Ideal Starting Point That Isn't Page 1

[HorizonWalker]

Hey, y'all. So, I want to introduce my wife(who uses they/them pronouns, please don't refer to them as "she") to OOTS. They love podcasts like The Adventure Zone and Dungeons & Daddies(not a BDSM podcast), so the combination of D&D and comedy is definitely one they seem to like well enough. But, they also have ADHD, and I know for a fact that if I make them slog through a hundred or so pages of mediocrity before the comic gets really good, they're not going to keep going.

What do you think is the best point in the story to start off someone who will definitely like the idea of Order of the Stick, but may not appreciate some of the early comic's many rough edges?

[hroþila]

This has been discussed a number of times - I can't dig up the links right now, but maybe someone can find them. You might find them useful.

Anyway, if they like D&D, as you say, I would recommend starting from the beginning because I don't think that material is mediocre at all for D&D players (and gamers in general, really). It's some of the funniest material from a gaming point of view. However, I guess some of those jokes have been done to death since those strips were published.

[2.5 cats]

In your position, I'd just start at book 2, "No Cure for the Paladin Blues". At the beginning is a nice recap of everything that happened in book 1.

If you don't have the books (including in .pdf format), buy them.:smallcool:

[HorizonWalker]

This has been discussed a number of times - I can't dig up the links right now, but maybe someone can find them. You might find them useful.

Anyway, if they like D&D, as you say, I would recommend starting from the beginning because I don't think that material is mediocre at all for D&D players (and gamers in general, really). It's some of the funniest material from a gaming point of view. However, I guess some of those jokes have been done to death since those strips were published.

You misunderstand- they like listening to D&D podcasts, but they've never actually played D&D before, and have absolutely no grounding whatsoever in the nuances of 3.5's ruleset. (All the cool kids are playing 5th edition, you see, and even if they did pay attention to the rare moments that TAZ talked about mechanics instead of cracking jokes or doing character moments, then they still wouldn't know what a skill point is.)

Also, part of why I think skipping the beginning would be for the best is because, as Rich himself has admitted, the early days are somewhat riddled with sexist humor, and other unsavory bits.

[hroþila]

You misunderstand- they like listening to D&D podcasts, but they've never actually played D&D before, and have absolutely no grounding whatsoever in the nuances of 3.5's ruleset. (All the cool kids are playing 5th edition, you see, and even if they did pay attention to the rare moments that TAZ talked about mechanics instead of cracking jokes or doing character moments, then they still wouldn't know what a skill point is.)

Also, part of why I think skipping the beginning would be for the best is because, as Rich himself has admitted, the early days are somewhat riddled with sexist humor, and other unsavory bits.
If you think they won't enjoy the content or that the parts that were in bad taste will ruin their enjoyment, then yeah, skipping it is a good idea.

I don't think you need to be a 3.5 D&D player yourself to get the jokes, though. When I first read those strips, I'd never played any D&D edition at all (hell, I still haven't :smallfrown:). I think the vast majority of jokes are easy to understand (and quite funny) if you have a general gaming background, regardless of whether it's tabletop RPGs, video games or what have you.

[LadyEowyn]

I would suggest starting in Book 2 - either at the beginning or at comic 147 (which starts Redcloak and Xykon’s plot for the book). With the latter, they would get the backstory about the Order of the Scribble that is included in the Team Evil plot, and start the Order’s plot with Wooden Forest, which is the first real character development in the comic.

It should be easy for you summarize the plot of Book 1 for them.

[HorizonWalker]

I ended up starting them off at Comic 300 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0300.html), because I had some problems with Paladin Blues, too. I then gave them a brief summary of the creation myth along with the reason it mattered to the Order, and why the Order had to be a secret catspaw.

EDIT/UPDATE: They do not appreciate the omnipresent meta jokes about D&D, but are still going.

[thereaper]

Page 199 works pretty well, I feel.

[Ruck]

Here's a thread from a few years ago when I asked a similar question:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484410-Best-Place-to-Get-Newbies-to-Start-OOTS

[Mightymosy]

Honestly I would be interested how many people start at another point than 1 and still stick to the story.
For me, the first couple hundred strips hooked me up with the comic so hard that I kept reading the rest. Personally I can't imagine having read on without the awesome humor of these strips.
So it would be interesting if other people actually did. As has been pointed out, several people asked which strip to start showing their peers to, so I wonder how that turned out.

[KorvinStarmast]

Honestly I would be interested how many people start at another point than 1 and still stick to the story.
For me, the first couple hundred strips hooked me up with the comic so hard that I kept reading the rest. Personally I can't imagine having read on without the awesome humor of these strips.
So it would be interesting if other people actually did. As has been pointed out, several people asked which strip to start showing their peers to, so I wonder how that turned out.
The one that got me started was the Polearm Shop sketch. I am a huge monty python fan from way back.

I had first seen OoTS in a Dragon Magazine and had not seen it as a web comic. The stick figure art style put me off, and my lack of contextual grounding made the strips utterly vacant in meaning.

So I ignored the strip for most of its life until about 2015 when a comment under an RPG.SE question linked to that sketch. So I went to page 1 and ... well rats. I got hooked. :smallsmile:

[Ornithologist]

I actually like to recommend either On the Origin of PC's or Start of Darkness. They do have some spoilers in them, but if the people who are reading are not going to get through the spoiled material otherwise, then spoil away.

I might also have them start with how the Paladin got his scar.

[EyethatBinds]

As the comic continues it has more dialog per panel, so to me the first 200 strips can blaze by in a matter of an hour or so, while reading the most recent 200 comics will take twice that, possibly more.

[DavidBV]

The first 100 strips are fine. If there's offensive jokes that make it non-suitable, the same can be said about 99% of books and movies in this world. I think the D&D jokes are not obscure nor really require too much context.

My advice: have her start at strip one, explaining that the comic evolved later on, if that doesn't work you can always jump to book 2 and try that. Let people choose by themselves and they'll often have more fun.

[HorizonWalker]

The first 100 strips are fine. If there's offensive jokes that make it non-suitable, the same can be said about 99% of books and movies in this world. I think the D&D jokes are not obscure nor really require too much context.
The problem with the D&D jokes isn't that they're obscure and difficult to understand.

The problem with the D&D jokes is that neither of us think they're funny.

My advice: have her start at strip one, explaining that the comic evolved later on, if that doesn't work you can always jump to book 2 and try that. Let people choose by themselves and they'll often have more fun.
My wife is a them, not a her. Also, I am familiar enough with their tastes and attention span to know that saying "yeah here read through fifty pages of bad jokes before any actual plot happens" isn't going to hook them.

[Verappo]

As said above, book 2 makes for an easy way in. An ok starting point (if I remember the events correctly) could be the introduction of the Snarl plot the first time the order enters Azure city. Maybe you lose some of the introduction to Miko's personality, but it's not too hard to get caught up, and you neatly avoid the belt arc. maybe they will be a little confused at the beginning, what with the character who speaks only gibberish, but that's explained eventually.

The order of the scribble flashback is when it becomes apparent that there is in fact a long term plan for where the story is going. And personally, the first time I felt at all emotionally connected to any of the characters was with Haley's "Hiding is my best skill".

[LadyEowyn]

I think you made a good call. Book 3 is where the story starts getting really good, and it’s easy enough to summarize the backstory.

I got here via a TVTropes link and started reading in the middle of Book 4. Read a few different short sections at a few different times - the Darth V sequence was the one that really grabbed me - and eventually went back and read Book 3, Book 2, and - much later - Book 1.