First Strip You Read/How You Got Into OotS [Archive]

Wonton

2011-08-24, 01:34 PM

I still vividly remember the first strip I read: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html

It was linked in the "Equipment, Skills and Feats" section of the old D&D forums, back when they were 3.5E and beige (anyone still remember that?). The thread starter wanted to discuss the classic "Half-Ogre with a Spiked Chain, Combat Reflexes, and Spring Attack" strategy that is used in that comic. After that, I read the whole archive, and have been a loyal reader since. :smallsmile:

Anyone else remember the story of how they got into OotS?

mrmcfatty

2011-08-24, 02:09 PM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0080.html

I was playing another game online and we got to joking around about gods and god-like characters and someone mentioned something along the lines of "Banjo shall now use his instrument against you" and when i didnt understand he sent me that link been an avid reader ever since :D

Dash

2011-08-24, 02:14 PM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0546.html

Although I'm not entirely content admitting it, it was via a link from that Television Tropes and Idioms website, as you may be able to tell. Hardly a unique story, I'm sure.

While reading that strip, I was intrigued by how fun the dialogue was to read (though of course I had no idea what was occurring), and thus went back and read all the others. At that time, this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0576.html) was the most recent comic posted, which I'm surprised to see was back in 2008.

Redcloak is still my favourite character, too.

Zherog

2011-08-24, 02:16 PM

I started reading somewhere in the single digits. ;)

Dakaran

2011-08-24, 02:26 PM

I discovered The Order of the Stick at comic 476 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0476.html). I was looking at the Wikipedia page for stick figures because I was looking for inspiration to draw my own stick figure-esque comic strip and found a link to the latest OoTS. I read the comic in reverse order for about 10 strips, clicked the link for number 1 and caught up from 1 to 476 in three days. After getting caught up I immediately ordered Dungeon Crawlin' Fools and On the Origin of PCs and have been an avid fan ever since.

Druness

2011-08-24, 02:33 PM

I started reading recently, when a friend posted a link http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0778.html. I read through all the past comics, and it was when Roy was in the afterlife that I decided I had to have all the books.

JoseB

2011-08-24, 02:37 PM

The first strip I read was Strip #92 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0092.html).

I don't remember what took me to this webcomic, but I became hooked very quickly. And, from then on... :)

Blisstake

2011-08-24, 02:41 PM

253 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0253.html)

Saw it 2 years before getting into OotS.

Who149

2011-08-24, 02:45 PM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0361.html

I described a strategy to my friend, in which a player would disguise themselves as the enemy while dressing the enemy as the hero. She then showed me this.

Incom

2011-08-24, 03:22 PM

Was bored this summer, looking for stuff to do, happened upon OOTS from TVTropes (it gets linked EVERYWHERE on that site), started at the beginning and got to about 785 which was current at the time.

Mutant Sheep

2011-08-24, 03:57 PM

137beth

2011-08-24, 06:00 PM

I started from a friend's copy of DCF, at the introduction (with the narrator.) Then I found out they were online, and and have been reading them ever since:smallsmile:

Hardcore

2011-08-24, 06:31 PM

can't remember

Ajadea

2011-08-24, 07:05 PM

I discovered OOTS...years ago, actually. Somewhere before 600 and after 516, as 516 was the one I was linked to originally. I was in to D&D, and on a list of webcomics, I found OOTS. Out of curiousity, I began reading, and caught all the way up within a week.

MoonCat

2011-08-24, 07:36 PM

The first strip I read was the first, my brother introduced me to OoTS.

I have a very similar story. Except my first strip was 648 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0648.html). :smalleek: Took me a while to like Haley after that.

Why? She was fully justified.

Mutant Sheep

2011-08-24, 07:39 PM

Why? She was fully justified.
Because that was my first strip and all I saw was Haley butchering some goth chick? I thought V was always like that. Was kind of lame to see that WASN'T normal V.

Wanda V'Orcus

2011-08-24, 07:50 PM

I don't remember the exact number, but the first OotS strip I read was the Gary Gygax tribute one.

It took me a while to get into the strip proper -- dunno why I kept resisting it -- but one day at my local gaming store (Rivendell Books & Games in Rehoboth, MA), the store owner and I were having a D&D-related conversation (surprise, surprise!) and we somehow ended up talking about flumphs.

He mentioned to me how flumphs were an object of affectionate ridicule in OotS, and not long after, I began reading it from strip #1.

A massive Archive Binge later, I was hooked, and ended up buying all the OotS books I could! :smallbiggrin:

(Mind you, I'm still looking for No Cure for the Paladin Blues at cover price... I missed the "warehouse find sale" in April by one friggin' day :smallannoyed:!)

Cheers, JohnH / Wanda

MoonCat

2011-08-24, 08:00 PM

Because that was my first strip and all I saw was Haley butchering some goth chick? I thought V was always like that. Was kind of lame to see that WASN'T normal V.

Oh, yha, that would be scary.

Mutant Sheep

2011-08-24, 08:16 PM

Oh, yha, that would be scary.

It was an awesome first strip though. I thought Jenny was a major character for a second.:smallbiggrin: Also, that Haley killed a unknown aligned friend. That too.

t209

2011-08-24, 09:06 PM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0767.html
This was the first one officially but
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0253.html
This is the 1st I read back in 2006 or 2007.
I found it in TV Trope.
Edit: back when I read the harry potter parody strip, I thought Linear Guild is part of the Order of the stick.

lio45

2011-08-24, 09:20 PM

I started reading when the strip was somewhere around #0050, I'd say. Or probably earlier. My geek friends sent me the link.

Back then I didn't care enough to remember the exact number... well, I know I started to read at #0001, but I don't know the number of the current strip at the time. Back then, the Order of the Stick wasn't the high-quality strip it is today, so I did not pay any attention to details like which was the current strip -- I considered OotS as a more-or-less disposable "joke a day" comic which I would have given about zero chance of being around eight years later. It was somewhere down my list of webcomics to check once in a while, and that was it.

I know that when I settled in California in August of 2004, I had been an avid reader of OotS for a while by then, because I was stuck without internet for a while upon arrival and recall very clearly my desire to get my regular OotS fix back. So in late summer '04, the comic already had enough plot to have me hooked.

(Do we have a table somewhere matching the approx. dates and the strip numbers? I'm curious now.)

Narren

2011-08-24, 09:43 PM

Lord_Jadawin

2011-08-24, 09:45 PM

Penny Arcade linked OotS back on Jan 12, 2005 (1 week after I started my present job). Looking back, either 139 or 140 would have been my first strip, and 140 is still one of my absolute favorites. It's hard to believe it's been over 6 years since I started reading.

Hiro Protagonest

2011-08-24, 10:03 PM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0346.html (not sure how to convert links to text)

I followed a link to this comic on the old Wizard boards when someone was arguing whether or not the druid was overpowered.

Really? I would've thought this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0353.html) would be the one used for people backing up the argument that druid is overpowered.

Dalenthas

2011-08-24, 10:13 PM

"Turquoise bicycle shoe fins actualize radishes greenly!" (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0068.html)

A friend of mine had printed that strip out. I didn't actually start reading the webcomic proper till few months after that. Not sure when exactly, but I think it was pre-bandit arc, and definitely before 200, in any case.

Balain

2011-08-24, 10:38 PM

OnlineDM

2011-08-24, 11:45 PM

TV Tropes for me. I came across the Pregnant Badass article (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PregnantBadass) that connected to an image from strip number 587 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0587.html). I read the TV Tropes article (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick) about Order of the Stick, then started reading the strip from the beginning.

Ironically, this was about a year before I actually started playing D&D.

Dr.Epic

2011-08-25, 12:38 AM

I started reading somewhere in the single digits. ;)

What, only a looser starts with the first 10 strips! There's nothing to spoil!:smallwink:

First strip I read was in Dragon Magazine. Roy kept getting hit with traps.:smallbiggrin:

Chronos

2011-08-25, 12:57 AM

On another forum I'm on, someone linked to 228 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0228.html) for a discussion of the ethics of use of alignment-detecting magic in a law-enforcement setting, and whether Miko's Detect Evil constituted a warrantless search.

SowZ

2011-08-25, 01:01 AM

The lampshade comic from TVtropes.

...

That sounds wrong, actually. I think I have been reading OOTS for 3 years... How old is that strip?

B. Dandelion

2011-08-25, 01:48 AM

523 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0523.html) was the header when I first started reading. TVTropes would simply not shut up about this comic (they still can't), and after getting linked half a hundred times it was inevitable that I wound up hitting the "next" button to read another page of comic instead of going back to tropes. Finally after being linked to 393 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0393.html) there was subsequently so much fascinated clicking going on that the browser window I was in could no longer even return me to Tropes via the back button. That was kind of telling as to how interested I was getting, so I just went "the hell with it" and started archive binging from strip #1.

Then I started lurking on the forums and the people here would not shut up about how awesome Start of Darkness is...

Surfing HalfOrc

2011-08-25, 02:30 AM

The first strip I ever read was when they found out Roy's sister had been kidnapped, and Belkar wanted to know how good lookibg she was. The Belkster didn't have time for the fuglies!

But I didn't follow up until Elan gave his famous speech on the Azure City walls. Then I had to know what was going on, and clicked on First Strip. Been hooked ever since, own all the books, and am debating buying a couple of t-shirts...

hamishspence

2011-08-25, 04:19 AM

Tricia

2011-08-25, 06:18 AM

I can't remember how in the world I was introduced to OotS...but I definitely remember my first strip. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0175.html)

Sunken Valley

2011-08-25, 07:10 AM

Funnily enough I got into OOTS via the Dragon magazine strips. It took me three months after Dragon ended before I realised that there was a website, which I found at the bottom of the strips. I read strip 499 and did not understand it. So I read the entire archive.

squidbreath

2011-08-25, 07:19 AM

from page one, and I decided to google it after one too many mentions on tvtropes.

Dandria

2011-08-25, 08:02 AM

I think 536 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0536.html) was my first. Back in the days, this was the last one (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0664.html).

Howler Dagger

2011-08-25, 08:31 AM

The first one i read is this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0327.html) one, on a forum with a riddle thread, where someone asked the "there are 2 guards, one of them lies and one tells te truth............." riddle, i answered it, then someone posted that there was a more creative solution, and linked to that comic.

Zherog

2011-08-25, 09:25 AM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0346.html (not sure how to convert links to text)

You can quote anybody's post that has it and see how it's done. Also, here's directions:

You need to use the URL tag. It will look like this:

#346 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0346.html)

which will give you:

#346 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0346.html)

Hope that's helpful...

Wonton

2011-08-25, 10:51 AM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0346.html (not sure how to convert links to text)

I followed a link to this comic on the old Wizard boards when someone was arguing whether or not the druid was overpowered.

Ah, good to see someone else that came from the WotC boards.

Bedinsis

2011-08-25, 01:36 PM

I don't remember which strip was the first one I read, since I had seen quite a bunch from direct links from TVTropes. I remember the Larry Gardener strip being one of them (and causing me to instantly dislike the comic).

The one I read which got me to read through the archives was #331 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0331.html), at a time when #481 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0481.html) was the most recent strip. Boy was I disappointed that once I had gotten hooked and was up to date, the author wrote that it would be a pause (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0484.html) in 2 weeks until another update.

KoboldRevenge

2011-08-25, 02:01 PM

I bought Start of Darkness at a store. Then Kept re-reading it over and over. Then Learned of the website by looking at the bottom of the book (Giant In the Playground) and wala. :smallsmile:

Maxios

2011-08-25, 02:18 PM

The very first strip I read was...the very first strip (I saw it on Wikipedia). I ended up forgetting about OoTs for a year, but then in '09 I started reading the comic.

Dr.Epic

2011-08-25, 02:45 PM

The lampshade comic from TVtropes.

...

That sounds wrong, actually. I think I have been reading OOTS for 3 years... How old is that strip?

Longer than three years. At least five. That was around the time a friend started bugging me to read the strip.

dps

2011-08-25, 02:52 PM

My first strip was 539.

Wolfhowl

2011-08-25, 03:18 PM

The first OotS that I ever read was:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0228.html

It was sent to me by a friend in my 3'rd D&D game, where I was playing a half-orc Paladin who used Detect Evil alot.

I was hooked ever since.

Thanks for all the great comic's Giant!

Gift Jeraff

2011-08-25, 03:19 PM

I posted how I got hooked to OOTS in another thread, so let me just copy and paste that wall of text:I first found out about OOTS 6 years ago while reading through 8-Bit Theater's archives and seeing Burlew's guest comic (http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/05/18/vacation-04-3-i-love-bridge-jokes/). It looked like the kind of comic I would enjoy, but I put it on hold.

2 years later, someone on the Nuklear Power Forums linked this OOTS strip (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0223.html) when this 8BT strip (http://www.nuklearpower.com/2007/08/16/episode-881-you-dont-give-them-names-either/) came out. I decided to finally give OOTS a go. However, this was towards the very end of the Battle for Azure City. Needless to say, I was put off by the fact that it was basically as wordy as 8-Bit Theater, but sometimes had an extra page! Or two! Factor in that there were a whole bunch more characters than the cast page let on, and the fact that the FAQ seemed so sloppy with its broken code, and I was completely put off.

Then, in the autumn of 2008, I found OOTS again through TV Tropes. #599 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0599.html) was the latest strip. Again, wordy, double pages, half the main cast missing with the same people from the last time I read the strip so I figured characters got replaced, the elf had apparently turned evil, and there's also an imp talking to a rock or something. So I didn't bother with it.

Then, at the start of the Darth Vaarsuvius arc, I was again linked to OOTS. This time...things seemed really interesting. There was a dragon wanting to do something really evil, but there was also the tragedy of her son dying. There were 3 really cool cloaked beings delivering ominous yet funny dialogue. After this, I decided to occasionally check on OOTS and slowly read the archives every now and then.

Then came #657. I still wasn't 100% sure what was going on, but man was it cool. The speech was cool. The mood was tense and creepy. The sudden grabbing of V got me. And that last panel--I had no idea who this bearded wonder was, but I knew something was awesome about the panel.

So, yeah. Then I decided to finally finish through the archives (though #661 is the strip that made me rush through them) and you get the idea.
The lampshade comic from TVtropes.

...

That sounds wrong, actually. I think I have been reading OOTS for 3 years... How old is that strip?It came out 04/06/2008 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77118). So like 3 and a third years.

KillItWithFire

2011-08-25, 03:23 PM

I still remember how I had gotten introduced. First strip I saw was... 16? I think? The one where Elan was naked. I saw it because I was in computer science class and the friend who sits right next to me frequently uses the computers for things that are decidedly not computer science had it on the screen. I liked the art style and the dnd refernces so I made a quick mental note of the sites url and decided to visit when I got home. (Because I had CS work to do. :smallsigh:) And could you believe it, I read all of erfworld thinking it was a prequel or something first waiting for that distintive art style. Once I actually got into OotS, really enjoyed it and got up to the then-current strip (694) in 2 days. This would have been during my junior year of highschool so about a year and a half ago.

turkishvan2

2011-08-25, 03:44 PM

I found order of the stick through tv tropes and the first strip I read was good ol' #1.

SowZ

2011-08-25, 05:04 PM

I posted how I got hooked to OOTS in another thread, so let me just copy and paste that wall of text:I first found out about OOTS 6 years ago while reading through 8-Bit Theater's archives and seeing Burlew's guest comic (http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/05/18/vacation-04-3-i-love-bridge-jokes/). It looked like the kind of comic I would enjoy, but I put it on hold.

2 years later, someone on the Nuklear Power Forums linked this OOTS strip (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0223.html) when this 8BT strip (http://www.nuklearpower.com/2007/08/16/episode-881-you-dont-give-them-names-either/) came out. I decided to finally give OOTS a go. However, this was towards the very end of the Battle for Azure City. Needless to say, I was put off by the fact that it was basically as wordy as 8-Bit Theater, but sometimes had an extra page! Or two! Factor in that there were a whole bunch more characters than the cast page let on, and the fact that the FAQ seemed so sloppy with its broken code, and I was completely put off.

Then, in the autumn of 2008, I found OOTS again through TV Tropes. #599 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0599.html) was the latest strip. Again, wordy, double pages, half the main cast missing with the same people from the last time I read the strip so I figured characters got replaced, the elf had apparently turned evil, and there's also an imp talking to a rock or something. So I didn't bother with it.

Then, at the start of the Darth Vaarsuvius arc, I was again linked to OOTS. This time...things seemed really interesting. There was a dragon wanting to do something really evil, but there was also the tragedy of her son dying. There were 3 really cool cloaked beings delivering ominous yet funny dialogue. After this, I decided to occasionally check on OOTS and slowly read the archives every now and then.

Then came #657. I still wasn't 100% sure what was going on, but man was it cool. The speech was cool. The mood was tense and creepy. The sudden grabbing of V got me. And that last panel--I had no idea who this bearded wonder was, but I knew something was awesome about the panel.

So, yeah. Then I decided to finally finish through the archives (though #661 is the strip that made me rush through them) and you get the idea.It came out 04/06/2008 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77118). So like 3 and a third years.

Oh, okay, so about right then. Thanks.

Fontaine

2011-08-25, 05:15 PM

My friend had told me about it and let me read SoD during lunch. I've loved Xykon since the last panel of the first page...Only got to read half, though, so I went to this site and read every single one. The whole time I was thinking where's Right-Eye? Oh, the sadness when I bought the book to read the whole thing......

ArcaneSaint

2011-08-25, 05:21 PM

Umm, let's see...
I was reading this "DM of the Rings" comic, got bored halfway and somehow stumbled onto tvtropes while looking around the DMotR-site. Then from tvtropes I saw a couple of OotS-strips (like "colour coded for your convenience") but it took about three weeks before I really got into OotS. That's right, I discovered it right before exams.

Then I read about 300 strips in a week, lost interest for a few days, read the rest up until the first strip where I had to wait. That was (damnit, I'm not sure anymore) somewhere in the Empire of Blood arc (fairly recent), it was before the "Haley finds her father"-strip, but after the "Elan, I'm your father"-strip.
But I got lucky and it updated quite quickly (although at the time it seemed an eternity, but than I experienced how long some other updates took so that puts everything into perspective again)

It was then, during the waiting, that I made my first forays into the forum, and now I'm completely hooked.

Wonton

2011-08-25, 06:18 PM

You know, if this thread is to be used for statistics, then it seems that Mr. Burlew owes about half his readers to TV Tropes... :P

OrzhvoPatriarch

2011-08-25, 07:02 PM

I read the first strip first, it was linked to me by my best friend and the guy who first got me into DnD. He is not a member of this forum, but an avid reader.

ArcaneSaint

2011-08-26, 03:57 AM

You know, if this thread is to be used for statistics, then it seems that Mr. Burlew owes about half his readers to TV Tropes... :P

Well, tvtropes owes about half its tropes to Mr. Burlew, so I guess it's a fair trade. :smallbiggrin:

Flawless

2011-08-26, 04:35 AM

I started with number 1, as I heard of the webcomic from my brother. So I just started reading from the beginning. Back then, the story was around Azure city I think... but I#M not totally sure anymore.

Hironomus

2011-08-26, 09:07 AM

Random as, but the first strip I ever laid eyes on, I remember distinctly being this one.

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0417.html

A friend told me to check the strip out, and that was where it was up to at the time. I then read it from the beginning.
This strip may not be a stand out, but it did make a lasting impression on me, and I always remember it when thinking about how a battle is not always won by the strongest side, or something like that.

Also I looked at Elan wrong and thought that his entire body consisted only of the left side of his vest and he was some kind of super skinny guy.

Valwyn

2011-08-26, 09:41 AM

I got here from TVTropes:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeroicSociopath
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PregnantBadass
etc

I found so many references that I decided to look it up and started at with the first comic. :smalltongue:

hamishspence

2011-08-26, 10:10 AM

For me it was the other way round- saw links to TV Tropes on OOTS forum, and several trope names, decided to look them up, and started looking frequently.

Gullintanni

2011-08-26, 10:25 AM

I had, on occasion, been referenced to a few different OotS strips without ever really making the decision that it was a comic I wanted to read.

Then I got linked to:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0407.html

I understand exactly what had happened to Miko, and it's this comic that really drove home the idea that this web comic was set in D&D. I had to understand the chain of events that lead up to this iconic moment in OotS history, and so, intrigued, I read back 20 or 30 comics from that point...and then I went through the entire Azure City arc and then through the whole archive and well... here we all are.

SowZ

2011-08-26, 02:16 PM

CloakedDancer

2011-08-26, 07:19 PM

My now ex-girlfriend linked me to Lowbrow is the Best Brow (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0102.html). So the first thing I learned about the comic was that Roy, a main protagonist, had boobies. No really (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0234.html), he did (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0235.html).

Skavensrule

2011-08-26, 11:25 PM

The first strip I can remember reading is from Dragon issue #339 which would put it around Jan 2006. However on my old computer I do have Giantitp.com bookmarked from early in 2005 but I do not remember what strip I would have read. I probably stumbled across OoTS from TVtropes and planed to get back to it but didn't until years later. I have the last 8 Issues of Dragon but did not start reading the website strips regularly until #542 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0542.html). Ever since I have enjoyed the character of O-Chul.

Raistlin82

2011-08-28, 06:13 AM

You know... I don't remember.

Another user in another forum had a OotS banner for, like, FOREVER, and I never cared to click on the link, although I immediately realized it was something D&D related.
Then I read a couple of entries on TVTropes, and I thought: "Hmmm, interesting."
Then one of the players in my D&D group started talking about it, and I still didn't want to check it you, because this guy was so nerdy, I was sure I wouldn't have liked the same things he does.

And then, a lot of time later... I just did. I was bored and went: "Let's check this out."

I don't remember which strip was the first one I read (around 600-650, I guess), but I quickly found out the whole archive, and went back to read all the 600+ strips, in order, in a couple of days.

Thattaman

2011-08-28, 06:26 AM

I got into OOTS through the board game. Then the following Christmas I got the first two books which I loved. Since then I've bought every single book, have two t-shirts and have, just for fun, written a script for the first book.

toysailor

2011-08-28, 06:58 AM

My first strip was the first strip. I was a 1st year uni student with too much time on his hands. Googling for interesting stuff brought me here and I never left since.

ScrapperTBP

2011-08-28, 07:00 AM

This was my first strip: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0322.html

Someone was coming up with a character to play for LRP and wanted to create an owlbear.

The_Admiral

2011-08-28, 07:03 AM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html of course. Found an ad in a Dungeon magazine went to the website and was hooked ever since.

H Birchgrove

2011-08-28, 08:02 AM

TV Tropes, especially the Heroic Sociopath page and the OotS page, brought me to it. I started with the intro and page 1. :smallsmile:

Iferus

2011-08-28, 09:40 AM

I started reading Oots back when I still lived with my mother; my little brother introduced me to it. That was back in 2004, I guess my first strip was around 122 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0122.html)

Rhothaerill

2011-08-28, 03:32 PM

I got into it via Dragon magazine (it was around about the time of the Azure City trial- 280-odd?)

Shortly after, I read a friend's copy of Origin of PCs, and liked it enough to buy a copy of my own.

Same for me. I don't remember the exact timing because I started with #1 when I came here to start reading it. Then of course I went back and bought everything that had been released so far.

TheMac04

2011-08-28, 03:58 PM

Generally, if TvTropes mentions a webcomic over and over and over again, I'll check it out. Same way I got into Dr. McNinja and found out what awful liars Tropers can be after discovering how nightmarishly awful El Goonish Shive is. But whenever I do that, I always start at the beginning, so I ignored the current strip (which was taking place somewhere around the point where Gaanji and Enor were first introduced) and jumped right back to the beginning. It took me about two days.

Ember_Glow

2011-08-28, 04:39 PM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0569.html

I stared to read because of the Dragon mag, that's pretty much why.

Lord Torath

2011-08-28, 05:14 PM

My first strip was in the early 600's when Hailey and Celia were fighting the thieves' guild. I don't recall which one it was. I don't think Roy (ghost) was in it, and I'm thinking Belkar was absent as well.

I followed a link on the sidebar of Turn Signals on a Land Raider (http://tsoalr.com/?p=1) and was instantly hooked (even though I've never played anything after 2nd Edition).

Laws of Chaos

2011-08-30, 02:01 PM

Although I did start reading from strip 001, I can not claim to have been reading it for more than a year and a half. A friend of mine wouldnt shut up about the comic, so I read it to appease him. Loved it!

Squeejee

2011-08-30, 04:16 PM

He's convinced me, my prophecy HAS come true. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0567.html)

And ever since then, I've known that the only way to make the future happen is to do it yourself. And that means stabbing people.

Dr. Gamera

2011-09-09, 10:09 AM

When Brief and to the Point (#337) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0337.html) was the latest strip, someone in my old D&D group sent around an email message linking to it. We'd had some Sending misadventures, you understand. I read that strip, and then soon after, all of them starting with #1. Knew I was completely hooked when I teared up at the first flashback panel in Memories, Like the Edges of My Sword (#113) (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0113.html).

V Junior

2011-09-09, 11:31 AM

It was a few Christmases ago for me. A friend of my dad's had given him OtOoPCs and NCftPB for Christmas. Although my father wasn't a great fan, my mother and I adored them. Then, my mother went onto the website, just missing Haley's return to the land of the speaking. I've been reading ever since!

Mauve Shirt

2011-09-09, 11:44 AM

Was introduced to comic by friend, 499 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0499.html) is where it was when I finished the binge. Joined the forums shortly after.

Chaos rising

2011-09-09, 02:45 PM

I saw the card game at my local gaming store and bought it on a whim, then followed the link on the box to the first strip.

Deuterium Dawn

2011-09-09, 05:08 PM

Hey, look, I just regenerated a finger. Guess which one. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0191.html) It was on someone's sig on another board. Read forward a few pages, then archive crawl. That was a little over 3 years ago.

Dr.Epic

2011-09-09, 05:52 PM

The lampshade comic from TVtropes.

...

That sounds wrong, actually. I think I have been reading OOTS for 3 years... How old is that strip?

It's from the early 2000s. Around 10 years I think.

Aricandor

2011-09-09, 05:53 PM

I don't remember for sure how I stumbled on it (I think it was a link from the official Wizards forum), but I do recall it was the comic about Roy's "great cleavage". (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0102.html):smallbiggrin:

Then I just had to read it from scratch to catch up and that was that... Loyal reader ever since.

narwhal97

2011-09-09, 06:01 PM

My brother read it and I was constantly reading over his shoulder until I finally looked up the site myself. It was around 300 strips in, I think. He stopped reading at 450, but I... haven't! ::smallsmile:

Vorynn

2011-09-09, 06:16 PM

253 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0253.html)

Saw it 2 years before getting into OotS.

#253!! woo!!

That one was linked from Penny-Arcade when it was first published, which is how I found out about OOTS -- read the archives right away and have been an avid reader ever since :)

Zmflavius

2011-09-09, 09:19 PM

If memory serves, I was browsing Kingdom of Loathing Wiki, and found that one item contained a reference to Vaarsuvius. Curious, I clicked the link, noticed the comic strip, which then, was somewhere in the early 700s. After reading through about half the strip, I went to the first strip and began reading.

CloakedDancer

2011-09-09, 09:21 PM

It's from the early 2000s. Around 10 years I think.

Uh... ten years? Really? I think not...

If we are talking about this one (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0546.html), it's from 2008. Three years sounds right to me. Unless I'm really missing something.

Metal Archon

2011-09-09, 09:26 PM

Me and my friends used to carpool to and from school together. One of them had an older brother who left his copy of "Start of Darkness" in the backseat. I took one look at the front and back covers and was hooked on immediately after. It wasn't until I finished it that I actually bothered to look up what exactly this "Giant in the playground" thing is.

So basically, I've been rooting for Redcloak from the very start.

jidasfire

2011-09-09, 09:39 PM

A friend of mine met Rich Burlew at a con and got an autographed copy of Dungeon Crawlin' Fools. He let me read it while I was staying with him, and I finished the whole book in just a couple hours. Needless to say, I was hooked. When I searched the comic out online, the current strip was this one: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0285.html though I went back through the archives and read what I'd missed.

MoonCat

2011-09-09, 09:58 PM

Red XIV

2011-09-10, 01:33 AM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0397.html

Linked from TVTropes

Thrar

2011-09-10, 05:49 AM

It was in 2008, I can still remember where I was at the time. Don't know which strip or where I came from though, it might have been the BG2 forums.

Atcote

2011-09-10, 06:07 AM

I started here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0061.html). I thought Elan was the protagonist for a little while, because I just tuned into strips here and there before going back and reading the (relatively small, at the time) archive.

My introduction was a friend told me about it at school, and he even made a little animation of Elan in Flash... God, that was... 2004/5? Maybe earlier? Depends on when that strip was published...

CloakedDancer

2011-09-10, 10:42 AM

Mutant Sheep

2011-09-10, 10:51 AM

Hbgplayer

2011-09-10, 01:18 PM

I started reading this in late June, following a link to 0092 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0092.html). I read from there to the last strip that was available in three days, not sleeping one of them, and then went back and reread the first 91. :biggrin:

jidasfire

2011-09-10, 02:50 PM

My jealousy of your friend is massive.

Yeah, he even got a little OOTS-style figure drawn of him inside. I definitely miss the days Mr. Burlew went to cons.

Linkavitch

2011-09-10, 10:18 PM

This one. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0392.html) This was the latest updated strip when my brother came home from college and said "hey, there's this awesome webcomic you need to read..." It wasn't until about thirty strips later that I actually started reading it, but yeah, that was the first one.

Atcote

2011-09-11, 04:12 AM

The copyright at the bottom says 2004.

Well, that's one year older I now feel.

Thanks for giving me seven years of laughs and happiness OotS! Before you I had but rocks to bang together for my own amusement (it was four more years before I'd realise what 'Making your own fun' actually meant).

Stormwolf

2011-09-11, 04:29 AM

I started reading at The Power of Music (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0004.html) ...altogether now: "Bluff, bluff, bluff the stupid ogre..."

Bunny Lord

2011-09-14, 04:58 PM

From Tv Tropes. Via the Colour Coded For Your Convience page

Hamiltonz

2011-09-14, 05:38 PM

I discovered the card game in a bookstore so my first comic would be the "8-page booklet" (link, anyone, please) that came with the game.

Believe it or not I played the game for several months before I ever thought about visiting the web site. There are a lot of inside jokes that I didn't get and when the obvious ones started to get dull I went to the web site to learn about the inside ones. I always knew that Great Cleavage was a double entendre but didn't get the joke until I read the relevent comic strips which explains why Roy (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0233.html) and Elan (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0009.html) both drool over the belt of gender changing.

MoonCat

2011-09-14, 07:00 PM

How many people are required to play the game, by the way?

BatRobin

2011-09-14, 07:39 PM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0633.html (that was like, over a year ago, right?)

I saw that, probably from TVTropes, and went to #1 and read all of them in a few days.

Blackcloak

2011-10-03, 05:45 PM

My brother always read it- he heard of it from Reasonably Clever, which is another web comic I read (although OOTS is my favorite.) The strip that actually caught my attention, though was http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0199.html. I'd been reading the strips before that, but I wasn't paying that much attention to it. The combination of a cliche, plus simply how funny I found it, was what really made OOTS one of the most commonly visited websites by me.
EDIT: that came out in 2005?!? Now I feel old.

Quackenbush

2011-10-03, 09:25 PM

about a month ago I was in the library and I came across Origins of the PCs. I loved it, went on the website and started reading from #1. I just finished a week ago.

CloakedDancer

2011-10-03, 10:03 PM

about a month ago I was in the library and I came across Origins of the PCs. I loved it, went on the website and started reading from #1. I just finished a week ago.

You must go to a really cool library! :smallsmile:

Zigg

2011-10-09, 05:17 PM

I think I might have been linked to one of the articles from the Battle For Wesnoth Forums, and when I tried to sign up I saw the thing with the OOTS character page and checked it out.

Goosefeather

2011-10-09, 06:14 PM

I was linked to #472 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0472.html) by my father, for it's tropey goodness (easiest way to express it, though I hadn't heard of TVTropes at the time). The comic was currently in media res (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0551.html) and I juggled reading the new updates and archive binging until I was all caught up, which took a couple of days.

someonenonotyou

2011-10-10, 01:14 AM

I found it from the Eight Bit Theater fan comic rich did followed the link to the here and read http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0471.html Ill always remember that joyous day

Jaros

2011-10-10, 08:26 AM

I started reading waaay back at 113. It was the second webcomic I'd ever read, first being A Modest Destiny, who's forums linked me here. So yeah, comic is over seven times as long now (probably eight with all the multipage strips, perhaps nine or even ten with the prequel books and extra content).

Oh, and I had a look using the forum search, and OotS's 8th birthday was like two weeks ago, so happy belated birthday OotS.

Onyavar

2011-10-10, 11:36 AM

A friend showed me 421 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0421.html) for some bard-related joke. At that time, the comic was already around 450/460 or something.

Oh man, those were the times. I had never before seen a story-driven webcomic! Once I found out that these arrows were links to previous and next, and that there are things as awesome as the ARCHIVES, I really binged the complete archives in one weekend!

Next monday, that same friend asked me why I wasn't online the past days... and looked into my swollen, sleep-deprived eyes, and my large, insane grin... and when I said 'OotS is great', he knew what he had done. Yes, HE is the one to blame that I'm a d&d geek now.

And a few weeks later, I found that there are other (d&d) webcomics with a story out there. Not one of them as good as OotS, but they're okay when there's no new OotS once in a while. Oh my...

Sylar

2011-10-10, 11:37 PM

I never read any webcomics, didn't read TV Tropes, and didn't play DnD or have any friends who did. I was, however, a massive fan of the Drizzt Do'Urden books, and of the character. I was reading the Wikipedia article about him, because I had no life, and I read that some comic called The Order of the Stick had made a parody of him. so, i googled the strip, and came to the comic thinking only to find the parody strip, read it, and get on with my nonexistent life. Unfortunately, Wikipedia did not provide a comic name or number, so I had no idea where to look. I clicked the most recent comic, which was #413, the figurine strip right before the Battle of Azure City. That was no help, so I decided that I would just read from the beginning and hope it was early on. By the time I had finally reached it, I was hooked and had already decided that I was going to keep reading the whole thing, despite not getting all of the DnD jokes. I managed to read the entire archive and get caught up before the battle had even begun.

Current strip when I started: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0413.html

I'm somewhat surprised to realize via the date on the comic that I've been reading since 07. I had no idea it's been that long.

bibliophile20

2011-10-11, 11:07 AM

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0541.html

One of my gaming group friends recommended it to me...

Omniplex

2011-10-11, 10:25 PM

The first strip I read was number 1, and then I immediately read the rest of them sequentially until I got to the end, which at that point was, I think 104 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0104.html). I don't remember exactly, somewhere around there.

i6uuaq

2011-10-12, 05:25 AM

My first strip was #1. I started reading it when it was still in the single digits. A friend of mine e-mailed me and told me about it.

Another friend of mine also started at #1 but it was at about strip 400 then. We were playing the board game one night and one guy asked, "so this is an online comic too?" I told him the lionk and that night he stayed awake all night to read from #1 to 400ish

Do I know you?

I had heard about OotS before, and decided to check it out while eating dinner one night in hostel around 6pm. I came in around #565, and read back a few strips getting bloody confused because the plot was jumping around between the fleet, O-chul, and Haley, and I couldn't figure out what was going on.

So I started from the beginning and read through the first 500 strips in 8 hours, stopping at 2am deciding that I should at least save a few for the next day. Caught up properly during some lecture or other.

Unisus

2011-10-12, 12:56 PM

I'm not sure about when i read my first OotS-strip, but it was #1 and in German (should have saved them while they were on...). My brother had told me the link and so i went through a couple of strips, soon getting to the English version, wich was some strips ahead by that time. My English may not be perfect, and i guess there is the one or other gag slipping by without me even noticing, but love the strip and have a very good time reading it I'm not sure about what it is, but of all (web-)comics i read this is the one i would choose if i had to. And yes, i have all the books (while it's sometimes difficult to get them here in Germany) and the game (unfortunately without this promo card which never even appeared in a well-known online-marketplace) So if someone happens to have a unneedet copy of this card... *smile*

Forealms

2011-10-12, 10:10 PM

For some reason I don't quite understand, my dad got permission to print out the first (large number) pages of OotS, and said I would really enjoy them, since my brothers and I had just gotten interested in D&D. I pulled the last comic out and read it first to see if it was worth spending a few hours on, and I saw this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0173.html).

Didn't take me long to catch up. I don't remember exactly where I picked it up online, but I do specifically remember holding my breath for the follow-up to #199's cliffhanger (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0199.html).