Rereading again - DAMN this comic is good

[SadisticFishing]

Wow. I recently (yesterday) decided to binge this again for the fourth or fifth time. I just reached the end of the Azure City arc.

DAMN, this comic is GOOD! It's a bit absurd. I will admit that the Azure City arc was easily my favourite part, with Darth V in second place, but it hits all the right emotional notes - while still being extremely funny. It's absurd.

One of my biggest problems with the comic is that it's not easy to get people without a D&D background into it! I was just realizing that there are people I'd love to share the stories, the humour, and the tragedies with... But I don't know how to get non-D&Ders into it. It becomes even worse, in that as game systems change, it's even hard to get new D&Ders into it. "Skill points? What are those?"

My actual biggest regret is that during the Kickstarter, I was in dire financial straits and couldn't afford to back it at all. I'm out now, but I have no idea how to get my hands on Snips and Snails, and I feel incomplete without it. Any way to get my hands on it?

The new Durkula fiasco is also interesting. I've been waiting for something new to happen for a while, and while Tarquin is a pretty good villain, little else has interested me greatly since the Darth V arc. Which brings me to my next point...

Xykon is easily one of the best villains I've ever seen in anything, anywhere. Maybe I just have something for the Chaotic villains, but my favourites so far (in all fiction) have probably been Xykon, Plutonian, Corky Laputa, Sidi, and several that don't fit into that blanket as well (Thrawn, Darth Vader, Thragg), but Xykon is just... So absolutely glorious in every way. When I grow up (more), I want to have sorcerer powers just like him.

Well, that turned out to just be a rant! Apologies, I just needed to say it, and no one in my real life is as into OotS as I am.

Thanks for reading <3

[hamishspence]

My actual biggest regret is that during the Kickstarter, I was in dire financial straits and couldn't afford to back it at all. I'm out now, but I have no idea how to get my hands on Snips and Snails, and I feel incomplete without it. Any way to get my hands on it?

Snips Snails was pre-Kickstarter- it can be ordered from Ookoodook.com
http://www.giantitp.com/Shop.html

[SadisticFishing]

Woah. Thank you very much! <3 Didn't realize that. I may have to drop a whole bunch of money into getting all the books... (I have SoD and tOotPC)

[bobothegoat]

Pathfinder is really quite popular these days, even as a first system. Newbies that know 4th edition might not get the humor, but newbies that started with Pathfinder would probably be pretty much in the loop.

[Lissou]

I had never played D&D or any other pen and paper RPG when I started reading OOTS, and I had zero problem understanding any of the jokes. I think you're exaggerating the difficulty for non-gamers, I mean we're not stupid, and most of the jokes are pretty straightforward. I can't think of any joke that I only understood after I started playing D&D and other P&P RPGs.

[SadisticFishing]

The first 100 posts reference the rules a lot - it's not about an intelligence thing, it's about directly referencing things that some people have virtually no experience with.

It's hard to feel compelled to read the next strip just because of the story, near the beginning.

[Vinsfeld]

From what I see here on the forum, there's a significant number of people who reads and doesn't know squat of D&D.

I think the first book wouldn't be so funny to them, but they can get over it.

[SadisticFishing]

That's a fairly biased sample, though. And by that I mean very biased. Getting people to read the comic is hard, no matter how plausible it seems from this side.

Edit: Making the post make sense, oops.

[Vinsfeld]

That's a fairly biased sample, though. And by that I mean very biased. Getting people to read the comic is hard, no matter how hard it is.

Yeah, I know how it is. I've been trying to get my sister to read for 6 months.

[Lissou]

I'm just saying that not knowing D&D isn't going to stop you from reading or enjoying the comic. Sure, some people might use it as an excuse, and sure, it might discourage someone who already didn't really want to read it. But it's certainly not the only reason.

Among the people I pushed to read the comic and who aren't interested, 100% of them are regular RPG players, including D&D. Some people don't want to read a comic you love just because they aren't interested, and that's that.

[deworde]

Yeah, I know how it is. I've been trying to get my sister to read for 6 months.

I got my girlfriend (now fiancee) into it by the medium of raw enthusiasm. Just continually talking about the new comic that was up and how much I was enjoying it.

[Lord Torath]

I'm an old 2nd Edition Grognard, and while I know what a skill point is used for, and what a feat is, I have no notion of how many skill points are required to gain what kind of effect, or what a particular feat does. I never had a problem getting any of those jokes.

I shared a couple of strips with my wife ("Invisible" Elan, Hinjo's "Junk," and the life-taking-baby-making-machine"). She enjoyed them, but it wasn't until I got the books that she actually read the whole thing. And she's never been into roleplaying.

I think just sharing the first book is a great way to get someone interested. If, you know, it's somebody who knows how to read a book without destroying it.

[Byzantine2]

I've never played D&D or the like, I still understood most of the jokes about the rules. Quite a lot of this is either well known or by context alone you can get the joke.

[DrBurr]

Pathfinder is really quite popular these days, even as a first system. Newbies that know 4th edition might not get the humor, but newbies that started with Pathfinder would probably be pretty much in the loop.

I started with 4th an I got like 90% of the gaming jokes. Really unless its referencing a prestige class or certain spells the actual gaming jokes transcend editions and probably gaming.

Especially once you get out of the first book you get more character based humor so it shouldn't be a problem for gamer and nongamers to get it

[Ted The Bug]

Yeah, this is the biggest hurdle I have to converting the masses. I don't play DnD, never have, but I could piece together the basics based on other Unnamed RPGs I'd played (involving war, and the crafting thereof). I wish the alternate intro from DCF could somehow be put online for new readers. It'd probably help a lot with reader retention.

[gorocz]

One of my biggest problems with the comic is that it's not easy to get people without a D&D background into it! I was just realizing that there are people I'd love to share the stories, the humour, and the tragedies with... But I don't know how to get non-D&Ders into it. It becomes even worse, in that as game systems change, it's even hard to get new D&Ders into it. "Skill points? What are those?"

I learned most of the D&D terms from this comic after reading it for the first time (cca 2010). I mean, I played some computer games based on d20 system, like KotOR or planescape torment, but only briefly and didn't remember much of the system, apart from the fact that you have a couple of stats which have some modifiers, weapons have some damage range (usually specified as 2-9 instead of 1d8+1), there were alignments but really didn't know much else...

I loved the comic despite of that. After reading it for the first time, I was in love with D&D even though I've never played it so I decided to try out Dungeons & Dragons Online, which had just recently became free to play, at the time. I loved it, even though I sucked at it, but it was a progress... I progressively learned what are feats, what are skills, what's each classes niche etc. Then I re-read OotS.

I was fascinated by how much I enjoyed the D&D references even though I already knew the story... I've started trying out other D&D based games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, even Eye of the Beholder II from 1991, which I knew from back when I was a kid...) and found out that I actually understand the system very well in general, only having a slight problems with differentiating between different edition rules. But since I most prominently know the game from the comic, DDO and mainly SRD (which are all based on 3.5), I'd say I know D&D as much as the next guy, though I've never actually played it. All thanks to OotS :-)

[Giggling Ghast]

I've had a lifelong on-again off-again relationship with D&D. A fair bit of the rules stuff flies over my head, but I know enough to get by.

I find the difficulty with getting other people to read the comic isn't just the result of it being a D&D webcomic, but a stick figure D&D webcomic.

[Velaryon]

I just started getting my girlfriend into it recently. She's an occasional gamer, but has never really played much D&D, and what little experience she has there is with 4.0. I lent her Dungeon Crawlin' Fools and she said she enjoyed it, but a lot of the gaming jokes didn't really draw her in. I think she's started getting into the characters though, and that combined with my assurance that the story gets better and relies less on D&D jokes as it goes on has gotten her to keep reading for now. I lent her On the Origin of PCs and No Cure for the Paladin Blues, and I'm waiting to see how she likes those.

So I do know what you're talking about, how it can be hard to get non-D&D players into the comic at first, but it's really only the early strips where it's solidly a D&D comic, so if you can get someone through that, they will probably start to enjoy it more.

I actually really enjoy the early strips personally, but I can see how they wouldn't have as much appeal to people who don't play D&D.

[Mr.Rictus]

I had never played D&D or any other pen and paper RPG when I started reading OOTS, and I had zero problem understanding any of the jokes. I think you're exaggerating the difficulty for non-gamers, I mean we're not stupid, and most of the jokes are pretty straightforward. I can't think of any joke that I only understood after I started playing D&D and other P&P RPGs.

What he said.

Though to be quite honest, it was probably a good thing I didn't start at the beginning with all the Dnd jokes, I started around the time when they meet Shojo, where the storyline was definitely picking up momentum.

[SadisticFishing]

Hm. Sensing a pattern - it's easier to get people to read them in book form.

Interesting. Yet another reason to buy the whole set!