Order of the Stick

Overall score:

By Rich Burlew

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript.

One (or Two) Sentence Synopsis: Follow a bumbling group of RPG meta-gamers...I mean heroic adventurers...well maybe not so heroic...just a group of fantasy type people...but not Fantasy Island type people...you know what I'm talking about. I hope.

Art: Well it's called Order of the Stick for a reason—the characters are all stick figures. Real stick figures, not just your typical anorexic super-model stick figure. This linear style works well for this particular comic. It's consistent if anything else. It would probably appease both the color-field purist and minimalist alike, were it not for the insidious (and entertaining) objectivity and narrative accompaniment.

There aren't a lot of design risks being taken, nor should you expect technical wonderment. There are few action shots or close-ups. The characters are generally moved from stage to stage, being rearranged like paper dolls. It's not stellar craftsmanship, but it is effective for the ongoing narrative.

My largest complaint about the artwork is that is can be difficult at times to distinguish one colored circle as a artifact versus another colored circle as a lump of dirt versus another colored circle as an orc head. It’s just one of the drawbacks for this chosen art style. In fact, the entire artistic style would easily fall apart if it weren't for the strong narrative.

Story: Order of the Stick is done as a series of once-a-day jokes that connect together into a series of short episodes that feed into a continuous story line. It intends to mock the generic fantasy story-lines common to most rpgs campaigns, yet through humor and wit it has become a rather unique entity on its own.

There is the usual cast of characters…the strong fighter, the wily thief, and the bumbling bard. But each character seems to have a bit of a twist...i.e...the fighter has an MBA degree and is the brains of the party. Each character has a bit of life to them that transcends their simplistic rendering. My personal favorite is the blood-thirsty halfling that is the antithesis of certain good-natured hobbits.

The unique characterization gives life to what would otherwise be rather bland fantasy plots. In general, each plot revolves around the heroes trying to complete some quest or another…destroy the evil item, kill the bad guy, and get treasure. Yet it is really the comedic interactions between characters and the "meta-game" explanations that inject the story with vivacity. Yes, we’ve seen the generic adventurers kill random monsters before, but seeing the monsters complain about being a random encounter turns conventions on their proverbial head.

Humor: For those familiar with playing Dungeons and Dragons and other fantasy rpgs, Order of the Stick rarely fails to be gut-busting hilarious. Jokes about failing spot checks and calculating to gain experience points are surprisingly consistently amusing. Rich Burlew seems to know how to make these tried rpg jokes appear fresh, which is perhaps OotS's most astounding feature.

If you are not familiar with Dungeons and Dragons or fantasy role-playing games in general, much of the humor may just fall flat. Still many of the jokes are entertaining based purely on characterization and situational events making Order of the Stick more accessible.

Frequency: Order of the Stick updates two to three times per week, regularly but not punctually. Occasional guest artists.

Website/extras: Comes with a good website that includes a forum, store, and lots of information.

Archives: Order of the Stick has over 200 strips for you to read, making a respectable archive. Despite so many strips, it doesn't take long to read them, making it easy for new-comers to catch-up. The style of the narrative also makes it rather easy to start the series at just about any point.

Content: PG for some mild language, violence, and innuendo.

Three Reasons to Read Order of the Stick:
1) You like RPG related humor.
2) You’re familiar with Dungeons and Dragons.
3) You never outgrew your stick figure drawing days.

Three Reasons Not to Read Order of the Stick:
1) You’ve never played an RPG and don't know what an RPG is.
2) You don’t like fantasy-genre humor.
3) You have an unexplained fear of stick people.

Consensus: Order of the Stick is an amusing web-comic for those who have a love of RPG. Even for those not familiar with RPGs, the comic strip often proves to be amusing. The artwork is merely functional and the updates are unreliable, but overall it is an entertaining strip to read weekly.

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Written by 42 on August 18th, 2005