Ok, so what's the OotS reading order?

[stevelabny]

I read the first 100 or so webcomics, but that's about it. I raved about it, which made my gf tear through them all. She had ordered Snips and Snails when it was first available, and I just picked up the rest of the books through the Kickstarter deal.

So obviously the four main books go in order, but when do I read the 3 prequel books? Can I read them before hand, because that's where they go chronologically? Or do I have to read them later because they might make in-jokes to the "future" stuff written earlier?

[Mutant Sheep]

I'd read Start of Darkness after War and XP, with Snips and Snails after No Cure For the Paladin Blues. Origin can be read whenever, but some of the things it are best kept until you at least get to the dirt farmers.:smalltongue: If you're not sure when to read any of them, after Wars and XP is the best place to fit them in though.

[Jaros]

I'd say

Dungeon Crawling Fools
No Cure for the Paladin Blues
On the Origin of PCs
War & XPs
Start of Darkness
Don't Split the Party
Snips, Snails & Dreagon Tales

[NerfTW]

Start of Darkness can actually be read after No Cure for the Paladin Blues. Although if you don't mind switching it up, midway through War and XPs, after the sequence in strip #369 is probably the best in terms of dramatic reveal. The actual release was sometime closer to the end of that same book.

I'd really read Origin first, because the one minor reveal in the inn after the dungeon isn't really major enough to worry about. While yes, it is major in the grand scheme of personal plot arcs, the only reason it came at that point was due to the characters not having been fleshed out at first. There's nothing lost by seeing it first in Origin, plus you get a better introduction to the story.

[Zevox]

On the Origin of PCs could be read either before or after book 1. It really won't make a big difference either way, but because it's so similar in tone and style to the early strips it is best to read it early.

Start of Darkness can be read anytime after No Cure for the Paladin Blues (book 2). There is a big plot point brought up in it that it's best to learn from the main strip first, which occurs near the end of book 2.

Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales doesn't really have anything to do with the main comic, it's just some extra entertaining stuff, but it would still probably be best to wait to read it until after book 3 or 4. One of the characters who gets his own little story in Snips doesn't show up until book 3, and some of the stories in Snips use the period between book 4 and 5 as a framing device, so you may want to wait for that reason as well.

Zevox

[MoonCat]

Read all the way up to DSTP before beginning OotPCS, then read that. Finish DSTP, then read SoD. Then read the current book online and join us is desperate waiting for it to finish. :smallwink: