Order of the Stick - General Discussion

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:10 pm

Chaz wrote:Thanks for the offer. I think I want to own them myself though, not just re-read them. There's how many books out now?

Two prequels and two compilations out, with a third compilation due in August.

I was just at that game shop in Central Square over the weekend and saw they have a least a couple of them in stock.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:14 pm

Don't forget about the modular board game.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:16 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Don't forget about the modular board game.

The board game is pretty damn fun. The CO crew should get together and play it soon.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:16 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Now go read ErfWorld.

Nah, I checked that out when it was brand new and didn't really care for it.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:35 pm

Personally, I think that it's hitting its stride. They're right in the middle of a huge seige engagement.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:38 pm

wonderpug wrote:
Chaz wrote:Thanks for the offer. I think I want to own them myself though, not just re-read them. There's how many books out now?
Two prequels and two compilations out, with a third compilation due in August.

I was just at that game shop in Central Square over the weekend and saw they have a least a couple of them in stock.

I remember seeing them there, and it's probably where I'll end up going. That's not my favorite game store, but there's something to be said for having one a block away from the office.

Dan_Theman · Post by **Dan_Theman** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:09 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Personally, I think that it's hitting its stride. They're right in the middle of a huge seige engagement.

It has indeed picked up steam. It's still relatively weak, but getting better.

Zurai · Post by **Zurai** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:20 am

The new OOTS is up.

Spoiler:

Meghan · Post by **Meghan** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:38 am

Wait ... did I miss something or

Spoiler:

Zinfan · Post by **Zinfan** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:45 am

Meghan wrote:Wait ... did I miss something or

Spoiler:
1. Both V & Green Hair have pale skin, kids have dark skin. What's up with that?

2. In the last panel, shouldn't have there been a cottage (or at least the smoking remains of who?

3. Who is V aiming at, or am I over thinking it?

4. How is Quickened Disintegrate better than plan old Disintegrate if V has initiative (or at any rate, it's his turn?)

Read http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0631.html" target="_blank panel 8 for the answer to your first question.

Dan_Theman · Post by **Dan_Theman** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:02 am

As for #4, the order of actions was:

Spoiler:

Zurai · Post by **Zurai** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:44 pm

Dan_Theman wrote:As for #4, the order of actions was:
Spoiler:
round 1) The dragon cast an anti magic field
round 1) V cast disjunction
round 2) V cast a quickened disintegrate

No, both spells are on the same round. That's what Quickened does; lets you cast two spells "at the same time" essentially.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:55 pm

Looks like Rich has been listening to a lot of Stones songs recently.

Dan_Theman · Post by **Dan_Theman** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:22 pm

Zurai wrote:
Dan_Theman wrote:As for #4, the order of actions was:
Spoiler:
round 1) The dragon cast an anti magic field
round 1) V cast disjunction
round 2) V cast a quickened disintegrate
No, both spells are on the same round. That's what Quickened does; lets you cast two spells "at the same time" essentially.

Gah - you're right. Hrm.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:27 pm

Dan_Theman wrote:
Zurai wrote:
Dan_Theman wrote:As for #4, the order of actions was:
Spoiler:
round 1) The dragon cast an anti magic field
round 1) V cast disjunction
round 2) V cast a quickened disintegrate
No, both spells are on the same round. That's what Quickened does; lets you cast two spells "at the same time" essentially.
Gah - you're right. Hrm.

If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure that not being able to explain D&D turns correctly makes you marginally cooler.

Dan_Theman · Post by **Dan_Theman** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:28 pm

El Guapo wrote:
Dan_Theman wrote:
Zurai wrote:
Dan_Theman wrote:As for #4, the order of actions was:
Spoiler:
round 1) The dragon cast an anti magic field
round 1) V cast disjunction
round 2) V cast a quickened disintegrate
No, both spells are on the same round. That's what Quickened does; lets you cast two spells "at the same time" essentially.
Gah - you're right. Hrm.
If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure that not being able to explain D&D turns correctly makes you marginally cooler.

LOL - well, it's small consolation but I'll take what I can get.

Meghan · Post by **Meghan** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:04 pm

Oh duh - I should have realized that too. For some reason I didn't start counting the turns until the direct damage started.

Zinfan wrote:Read http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0631.html" target="_blank panel 8 for the answer to your first question.

Ohhhh I was so caught up in the events that I missed that word in panel 8.

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:32 pm

Awesome.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:45 pm

Erfworld was pretty good as well.

Malificent · Post by **Malificent** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:30 pm

SpaceLord wrote:Awesome.

Daaaaaaaaammmmnnn!

Zurai · Post by **Zurai** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 3:02 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Erfworld was pretty good as well.

Yeah, it's definitely picking up.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 3:04 pm

"The twoll levelled... twice"

SpaceLord · Post by **SpaceLord** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:43 pm

Whoa again.

I like the new V.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:11 am

Frickin awesome!

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:59 am

Holy shit!

Oh, and I love that despite the epicness of the story events going on there's still plenty of humor. Love the three peanut gallery voices in V's head.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:03 am

wonderpug wrote:Holy shit!

Oh, and I love that despite the epicness of the story events going on there's still plenty of humor. Love the three peanut gallery voices in V's head.

Agreed. I just wish I'd seen the title of today's comic BEFORE I read it. The shock would've been cool.

Fretmute · Post by **Fretmute** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:12 am

That dude needs a new web server, badly.

Shinjin · Post by **Shinjin** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:11 am

I'm speechless

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:00 am

(Liked the nod to the Dragonborn in there...)

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:10 am

That's an epic spell all right.

So what happens now? It seems like it's time for V to give up the splice, but you have to imagine (both for the character and for dramatic storytelling purposes) it will be hard for him to do so - especially when he's referring to them as his "new friends."

Obviously I'd like him to do so - but on the other hand, I am really enjoying the voices in his head - "delicious - tastes like chicken - tastes like victory."

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:14 am

Damn, son, that's cold. Evil V is one heartless bastard. I wonder how s/he's going to feel about what s/he did when s/he finally let's go of the alternate personalities. I bet the family never speaks to V again, which would be a pretty bitter pill to swallow for V.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:01 am

HOLY SHIT AGAIN.

This comic is the best thing on TV right now. I know people complain about the slow parts of the comic but they're more or less necessary for ones like this latest series to work.

El Guapo wrote:So what happens now? It seems like it's time for V to give up the splice, but you have to imagine (both for the character and for dramatic storytelling purposes) it will be hard for him to do so - especially when he's referring to them as his "new friends."

He's definitely not going to want to give up his ultimate power any time soon. I'm guessing he'll end up paying a visit to each of the split up OOTS groups, start to try to help them but have the divergence of ideals get in the way and have a rift form between V and each OOTS group. He'll brush them all off and somehow find some common goal with Team Evil and have an uneasy alliance with them, possibly seeking out the gates as a way for V to try and satiate his desire for yet more ultimate power.

Arcanis · Post by **Arcanis** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 11:42 am

character optimization getting loose be warned, don't bother reading unless you want to know how he could have done the quicken spell.

quicken spell makes it a swift action, after the errata, thus can be done without impeding all non-swift/immediate actions that round. Now Disintegrate is normally a 6th level spell and Quicken is normally a +4 spell level adjustment making it normally a 10th level spell slot, which is epic. I put all those "normaly"s in there for a reason.
Options to make it non-epic:
1) He could easily get it as a 5th level spell because it is 5th level for Duskblades, a few shenanigans involving learning spells from other classes needed but not hard at all.
2) He could easily take Arcane thesis for Disintegrate which would drop the metamagic cost of it by 1 for a particular spell.
3) Incantrix cheese, this prestige class and a few like it drop the costs of all metamagics for you by 1.
4) He could be a dragonwrought kobold and all the silliness involved in that and one of which involves a feat, don't remember the name off hand, that allows you to reduce metamagic costs as well (it is intended for dragons but hey your DW Kobold counts).
5) He could have easy metamagic feat for quicken making it only a +3 adjustment.
6) He could have used sudden quicken spell, works like quicken but no adjustment and only 3/day
7) He could be using another feat, versitile spellcaster i think, to allow him to use 2 9th level slots to cast a 10th level spell also.

ok now that i've destroyed any coolness factor i may have convinced people i had i'll return to just reading.

Stitch · Post by **Stitch** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:22 pm

Okay, I say the following with utmost respect to the many OOTS fans here and I'm really not trying to crash the party, but...

Does anyone besides me feel like this comic has long since lost them in the dust? I initially enjoyed this comic quite a bit in a D&D-lite-humor sort of way, but at some point the strip got a heavy infusion of PLOT and my interest never quite recovered. I'm a big fan of comics that have a story working underneath to tie the gags together and grant some forward momentum, but OOTS lost me back with the introduction of the snarl, which was presented as several weeks of straight exposition that was neither compelling nor particularly funny. I'm willing to believe that if you force your way through the rough patches the payoff is worth it, but whenever I look at OOTO now it strikes me as impenetrably dense, both in story and in its text-heavy presentation.

Am I the only one?

Little Raven · Post by **Little Raven** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:31 pm

It certainly didn't bother me. I love the new plot-heavy OOTS. I especially love that it STILL manages to be funny 90% of the time.

Course, I'm a big fan of space operas too, so maybe I just luvs the drama.

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:33 pm

I like both kinds of comics. I'm a big fan of OOTS and Girl Genius, both are heavily plot driven. I also like PVP and Ctrl-Alt-Del. Both have ongoing plots, but usually hang gag-a-day strips on that plot.

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:39 pm

OOTS rules.

It was always plot heavy. It just took however many individual strips to get where it might be called that, but it was never like PvP or PA IMO. That seemed obvious in the early going to me. Of course, that kind of comic is not for everybody. I love it. I was getting really annoyed at Roy being away from the group but things have gotten so interesting I stopped caring several dozen strips ago, I think.

V, stay good!

(to borrow from another plot-heavy comic).

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:40 pm

...you pull a gun. If they send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue! That's the Chicago way.

Impressive spell. I especially liked the one all decked out in a breastplate waving an axe.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:15 pm

Peacedog wrote: V, stay good!

(to borrow from another plot-heavy comic).

I so need to take some time and get caught back up on Kiki and crew.

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:39 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:
Peacedog wrote: V, stay good!

(to borrow from another plot-heavy comic).
I so need to take some time and get caught back up on Kiki and crew.

I'm way behind (last I was reading it was the big well of souls hullaboo. That's years ago!). I have a great affection for Sluggy Freelance. I was starting to think that the comic was slipping. Not bad, merely that it's most spectacular days were behind it and some of the "will they/won't they?" was getting old. That's part of why I drifted off. I gotta pick it up again. And start reading Achewood again. . .

Kitten is the highest SF ever got, IMO.

I'm rambling.