OOTS Book Tournament 2, Match 12: Up a vote, Down a vote

[137beth]

Greetings to all people of the Playground, and welcome to
The Ultimate Order of the Stick Book Tournament II!


Back in 2014, I ran a series of polls to determine the forum's favorite OOTS book. Start of Darkness won that tournament, defeating Blood Runs in the Family by one vote. Since that time, the number of available books has increased, and the readership has had more time to reflect on earlier stories in light of more recent events. Hence, I felt it was time for another tournament. Without further ado, I present

The Contestants

No Cure for the Paladin Blues
Start of Darkness
War and XP
Don't Split the Party
Blood Runs in the Family
Good Deeds Gone Unpunished
Utterly Dwarfed


Dungeon Crawling Fools
On the Origins of the PCs
Snips, Snails and Dragon Tails
Haleo & Julelan + Uncivil Servant


I have grouped together the two stories which are currently digital-only. The 11 contestants will compete in a double elimination tournament, with your votes deciding who wins each match. The winner of the entire tournament will be crowned Grand Champion of the Stick!

Due to the fact that there are more than 8 but fewer than 16 contestants, five books will get a free pass on the first round. The contestants were seeded randomly. You can see the entire tournament bracket on Challonge.

Vote once in each match by posting your vote in this thread. Voting for these matches will close Saturday, February 29, at which time I will post the next match. I will vote only in the case where a tie-breaking vote is needed. Please put your votes in bold, since it makes it easier for me when tallying them.

Now that half of the matches for this tournament are complete, we will be doing only one match at a time for the remainder of the tournament.


The Current Match
The voting process is slightly different for this match. You may either vote for your favorite, causing it to go up a level, or you may vote against the one you like less, causing it to go down a level. The book with the highest level wins.

Note: Voting for the one you like more has the same effect on the outcome of the match as voting against the one you like less. Just make sure I can tell whether you are upvoting or downvoting.

Match 12: Don't Split the Party vs No Cure for the Paladin Blues

[Schroeswald]

Hmmm, this one is pretty hard, I’m gonna actually have to think about it for a bit, and while I’d usually wait to respond once I’d figured out my thoughts I’d like to point out that No Cure for the Paladin Blues is very misspelled at the bottom (and missing a the at both the top and bottom).

[LadyEowyn]

Voting for Don’t Split the Party. The Vaarsuvius arc and the O-Chul - MITD - Redcloak arc are two of my favourites in the entire run of OOTS.

[Vulkos]

Really hard but: Don't split the party.

[Linneris]

This is indeed a tough one. I wasn't very fond of Don't Split the Party when it was ongoing. It seemed to drag on forever, some of the individual arcs seemed to drag on forever (Roy in the afterlife, Greysky City), and in general it felt like circumstances were conspiring against the Order and the book was too depressing compared to OOTS's usual tone. I think it's still the most depressing book - BRiTF and UD are a return to form. And if I had to choose whether to bring Don't Split the Party or No Cure on a trip, I would have taken No Cure because of its more comedic and lighthearted tone.

Nonetheless, I vote for Don't Split the Party, for its character development aplenty and its daring narrative choices that mostly worked and set up interesting overarching story arcs whose repercussions we then saw in the next two books.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

I’m going to vote in favor of [b]Don’t Split the Party[b]. While some of the middle does drag a bit, I find thag the beginning and the end more than makes up for it and I don’t find NCftPB to be a good enough challenger to surpass that.

[Sir_Norbert]

Paladin Blues. I discovered OOTS when the trial scenes were new, and that was what convinced me to start from the beginning and give it a try.

[DLcygnet]

"The scales are a bitch to calibrate." Nah. This one is easy.

I didn't care for Miko's or V's characterization in NCFTPB - at least V lived long enough to grow out of it. Haley was rendered speechless and I still haven't read the translations. The trial exposition had to happen, but dragged quite a bit. Besides V as a lizard (rise of Darth V!) and Roy as a Woman, the comedy was a bit limited.

Meanwhile, Don't Split the Party brings us many happy returns... Roy's judgement by the Archon, the Return of the Sexy Shoeless God of War, the Return of Darth V, The Return of O-Chul and MITD, and The Return of the King.

Don't Split the Party

[Asmodeus1389]

upvote - Don't Split the Party excellent character develop for multiple characters.

[rgrekejin]

I think I hold NCftPB in higher esteem than most - I was the one person that voted for it over Utterly Dwarfed in the first round. There's a lot of things I love in that book, but even I can't bring myself to vote for it over DStP. Darth V may have been the best story arc in the comic, I love the IFCC, and I never won't love everything related to Gobbotopia. Upvote for Don't Split the Party.

[CriticalFailure]

Voting for Don’t Split the Party. The Vaarsuvius arc and the O-Chul - MITD - Redcloak arc are two of my favourites in the entire run of OOTS.

Hey, same.

Vote for DStP.

[RatElemental]

One more vote for Don't Split the Party from me. The Roy as a woman arc is a bit painful in retrospect, while I love every minute of DSTP. It maybe helps that I read it all at once when it was finished, but the same can be said of NCftPB.

[Gift Jeraff]

Giving Paladin Blues some love.

[Sylian]

Don't Split the Party gets my vote.

[137beth]

We missed what would have been the end of voting, due to the forum's downtime. To give people who might not realize the forum is back time to vote, I am extending this round until next Saturday February 29, at which time we will move on to round 13.

[Bloodfeast]

The paladin blues is devided in episodes: The bandits, the inn, the trial... There is also the revealing(?) of the snarl and the purpose of the gates (what gate?).
But basically things happen one after the other.
Don't split the party shows multiple plotlines, gives a glimpse in the afterlife and roys backstory (him playing bricks with his little brother is such an iconic moment),
and huge character growth can happen while roy isn't there as the meatshield and/or mediator. What else? V cracking up, Dragon mom, IFCC and V's soul splice, O'Chul endures where Chuck Norris would crack, MITD gets screentime, (and lots of other things like Elan and Therkla and the Azurites...)
So thumps up for DSTP.

[pluizig]

Voting for DSTP.

[ByzantiumBhuka]

Paladin Blues has some nice character development, and I really like the beginning of the Haley plot-line. However, especially in hindsight, I have to vote for Don't Split the Party; the development of V with the IFCC and Roy in the afterlife is absolutely amazing.

[CriticalFailure]

Edit: oops, already voted and forgot.

I voted on the strength of the V and O-Chul arcs largely.

Though I didn't think the Roy as a woman arc was bad, I thought Haley having a chance to give him a lesson in why being gross to women was bad was fun.

[Procyonpi]

Voting for DSTP

[KorvinStarmast]

Match 12: Don't Split the Party vs No Cure for the Paladin Blues

DSTP

Paladin Blues had some great material, but I found the "Haley can't speak" annoying, not entertaining. Granted, Rich was working through some of his growth as a writer, and this book was a part of the process of doing that.

DSTP had its own shortcomings, but as a writer one of the things about this book that I appreciate is how darned hard it is to write a transition piece, be it a transition paragraph, a transition chapter, and in this case a very long transition book. The Order pivots from one state of being to another over the course of this book: from defeat in Azure City to another chance at success versus Xykon.
That Z makes a major mistake along the way is IMO a strength of this book: the team still has issues.
Elan grows somewhat.
Haley is challenged with the trials of leadership: that was IMO worthwhile.
Belkar stops being one dimensional.

[Ruck]

It's a bit close, but I'm going to give my vote to Don't Split the Party because even though the early part drags, the climax is one of the best sequences the story has ever done.

edit: Nuts, my avatar isn't loading even though I host it at my own website. I've gotta try to fix that.

[Laurana]

This one is pretty easy.
I vote for Don't split the party.

[137beth]

Voting is now closed! The results are:
Match 12: Don't Split the Party vs No Cure for the Paladin Blues (17-2)

The next round is up in a new thread.