Order of the Stick - volumes 1 and 2
Monday, 28. April 2008, 22:41:42
Sitting down to write this, I realize I wrote most of what there is to say about the series in general here, but I will quote (and occasionally paraphrase) the relevant paragraphs here for convenience before I address the more specific subject matter of the two volumes of the series spublished so far:
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For those nil point fourteen of my readers who don't know, The Order of the Stick is a quite excellent webcomic by Rich Burlew. The comic blends traditional roleplaying-game-humour rather seamlessly (and impressively) with the humouristic fantasy story-approach. By that I mean that while the characters will make jokes and comments about saving throws, D20s, monster manuals and gaining levels, they will also have character-, plot- and situation-based humour. As the series has progressed and the characters and the plot has grown, the weight has shifted from the former to the latter, but both are still very much present in the comic. The other - rather ingenious, actually, in all its simplicity - rather unique idea in this comic is that there are no roleplaying-players. It's the characters themselves who talk about their levels, the new rulebooks and the like. In effect, this creates a world that everybody who's a little bit of a geek (and let us face it, those who aren't would never read this) will feel intuitively comfortable with as it plays on literally all the stereotypes used in traditional fantasy RPGs, while being incredibly unique by embracing RPG-mechanisms as actual in-world laws of physics. Levels, stats and dice-throws are, to these characters and this world, real.
Oh, and his characters are drawn as stick-figures. Impressively detailed ones at that.
Currently at its 552nd strip, The Order of the Stick has developed quite the mythos and cast, as well as a plotline that's stereotypical enough to match the general feel of familiarity everything in the comic offers while being just original and mysterious enough to be interesting. The first 300 strips are collected in two volumes (with tons of excellent bonus-materials, extended scenes and author-commentaries) following the first two story-arcs; Dungeon' Crawlin Fools and No Cure for the Paladin Blues, which are both highly recommended, but the archives are still right there on the webpage to read for free.
---
It is these two volumes I'm going to give my thoughts on in this post, to the extent I have any such to give.
One thing I really liked about these two volumes was how thorough they both felt. There is no less than three short essays opening each volume (a preface, an introduction and a foreword), written one each by a guest-writer recommending the comic, Burlew himself, and one of the characters of the world. All of which are both informative and humourous, though obviously in different degrees.
The stories they gather are quite amusing, though I must admit I far prefer the more story-centric second volume to the more gag-focused first, as I'm the kind of reader who, when asked to choose between the good single-strip joke and the good fifty-strip-buildup-plot-twist, will ask for the second every single time. Luckily, Burlew often manages both in both volumes, the weight is just shifting as the story progresses and gains momentum.
While the first volume, On the Origin of the PCs, collects - as the title suggests - the main characters stereotypical exploration of a classical RPG-game dungeon, the second sees them adventuring out in the wilderness. This allows for a more varied scenery, which in such a simplistically (in concept though not in execution) drawn comic is rather appealing to the eye. This also allows the second volume to play on new and different RPG-clichès compared to the first, which is a nice freshening of the jokes.
The cast is quite good, a rather classical comedy-cast consisting of a straight man (Roy, human warrior), the quiet oddball who often seems surprisingly insightful (Durkon the Dwarf cleric), the morally ambigious sarcastic one (Haley, human rogue), the selfish guy utterly lacking self-restraint (Belkar the, interestingly, halfling ranger), the lofty holier-than-thou one (Vasrsuvius, Elf wizard) and the childish, silly and naïve optimist (Elan, human bard). Exactly the kind of mis-matched band that stereotypically would for some obscure reason band together to explore dangerous dungeons together in RPG-settings. Naturally, because of this, some characters are less funny than others, but their combined dynamic is really quite good. Over the course of time I've personally grown somewhat tired of a few of them, but considering the spectrum of personalities this cast contains, some are bound to fall less in the tastes of the reader than others. Burlew should be congratulated to keep them all as fun and interesting as he does. He is also to be acclaimed for managing to give all his characters some time to shine, some plotlines where they hold the spotlight, and some arcs for them to go through. Can't be easy, juggling all of these people together with the over-arching plots and the ever-present need to end every strip with a punchline. The second volume, No Cure for the Paladin Blues, additionally sees rather heavy development of the main antagonistic characters' personalities as well as the introduction of one or two new characters.
These two volumes, as mentions, collect what's mainly freely available online strips, but they also come with a lot of interesting extra stuff that can only be read by buying (or borrowing from a friend, like I did...) the volumes themselves. Chief among these are Burlew's extensive commentaries to each section of the stories and the bonus pages. Because every now and then, he'll have added an extra page of story and jokes where he's seen fit into the story, and they're to a one at least of average quality compared to the old stuff - often more so - and they fit rather seamlessly into the stories. In the first volume there's also a quite wonderful introductory story added before the first original strip, as he (rightly) felt that in such a first volume of a long story, the in-medias-res-start works less well than on an online webcomic. I'd say reading this "miniprequel" alone would justify the purchase of the first volume.
All in all they're both very good - and prettily made! - books that anyone who'd call themselves fans of the webcomic should strongly consider buying. I know I am. And I've already read them.
---
For those nil point fourteen of my readers who don't know, The Order of the Stick is a quite excellent webcomic by Rich Burlew. The comic blends traditional roleplaying-game-humour rather seamlessly (and impressively) with the humouristic fantasy story-approach. By that I mean that while the characters will make jokes and comments about saving throws, D20s, monster manuals and gaining levels, they will also have character-, plot- and situation-based humour. As the series has progressed and the characters and the plot has grown, the weight has shifted from the former to the latter, but both are still very much present in the comic. The other - rather ingenious, actually, in all its simplicity - rather unique idea in this comic is that there are no roleplaying-players. It's the characters themselves who talk about their levels, the new rulebooks and the like. In effect, this creates a world that everybody who's a little bit of a geek (and let us face it, those who aren't would never read this) will feel intuitively comfortable with as it plays on literally all the stereotypes used in traditional fantasy RPGs, while being incredibly unique by embracing RPG-mechanisms as actual in-world laws of physics. Levels, stats and dice-throws are, to these characters and this world, real.
Oh, and his characters are drawn as stick-figures. Impressively detailed ones at that.
Currently at its 552nd strip, The Order of the Stick has developed quite the mythos and cast, as well as a plotline that's stereotypical enough to match the general feel of familiarity everything in the comic offers while being just original and mysterious enough to be interesting. The first 300 strips are collected in two volumes (with tons of excellent bonus-materials, extended scenes and author-commentaries) following the first two story-arcs; Dungeon' Crawlin Fools and No Cure for the Paladin Blues, which are both highly recommended, but the archives are still right there on the webpage to read for free.
---
It is these two volumes I'm going to give my thoughts on in this post, to the extent I have any such to give.
One thing I really liked about these two volumes was how thorough they both felt. There is no less than three short essays opening each volume (a preface, an introduction and a foreword), written one each by a guest-writer recommending the comic, Burlew himself, and one of the characters of the world. All of which are both informative and humourous, though obviously in different degrees.
The stories they gather are quite amusing, though I must admit I far prefer the more story-centric second volume to the more gag-focused first, as I'm the kind of reader who, when asked to choose between the good single-strip joke and the good fifty-strip-buildup-plot-twist, will ask for the second every single time. Luckily, Burlew often manages both in both volumes, the weight is just shifting as the story progresses and gains momentum.
While the first volume, On the Origin of the PCs, collects - as the title suggests - the main characters stereotypical exploration of a classical RPG-game dungeon, the second sees them adventuring out in the wilderness. This allows for a more varied scenery, which in such a simplistically (in concept though not in execution) drawn comic is rather appealing to the eye. This also allows the second volume to play on new and different RPG-clichès compared to the first, which is a nice freshening of the jokes.
The cast is quite good, a rather classical comedy-cast consisting of a straight man (Roy, human warrior), the quiet oddball who often seems surprisingly insightful (Durkon the Dwarf cleric), the morally ambigious sarcastic one (Haley, human rogue), the selfish guy utterly lacking self-restraint (Belkar the, interestingly, halfling ranger), the lofty holier-than-thou one (Vasrsuvius, Elf wizard) and the childish, silly and naïve optimist (Elan, human bard). Exactly the kind of mis-matched band that stereotypically would for some obscure reason band together to explore dangerous dungeons together in RPG-settings. Naturally, because of this, some characters are less funny than others, but their combined dynamic is really quite good. Over the course of time I've personally grown somewhat tired of a few of them, but considering the spectrum of personalities this cast contains, some are bound to fall less in the tastes of the reader than others. Burlew should be congratulated to keep them all as fun and interesting as he does. He is also to be acclaimed for managing to give all his characters some time to shine, some plotlines where they hold the spotlight, and some arcs for them to go through. Can't be easy, juggling all of these people together with the over-arching plots and the ever-present need to end every strip with a punchline. The second volume, No Cure for the Paladin Blues, additionally sees rather heavy development of the main antagonistic characters' personalities as well as the introduction of one or two new characters.
These two volumes, as mentions, collect what's mainly freely available online strips, but they also come with a lot of interesting extra stuff that can only be read by buying (or borrowing from a friend, like I did...) the volumes themselves. Chief among these are Burlew's extensive commentaries to each section of the stories and the bonus pages. Because every now and then, he'll have added an extra page of story and jokes where he's seen fit into the story, and they're to a one at least of average quality compared to the old stuff - often more so - and they fit rather seamlessly into the stories. In the first volume there's also a quite wonderful introductory story added before the first original strip, as he (rightly) felt that in such a first volume of a long story, the in-medias-res-start works less well than on an online webcomic. I'd say reading this "miniprequel" alone would justify the purchase of the first volume.
All in all they're both very good - and prettily made! - books that anyone who'd call themselves fans of the webcomic should strongly consider buying. I know I am. And I've already read them.
By Obdormio, # 29. April 2008, 14:34:47
By Loki Aesir, # 29. April 2008, 15:45:56