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Principal characters, from left to right:, and Website Current status / schedule Active (no standard update schedule) Launch date September 29, 2003 Giant in the Playground Genre(s), The Order of the Stick ( OOTS) is a comedic that satirizes tabletop and. The comic is written and drawn by, who illustrates the comic in a style. Taking place in a magical world that loosely operates by the rules of the of the role-playing game ( D&D), the comic follows the sometimes farcical exploits of six adventurers as they strive to save the world from an evil. Much of the comic's humor stems from the characters' awareness of the game rules that affect their lives or from having knowledge of modern culture. This in turn is often used by the author to various aspects of role-playing games and fantasy fiction. While primarily comedic in nature, The Order of the Stick features a continuing storyline serialized in one-to four-page episodes, with over 1000 such episodes released so far. Although it is principally distributed online through the website Giant in the Playground, seven book collections have been published, including several print-only stories ( On the Origin of PCs and Start of Darkness).
An alternate version of the strip appeared monthly in for 22 issues; these strips, among others, are collected in Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales. Contents. History The Order of the Stick began its run on September 29, 2003, on what was Rich Burlew's personal site for gaming articles at the time. Burlew initially intended the strip to feature no plot whatsoever—depicting an endless series of gags drawn from the D&D rules instead—but Burlew quickly changed his mind, and began laying down hints of a storyline as early as strip #13. The strip was originally produced to entertain people who came to his website to read articles, but it quickly became the most popular feature, leading Burlew to eventually abandon writing articles almost entirely. The Order of the Stick began as a twice-weekly comic that debuted new strips on Mondays and Thursdays.
When presales of the first OOTS compilation book allowed Burlew to make writing his full-time job, he increased the number to three per week. Since 2007, the comic has been published on an irregular schedule due to the author's ongoing health concerns. In September 2012, Burlew had an accident in which the tendons in his right hand were severed, resulting in a hiatus until December 31, 2012. At the end of September 2013, Burlew estimated that the story will be finished in 'about four years'. Dragon magazine On September 30, 2005, Burlew announced that The Order of the Stick would begin appearing in, the long-running official D&D magazine. The strip debuted in the December 2005 issue, on the last page of the magazine.
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The following issue, OOTS appeared as a four-panel strip in the magazine's interior, but by the February 2006 issue, it had returned to a full-page strip on the last page, a position it would hold until the magazine's last print issue in September 2007. The Dragon version of OOTS featured the same main cast of six adventurers, but saw them adventuring in an unspecified underground location. None of the villains or supporting characters from the online strip appeared, with the exception of, who appeared together twice. Burlew has stated that the events of the Dragon strips take place in an alternate universe from the online strip, and events in one storyline do not affect the other. This status quo was broken for the sake of a joke, however, when a character in the online strip referred to the July 2006 Dragon strip by claiming that 'I told you that in one of the Dragon Magazine comics, so I'm not even sure that's the same continuity.'
Starting in January 2013, a new version of the comic appeared in Gygax Magazine, a new tabletop gaming magazine published in print and digital formats. Evolution of art style The comic is created directly on a computer using the, and the art style has been upgraded several times.
In strip #103, the curved and crooked borders were replaced with straight—though still slanted—black lines. Burlew now questions how he ever thought the initial format was acceptable. After he sprained his wrist in 2005, Burlew used some of the time he took off from writing the comic to improve the designs of the main cast, straightening their lines and adding tiny details like the stitched along the edge of Vaarsuvius' cloak. These changes were humorously acknowledged by the characters themselves when they premiered. Burlew made adjustments to the colors that were required when the material was to appear in print for the first time. The later comics feature more frequent double- and even triple-page strips than in the early days, when longer strips were reserved for special occasions (such as reaching #200). In strip #947 the artwork was upgraded again, adding volume to characters' limbs that were previously drawn as simple stick-figure lines.
In addition to these permanent improvements to the art, two variant art styles are used to distinguish the events of certain comics from those taking place in the story's present. Historical events relating to the plot are portrayed in a hand-drawn style both in the online comic and in Start of Darkness, while events in the 'prequel' print-exclusive stories are shown in black-and-white. Representation of minorities Burlew has said that he includes stances on social topics in his comic because he worries about the impact of his work beyond momentary distractions. He has also written that he is attempting to compensate for past instances of 'unintentional sexism and/or insensitivity to gender issues' but, being a straight white male, he finds difficult to talk authoritatively about minorities without the proper knowledge. Characters.
Main article: Protagonists The comic's central protagonists, known collectively as 'The Order of the Stick,' are a party of adventurers who are questing to destroy an evil that is planning to conquer the world. Though they have many allies, the official members of the Order of the Stick are:. Roy Greenhilt: A 29-year-old lawful good veteran, Roy assembled the Order and acts as party leader. Roy is a of the traditional dumb fighter. Haley Starshine: A 24-year-old red-haired chaotic good.
Greedy and obsessed with treasure, Haley is the second-in-command of the team. Belkar Bitterleaf: A barefoot chaotic evil, Belkar unrepentantly kills sentient creatures for entertainment.
Durkon Thundershield: A 55-year-old lawful good, Durkon is the party's, worshipping as his patron deity. Elan: A 21-year-old chaotic good. Though not very intelligent, Elan knows a lot about genre conventions and storytelling tropes. Vaarsuvius: A true-neutral high-, Vaarsuvius' gender is intentionally unclear, which goes as a. Antagonists The comic's central antagonists include the following:. (Formerly human, Chaotic Evil ): The archvillain of the story, Xykon is engaged in a plot to conquer the world by controlling a world-destroying being known as the Snarl.
While he has a notoriously short attention span and requires near-constant amusement, he is also capable of truly horrific acts of evil. ( of the Dark One, ): Xykon's main ally, he is a high priest of his deity and commander of the goblinoids that serve as the lich's minions. He is motivated by concern for the goblin people and their poor lot in life, believing that harnessing the power of the Snarl will allow his god to bargain for a better place for all goblins. Unlike his boss, Redcloak is a patient planner and a competent leader, and has shown an inclination for scientific thought. The: An enigmatic, childlike monster that lurks in darkness under a pink umbrella.
Although designated as Xykon's secret weapon, the Monster is terrified of almost everything, including the dark. On the rare occasions he has used force, he demonstrates incredible power. The paladin deemed the Monster 'a good man' after befriending him.: A female human imprisoned in Azure City for necromancy. She was released by the Azurites to help them during the battle against Xykon, but betrayed them and joined him instead. She has a attraction to Xykon, who rejects her advances. The: An adventuring party comprising ' to the Order, led by Elan's literal evil twin, Nale.
While the Guild originally sought a powerful magic artefact, its purpose turned solely toward defeating the Order after their first encounter with them. (Human /, ): Strongest warrior of the Sapphire Guard, Miko is dispatched to apprehend the Order at the request of her liege. Her sanctimonious attitude and her frequent judgment of others on moral grounds create conflict with the Order, although both oppose the forces of Evil.: The de facto ruler of the Empire of Blood on the Western Continent and the father of Elan and Nale, General Tarquin is a lawful evil fighter who has schemes within schemes.
Dragon Magazine 390 Pdf Merger
Much like Elan, Tarquin is genre-savvy and has a flair for the dramatic, and becomes upset when others fail to respect literary convention.: A cleric of and close friend of Tarquin. He harbors a grudge against Nale for killing his children and befriends Durkon soon after they meet.
The cover of On The Origin of PCs, the first of two OOTS prequel books The Order of the Stick books are published by Giant in the Playground Games, a small press publishing company formed by OOTS creator Rich Burlew. The books are widely distributed to online and brick-and-mortar retailers in the hobby game market, as well as to comic book direct retailers. All four books feature an introduction by the author, as well as a preface written in the voice of one of the characters from the strip. The compilation books feature a number of pages of 'bonus material', primarily additional strips inserted into various points in the story. The bonus material for Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, for example, includes a nine-page opening to the story that Burlew felt introduced the characters in a more organic way than the online comic's cast page.
22nd, 2012, Burlew launched a campaign to get The Order of the Stick: War and XPs back into print, which eventually raised enough money to reprint the whole book series. The drive was the most funded creative work in Kickstarter up to that point, getting more than twenty times the original goal for a total of $1,254,120. During the reprint drive Burlew committed, as rewards for meeting increasing funding goals, to write eight new short stories either about specific characters or in alternative non-canon settings; the characters for three of these stories were chosen by backers as part of the pledge reward. Box cover for The Order of the Stick Adventure Game. In partnership with APE Games, Giant in the Playground released the first OOTS game, The Order of the Stick Adventure Game: The Dungeon of Dorukan.
The game, which was released in September 2006, utilizes cards and a board, and has strong influences from games such as and, as well as the less-known 'Kings & Things'. The Dungeon of Dorukan is designed for 2–6 people, aged twelve and older. Each player controls one member of the OOTS team to explore the dungeon and hunt down Xykon.
The player is able to train their chosen member with a variety of cards. Each character provides a different gaming experience, and the players have the ability to either aid or harm their team mates. The game has received two expansion sets. The first one, The Shortening, released in 2011 by APE Games, included new cards and rules to reduce the duration of the game. The second 20 card mini-expansion, Sticky Shticks, was announced as a pledge reward for the 2012 'reprint drive' Kickstarter campaign. It features cards that can be stuck to characters giving them some penalties. A second, stand-alone game, The Order of the Stick Adventure Game: The Linear Guild, was set to be released by APE Games in the Fall of 2008, but has not been released.
Players would be able to take on the parts of Nale, Thog, Sabine, and other members of the in their own dungeon adventure, or they can combine the materials in the game with those from the Dungeon of Dorukan set for a massive Order of the Stick vs. Linear Guild head-to-head adventure. Sources. (February 2005). The Order of the Stick: Dungeon Crawlin' Fools. Philadelphia: Giant in the Playground.
(August 2005). The Order of the Stick: On the Origin of PCs. Philadelphia: Giant in the Playground. (August 2006). The Order of the Stick: No Cure for the Paladin Blues.
Philadelphia: Giant in the Playground. (May 2007). The Order of the Stick: Start of Darkness. Philadelphia: Giant in the Playground.
(August 2008). The Order of the Stick: War and XPs. Philadelphia: Giant in the Playground. (December 2009). The Order of the Stick: Don't Split the Party. Philadelphia: Giant in the Playground. References.
(January 2007). 'The Order of the Stick: It Was Just a Matter of Time Anyway'. (September 2007). 'The Order of the Stick: End of the Line, Thanks for Riding'. (July 2006). 'The Order of the Stick: The Tongue is Mightier Than the Sword'.
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Retrieved 2008-04-22. The Order of the Stick. GiantITP.com (#229). Retrieved 2008-04-22. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to:. at. at.
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