Order of the Stick

Fandom
Name:	Order of the Stick
Abbreviation(s):	TOotS, OotS
Creator:	Rich Burlew, on Giant in the Playground(giantitp)
Date(s):	2003-present
Medium:	webcomic(free) and hardcopy with exclusive content
Country of Origin:
External Links:	Order of the Stick Comic, Forums
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Order of the Stick is a popular comedic fantasy webcomic riffing off Dungeons and Dragons, with over 1300 comic strips as of April 2024. Someone else please explain Giant in the Playground?

Context

The Order of the Stick (often abbreviated to either TOotS or simply OotS) is an adventuring party that was first formed to slay the sorcerer lich Xykon and prevent him from taking over or destroying the world through the use of the gates holding back the creature known as the Snarl.

Fandom.com Wiki

The main cast consists of:

• Roy Greenhilt, the fighter, leader, and Only Sane Man;
• Haley Starshine, an Action Girl rogue who's obsessed with treasure;
• Vaarsuvius, a condescending elf wizard whose Ambiguous Gender is a minor Running Gag;
• Durkon Thundershield, a straitlaced dwarf cleric of Thor;
• Elan, a strange and none-too-bright bard with a flair for the dramatic;
• Belkar Bitterleaf, a hot-headed halfling ranger/barbarian who kills and/or threatens people at the slightest provocation.

Tv Tropes Description

While the story started off as essentially a joke per day, it evolved into a deeply complex plot which is much beloved. Some fans say it starts getting really good at the 200 or 400 panel mark.

At its core, Order of the Stick is a fairly standard save-the-world D&D campaign with rather crude art, but it manages to get a bunch of intangible little things right enough that it’s still good. Neither its core premise nor its visuals are particularly captivating, but its sense of pacing, its balance between serious drama and humor, and the development we see in the characters are all enough to keep it engaging after all this time. It got more serious compared to the one-off rule joke strips of the very beginning, but never went full Cerberus and lost its sense of humor or anything like that.

Communities

Order of the Stick has the rare active forum with diligent moderators. As of editing April 2024, the forum has 576,549 Threads, 17,858,483 Posts and 207,367 Members

I still read (and even post on) the Order of the Stick forum from time to time, but I've left most others that I used. I think it's possibly because the OotS forum is very well-moderated and contains some high-quality long running threads (generally outlasting single threads, each linking to the previous one) that are continually updated as events merit. For example, one is a compilation of quotes from the author of OotS related to OotS where the main thread work is voting on which quotes should be included and how they should be organized, that produces a fascinating catalog of insights into the author's mind. Another double-digit thread chain compiles all the evidence for what species a given (hidden since the early days of the comic) monstrous character is (the MitD, Monster in the Dark) and records people's guesses for his identity. There are more. It's fascinating to check in on how those threads are progressing, and reddit doesn't really have anything that works well for decade-spanning discussion threads.

NobleCuriosity3 on Reddit Comment

Aside from the forums, there is also a /r/oots subreddit.

Meta

• Belkar Bitterleaf meta on his character arc

Fan Art

• "these two gemstones" duo <3
• V art
• Panel Redraw with belkar and ? (Spoilers!)
• #781 panel redraw

External Links

• Wikipedia Link
• Wiki at Fandom.com
• Page from TV Tropes