Was there a comic series before page 1 of the current one?

[celestialkin]

I am sorry if this has been asked before.

In the first page of the story, which was copyrighted in 2003, it talked about the characters being updated to the 3.5 rules (from a series during 3.0?), and about Belkar having done his job/crap for three years now. Was there a series before this one?

[NerfTW]

No, it was just a generic rules update joke.

There are two prequel books that came out afterwards (Start of Darkness and Orgin of PCs), but they weren't around before the actual comic started.

[Yuki Akuma]

Belkar's comment is a reference to the fact that Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition had been out for three years by that point.

[hamishspence]

Book: Dungeon Crawling Fools has a short set of strips just prior to the first one shown online, but they were drawn much later.

[ericgrau]

In one of the prequel books someone even says "Why don't we just do X" and another guy replies "Because we're still using 3.0 edition rules this is the prequel". Or something like that.

[Inhuman Bot]

For the record, it's:
:roy: Why don't we charge in from 40 feet away?
:durkon: I'am wearing heavy armour, so I can't
:roy: I thought dwarves didn't take a speed penelty in heavy armour
:durkon: This is a prequel book, ye blasted fool! we're unner 3.0 rules!

[BlueWizard]

I recommend the prequel books. There is more of Rich's great comedy, and character building... everything we love about our fantasy games.

[Ron Miel]

What about the Dragon Magazine strips mentioned in this strip?
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0475.html

When did they run? I assumed they came first.

[thevorpalbunny]

He had an annoncement about them. They started well into OOtS's run online, like a year ago or so.

[SPoD]

Far from it; the Dragon strips only came into existence because of the popularity of the online edition of OOTS.

Dragon ran OOTS strips from December 2005 to September 2007, while online OOTS has been running since September 2003.

[T-O-E]

Clicking this link may offer some insight. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7333&highlight=order+stick)

[NerfTW]

The Dragon Magazine strips are not in continuity either. They're just gag strips, with no real connection to the main plotline.

[Kinneus]

EDIT: Nevermind.

[Deepkicker]

Clicking this link may offer some insight. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7333&highlight=order+stick)

Wow! I've never seen that thread before. It was like opening a dusty tome...

[Lissou]

Clicking this link may offer some insight. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7333&highlight=order+stick)

Okay, now you've started a chain of event that will cause so many fangasms the world is likely to implode. I hope you're proud of yourself.