How long have you read OOTS, how'd you hear about it?

[Xcentrikz]

"LOOK - up in the SKY!!!
Is it a D&D adventure? Is it a romance drama? Is it a fantasy graphic novel? Is it a stick fig' webcomic?
NOOOOOoooo!!!!
It's ORDERRRR offfff THE STiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiickk...."

Hey all! I'm NJ and have been reading OOTS since 2007. Today it's my favorite webcomic. Thank you so much Rich and keep up the great work! I've been into webcomics and D&D in general since I was a teen...

How'd I hear about OOTS? You never know how someone will hear about your comic, and how I heard about this one is kinda weird. A friend was wearing a creature in the darkness tshirt! haha. I'm like "what're those two green dots???"

So I got interested and it took me oh, probably a week to read from #1 to approximately #500. It was awesome.

I got inspired to check out the forums for once today because, well, curiosity killed my cat, and I wanted to see what people were reacting to with the new storyline. It is SO CLIMATIC-CALLY COOL!!!! Really funny and clever stuff too. (You wouldn't believe how fast I clicked over to the cast page to see if Haley's diamond REALLY was really missing haaha!)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, looking forward to reading them. If you'd like to email me about webcomic stuff you're welcome to email too

[Andore Mordre]

I found a link to it on Bob and George, and clicked it and read the first one just to see what it looked like...then I read another...and another...and another...hey, look at that! I'm current! It only took me...561 comics!

So yeah, since then. :smallbiggrin:

[silversaraph]

I began reading just when haley and belkar where running away from the hobgoblins at the end of the war. My brother was reading it and he left it up, and I became a fanatic. I didn't sleep for two days!

[IronBear]

I started reading OOTS way back with #7. I thought “Thor Prayer®” was one of the funniest things I had ever read…(still think that).

I heard about OOTS from a post in the Gamejag forums. I wish I could remember who posted it and what they said exactly as I owe them a great debt for directing me here.

[Zevox]

I found a link to it in someone's signature over on the Wizards of the Coast forums. At the time, the newest comic was #304 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0304.html), though I couldn't possibly tell you what year/month that was. Not something I bothered to make a long-term memory out of.

Zevox

[MickJay]

Somewhere between 40 and 50, I can't remember exactly. Winter of 2004, it was... (took me a long time to register, huh? :smallwink: )

[Kaytara]

Several things. Stumbled across some fanart on Deviantart, saw many, many references to it on TVTropes and had someone online recommend it to me. Finally read it. :) Archive binge'd it in a few days, mournfully counting down the strips I still had left to read until I would have to stop reading and start waiting like everyone else. It was just when Celia and Haley left Azure City.

[Ehra]

Someone posted a link on the Neverwinter Nights form. Started from the beginning and by the time I reached the "end" it was the part where they blow up the inn and Haley forgets how to talk.

[TerraImmorits]

Just after the first book came out, which I 'borrowed' from a friend for a bit, and is incidentally the same way I found out about it.

[Yuki Akuma]

...Oh Lord.

Uuuh... How long have I had an account here?

*checks*

Four years and five months. Damn.

Okay I started reading about a month or two before I made an account... I heard about it on a forum called D&D Adventures, I think.

Wow, it's been a long time. I remember when the Wooden Forest strips were new. I remember when Rich broke his wrist and stopped posting for a while.

Mein Gott.

[Morty]

Well, it appears I've been reading OoTS for more than three years, after finding a link to it in someone's signature on another forum. And in June, I'll have had an account here for three years. So, I've been here for a long time.

[Mannryu]

Two years ago I found it randomly on some random website.. Didn't really pay attention to it. Then a week later, a classmate of mine told me about some awesome webcomic. She gave me link and it was this site. I decided to give it a chance and I DO NOT REGRET IT! Wooo~
But I joined the forums abit less than two months ago, due to my weird forum phobia I used to have.

[CapedLuigiYoshi]

I first heard of it from TV Tropes, which was also new to me at the time. When I started reading, the most recent strip was #600, whenever that was up.

[Kobold-Bard]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0530.html

That was the new comic when I discovered it. I was new to D&D and found the site after I Googled Mystic Theurge. I joined the forum after I'd caught up because I had a question about Nale that turned out to be a very stupid question indeed, before sparking a debate about Lawful Rogues.

[Wootles]

The first comic I saw was the one in which the whole order woke up after new years eve in Azure City. Quite fitting to start actually. :D

I started reading after some guy on Allakhazam.com (some MMO forum) listed OOTS in one of those "Post your favorite webcomics here" threads.

[Belkster11]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0523.html

This is where I started it.

When I clicked it, I had no idea who Thanh was or anything.

My questions had I immediatly joined the forums upon reading it:

1) Who is Roy and why is he a skeleton?
2) What is this "Mark of Justice"?
3) Who's Thanh?
4) Where did the white cat come from?
5) Where are they, exactly?

So I just went back to #1 and read on from there.

[NamonakiRei]

Ohh, I've been wanting to answer this question for a long, long time. :smallbiggrin:

I was on a website I almost venerate, www.fighunter.com, if anyone cares. I had just suscribed, and it was my first or so time on the chat. A friend of mine posted a link to this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0388.html)comic. Took me months to take the idea that Elan's the maincharacter out of my head. I didn't pay attention to it at the time. But a couple days later, I remembered it and checked the link again. I went to the most recent strip, To say a few words. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0598.html), and as I didn't understand anything, I backtracked a little. As I result, I thought V was one of the bad guys, and that Elan maybe should've dumped that whoever-she-was girlfriend(Mistake from wich I was taken out not long afterwards). As I didn't get ANYTHING at all, I went to strip one. It was love at first third sight. It took me three days or so to read the comic. It was sometime around november, I guess. October.
I suscribed two months later, captivated by the Guy with a Halberd thread, and the rest of the forum, really. Since then, I have eagerly followed the adventures of this disfunctional-awesome band of adventurers. They introduced me to DnD, TV tropes (http://www.tvtropes.org)(Wich I read to kill time, it's very fun), and many many things I didn't know about :smallbiggrin:

[The Blackbird]

Reading since late December 2008, my brother told me about it after he found it on tvtropes. When I started reading it I quickly realized it was the best thing on the web, and that it fit perfectly with my D&D interest.

[dps]

Started reading in March of 2008, and registered at the same time.

Found the comic from references in the TV Tropes wiki.

[Illven]

I learned of it because my library had a couple of dragon maginze's lieing around and when I saw the last one and the line web comic punks I deicded to google it. That was September or October of 2008

[Assassin89]

Started in July 2008 with tvtropes, which was linked to by a different webcomic. One of the tropes lead to a comic where the ramp of hobgoblins was formed during the battle in Azure City. The comic was another source of D&D for me.

[Zerg Cookie]

I began reading about a year ago when a friend f mine came to school with a comic book that seemed nice. I borrowed it and here I am, waiting for Roy's resurrection and buying all books myself (Except for DCF, I'll but it soon [And I already read it, so I bought the other books first])

[Aricandor]

Caught a link in someone's signature at the Wizards of the Coast forum. I can't remember the date, month, or even year, but the fresh strip of the day was the one with Roy Great Cleaving all those zombies and its very first "Roy has boobies" gag. I obviously can't be sure, but I think that's a fairly long time ago by now.

[Military Man]

When I started they were on strip... 533, Open to Multiple Interpretations (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0533.html)

I learned about it from my Uncle who is your stereotypical old man but with many child-like abundances about him :smallamused:

[isocum]

i was lurking some random site, and i saw an oots topic and lots of good comments, and decided to take a look . it should be right around nale stealing elan's identity.

[memnarch]

Saw someone else reading it at school, memorized the site url, and picked it up myself. Joined forums around the same time too.

[shadzar]

I started reading it about 3 or 4 years ago, hit and miss. Didn't really start following it often again until recently. Last time I recall reading it good and through Rich had broken or sprained his arm/wrist or something and I figured it would be a while for it to return and then just found my way back maybe once a month after that until recently.

[Raven the Rogue]

I found a link to it from another webcomic I was reading at the time. It was in the middle of the Azure City battle about two years ago, I think. I loved it and spent the next few days reading the archives. I still love OotS just as much now as I did then and check the site every day hoping to see the next update.

[Morgan Wick]

After seeing various isolated links in bits and pieces on TV Tropes, I found a link to this comic (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0421.html).

Despite not understanding much of what was going on ("what the hell is a Mark of Justice?") I quickly became so caught up in the Azure City Battle I read right up to the then-current strip (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0509.html), then read all the preceding strips in bits and pieces.

[KIDS]

I saw Order of the Stick forums while googling for something about D&D in 2005 or so (I was a very beginner player at that time). I can't recall exactly what year it was, but I saw the comic at about 130th episode as the party was setting out for the starfall ore quest and from that time, read back and started following it regularly.

[David Argall]

I have this vague memory of first reading #29. However I do recall being eager for #37 to come out, and being disappointed that the trapping of Roy took place off stage, as I should have figured it would. I may have dropped the strip a time or two thereafter, and I can't say when I started watching for each strip, tho I didn't start posting until around 450.

[Axl_Rose]

Sometime before Aug 2006, I can't quite pin the exact time of year though.

Hmm, that would have been summer of grade 11 for me, and I definitely discussed it while I was still in school, so probably sometime around March 2006.

Oh man, that was so awesome having like 300 never before seen comic strips to read in a row.

I think I remember that by the time I had caught up to the current strip we were at "The OOTS approaches the Oracle"

[Silverraptor]

Well for me it started last year in summer. I had flunked my second semester Spanish and had to take summer school. My family left for a vacation and I was left home alone, so I had to walk home after school. My friend's house was on the way to my home so I would stop there everyday and play computer games with him. My friend is a big DnD fan, but I had the "DnD is for nerds and geeks" attitude. Before I left to go home however, My friend showed me this page (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0421.html) and I loved the speech. When I got home I opened up the first page and read all the way till after the unveiling of Miko. (Had dinner at 9:54 that night.) For the next 2 days I went home and read OOTS before going to bed and eventiuall caught up. The current comic was this one (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0573.html) at the time because I accidentially kept hitting the >> button. After reading that I actually made a character in DnD to play with my friend and his little brother after school. He was a Human Swashbuckler called "Justin A. Minnit" (Intended pun) and sometimes we go back to that campaign and he's still awesome. I joined the forum around early Feb. after impatiently waiting for the new comic to come out and exploring the site. So I owe my entire DnD experience to Rich!:biggrin:

[Elemental_Elf]

The first OOTS comic I ever read was good old 209 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0209.html). Someone on the WotC boards was explaining to another person how you can roleplay a class with out BEING that class and referenced 209.

I can't really remember when that was but I do associate OOTS with a one shot I ran with my friends in Eberron... That had to have been in mid 2006 at which time I had been reading OOTS for a while. I do remember on my third run through of the comic ended at comic 407 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0407.html) (which is still one of my favorites (love that second and last panels))...

[Draz74]

I first read when V was a purple lizard -- specifically, the "Strike him down and take your place at my side, Young Greenhilt" episode. Summer 2005.

I was an office monkey at MyFamily.com at the time, and my co-worker Melissa Smith convinced me to give the comic a try. Wow, that room of that office was quite the epic nerd-fest. Good times.

It was over a year later that I was sucked in enough to register for the forums.

[Cúchulainn]

Somewhere around the siege of Azure I started reading, and it was my ex who first linked me. :smalltongue:

[evileeyore]

I started with strip number 3. The strip was talked about on another message board I frequent.

I've been reading since.

[Rad]

I started in the end of 2006, at the end of the Elan and Thog arc. I'm not sure about the exact strip because I started systematically from strip 1 and didn't get through the archives for some days.
I saw the strip mentioned in the commentary to a strip of the DM of the rings and looked it up.

[Killer Angel]

I've started to read it thanks to a segnalation of a friend of mine in our gaming group.
OotS was around strip n. 20 (ah, the horror...), so it was a long time ago. I begin to lurk the forum around strip 200.
Hell, it took me a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time to register. :smallredface:

[X2]

Mid 300's. Read the guest strip on 8 bit theater and liked the art style.

[Haven]

I've been reading since about the time the Linear Guild first debuted.

And though I don't have my original account anymore, and all the threads involved are gone, I feel pretty good about the fact that the Giant personally replied to some of my posts way back when (one of them was him confirming that "vibrational frequencies" (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0275.html) was a reference to the DC multiverse, which is pretty awesome).

[Brewdude]

Had to be 2001 or earlier. I specifically remember someone linking the "go go team cleric" comic to some mmo cleric forum I was reading.

[The_Void]

I started reading about 4 or 5 months ago. A friend of mine on a Doctor Who forum had a Belkar avatar, and when asked what it was, he said it was from a webcomic called The Order of the Stick. I was bored, so I googled it and started reading from strip one.

[Owan]

I wish I could remember. It was fairly early on, I think just before the first Linear Guild meeting. Everyone I gamed with seemed to have heard of it and various favourite lines were being quoted, especially "...I found all these free swords, they were in my spleen!".

I've no idea what year that was, let alone the month!

[Roc Ness]

My friend recommended it, and I checked it just when Rich posted the splash page signalling the end of the Xykon captures Azure City storyline.

I don't play dnd, so I only understood some jokes after I checked the forums.

[homeosapiens]

I started when Miko killed some ogre tribe with some help from the Order :-), but i logged much later.

[Berserk Monk]

I've been reading oots since before any of you were born (or since Roy died, which ever sounds more believable).

[liooil2000]

I started reading OOTS three weeks ago and joined the forums two weeks ago.

[The Blackbird]

Had to be 2001 or earlier. I specifically remember someone linking the "go go team cleric" comic to some mmo cleric forum I was reading.

But the comic didn't start until 2003...

[[TS] Shadow]

I have a friend who is a big D&D geek. I'm more of a Nintendo geek, but we have to stick together, right? We had a sub in Algebra one day, and he quoted OotS (don't ask me which, I don't remember.) I asked him what he quoted, and he told me about the comic and how awesome it is. That Saturday, I read through the entire archive, up till comic 513. I started at around 8AM. I didn't finish untill after dinner. I remember clicking the "next" button over and over, trying to see the next piece. Ahh...good times.

[Trebuchet]

I started reading it maybe a year and a half ago. I went to a gaming convention with some friends and the first two books, plus OtOoPCs and SoD, were there, and one of my friends bought them and loaned them to me. Then I went online and read all the remaining ones. They were in Azure City, as I recall, but it took me forever to catch up. The same friend recently got War and XPs, so I am really enjoying reading that in print, with the comments.

[King of Nowhere]

A friend of mine kept telling me how awesome was oots. I looked at the site twice, but the strange drawing repelled me (I was used to mere realistic art) and I never liked the first strip. Then one day I decided to gave oots a chance and read half a dozen strips. I was hooked, and read all the archives (at the time, up until comic 199) in two days. So

Shadow;6068820'] That Saturday, I read through the entire archive, up till comic 513. I started at around 8AM. I didn't finish untill after dinner.
you beat me fair and square.
While I liked oots, I've become a real fan of the strip around the time Haley and Elan got together.

[Trodon]

i started reading when http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0456.html this comic was the new one and i love OOTS

[Mr. Scaly]

Ah yes. A friend introduced me just as we met young Larry Gardener.

[Lira]

I found a link to it in someone's signature over on the Wizards of the Coast forums. At the time, the newest comic was #304 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0304.html), though I couldn't possibly tell you what year/month that was. Not something I bothered to make a long-term memory out of.

ZevoxUsing the Discussion Thread Index II (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5723207#post5723207), I can determine you started reading around April 12th 2006. [/shameless advertising of my thread]

Anyway, the first time I saw OOTS was when I was looking over my best friend's shoulder in our computer programming course. For a while I just looked, and wasn't motivated to go read it on my own. Then I saw her looking at some of the bardic nudity strips, and I wondered, "Why is that guy running around naked?" and that's what finally got me to read it on my own. :smalltongue: A month or so later, I realized I was completely obsessed, and joined the forum. That was around 200 comics ago.

[Wonton]

I got linked to #216 from the Wizards of the Coast boards - I'd opened a thread that was discussing Spring Attack, and someone had linked to that. Within a few days, I was caught up. I can't believe that over 2/3 of the total number of strips have been released since then... it doesn't FEEL like that much time has passed.

[Llama231]

Dragon magazine, then bought the books.
I finally got around to the online comic shortly before the break after the siege ended.

[Selene]

A friend of mine on another site asked a few of us, "do any of you guys read Order of the Stick?" We didn't. So two of us came over and starting reading. A couple days later, we'd both read the whole thing. As had her boyfriend and my son. That was back around when Miko fell, but I forget exactly which strip it was. Early 400s, anyway. I think it was late 2006/Early 2007.

[Scarlet Knight]

Last summer, I was in another webcomic forum, when the discussion turned to tentacles. Someone asked why everyone was afraid of tentacles? :smallconfused:

A reply come from somebody: "This is why" with a link to the comic of "Evan's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion". :smalleek:

It was love at first laugh!:smallbiggrin:

[Colmarr]

I'm not quite sure when I started reading, but it was before November 2005 ( I moved house and job then and I definitely remember reading the comic at my old work).

I'm pretty sure it was soon after 3.5e was released (and thus shortly after the strip commenced).

Not sure how I came across it.

[Weimann]

Oh, I can't possibly remember. I know I got current at #200, when Miko singlehandedly pwned the Order. It's been a while, huh?

I have no idea how I found it. There's a faint possibility I saw the guest comic Rich did for 8-Bit Theater, and decided to check the comic out, but it could have been any number of other links as well.

Anyway, I'm not going anywhere any time soon.

[i6uuaq]

the first comic i saw was sometime around when Elan was enacting diplomatic disaster with the orcish tribe on the island, think it was around #560. a friend was trying to recommend me the board game, so i decided to go and find out some backstory.

i came across it around 8pm one evening, and covered around 550 strips in one sitting until 2am. :smallbiggrin: OotS rocks!

[TheSummoner]

I started reading after the Battle for Azure City had just ended. At the time, 551 was the newest strip. By the time I finished the archives, 552 was up.

Learned about it through Wikipedia believe it or not.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

It was when they met the Linear guild... in comic 44?! Surely there was more than that then... geez, I feel old

[Ashen Lilies]

While I had heard about the strip earlier, by the time I finished reading through the archives, the latest strip was #400 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0400.html).

I need not tell you how awesome that was.

...
And I have no idea how I found OotS.

[Niley]

I started around October 2008 (the current comic was 588), when I saw a link to OotS in a poster's sig while browsing the CivFanatics forum. I heard about OotS earlier, but didn't have time to read it. But when I did start reading, then, well... Heh. It was stronger than Dominate Person.

[Issabella]

The day after Mikko cut down her lord, and from a friend

[someonenonotyou]

Read the guest strip on 8 bit theater i was when elan was leaveing fo the boat at the end of the azule battle

[Lupy]

I saw the first book in about October of 07 and read the intro at the store.

I promptly forgot about it, and went on with my life until my mom gave it to me for Xmas. I then read from 1 to 516 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0516.html) in the 2 best days ever. :smallsmile:

The last comic I read without having to wait at all was 516, but when I came back from Boy Scout camp last year there were 2 comics, which was nice.

I should also note that every day since I finished 516 I have checked the internet for a new comic, excepting only days when I didn't have access to a computer.

I joined the forum on January 19th, 2008, because I was bored. The rest is history.

[Thajocoth]

January, 2009. Found a link somewhere.

[SteveMB]

I discovered OOTS the year the Giant was at Balticon. I had enough money in my dealer's room budget for a copy of Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, and then read the rest of what was online at the time (up to 170-ish, I think).

[Cleverdan22]

I became a serious reader around the 260 region; during the trial, but had been told about it a month before by a member of the Homestar Wiki Forum.

...I've been reading for a long time. I remember hanging out on the forums until midnight on the eve of comic 400. I shouted in approval so loud my dad woke up. :smalltongue:

[hobbitkniver]

I can't remember exactly when I started reading, but the newest one when I started was during the siege on Azure City. I first ready OotS in a dragon magazine.

[TigerHunter]

Since #337. A friend I'd met on an MMO recommended it to me.

[Inkling]

I found out about OOTS when I was reading an interview with R.A. Salvatore, who had mentioned it. I was immediately interested, and came in around comic #510. I love it!!!

[DabblerWizard]

I started reading about a year ago... maybe a little longer. If I remember right, a friend linked me to the site, after I asked him about d&d webcomics.

I think it's a great comic, and a great site.

[Drestlin]

back when there where still translations projects, i think around #50

[ForestCult4ever]

I had actually gotten book 1 as a birthday present from my big brother who is a HUGE gamer and the one who had got me into D&D in the first place. Funny thing is it took about 4 months to realize the it was mainly a webcomic! :smallredface: heck by then it was #484 and i had a lot of catching up to do (and i loved every minute of it)

[sun_tzu]

I started reading early in the bandit arc, after I got the link from Websnark.

[rokar4life]

i started about 3 weeks ago, i think it was referenced in a guide to something, and i thought it was funny so i started over from C1

[JoseB]

The first comic I read was #92. I found it purely by chance, during a session of "follow the hyperlink" page to page :)

I found it intriguing, and read the whole story from the beginning in one go. It hooked me. The rest is history.

[Zanaril]

Over three years. Someone mentioned it on Fanficiton.net, so I wandered over here to have a look and never left.

[ZerglingOne]

By the time I had finished the archive (took a day or two, goodbye weekend) Rich had posted +1 BFF. So like a year and a few months ago... But I heard about it long long ago from a friend of mine that linked me when it was only about 150 comics in or so.

[Thrar]

Between half a year and a year, I'm not sure exactly. I started reading somewhere between August and October 2008 I think, but just signed up to the forum a few days ago.

I found the link through a forum, but I'm not sure which one. It could have been Bioware's BG/BG2 forums or Civfanatics - considering there was another poster coming from Civfanatics in the same timeframe, it probably was there.

[The Grazymancer]

This (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0316.html) was the latest comic at the time if I remember correctly. No idea what the year or month was. Can't remember how I found it either. Havent registered until now.

[Oppolo]

I joined the comic after the first attack of the Linear guild, before the order defeated Xykon. I think I got lead here from another webcomic forum, I didn't play DnD (and don't any longer, have only played once). Nowadays I think I read it mostly out of habit!

[Aerysil]

I came in at around comic #85 or so.

It had a decent enough balance of genuine humor and snarkiness to keep me interested. A lot of comics out there are just solid attitude. Which is ok for some, but that's not something I can keep interested in 100% of the time.

It was strange following the comic week to week as Rich slowly standardized his art style, then to look back and see how the characters used to be drawn.

I think this was the only comic whose humor I didn't really like (Xykon keeping on about with Redcloak was doing) http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0095.html

[Elan man]

since 2008. my brother (who had heard about them from a friend who had the books) was reading them a bit just to see what they were and I LOVED them so I Read from around 1 to 600 in about a week

[Maelstrom]

Somewhere in the 20-30 range, registered about#40 I believe... been a long road ;)

[TheBST]

After a Guest strip Rich did for 8 Bit Theater.

[Martok]

I started reading it fairly early on, back in 2004. My roommate at the time had apparently been following it for a few weeks/months, and recommended it to me. I'm very glad he did. :smallcool:

[badam104172]

I found a compilation book, No cure for the paladin blues, i think, at a library near my house. I read that, not really getting a lot of the inside jokes, until i figured out it was a webcomic and looked at the site. two weeks later, it was my favorite comic and it was up to #651.