Anyone read Order of the Stick?

[WindupAtheist]

Is it me or has this comic gone REALLY FUCKING DARK lately?

[IainC]

Yeah it has. I'm kinda hoping he'll find a way to reunite the party, resurrect Roy and go back to D&D in-jokes. The whole arc since the Azure City stuff has felt like a sidetrack that's gone off the rails.

[Bunk]

I read it adictively - even have the board game. You are correct though, it has taken a dark turn as of late.

[Merusk]

I read it regularly.  Var's storyline has been going dark for a while and the whole comic has taken a turn more towards story/ campaign than just random D&D jokes over the last 2 years.   Part of the reason is the author doesn't play D&D as much anymore (I think he did a blog about how he hasn't even cracked-open 4th ed.)

I can't complain, as I enjoy the characters themselves and still think it's got some of the best writing out there.  Nothing that's happened so far has seemed out of character or turned into shtick.  It's not so much that it's gone off the rails, but has turned into an even more epic campaign.

[Xuri]

I read it, for a long while. But I sort of stopped, at one point. When I try to pick up where I left off now, my brain shuts down from overload of chat-bubbles.

[Samwise]

One of my favorite webcomics, along with Erfworld (on the same site).

[Lantyssa]

Didn't he have a post saying he was going for more story now and while the D&D references would be there, how long could he milk them without getting repetitious?  If I'm dreaming it, he pretty much said it through the halfling's little revelation.

[Prospero]

I'm a big fan, I just wish he would do more panels per week. And that he would be less of a douche( he gets angry when people use his characters as forum avatars. )

[WindupAtheist]

Yeah it has. I'm kinda hoping he'll find a way to reunite the party, resurrect Roy and go back to D&D in-jokes. The whole arc since the Azure City stuff has felt like a sidetrack that's gone off the rails.

I wouldn't count on a return to the status quo anytime soon. Roy will come back at some point, but Vaarsuvius is never going to be the same, and Belkar has been fucked ever since he murdered that gnome as they were leaving Azure City. It's the sort of thing meant to bump him from "violent-minded comic relief" to "genuine sociopath" and I can't imagine it was done for no reason.

Dark as it's gotten, I'm liking it all the more, personally. This last arc has just been so off the scale and far from the comic's lighthearted origin that I had to go "Holy shit is anyone else seeing this?"

[Morat20]

Yeah it has. I'm kinda hoping he'll find a way to reunite the party, resurrect Roy and go back to D&D in-jokes. The whole arc since the Azure City stuff has felt like a sidetrack that's gone off the rails.

I wouldn't count on a return to the status quo anytime soon. Roy will come back at some point, but Vaarsuvius is never going to be the same, and Belkar has been fucked ever since he murdered that gnome as they were leaving Azure City. It's the sort of thing meant to bump him from "violent-minded comic relief" to "genuine sociopath" and I can't imagine it was done for no reason.

Dark as it's gotten, I'm liking it all the more, personally. This last arc has just been so off the scale and far from the comic's lighthearted origin that I had to go "Holy shit is anyone else seeing this?"

I got the impression the whole Belkar-Oracle bit was done to basically make Belkar a more believable/realistic character. If he's ditching a lot of the D&D in-jokes in favor of more story (something I approve of), Belkar was out of place. In a gaming session, the chaotic evil guy is simply kept under control through metagaming.

He doesn't DO all the shit his character might do, because the person playing him knows either the GM or his fellow players will make his life hell -- or just forget to invite him next time.

I'm not sure where he's going with Belkar, but the whole Oracle/sickness/vision/recovery was very bluntly a "Time to stop being 2-D". Hell, I think the vision actually had Soong TELL him to stop being a 2D character. (Speaking of, Lord Soong was fucking awesome. The bit with the mage skeleton hand pupperty was fucking hilarious.).

[FatuousTwat]

I quit reading it at the end of Azure city... In fact, I've stopped reading pretty much any webcomics, other than SMBC and Bigger than Cheeses. Which is odd because I used to read around 10.

[Simond]

The last two strips were pretty 

[WindupAtheist]

What level would someone need to be to even float the idea of casting something like that spell? Even assuming they had the most open-minded DM in the world?

[Samwise]

Someone on the OotS forums worked it out using the "epic spell" rules:

Lemme see... the Contact seed to contact related dragons (DC 23), +100 DC to contact the 100 closest related, the Slay seed to add 2d4 negative levels (DC 25), +80 DC to add 20d4 more negative levels, the Dispel Seed to dispel possible protections (19 DC), +20 to the dispel check for +20 DC.

So an Epic Spell that kills the 100 closest family members of the target (the target provides the required familiarity for the spell to work) has a base spellcraft DC of 267. A 30th level caster can easily get up to DC 100 with items/nonepic buffs/feats. So mitigating factors for -167 DC can be backlash 60d6 (-60), 10 minutes of preparation (-20), costly material component (a living or undead member of the family in question, ad hoc -7 DC), 8.000 XP cost (-80).

That is for a spell that is sure to kill even 40 HD creatures (via negative levels) even though they might have protections against death magic. A cheaper spell would use just a death effect and would not dispel possible protections.

[Soln]

this is awesome -- thanks for the intro.  A webcomic with an actual narrative.  Great stuff.

[WindupAtheist]

So I know this chick almost killed Haley and there's a lot of mutual hatred, but I was still surprised to see Haley murder her in cold blood in the most recent strip. Man, what the hell is going on? Belkar has always been the comedy homicidal maniac, and lately we've been getting the whole "turn to the dark side" storyline with V, but this came out of nowhere.

[Ard]

If you really want the full twisted sadistic side straight to chaotic evil there, there's also the full recognition that she's going to be raised by both parties.   It's sorta running into Stephen Brust's territory and "I know you can and will be resurrected, so I'm killing you as an insult".

[Azazel]

I read it, for a long while. But I sort of stopped, at one point. When I try to pick up where I left off now, my brain shuts down from overload of chat-bubbles.

This.

[Rendakor]

I'd never heard of this until this thread; the early ones are amusing anyway.

[Brogarn]

 It's sorta running into Stephen Brust's territory and "I know you can and will be resurrected, so I'm killing you as an insult".

That's exactly what I got out of it.

[Segoris]

I honestly thought Haley killing that chick was great, and very fitting. Sure it was a bit dark and a bit of a surprise but it made sense. The deal made by that wind sprite girl that was made in the building to end the pursuit, from the thieves guild, was done with Haley giving up most of her treasure without Haley's approval. So her backing out of that deal was great for a rogue character who's truly run by greed as well as someone who hates that guild for family issues.

I do think they should have left out the bit about knowing that resurrection was possible. Althought that is a big slap to the face for that victim/rival

[Samwise]

Remember also that Haley's saving all of her treasure to get her dad out of prison.

[Simond]

this is awesome -- thanks for the intro.  A webcomic with an actual narrative.  Great stuff.

You should try Girl Genius as well. For Science!

[Fordel]

this is awesome -- thanks for the intro.  A webcomic with an actual narrative.  Great stuff.

You should try Girl Genius as well. For Science!

I second Girl Genius! 

[Polysorbate80]

I do think they should have left out the bit about knowing that resurrection was possible. Althought that is a big slap to the face for that victim/rival

Considering they're in the middle of getting Roy ressurected, I think it would be odd to have them pretend they don't know about the possibility

[Segoris]

I do think they should have left out the bit about knowing that resurrection was possible. Althought that is a big slap to the face for that victim/rival

Considering they're in the middle of getting Roy ressurected, I think it would be odd to have them pretend they don't know about the possibility

Not quite the same though imo. I'm not saying that resurrection should be forgotten and to pretend it isn't available, especially since they have a cleric with them. What I am saying is that Haley saying she knows that other chick can be resurrected, and as such will now be killed, was kind of weak to me as a reader. I just think the comment itself dampened the enjoyment of that scene. Without that comment being there, having the murder just taking place and the victim chick coming back later during the next pursuit of the thieves guild would have been fine since resurrection is perfectly acceptable.

[MahrinSkel]

/emote assrape

Sometimes murder is just a way of telling someone to fuck off.

--Dave

[Ingmar]

I do think they should have left out the bit about knowing that resurrection was possible. Althought that is a big slap to the face for that victim/rival

Considering they're in the middle of getting Roy ressurected, I think it would be odd to have them pretend they don't know about the possibility

Not quite the same though imo. I'm not saying that resurrection should be forgotten and to pretend it isn't available, especially since they have a cleric with them. What I am saying is that Haley saying she knows that other chick can be resurrected, and as such will now be killed, was kind of weak to me as a reader. I just think the comment itself dampened the enjoyment of that scene. Without that comment being there, having the murder just taking place and the victim chick coming back later during the next pursuit of the thieves guild would have been fine since resurrection is perfectly acceptable.

The strip is a meta-commentary on D&D still, even with all the extra story stuff that's now been thrown in. I would argue to NOT include that stuff would actually have been less true to the strip's nature. Or something.

[Sjofn]

Another hooray for Girl Genius here. I loves it so much. 

I liked that Haley acknowledged resurrection, because it made the scene seem more like a "I'm sure I'll probably have to deal with you again, but fuck you right now ANYWAY, bitch" thing. It's such a run of the mill thing in the D&D universe they're playing in, it actually would've been weird to me if she HADN'T thought of it.

[Jeff Kelly]

I'm more of an erfworld guy. Alas they're slow with updates.

[Pagz]

O-Chul!

 

[Simond]

Random webcomic tangent: 8-bit Theater got very dark very quick. Today's callback to episode 434 was p. good though.

[Hindenburg]

Whatever happens to those characters is meaningless as long as Sarda is around.

[Hindenburg]

Haha,nailed it.

[Koyasha]

I wanted to see the Epic Battle between Red Mage and Black Mage before that happened, though.

And back on OOTS, I rather liked how Xykon handled V's "ultimate power" too.  Xykon acts like such an idiot most of the time, then on rare occasion he demonstrates actual lich-level intelligence.