The OotS thread

[Ender]

Does anyone else read this? It is a webcomic making fun of DnD tropes, while at the same time following a fairly epic overall storyline. I'm a big fan, I know a few other people read it here. I'd like to get some discussion going, I peeked my head into their forums and let us just say it is a bit lacking in certain regards.

If you are new to this, I really recommend reading it. Start from the first one, they are at 610 now so it won't take too long to get caught up. Rich Burlew, the creator, has a disease that flares up periodically, which limits how often he updates, but on average it is once or twice a week. So yeah, if you don't read this, stop reading now and go read the archive, because a pretty major thing just occurred in #610 and #611 promises to be about 100 different flavors of awesome.

[Dahak]

I really like it. Stumbled across it some months ago. Took me some time to read through, but I always look forward to Xykon-pages. He's my favourite

[SilverWingedSeraph]

I read it for a while, before I lost my internet connection for a few months and then just didn't bother going back, so now I'm waaay behind. It's entertaining enough, despite using lots and lots and lots of words. Even though it's a comic, it's obviously not intended to rely too heavily on the visual medium. I mean... it's stick people, clearly the visuals are secondary to all the words.

But yeah, it's pretty good. I may start reading it again, now.

Belkar is the coolest halfling ever.

[Ender]

I really like it. Stumbled across it some months ago. Took me some time to read through, but I always look forward to Xykon-pages. He's my favourite

Xykon is one of my faves, I really wish I could scratch together the cash to get "Start of Darkness", apparently he is 7 different kinds of badass there. He is always hilareous, but him vs the entire Sapphire Guard was great, strip after strip. I'm hoping we get back to him, O'Chul, and Redcloak soon. But "Death's Lil' Helper" is my number 1, so I hope they don't cutaway before he gets to show the guild why he is one of the powerhouses in the order.

I keep hearing that triumphant music from Dogma, the stuff they play when Jay & Silent Bob show up on the scene and kick some ass.

[McC]

Been reading OotS for a looong time. One of my favorite web comics.

Being an occasional D&D player, I got a big kick out of the Miko story arc, which epitomized how horribly wrong most players play paladins.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

I started reading it somewhere around #100 and have been keeping up with it since then. What really got me into it was the prequel books, though; On the Origin of the PCs was nice, but Start of Darkness was so awesome I went and ordered all of the main books, too.

[Samuel]

I read up to 580 something. I actually joined the forums there for the Dominic Deegan Oracle for Hire snark thread

It went over... 600 pages. Holy shit. I need to get up to speed. Combined with life and the fact my computer hard drive erased itself (and the links) and I am basically out of the web comic business...

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96181

[avatarxprime]

Oots is one of the best webcomics I've ever read. I seriously want to see Roy back and using his grandfather's tricks, Xykon might just remember him this time.

[rhoenix]

Huh, this looks interesting - I never looked at the comic before this. I just got to #38, and it's already worth the time.

[Darth Raptor]

Consistently good, if not perfect. The wordiness complaints are valid, but to say the illustrations are completely superfluous is going too far. It's also getting better, with genuine effort being put into developing what were, at the beginning, terribly shallow characters (one could argue that was deliberate, though). Belkar is a late bloomer in that regard, maybe I'll actually end up liking him, because I certainly didn't before. I'll echo the sentiment of viewing villain pages with a marked amount of glee, though I like Redcloak significantly more than Xykon.

[Ford Prefect]

I seriously want to see Roy back

Yes, please. I like Order of the Stick quite a lot, but seriously, it needs to move on from Roy being dead and the order being split up. The stuff with Elan in Hinjo's fleet was interesting, but quite frankly the stuff with Haley and Roy's skeleton has just dragged.

EDIT:

And I'm going to back up Raptor. I enjoy reading Xykon's stuff, and he's funny and unusually charismatic, but Redcloak is easily the most well developed character in the cast, and his actions are among the most interesting because of his motivations. Admittedly they're not new motivations but they're handled well.

[Darth Raptor]

Three cheers for Vaarsuvius doing his part to move the plot along WRT Kubota.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

I'm going to have to join in with the Redcloak fans. I've liked him since the beginning, since I have some sort of attachment to the concept of goblin right-hand-men in general; I get the feeling he'd be one of my favourites even without him being a good character.

As for the current split-party arc, I don't particularly find either half to be worse than the other, but every time it switches over, I dislike the half we jump into for a bit. A "why'd you have to interrupt it when it was getting good?" kind of feeling, I guess.

Three cheers for Vaarsuvius doing his part to move the plot along WRT Kubota.

One of the many reasons V's possibly my favourite of the Order (or, at the least, tied with Roy).

[Deathstalker]

Three cheers for Vaarsuvius doing his part to move the plot along WRT Kubota.

Or her part. Disintegrate and Gust of Wind FTW.

OotS is great. The prequel books were great reads and are enjoyable even if you aren't a D&D fan.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

The correct pronoun to use for Vaarsuvius is, in my opinion, "V". Avoids all the confusion.

[Stormbringer]

Does anyone else read this?

Absolutely! I follow it religiously.

I've been reading it since the plot was just kicking in and it's a great webcomic. It's been consistently well written both from a story and humor perspective. I've shelled out for all the books, for the extras and to support Rich Burlew in producing such an awesome strip. Well, well worth it.

Xykon is one of my faves, I really wish I could scratch together the cash to get "Start of Darkness", apparently he is 7 different kinds of badass there. He is always hilareous, but him vs the entire Sapphire Guard was great, strip after strip. I'm hoping we get back to him, O'Chul, and Redcloak soon.

Start of Darkness is excellent. But the way it ends, well, you'll never look at Xykon or Redcloak the same way.

But "Death's Lil' Helper" is my number 1, so I hope they don't cutaway before he gets to show the guild why he is one of the powerhouses in the order.

With that way the last comic has ended, I think chances are very good we're going to see just that. Everyone has too much fun watching Belkar be Belkar to make it a cliff hanger. He's over due for a truly epic rampage.

Of course, I'm a bit sorry to see the Mark of Justice plot wrap up. Belkar's interactions with Shojo are comedy gold. Spoiler

His genuine mourning for Shojo after Miko killed him were especially good.

PS: The comic you're referencing has so many good bits from "kilonazis" to "the hypothetical offspring of Sauron and Cruella Deville."

[Praxis]

I've been following it for some time and read it all, love the comic

Looking forward to the return of the Sexy Shoeless God of War.

[Bedlam]

I've been reading it for about a year now. I actually got the first book before I started reading it on line. I'm actually wearing a 'Sexy Shoeless God of War' Sweatshirt at the moment.

I've got to agree that Start of Darkness is one of the best works of literature I've very read the final part with red cloak just rips your guts out yet you can see exactly why he goes it.

Current story line is making me bite my nails waiting for the next part: - Spoiler

The password required to remove the curse makes me think that Balkars halucination was built into the curse as 'evolve or die' is precisely the decision hes had to make

[Molyneux]

I still haven't read Start of Darkness...but yeah, I need to scrape together the scratch for that.

Belkar is usually kind of annoying, but occasionally badass.
Elan is just awesome when he's not being an idiot, though. And I want that shark-riding paladin's phone number.

[Starglider]

Yes. And I am still not sure who is hotter, Celia or Sabine.

I agree that it is very wordy but that's ok, it usually works as a style, it's consistently very funny for gamers and yes the storyline got rather slow and aimless this last year. A mild case of Cerebus Syndrome perhaps. The writing reminds me a great deal of the Intercontinental Union of Disgusting Characters stories, which are also very funny for gamers and also got more serious as they progressed (but in an awesome way).

BTW people complaining about too much words and poor art, be glad it isn't dungeons and denizens, which is a D&D webcomic with great art and visual humour, but which is just bland and barely funny.

[Anguirus]

This is one of the great webcomics, IMO. I've been following it for years. I do think the storyline needs to move the hell along, but I'm guessing that's part of the point...he's doing a whole story arc with the Order "broken" so we can see how awesome it will be when they get back together.

[Venator]

Read for ages (since ~strip 100 or 200).

Picked up Start of Darkness a while back, and I'll echo the sentiments of the others on how it's a huge reveal and plays merry hell with your established notions of the antagonists.

[Coalition]

Can you imagine what a D&D game with Rick Burlew would be like?

Check out here, where he has Redcloak attack a city with catapults. From outside the normal range. And Redcloak identifies the critical weakness of catapults.

A very good series. The Oracle's village was a nice touch also.

[Kodiak]

I've been reading this one for quite some time. IIRC, this was the 2nd webcomic I "subscribed" to, the 1st being Sluggy Freelance. I own the OOTS board game and am an avid fan, though I don't post on the forums much. My brother and I regularly IM eachother to make sure we're caught up, and when one of us can't get to the site due to traffic the other will copy the panel and e-mail it. I'm looking forward to the return of our favorite guy:

[Starglider]

BTW there's another webcomic on the same site, along similar lines but parodying turn-based strategy games (Erfworld). It has better art but it's not as deep or funny (yet - I've been following it for a few months and it does seem to be improving). I imagine you have to play something like Battle for Wesnoth (which I used to play a lot of) to get all the jokes.