How did you find out about OOTS?

[Goosefarble]

Okay, again, I don't know if this is a duplication of a thread that already exists, searched the title using the search function and couldn't find one like it, but if there is one, then I'm sorry.

Basically, simple question, how did you find out about the Order of the Stick?

I gather that most of you play D&D, well I don't. I've never played it, and know next to nothing about it, but I still love OOTS because it's one of those things that you can like even if you don't know anything about the subject. I only found out about it because I play a game called RuneScape (Yeah yeah, RS is gay, heard it all before), and there is a character called Movario whose examine info is "He knows a thousand arcane curses, and each one would drive you mad.". One of my friends told me this was a reference to Vaarsuvius in Order of the Stick, and I looked it up on Wikipedia. Soon I was reading the comic and had finished it in about two weeks. Now I'm here, and I feel better for it!

So post your story here, how did you find out about OOTS?

[Cracklord]

I heard it's siren song in my very soul. It called to me, and I came.

[Goosefarble]

That's understandable.

[Berserk Monk]

First read one of the strips in Dragon magazine, but didn't know about the online strips until a friend turned me onto it.

[Sanguine]

Yes I play DnD, I learned about OotS(at least this incarnation) when Dogmantra(who I knew through another forum) introduced me to this forum and having liked the dragon magazine version I decided to check it out.

[Elfin]

Found it in a link from DM of the Rings (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?cat=14).

[Turkish Delight]

TV Tropes addiction, combined with the fact everyone over there seems to be a raving OotS fanboy. You can't help but check something out when it seems to appear in every other trope entry.

[Cire II]

My uncle told me about and I ended up becomeing ubsest.

[Dogmantra]

Yes I play DnD, I learned about OotS(at least this incarnation) when Dogmantra(who I knew through another forum) introduced me to this forum and having liked the dragon magazine version I decided to check it out.

I feel so special!

Also: I found out about it from TVtropes too. I think it was the tripping focused half-ogre fighter strip linked from the Munchkin page, but I may be wrong...

@V: Confuzzlement! SHHH!

[Sanguine]

I feel so special!

Also: I found out about it from TVtropes too. I think it was the tripping focused half-ogre fighter strip linked from the Munchkin page, but I may be wrong...

Hey, Doggy! Why does your gender say you are female? :smallconfused:

[Watcher]

I play multiplayer Neverwinter Nights, a DnD-themed computer game I hope some of you have heard of. One of the multiplayer games has a forum, which has very many references I didn't get and didn't care to look up, and one even linked to this site, so I looked around the forums, ignoring the comics, and finally coming up to the comic section of the forums, and then looking at the comics, starting at Strip One. The time I read #1, the newest strip was Familiarity Breeds Piercing Damage (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0603.html), comic 603.

[The Blackbird]

My brother showed it to me, and he found a link to it in Tvtropes.


I play multiplayer Neverwinter Nights, a DnD-themed computer game I hope some of you have heard of..
*High Five*

[HealthKit]

Back when I actually read Megatokyo (wow, that was a long time ago) shirt guy Dom posted a link to it.

[Assassin89]

I found out through TvTropes. I was looking at irregular webcomic, when one of the links were to Tvtropes. After looking through a few tropes, one trope was linked to a comic around when the ramp of Hobgoblins was formed.

[Trai]

I don't play D&D, but I enjoy epic fantasy stories. A favorite urban fantasy author of mine, Carrie Vaughn, plugged #657 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0657.html) on her blog because she thought Xykon's speech was amazing, and I clicked the link and started at #1. And proceeded to spend my entire weekend staring at my computer screen reading strip after strip.

[mistformsquirrl]

My brother got me hooked. He mentioned it back around the start of the siege of Azure City, and so I started reading from the first strip and found myself laughing so incredibly hard that I couldn't stop >.<

<^_^> It's just gotten better from there!

[Vemynal]

The zombie hunters is an online comic that is a member of a website that ranks online comics with a little votey people who read the comic can vote for their comic

OOTS is now preserved forever in their hall of fame as possibly the most famous online comic

obviously i had to check it out and it has not disappointed ^_^

[efficientmartin]

It was in a friends Away message on AOL. I have never played DnD in my life and yet I can appreciate all the humor. Probably have read these through a dozen times.

[mr.fizzypop]

I bought "Dungeon Crawlin' Fools" at a comic book place out of curiosity. I play DnD so the book drew my attention. After reading it, I started reading the online comics.

I think I started reading when the newest comic was in the #200-300 range.

[Somniloquist]

Tvtropes. That site has both stolen and enriched my life. I have never played D&D, though now I want to, and most of what I know about it comes from OOTS.

[someonenonotyou]

the fan comic for 8-bit theater is how i found out about it

[Kallisti]

I play DnD, and have for a long time, but to my eternal shame I first saw OOTS after clicking the "Random Article" button on Wikipedia out of sheer boredom.

[Gift Jeraff]

The guest comic Rich did for 8-bit Theater.

[attilathepun]

My friend told me about, and I also found a link to it from one of the Darths and Droids comics.

[Tijne]

I was using google-images and searching for something, I don't recall exactly what. I clicked on a random picture, and was taken tothis strip. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0253.html)

I laughed, I read the next two, then I went back to the beginning...

[Haggis]

I.. I have no idea.

It was after miko captured the order or during the trial, that much I'm pretty sure on. I never played DnD so I couldn't have searched for it, so it must have been a drive by posting. Most likely from a comic I no longer read.

[Haruki-kun]

A friend linked me to it on MSN. At that time it was somewhere around the Cliffport story arc. It was a really boring weekend, so I started reading it and then got hooked.

[RTGoodman]

I was a big lurker on the WotC boards way back where (before I even knew other D&D forums existed), and someone linked the old half-ogre chain-tripper strip in some conversation. I thought it was funny, and started reading through the archives that evening. By the time I finished, #401 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0401.html) had just been posted. I joined the forums soon thereafter, but I mostly lurked here for several months, too, before I actually started posting with some regularity.

[Nevitan]

I found it in the back of a Dragon Magazine my Brother's friend brought and left at the house, and man am I glad he did.

[Herald Alberich]

Another one from TvTropes here. In fact that's where I found most, scratch that, all of the webcomics I currently follow. I couldn't tell you what page got me to check it out, as there are so many OotS examples, and I read various unconnected strips sporadically before finally bookmarking the RSS feed somewhere around #538 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0538.html).

[Southern Cross]

I think I first read OOTS in Dragonmirth.(This was long before WOTC decided to put Dragon magazine online).

[Hands_Of_Blue]

I followed a link from TvTropes, and then went on an archive binge.

[Dumbledore lives]

My friend showed it to me sometime during the mid 200's.

[factotum]

If I remember right (it's a few years ago and the ol' memory ain't what it once was :smallwink:) there was a link to here from the Schlock Mercenary website--can't even remember what the link said, but it sounded interesting, so I followed it!

[Itamarcu]

I saw a book in a shop full of D&D and other games (named Freak or פריק), and at first I thought that the content of the books and the content in the web are totally different.:smallbiggrin: (I'm NOT talking about the prequels)

[squidbreath]

Once again, TV Tropes :smalltongue: It popped up on a heck load of pages and the fact that it was a stick figure comic drew me in.

[I play Runescape too =[) ]

[Capt. Sardonic]

A girl I was dating several years ago (summer of 2004) had been reading OotS and said something to me about it. I started reading and wasn't disappointed. This was back long before the first battle with Xykon, probably somewhere between issue #50 and #70, though I don't recall exactly where.

I've been along for the ride ever since and will be here all the way to the end. :smallbiggrin:

[Turkish Delight]

I followed a link from TvTropes, and then went on an archive binge.

Me, too, regarding the archive binge. It's always quite a shock to the system when you finish an archive binge and realize that the action-packed drama that's been unfolding in the course of hours for you as a new reader will now be unfolding one page at a time over the course of weeks/months/years.

I went from the beginning of the siege of Azure City to it's bitter conclusion in a few hours of binge reading. That was fun. For everybody who got here before me I hear it took something like a year.

[Goosefarble]

Yeah. I only got into OOTS like two weeks ago, so 672 was the newest strip then and it's the newest strip now. I thought when I first started reading it "Oh, I'll never get to that page," but then a few days later there I was. And now I'm sad, because I'll have to follow the comic like a real fan XD

[T-O-E]

Referenced on another forum. Decided to check it out.

[Katana_Geldar]

I was refered to it by a few people online at a gaming forum as well as the Irregular Webcomic boards. I think it was about two months ago, when V made the surprise visit to Deigo and Kazumi that I got into it. Of course, with an archive binge.

I now own 4 of the 5 books, having them in hard copy is rtaher different. And OOTS quoting has found it's way into my gaming: 'Excuse me mysterous stranger, I noticed you were staring moodily into your ale. Are you in the need of the services of an adventurer?"

[Meg]

TV Tropes. OOTS is actually the very first webcomic I ever followed.

[Tengu_temp]

The guest comic for 8-Bit Theater. When I started reading OotS, this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0070.html) was the latest strip.

[Ted The Bug]

When I lived in Rome, a friend showed it to me. I spent the next three days reading the archives, and now I own two shirts and all the books.
I even remember how far along the story was! This (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0430.html) was the most recent strip.

[Trai]

Yeah. I only got into OOTS like two weeks ago, so 672 was the newest strip then and it's the newest strip now. I thought when I first started reading it "Oh, I'll never get to that page," but then a few days later there I was. And now I'm sad, because I'll have to follow the comic like a real fan XD

I went through that a couple months back when I first got into it. I spent the whole weekend telling myself I'd read it slowly. Then finished up to the most recent strip and said, "Crap. Now I actually have to wait for the next one?"

[Horst]

I too found it through the fan comic for 8bit-theatre. But I only read the first 3 pages, due to my unawareness of DnD-stuff it wasn't too funny. But than I found it again on tvtropes, read the article and found it hilarious. Ever since I am enjoying the comic.

[lordcaos]

is the best, is the best

[littlequietguy]

I found OotPCs in a comic book store.

[Andore Mordre]

Read the guest comic in 8-Bit Theater, but didn't think about it until I found a link to it later on Bob and George.

[xelliea]

dragon mag then i got a book and then i saw the wedsite.

[Thursday]

A Flatmate of mine was reading one of the books, forget which, in our kitchen a couple of houses back, I said "Whats that?" and lost my weekend.

[Zweee]

I've haven't really played DnD but my brother did a little bit. He told my about a couple of the comics so I finally went to check it out for myself. It was in the mid 300s a think by the time I caught up. It took a couple weeks because I was a 'dedicated' cough... cough... college student.

[Smiling Knight]

TV Tropes, during the Philosophy of Chaos strips, though I had seen the Chain-Tripper and Hydra strips before.

[zql]

From the forum of my college (forofyl.com.ar) in a thread about webcomics and geek jokes.

[Tass]

I noticed a thread on a university forum claiming: "Now we know Vaarsuvious' gender" and linking to Power word: Annoy (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0306.html), number 306.

I later realized how wrong they were.

(Wow, I've been here for more than half of the comics run, I still felt like a newcommmer...)

[AdamG]

I saw it listed on a comic index. It was really popular, and it looked interesting. I've been reading it for years since.

[Conuly]

Another one from TVTropes. It's not the first webcomic I've followed, but it's the first one I found before the creator made a "We're quitting writing this in 3 months!" announcement.

[Blackjackg]

Followed a link from Aaron Williams' site (http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/index.htm) to this strip. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0229.html)

[XBobbis]

I'm shocked how many people find this site through TvTropes.

I think I first discovered it when he did the guest comic for 8-Bit Theater.

[Marzie]

My mom emailed me a strip - the one where Belkar was threatening to turn Windstriker into glue? Three days later I was home sick and read all of the archives over a few hours. The rest is history :smallbiggrin:

[Meed the Mystic]

I first found out about OoTS when I was browsing some pictures on Deviant Art. I happened to stumble upon a comment that had a banner in it that linked back to this website. Even though I made an account for the forum just a week or two ago, I started reading OoTS during 408, right after Miko fell.

[Maximum Zersk]

The Bob and George Links Page. One day I thought "Meh, maybe I'll start reading some these". That's how I found out about OotS, XKCD, and (just recently) VG Cats. When I started reading OotS, it was at 617 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0617.html), so I haven't been reading long.

Bob and George was good, and it actually finished, something hundreds of other webcomics have failed at.

[Scarlet Knight]

I was on another forum and the conversation turned to tentacles. I was sent to this comic: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0020.html

It was love at first laugh. :smallbiggrin:

[Bedinsis]

Another one through TvTropes. The first strip that got me to read through the archives up to that point was #331 (the one with the oracle's prophesies). When I finished, the latest comic was #481(the one where half the Order leaves Azure City). I've never played Dungeons and Dragons.

[Narr Storm]

Just today and i love it! :smallsmile:

[Tempest Fennac]

A friend told me about it in December 2006. I started reading the comic a bit after that (I wanted to go through the archives of a couple of other comics first).

[DASLAYARGH]

My friend told me about OOTS in 2005. He specifically told me to read the comic slowly, but I finished up to 400 or so in two days. Now I know why he told me to read slowly!!

[Zog]

I was on another forum and the conversation turned to tentacles. I was sent to this comic: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0020.html

It was love at first laugh. :smallbiggrin:

Heh -- me to -- maybe it was the same forum?
..early 2004?
DEx (NWN) forum?

[Alysar]

There was a link to it from another webcomic. I think it was Schlock Mercenary.

Might have been this (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/index.php/2006/07/12/the-supercollider-at-comic-con/) blog post. It was around that time that I found OotS, and that post seems familiar.

Looking back through the dates of the Giant's comic threads, that would put me coming in right around comic 330 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0330.html).

[The Recreator]

TV Tropes. Seriously, that site's like free advertising for this strip.:smalltongue:

Incidentally, I think seeing all the spoilers for the books in there pushed me to buy them. I can't stand spoilers, and I avoid reading them before reading the source material on principle.

[Tannhaeuser]

Oddly enough, I heard about it on Facebook. (What? I only go there to communicate with my students -- my students, I tell you!) :smallredface:

[Expeditious]

Tv Tropes. (Gotta wonder if one can find a single page without a link to OotS.)
I became curious, and I wanted to see what was all that fuzz about. The rest is history.

[Mordokai]

Another forum in my homeland. Another user made a topic about it and I followed the link. Seeing we were somewhere around 150 comics back when that happened it wasn't too hard to read everything and I decided I like what I'm seeing, so I decided to stay. After some time(after one of the longer hiatuses, I believe) I decided to also check GitP, I registered and since then I'm pretty much an item here. Even if a little obscure item :smalltongue:

[Drakevarg]

If I remember correctly, I found it sometime down the road whilst reading A Modest Destiny on squidi.net. Read a bit, got to the end (only around the chimera encounter at the time), lost the link, found it again later somehow, have been a loyal reader since.

[redcodekevin]

I was browisng a local Magic: the Gathering forum, and someone linked comic 49 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0049.html). Needless to say, it represented one of the woes of a magic player. I went to the beginning, and started reading. When I reached the end, it was already in the Trial of the OoTS in Azure City. Following it daily since then.

[Mauve Shirt]

A friend showed it to me and was like "READ IT." and it took me ages to finally give in. And now I spend all of my time on this site. Damn.

[B.I.T.T.]

I ran into "Dungeon Crawlin' Fools" in a local gameshop near where I live and flipped through a few strips. Then when I came back I flipped through a few more. This process repeated until I had practically finished the book and felt like I'd better buy the thing. So I did, and also bought "No Cure for the Paladin Blues" and finished it the same day at a coffee shop. I bought the prequals and read them in order (-1 and then 0) and finally came to the website when I had completely exhausted all the print media available to me.

It took me a while to get through the story post-No Cure because I spent a lot of time trying to decode Haley's cryptograms, but I caught up in a matter of a couple of days. I am, in short, addicted to this comic strip.

[ridly]

i found out about it when my brother bought "Dungeon Crawling Fools" at a comic book store and found the online website one the book.

[Froogleyboy]

I came upon it by accident. I searched "Kobold campaign hooks" and I found a thread about Tuckers kobold. I then made a thread and saw that this place had a webcomic

[Blue Ghost]

Got linked to it from the Wizards forum. I joined the GITP forum a few months after I started reading, and now OOTS is secondary to being part of the GITP community..

[Heroic]

It was some time ago, but I think I found it by accident.
Or, my fate was always intertwined with that of this webcomic.

I think it was the second. :smalltongue:

[Achilles]

Wikipedia... Sup.

[dethkruzer]

I think it was when i was at a friends place and he showed me a strip, roughly two years later i was bored at school and decided to start reading oots, that's how it started.

[Gimliggamer]

I was scanning google for DnD jokes, found a forum, and got hooked.
I started reading when Roy got ressurected.
I finished in 10 hours straight.:mitd:

[Rayzin]

I read the comics in the Wizards magazine. Loved the art and the jokes, something about not having penalties for eating to much icecream.

[DBJack]

Someone linked it on a Baldur's Gate forum. I came in on 549, where O-Chul is thrown into his cage by a hobgoblin. While I archive binged for 2 days, everytime I loaded the comic I was greeted by that sight as I clicked the archive button. I avoided looking directly at it in order to avoid spoilering myself, but in the 8 or so times I saw it I thought that I was seeing Roy thrown into a cage. So imagine my surprise when he died and I thought I saw him being tossed into a cage 100 strips later. I wondered how Roy was going to be raised when I reached strip 500 with only 50 strips to get himself raised and then get captured by hobgoblins. Even at 548 I wondered what was going on, only to slap my forehead at 549 when I saw what was really going on. As I read the 530's it updated to 550, and my first update that I had to wait for was 551, with the turtle.

[Yendor]

I think I got here from Beaver and Steve, and got there from a link on Lore Sjoberg's blog.

[Catch]

Back when I used to follow Misfile, the author encouraged readers to vote for his comic on TopWebComics, where he was featured. The number one comic was OOTs, for something like 6th months straight, and I kept thinking "why would a dumb stick figure comic have so many readers?" There was this banner image of what was essentially Belkar flipping everyone off, which annoyed me and one day I though I'd check out the comic to see how much I hated it.

Turns out I'm not always right.

[Kaytara]

TV Tropes. That wasn't yet enough, though. Even though I kept seeing references and quotes from it practically everywhere, I didn't really go and start reading it until someone from FF.net strongly recommended it to me, as well. After roughly two days of incessant, slavish archive binging and constantly counting down the strips until the latest one with pure dread until it was a hundred, fifty, ten strips away and finally there.. well, I was quite hooked. The latest strip back then was the one with Celia, Belkar, a chocolate bar and how it's dangerous for cute woodland animals...

[Rad]

I was reading the archives of The DM of the Rings. In one of the notes the author took OotS as an example of how it was possible to advance the plot and make jokes at the same time (that strip was a joke-only one and he was complaining that he did not manage to make jokes and push the story forward in one strip).
I investigated and started reading the archives from the beginning. I am not sure what was the last strip published when I begun because I tried not to look at the new strips before I got through the archives. I remember seeing #393 before I saw Sabine for the first time; not sure if that was the last strip out when I started though (it was in those great glorious days of 3 updates every week, when things moved fast).

[spectralphoenix]

The WotC boards. Kind of surprised we haven't seen more people from them, OotS is constantly being linked to (or at least was, I don't hang around there as much after 4th edition.)

[Draquenoire]

I first heard about OOTS in Dragon magazine. I always liked the shorts in there. Actually it was the ONLY comic I liked in the magazine. Curiosity got the better of me one day and I found the website and started reading it religiously... sometimes.

[Munch]

I also saw it from the WotC boards, although I have barely ever been there. Someone had "This is the real Dungeons and Dragons webcomic" followed by a link to #1. I read through the archives by the end of the day . . . mostly seeing as there were only 60 strips in the archives. I've been here since the early days!

I still can't believe I've been reading this for five years, and I still check every day to see if it has updated (yes, even though he says there won't be a new strip until the 31st!)


Me, too, regarding the archive binge. It's always quite a shock to the system when you finish an archive binge and realize that the action-packed drama that's been unfolding in the course of hours for you as a new reader will now be unfolding one page at a time over the course of weeks/months/years.

I went from the beginning of the siege of Azure City to it's bitter conclusion in a few hours of binge reading. That was fun. For everybody who got here before me I hear it took something like a year.

It's the exact opposite for me; when I read the comics as they updated, it was good pacing and an excellent story, but yeah, it took a long time. Well, when I got the books, everything just shot right by. It was so short I thought I missed something. Not that it wasn't still brilliant, just really quick.

[V'icternus]

Shamus Young told me.

Not personally, of course, but while I was reading his webcomic, he spoke very highly of this one. So, after I finished DM of the Rings, I came to The Order of the Stick. Hooray!

[Electron]

Chris Cantseemtorememberhislastname posted a link on his website, Reasonably Clever. (Specificly next to his own webcomic, then called Brick House). Among the links were The S-Team (which I still read), Legostar Galactica (which I stopped reading as soon as it gained a plot), XKCD (stil one of my favorites), Brickworld Saga (which has ended, too bad) and OoTS.
I don't play DnD, I wouldn't know how, but I do have some experience in WoW.