Introducing The Order of the Stick

[sgoldj]

No, new ones are not up AFAIK.

My daughter in law is a member of the SCA and loves Dragon*Con, Song of Fire and Ice, and will debate the type of Batman interpretation used in Brave and the Bold (she's wrong BTW).  Turns out, she does not read OOTS. 

My question: should I just insist that she reads the web comic, or should I send out my copies of Start of Darkness and Origin of PCs to start her out?

Opinions solicited.

[wonderpug]

Starting with the books instead of the online version is fine and dandy, but personally I'd start with Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, which starts where the online version starts. To me one of the best parts of the series is how it starts as innocent and simple mocking of a world in a D&D ruleset, and then gets more and more character development and epicness as you go. If you start with the prequels, I'd thinks you wouldn't care as much about the characters you're getting backstory for.

[CeeKay]

also makes sure she reads or will read Looking for Group.

[Ironrod]

Speaking as someone who's only read it online, I think that ought to be sufficient to hook her. I enjoyed it immensely until I got caught up. Now the snail's pace of new strips makes it hard to stay engaged.

[TiLT]

I believe the books are supposed to be read in a certain order coinciding with when each book was released. The prequel books contain major spoilers for later books. If I'm not mistaken, someone should read books 1 and 2 before reading books 0 and -1.

[Lordnine]

I would avoid Start of Darkness as far as getting new people interested.  I actually found it a little TOO dark and made it so I will be disappointed if Redcloak isn't the one who kills the lich in the end.

[ATB]

Books. In order.  Buy her a set and reward Burlew for his work.  Love OOTS.

[TiLT]

I found a reading order I can agree with:

Dungeon Crawling Fools
No Cure for the Paladin Blues
On the Origin of PCs
War & XPs
Start of Darkness
Don't Split the Party
Snips, Snails & Dragon Tales

With the last entry being optional, considering it's not for sale and won't be again.

[namatoki]

There won't be any new OotS comics any time soon because the creator/artist Rich Burlew injured his drawing hand severely back in September.  According to his website, Giant In the Playground Games, he is undergoing therapy and isn't even sure if he can gain full control of his thumb.   Here's hoping for the best!

[TiLT]

There won't be any new OotS comics any time soon because the creator/artist Rich Burlew injured his drawing hand severely back in September.  According to his website, Giant In the Playground Games, he is undergoing therapy and isn't even sure if he can gain full control of his thumb.   Here's hoping for the best!

That's pretty damn old news to any OotS fan. The latest reports are that everything is going well, though not as quickly as he had hoped. The original estimate was that he'd be back to work around this time.

[ATB]

There won't be any new OotS comics any time soon because the creator/artist Rich Burlew injured his drawing hand severely back in September.  According to his website, Giant In the Playground Games, he is undergoing therapy and isn't even sure if he can gain full control of his thumb.   Here's hoping for the best!

That's pretty damn old news to any OotS fan. The latest reports are that everything is going well, though not as quickly as he had hoped. The original estimate was that he'd be back to work around this time.

Has he said with any certainty when the next OOTs book will be expected? I stopped reading the strips a LOOONG time ago, because I enjoy the books so much...

[namatoki]

There won't be any new OotS comics any time soon because the creator/artist Rich Burlew injured his drawing hand severely back in September.  According to his website, Giant In the Playground Games, he is undergoing therapy and isn't even sure if he can gain full control of his thumb.   Here's hoping for the best!

That's pretty damn old news to any OotS fan. The latest reports are that everything is going well, though not as quickly as he had hoped. The original estimate was that he'd be back to work around this time.

Has he said with any certainty when the next OOTs book will be expected? I stopped reading the strips a LOOONG time ago, because I enjoy the books so much...

I just wanted to make sure that the folks here knew what was going on with Rich Burlew, since some of them didn't sound like they knew he was out of commission.

On another note, THERE'S A NEW COMIC OUT!