bad experiences with D&D, and didn't really understand why we were so attached to it. But after that, she made a genuine effort to improve and be a contributing member of the group! ...What?
Absurd? Maybe. But with all the tabletop stories I've read and heard over the course of making this comic, I don't know if I'd even call it unrealistic.
Comic pages like this have me remembering just how often TTRPGs stood in for therapy in my experience. If nothing else, the socialization by itself is therapeutic for my mind.
...assuming a decent group without Discords and Glimmers of course. >.>
Most of the 'Glimmers' I've known generally have one issue really chewing on them, often stemming from a single disastrous game experience (top two games being D&D and Vampire LARPs). Once you get them through that they can mellow a lot.
Which now that I reread that is pretty much the arc for Starlight Glimmer.