The Order of the Stick

[Jubal]

Not sure if anyone else reads this, but here's a thread for OOTS stuff!



Order of the Stick is a webcomic, now running at five and a bit main books plus two prequels (with seven books planned in the main plot). The initial book, Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, follows a moderately competent (on a good day) band of adventurers as they go on a quest to defeat the Lich Xykon. The early comics have a lot of D&D jokes, but as time goes on it digs more into general humour and poking fun at the fantasy genre - and the gang's adventures spiral out of control into a plot that may involve the ultimate fate of all creation. Though fear not, there are still plenty of jokes along the way.

You can read it at http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html, it's currently 1129 strips long at time of writing plus bonus content, and in my view well worth it for any fantasy fan even if you don't play D&D, though it plays on a number of D&D or general gaming tropes fairly often (like the alignment system, needing daily refreshes of spells, etc).

Anyway, the plot is currently genuinely nailbiting and I keep being permanently on tenterhooks waiting for the next one to come out! The storytelling has been really magnificent lately, and the Giant (Rich Burlew, the comic artist) is very good at using slow-burn plot reveals. We've been getting some plot stuff work out and come to a climax lately that's been being stored and built up since book one!

I also did a couple of songs from/for it recently, both of these contain spoilers to some extent:

Spoiler

O Buddy Roy (to the tune of "Danny Boy" - this actually appears in the comic)

The Thundershield Ballad (to the tune of "Don't You Want Me", written by me as a result of the current plotline):