Hello, and welcome to Sideways Spa, a webcomic dedicated to reinterpreting Stargate as a tabletop RPG. If you have any questions, please look at the Q&A page first. Like the previous comics based on the idea, this one uses yellow backgrounds for the GM’s lines, as well as for the lines of NPCs played by the GM.

When the players are thrown into the campaign world, the GM expects them to listen to the very first NPC they meet. From an in-universe point of view, that shady innkeeper who gives our ragtag party their quest isn’t exactly the most trustworthy person in the world, but, well, what choice do they have? If they decline the offer, the campaign has already gone off the rails — and it’s a bad sign.

And, of course, any NPC who stands out is important, and players will gleefully ignore the rest. If the entire population of the village consists of people in red shirts, head straight for the one villager in blue shirt. He’s the only one who matters.

In the movie, Daniel Jackson doesn’t actually tell the skeptic audience that the pyramids were built by aliens. (He believes that, and, well, he’s right, but not the point.) He just notes, like any real scientist would, that the mainstream theory on the dating of Ancient Egyptian civilization contradicts the evidence — and tries to reconcile it. This scene is also notable for the first mention of Atlanteans in the entire franchise (in a mocking context, of course), long before the Ancients or their Lost City were ever conceived.