When Did You Start Reading?

[XxXU2XxX]

I've been seeing many new readers these days and I'd like to first say welcome to all of you and also express my gratitude that you chose such fine reading material!

However, for you long-runners, when did you start reading Order of the Stick?

My first comic was #121, so I missed the entire first arc. I remember the update with the bandits where they were about to be hanged. I remember when Miko was introduced as that blue figure. Heck, I remember when #200 came out and we saw her face for the first time and Rich was posting about that comic was four comics worth of material. Man, it sure has been a long run...

What about the rest of you?

[hamishspence]

I think mine was after Miko had captured them, but before the trial- I got in via the Dragon Magazine strips- thought they looked good, looked up the comic, and have been reading ever since.

[Mike Havran]

I have no idea what was the "latest" strip when I started to read. I had long pauses when archive binging. But when I finished, the last strip was 847.

So yeah, I'm almost a newbie as well :smallbiggrin:

[Peelee]

Browsing the internet through stumbleupon, and came across strip 136 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0136.html). It was amusing enough that I went to the first comic, and read up to 804 (the most current strip at the time) within the week.

[Zherog]

I started somewhere in the single digits. ;)

[AngryHobbit]

TV Tropes brought me here. Been reading it since October.

[hamishspence]

In my case it was the reverse- OoTS posts on the forum, led me to TV Tropes.

[Flame of Anor]

I remember I got here when the last strip was #484. That was when Rich wasn't updating for a few weeks, so while archive binging I was kind of worried that the comic might be over. The fact that the title of the last-posted comic was "At the End of the Day" did not alleviate my suspicions. Happily, it was just a hiatus.

[Prospero7]

Somewhere in the single digits as well. I was also lucky enough to have Rich sign his first book the first time he was at GenCon with an OOTS booth. The line to see him was only around 20 people at the time.

Ahh how times have changed! :smallcool:

[Angel Bob]

I was aware of the comic for a long while due to TVTropes, but didn't start reading until a few months ago, during the three-month thumb injury.

[Endon the White]

Heard a thousand references to it on TV Tropes, had a massive 3 day archive binge, was dumbfounded when the "Next Comic" button kept refreshing #684.

[Zar Peter]

My first comic was 383, that means I think it was. I started reading when about 383 came out, but I started from Nr.1 and had a bit to catch up and I didn't want to spoil the story so I didn't really read 383 so the first comic I really started to read that was new was 386 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0386.html). I choose a really exiting and funny turn of events to start to be a regular.

Oh, and I began reading because I just started playing DnD and searched in German speaking d20 forums and one linked here. Ever grateful to that page although I never visited it again because I stuck here :smallbiggrin:

[Vinsfeld]

Somewhere in 2007, I guess. Maybe 2006. Not so sure.

[factotum]

As I recall, it was approximately the time that the Order arrived in Azure City...must have been a good, what, 7 or 8 years ago now?

[Vinsfeld]

In my case it was the reverse- OoTS posts on the forum, led me to TV Tropes.

Same here. I didn't even know that TV Tropes existed before I came to this forum.

[SaintRidley]

August or September of 2007. I don't quite recall what was the current comic.

[Enero Irontoad]

I also found out about this from TVTropes. I started reading somewhere around when strip 797 came out. I think I was still going through the archive when 798 came out, but I remember I caught up to the story and had been eagerly anticipating the next update by the time Vaarsuvius dominated Yukyuk.

[Aricandor]

Roy has boobies. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0102.html)
First one I read and then most recent. Went back through the archive from there, then started following it rigorously. :smallsmile:

[Mr.Rictus]

I'm pretty recent, so I actually started reading during the thumb hiatus. When I realised there were going to be no updates for a while I was... how do you call it? heartbroken^^ Can't complain after the great 9 day run though :p

Edit: I also found out about it due to TV tropes. Which is funny, because I rarely go there. Lucky find :D

[Serensius]

I've been reading since 2004, not sure where that places me strip-wise but I'm pretty sure I was reading before the Linear Guild was introduced in #43 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0043.html). Can't believe I've been following the same cartoon strip (admittedly on and off) for nine years!

I heard about the strip through dndadventure.com, which was an amazing D&D forum that I think has been dead for a long while.

[RVallant]

Somewhere in 2007, I guess. Maybe 2006. Not so sure.

This... I guess? I last visited in 2008.

I'm sure I read the strip at a very early stage though, it was well before Azure City and probably before they first 'defeated' Xykon.

I was a hardcore MMO nut back in the day and I used to play on Guild Wars which, is what? 2005? I remember chatting to people on GW bemoaning Rich's delays in not putting up another damn comic. hehehe. Fun times. :smallbiggrin:

[Ellye]

The last strip was around the time that the party was going to the starmetal sidequest.

[Cuthalion]

764 or so, though it was 766 when I got to the end.

[The Pilgrim]

EDIT: Ok, now I remember the whole story.

I was an Irregular Webcomic reader back then. DDM announced that he was beggining "Darths and Drodis" inspired by the recently finished "DM of the Rings". So I went to read what that DM of the Rings thing was about. In the middle of reading it's archive, at the strip in which Boromir gets nailed, the author wrote a commentary on how much he sucked and how Rich Burlew was a much better writer than him, and provided link. So I followed the link and here I'm.

After reading all the OOTS archive in a few days, I catch up just in the hiatus between the end of the Battle of the Azure City and the start of Don't Split the Party.

I decided that I would then leave the comic aside and return to it after a few months, so I could read whole story arcs at a time, instead of being hooked up to updates.

Instead of that, less than a week later I attended to the update of #485 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0485.html) and been hooked since then.

[WalkingTarget]

I want to say that I started sometime around when Haley became aphasic (certainly before it was cured because I remember working out the cryptograms when new comics were posted), I don't remember for sure, though.

I know that I first became aware of the comic at GenCon one year when a friend complained that he had trouble getting his copies of Dungeon Crawlin' Fools and On the Origin of PCs signed due to always missing when Rich was at the booth and I asked what he was talking about. I read a comic or two and then just started at the beginning and ignored new ones until I was caught up, so I don't remember what the current number was when I started (although, looking through the News history for things I remember happening, then at old individual comic discussion threads for posting dates, I think it really was right around the tail end of 2005/OotS 250 or so).

[ZerglingOne]

Well, I remember a friend of mine linking me at some point late in highschool as it was relevant to a campaign I was running at the time. It was probably 2004 or 2005 so my first introduction to the comic was at that time.

Some time passed and I kinda wrote the comic off for a while and remembered about it a few years later. I did the epic archive binge everyone does and finished at the comic +1 BFF.

[oppyu]

By the time I was done archive-binging, I was at around 800ish. So yeah, another newbie.

[BatRobin]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0633.html

Right there.

[Vemynal]

I caught up with the strip, from reading the archive, on the strip were Therkla died

[MesiDoomstalker]

Not sure the exact number it was September of 2010, it was right around the start of Bleedingham Empire of Blood or just prior. Pretty sure it was prior to Tarquin's official introduction (even before as the masked General Dude).

EDIT: Empire of Blood, not Bleedingham. Stupid Western Continent and having a gruesome naming theme.

[pearl jam]

Although I didn't register on the Forum until much later, I'm pretty sure I started reading within the first 50 strips. I don't recall which comic was the first one I encountered or which one was the most recent at the time. It's been quite a journey.

[CoffeeIncluded]

I got here from TVTropes, started reading some time in the middle of V's fight with Xykon, and during the hiatus between books took a look on the forum. I found the infamous Crack Pairings thread, and one fateful day in October, I posted a "story" of my own. And, well, here we are.

[Tetsujin-28]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0794.html

I remember there being a hiatus around this time, and thinking that Burlew wasn't going to update anymore.

[Dumbestupidiot]

I started reading about a week after the giant's thumb was savaged. Fortunately this gave me plenty of time to catch up with the archive. Unfortunately, I finished the archive in three days giving me a few months to curse the incredibly powerful cutting action of ThumbCutting Glass (TM) instead of a long slow languorous journey through the annals of the stick.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Forgot to mention, I came here after several posters of H.O.L.E. (http://www.heroesoflesserearth.com/) mentioned here. H.O.L.E. was nearing its end conclusion (about 2 months from the final finally at that point), and I knew I needed another DnD webcomic fix. So I thought I'd try here. 3 day Archive binge before classes started. It was spectacular.

[TKoTD]

My first visit here was on a sad day for gaming (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0536.html). I have never been a fan of webcomics, but I get through the first 100 strips in a night, I was inmediately hooked up. When you have such an extensive backlog, is kind of weird when you can't just click "next and continue with the story. At that point, I came to the forums, started lurking arround until I became a TvTroper...

[Gift Jeraff]

Discovered it in the summer of 2005 through the 8-Bit Theater guest comic, but didn't become a regular reader until much later. Like spring 2009.

[Onyavar]

A friend showed me this comic. He only intended to show me 421 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0421.html), but after three days i had binged through the entire sweet thing and reached the end, around 460-480. That was in 2007.

Also, it was the first (serial) webcomic I ever saw.

[873]

I registered for the forums when comic 873 came out (hence my account name), but started reading the strip much sooner than that. I think it was a little bit after the Azure City war, but I can't remember which strip exactly. I know I was on vacation to some place that I didn't really care about, found Oots through another webcomic I don't read anymore, and spent most of that trip on an archive binge. Fun stuff.

[olthar]

I'm pretty sure I started just as Haley's aphasia was fixed.

I intentionally read it slowly at the beginning and it took about 2 months to get to live updates and I remember that the aphasia thread was still either sticky or at the top of the page (i.e. being posted in).

Either way, people were still actively posting in it but she didn't have it anymore suggesting that it was just over.

[Balain]

A friend sent me a link to the comic. it was somewhere between 10 - 20, maybe single digits, but pretty sure between 10 and 20. It has been a long while for me anyways.

[Macros]

I think I found this place when the Azure City Battle was coming to an end. I was reading Shamus Young's DM of the Rings, and one of his author notes contained a link to the webcomic. Since I greatly enjoyed his work, I thought it would not be too much of a stretch that I would appreciate something he seemed to hold in good regard.

(the fact, that, X years later, I'm still around here, would tend to suggest I was right :smallsmile:)

[titan_monarch]

I first found it just after Rich recovered from having a sprained wrist - comic 198 had just been posted. Don't remember how I got here.

pointless edit: awwww yeah, up a rank. Hello Dwarfness. :D

[Quackenbush]

I'm not sure what the most recent comic was when I started, since I started from number 1, but it was somewhere around when Roy was in the arena. I found OOTS when I saw OotPCs at the library. I liked it, and I craved more.

[Clertar]

Some time before they reached Xykon's throne room. Linked from the boards over at Planetbaldursgate or Planetneverwinter, I think xD

[Omniplex]

I started reading it after I saw a friend reading it, I think somewhere around strip 100. I think he started reading it after Rich did a guest strip on 8-bit Theater.

[drrek]

I am not entirely sure, but I believe it was at some point when Roy was dead.

[KillingAScarab]

I began reading The Order of the Stick back in late 2004, when the site was still hosted with Teh (sic) Gewd (also, sic) Guys. I wonder whatever happened to them.

I think the Order was still in Dorukan's dungeon at the time, but I am hazy as to what was happening.

[AdmiralCheez]

I started reading the comic I think during the fall of 2007. The latest update at the time, and the first one I read, was the one where Roy and his grandfather were fishing in the afterlife (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0498.html). Somehow, by the time I decided I liked it and wanted to read the whole thing, I had completely forgotten that Roy had died.

Or more likely, I was just oblivious to all the clues, including explicitly stating that he was, in fact, dead.

[Rakoa]

I'm very recent, only having joined in the last half of 2012. And happy that I did.

[Matuse]

I started when this comic came out: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0006.html

[The_Tentacle]

I'm pretty new, I started from a recommendation from a friend, then read the entire thing up to about #800 in a weekend. I got really confused when the next comic button started to bring me to the top of the comic I was on. I caught on after about 100 clicks, 20 refreshes, and one look at the forum page.

[Incom]

For me, it was sometime during the EoB arena, after the musical number insult to all that is good and chaotic, but before Thog showed up. I think it was Gannji and Enor's escape, could be wrong.

[Flame of Anor]

Oh, and as for how I found it, I saw a link in some poster's signature on the WotC forums. Glad I followed it!

[Dumbledore lives]

A friend showed it to me sometime before 200, I think Azure city was the first big ark for me, so maybe around the 180 mark.

[Kyronea]

I think I've been reading for longer than I've been registered... I want to say that I came in near the beginning of the Azure City arc but I could be wrong... it might not have been till near the end. Probably in about 2007 or 2008 was when I started reading, at least.

[Vespification]

I think the first strip I read involved the giant purple sandworm

[Domino Quartz]

I've been reading OotS since comic 804 came out. I also was brought here by TVTropes. The first strips I read, however, were just various random ones linked to in various trope pages.

[ThatNickGuy]

Roughly sometime Miko captured the group, but before the war. A friend told me about the running gag with Belkar's lead shield from Miko's Detect Evil and that was enough to give the comic a shot.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

Well, I came across a link to this strip:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0338.html
Thought it was hilarious, but then? Never came back for several weeks or even months...

After a while, I came across a link to THIS strip:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0421.html
and simply had to know what had led them to such a situation. So of course I clicked on "First Strip" and started reading. And never stopped! Bought all the books, Kicked in at the KickStarter, and generally started hanging around the boards. Been a great ride so far!

[B. Dandelion]

Near the beginning of Don't Split the Party. Or I guess near the end of the beginning? We'd already gotten past Roy in heaven and the Azurite refugees, I was dumped in at the part with Haley and the rebels.

Like many I found the comic through the incessant linking TVTropes does to it. I was linked to about a half dozen comics, and then at one arc (the end of Haley's aphasia) I was confused/curious enough to what was going on that I started hitting the back button to read earlier comics... which wound up largely making me more confused as there were continual references to what had already happened, only some of which I understood, so I gave up and archive binged from the beginning. At first I was more "amused" than "enraptured," but as the comic got more serious I started connecting to it more and eventually couldn't pull myself away and stayed up way too late catching up. 523 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0523.html) was the comic on the main page by the time I'd gotten up to pace.

[Needle]

A friend of mine recommended me OotS around 2006, when we were way more active at gaming than now, and during one session he quoted OotS a few times before telling us to come and read =P

First time I came here, The Order were fighting Linear Guild at Cliffport, and tough I do not recall exactly what was the last strip at the time, I know it was after 345 (that scene was heavily quoted in a certain game session) but before Leeky was defeated, since LG were still "alive" the night I played catch up (sans the Kobold).

[Minitroll]

I recieved a Dungeon Crawlin' fools book just before No Cure for The Paladin Blues came out, and being in middle school, did little to no reading of the small text. A few years later, War and XP's came out and, of course, not knowing this was a webcomic, wondered why I had to wait a year to a year and a half (note I was only 12- that's almost a tenth of my life) and so read the small text and discovered the website. I realized that and read small tidbits online of book 4 until it eventually came out- then I became a full time reader.

[sam79]

As with several other people, I first heard of Order of the Stick through TVtropes. I suppose I started to read the comic at the time V was negotiating with the IIFC on her little island. By the time I had caught up reading the archive, Darth V was tussling with the black dragon. I then bought up all the books that had been published up to that date, and signed up to the forums a little after that.

[Tragak]

I found out about this from TVTropes too.

Unfortunately, I was spoiled on a few things due to looking at specific strips first that happened to be linked from the pages I was already looking at, but the stuff like Tarquin's/Redcloak's shell games (and T's subsequent Moral Event Horizon + Pun Duel), Roy's justification for keeping Belkar on the team, and V's solution to the "Which twin is evil" dilemma got me hooked enough that I needed to start from the beginning and see if the rest of the comic was that good.

AND IT ABSOLUTELY WAS! Within about 2 weeks, I'd gotten caught up with 858 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0858.html). BTW, I hadn't been spoiled on Miko assassinating Shojo, V responsible for the Draketooth genocide

[Thrax]

Somewhere around the time when the party was split and Roy dead, rather late on that period. I think I caught up right before Roy was resurrected.

[Rorrik]

I read from the beginning, and after a couple of days reached the end of what had been made somewhere in the middle of Azure City. It was hard to come to terms with having to wait for more story.

[Procyonpi]

I believe I started reading when the newest strip was 690, shortly after the start of the current book. It was fall 2009. I was introduced by members of my first D&D party.

[deworde]

Geez, some time Sept 2007? Round about the time Start of Darkness first came out, I think. How I found it I literally do not remember.

[Ted The Bug]

430 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0430.html). A friend of mine (the same one who had also introduced me to Futurama, incidentally) mentioned it to me, and I decided to Google it later that night when I had nothing to do and see what it was. I remember having no idea what was happening, but it seemed like it could be compelling. Started reading from the beginning, finished off the archive in less than a week, and been following it ever since. I'm just glad it was such a good comic that day - if it had been one of the more plotty, talky ones, I might not've made the choice to try giving it a read.

I got all the books in a weird order for no particular reason, but I had the full set a good year before DstP came out, so I like to think of that as my "first" OotS book.

Come to think of it, I've been reading this for like six years. Dang. Impressive.

[zql]

I've started reading on 2009, when I finished my archive bing I catched up just for this strip (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0639.html).
A really dull strip, right?

[WarBrute]

Oh, if I remember right I started reading when the the Order had just met the Linear guild. So some where in the 40's. Wow, I can't believe I've been reading this strip for almost 9 years now.

[CWH10301964]

I've been around since Belkar's swords shrank :smallbiggrin:

[KillingAScarab]

I've started reading on 2009, when I finished my archive bing I catched up just for this strip (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0639.html).
A really dull strip, right?That strip still gives me chills.

[Tomada]

I started somewhere in the single digits. ;)

I think I might have started after seeing a link in the nifty Msg Board.

That was in the high teens, but before 100.

In a way you're one of the responsibles for me being here.

[Flitter]

An old friend told me about this comic and I fell in love with it immediately

My first comic was #76

[Agnostik]

December 4th, 2010 apparently. At least that's the date of a message on another board that made me aware of OOTS. I can't remember the exact comic number.

Has it been over two years already? Damn.

[dmc91356]

July 19, 2007. I saw a thread at Sorcerer's Place that linked to it and went and looked - immediately went and read the first hundred plus (up to the Cheese Shop one), caught up to where it was (then-current) in a day or two, and have been following it ever since.

[Lord Torath]

I followed a link from Turn Signals on a Land Raider (http://tsoalr.com/) when Belkar, Haley, and Celia were fighting the Thieves' Guild. I read a couple of strips, then went back to Turn Signals. I think it was when Haley and Belkar were double-teaming (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0618.html) Bozzak. I can't remember clearly. A month or so later, I came back and read the whole thing. Been hitting F5 repeatedly ever since.

(Actually, I didn't know that F5 worked as Refresh until Rich mentioned that we had broken countless F5 keys in the final minutes of the KickStarter. Yeah. Pretty sad.)

[Grey Watcher]

If memory seves, this (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0035.html) was the latest strip when I started following OOTS. If I remember correctly, I was on a now-defunct fan board for the old Quest for Glory games when somebody posted a link.

[skim172]

I'm not exactly sure which comic it was. However, I can tell you the exact date: May 18, 2004. And that's because of this:

http://v.cdn.nuklearpower.com/comics/8-bit-theater/040518.png (http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/05/18/vacation-04-3-i-love-bridge-jokes/)

Rich Burlew's guest strip for 8-Bit Theater.
I was a regular reader of 8-Bit Theater and Burlew's guest strip was great - it captured both the essence of 8-Bit's comedy, but it also had Burlew's unique, signature humor. ("I'm walkin' on sunshine" - still kills me for some reason).

I was on this big fantasy + games + webcomics thing back then, was regularly reading really terrible webcomics just because they happened to involve fantasy and gaming, so Order of the Stick was exactly what I was looking for and also was not terrible. It was like I'd been eating milk-flavored mud and then someone introduced me to ice cream.

So to all the aspiring webcomic artists out there: guest strips are effective advertising.

As long as you're Rich Burlew.

[rgrekejin]

I'd stopped and started reading the comic several times, but when I finally decided to give in and go on the extended archive binge to get myself up to date, the current strip was 400 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0400.html). This was sometime in the fall of 2006 or early 2007, I believe.

[Balain]

I introduced a friend to it when there were about 700 strips. He went from #1 to #700ish in 2 days.

[VanaGalen]

I registered on the forum only few days ago, but I actually started reading the comic long before.

One guy from the dorm we were then living in told me about the comic. I remember we were joking about Durkon's math skills in strip #34 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0034.html) and it was maybe not the most recent, but fresh strip back then. So I've been reading it for quite some time :smallsmile:

[Bird]

It's been, jeez, nearly a decade of my life. I started somewhere in the first 100 strips.

I'm pretty sure I found a link here from the old Wizards of the Coast forums. I think Zherog was over there and had an Elan avatar in those days...?

Obviously, it took a long time before I joined the boards over here.

[LuPuWei]

I'm still relatively new here (my join date says 2010, so I probably started reading a month or three before that) so I remember quite clearly how I got here.

I had seen OotS refered to before somewhere (possibly TV tropes) but didn't have the time to give it more than a glance, so I didn't really start reading until a few years later. This time I was on Tv tropes for sure, reading the Papa Wolf article (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PapaWolf) when I came across V's words to the ABD from right after casting Familicide. ("... This- and no less- is the price of threatening my family") Once I read the quote, I just had to read the strip. Once I'd read the strip I just had to see how that arc began and how it would end. Then came O-Chul, the MitD, and "Escape!".

I was hooked. :smallsmile:

At the time, I think DstP had just ended and the Giant was taking a break before the current arc.

[fan4battle]

I've been reading and stopping a few times. I don't remember when exactly I started reading, but I think it was through a link on a forum I frequented. Must have been 2006. I think I read from the beginning on one or two sittings and got a bit tired around the time they encountered the hexes, as the comic had dropped pace after the defeat of Xykon. After pauses, I had come to the comic a few times, I don't remember when I started reading fanatically. But at some point I read through all of the Erfworld, so I guess it has been when I had run out of OOTS strips. I registered on the forum at some point, I think it was after one particular strip, but I can't remember which it was, and I don't think I can access my first post.

[ella ventic]

Kept seeing it on TVTropes, and I'd generally liked all the Trope Overdosed stuff I checked out, so I thought I'd check this one out too.

Started reading in Dec. 2008 (Haley and Celia hold off the Thieves' Guild at Blind Pete's house) and got so tremendously obsessed that I bought all five extant books pretty much immediately. Joined the forums a couple weeks later to post in the thread for then-current #618.

[Psyren]

Battle of Azure City, and I lurked the forums a lot. Those Miko alignment debates were really scary so I didn't participate.

[lio45]

I started somewhere in the single digits. ;)

I started reading somewhere in the single digits or early teens (late 2003 or early 2004 at the latest), but unlike you, I don't have the forum join date to prove it ;)

(Back then, it was one of several more-or-less-interesting little comics I was following... I couldn't have forecasted that it would eventually become really kickass over the following years and that at some point down the road, I'd think it worth it to participate in the online fanbase community...)

[Toofey]

I started reading around during the story in the inn that came right before Miko was introduced. If memory serves me this would have been '05-'06?

[MasterGhandalf]

Started reading late summer '09, right about at the same time the Western Continent arc got started. I'm another who heard about the comic on TVTropes and thought it sounded fun (big fantasy nerd, never actually played a game of DnD, but am familiar with it in a general sense), and shortly after I was hooked.

[asdflove]

I'm fairly new to reading. When I started reading the most recent comic was 846 but by the time I finished getting through the archives it was 848.
That means I started reading somewhere between 3/22/2012 and 3/30/2012.

Almost a year now. Dang.

My guess is somewhere around the 25th since I accidentally clicked the most recent button several times, taking me to 846...

[Ikkitosen]

Single digits here. Back when The Giant used to organise meeting up with his friends here on the boards.

[Umberhulk]

I can't remember well enough to pin it down, but somewhere shortly after the events of Dungeon Crawlin' Fools.

[Enkai]

*delurks* I was introduced by my then fiance who had been reading OOTS for a while and did an archive binge during spring break, so that would have been March 2008. I finished up sometime near the middle of Don't Split the Party; I wanna say "#542-In Azure City, Shark Jumps You" or somewhere around then. It was definitely before Belkar activated his Mark of Justice, since I remember my husband and I personally reacting to the town name.

My husband, not a chronic forum lurker (he's not registered, although for my post count, I might as well not be), says he's has been reading since Dungeon Crawlin' Fools. It was back when he still had a weekly D&D game in undergrad (pre-Spring '04) and it was predominantly D&D jokes.

[Shadic]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0324.html

I remember seeing that as the newest comic for a few days as I quickly caught up.

Good times.

[Peanut Gallery]

#104. The one right before the Order charges into Xykon's throne room and meets him for the first time. This one and Sinfest are the only webcomics from back then that have managed to keep my interest all these years. And suddenly I feel old.

[Shadic]

#104. The one right before the Order charges into Xykon's throne room and meets him for the first time. This one and Sinfest are the only webcomics from back then that have managed to keep my interest all these years. And suddenly I feel old.
Heh, I've been onto Sinfest for awhile, but I've kinda fallen behind on that one. Good stuff, though.

[snoopy13a]

Summer 2006. I think . . .

[Blue Ghost]

When I started reading, the latest strip was the beginning of the Resistance storyline. By the time I caught up, we were with the orcs on the island.

[This Wicked Day]

I was introduced to it by my then partner in ... winter 2008? Early 2009? I think it was near the beginning of the Darth V arc.

Been reading ever since, got myself an account to post in the "Thanks for the nine days" thread just recently.

[Flame of Anor]

When I started reading, the latest strip was the beginning of the Resistance storyline. By the time I caught up, we were with the orcs on the island.

Nice to see you around again, BG. :smallsmile:

[MesiDoomstalker]

(Actually, I didn't know that F5 worked as Refresh until Rich mentioned that we had broken countless F5 keys in the final minutes of the KickStarter. Yeah. Pretty sad.)

I didn't know this either [/shame]

[Draz74]

I started reading in summer 2005, a couple months after a co-worker started trying to convince me to check it out.

#179 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0179.html) was the most recent comic at the time. V was a lizard.

[MartectX]

I began reading during the Starmetal quest, I think. I took a long hiatus beginning with the OotS' arrival in Azure City (I could not stand all that blue) and stumbled over the webcomic again when the Order went off to visit the Empire of Blood. Re-read the archive and stuck since then. Registered here for the Kickstarter festivities. :smallsmile:

[Killer Angel]

I started reading at the very beginning (around strip 20).
In 2007 (?) I began lurking the forum... it took a while to join the community. :smallredface:

[Reathin]

As I recall, it was that HUGE strip during the Azure City invasion arc. 422. So almost half way through the current total.


....Man, time flies.

[B.I.T.T.]

Hmmmm...well the first comic I ever read was one from the first book where they had just first met the Linear Guild, the one where Nale was explaining why the drow elf was not evil. It happened to have been posted to Livejournal's "Bad RPers Suck" page as a reply to a poster who was bagging on how many people want to play a drow, but don't want to make them very...drowish. I thought it was amusing but didn't really pursue further reading.

It was a few years later though, when I really started reading Order of the Stick. I found a "Dungeon Crawlin' Fools" at my local gaming shop and flipped through it while my friends were making their final purchases. I ended up reading the entire book over the next few days and ended up buying it out of guilt. I liked it enough to buy Paladin Blues as well and ended up reading that in one day at a coffee shop that offered $0.50 refills. I was going to wait for the next book to come up rather then head down here to Giant in the Playground, but I couldn't! I had to find out what would happen next! I had to get a pencil and paper and decode Haley's cryptograms! I was, as they say hooked.

I now own Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, Paladin Blues, War and XPs, Don't Split the Party, Origin of the PCs, Start of Darkness, and Snips and Snails and Dragon Tales. Only one of which I bought online. Everything else was purchased at that same local game shop.

[Whoracle]

One of my players showed me #36 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0036.html), and I binged a little later. So roughly #45is, I'd say, maybe #50.

[RebelRogue]

I don't recall exactly, but it was somewhere between 100 and 110.

[MeanMrsMustard]

I can't remember when exactly I started, but the first new strip I read was 823.
And yes, I came from TV Tropes.

[Pokonic]

I got linked to 635 the day it came out. I was confused at first, considering I had no idea what I was looking at (being not really internet-wise at the time.) Eventualy, I found my way to the first comic....and got back to 635 in a week. Got addicted to this dang thing.

[Haleth]

I'm a late joiner—I started reading when strip #849 had just appeared. I seriously can't remember how I heard about OotS: All I know is that I started reading one day and couldn't stop.

[white lancer]

New reader here--I don't remember exactly when I started, but I know that Rich was on hiatus due to his thumb injury when I caught up. I think it was September or October when I got into it--I read my first two Webcomics (DM of the Rings and Darths and Droids) and couldn't get enough, and had seen OotS many times on TV Tropes so I figured I'd give it a try.

[Cazaril]

I got introduced to OotS by my subscription to Dragon Magazine when I was 12 or 13, and I'm pretty sure the current strip when I began my very first archive binge was #378 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0378.html).

Seven years... I've been following OotS for over a third of my life! :smallbiggrin:

[Dissection]

I started reading the comic sometime in late 2010, but didn't start reading the forums until a couple weeks ago.

[DoctorWhooves]

My senior year of highschool. So like 5 years ago. Or beginning of Book 4.

[Rblock]

I believe the exact strip number was #846, I was reading up on the Magus from pathfinder and a guide linked to the Black Testicles (which holy **** I just realized is conjuration my mind), but I've been reading it ever since :)