Webcomic of the moment

[Merc]

Huh, you replied pretty fast, Mr. Huh-huh! =p

[Dracos]

Well, yes.  I happened to be on then :)

[Ranma_007]

I follow Giant in the Playground pretty regularly - www.giantitp.com

A excellent DnD webcomic.

[Brian]

Hehe; Drac and I were just complaining about the decline of that series the other day.

We really should review.

Order of the Stick is pretty decent, mostly, but I miss when Roy being the hero meant he could do stuff.  You know, _hero_ stuff. :\

[thepanda]

Is he alive again? Last time I read it Varsuvius(?) had just derailed a campaign by offing the big bad in a fit of pique.

[Merc]

Roy's been alive for a while now (It was right around last year when he came back in the comics actually).

I still enjoy OotS, though as for Roy being a hero...well, to be fair, he's not the main protagonist anymore. While he's still in charge of the group, the main protagonist has been Elan for a while, the torch got passed on and so forth. That the current arc is about Elan's dad obviously wouldn't help with his screentime, though the main problem with the comic is the irregular/slow posting schedule as it really kills pacing. New comics -have- started to come out a bit more regularly recently, so hopefully that'll help a bit in coming months (assuming its kept up anyhow).

[Jason_Miao]

http://www.errantstory.com/

Rather good, IMO.  Started reading this after the artist finished with Exploitation Now, stopped sometime in 2004 because real life interfered, then suddenly remembered that it existed last month.

For whatever reason, I could never get into Order of the Stick.  I get that it's a venerable DnD comic, painstakingly crafted throughout the years before the rise of the commercial internet, blah, blah, blah.  I pretty much only read it as filler when the site was hosting Erfworld and waiting for a new comic of that; when Erfworld moved, I lost interest. 

[Brian]

I get that it's a venerable DnD comic, painstakingly crafted throughout the years before the rise of the commercial internet, blah, blah, blah.  I pretty much only read it as filler when the site was hosting Erfworld and waiting for a new comic of that; when Erfworld moved, I lost interest. 

Actually, it's not a venerable DnD comic; it started right at the launch of 3.5, if I recall the opening gag correctly.  It's not that old in terms of commercial internet, either.

...I think I just earned another 'older and more jaded' point.

[Dracos]

Yeah.  We should.

Yes, Elan is technically the protagonist now (I suppose), but he's not a very good one because at the end of the day, he's still elan, he's a lighthearted guy who goes "Things should work this way" and then has that happen.  His dad's "Ah, I can do that too... and better!"  notwithstanding, he has little pathos, especially held up against Roy.  They were rotating focal characters for a bit, and really the previous arcs (In which Belkar, Varsius and then Haley were front and center) were stronger than Elan's has been so far, and really, still, Roy is more likable as the lead.  Varsius was about growing as a person, Belkar's was as well (and kinda becoming a bit of awesometroll).  Haley's better able to be a lead...

Well, I guess it's also what's at stake.  Belkar had his own death and irrelevance.  Roy has the end of the world and his lich rivalry.  Haley had saving the party and actually killed her rivals.

Hey, Order of the Triangle Lame or whatever, that's right, It should be okay for you guys to die when you lose.  Thanks though for reminding everyone of the "DM whips up a squad of equivilent bad guys who are built to neutralize the players and they never die even when they lose".  I'm sure that somewhere there's folks that find that nostalgic :P

[Brian]

You know, Drac, I think our major complaint is that for a story like this, we just think Determinator > Idiot Hero.

Spoiler: ShowHide

And neither of us really appreciated the switch once our expectations were set; this really feels like it's failing the 'get Roy back' quest-line.  He gets super afterlife training, achieves some sort of inner peace, his allies haul him across continents to revive him ... and all of that just to come back as a Big Guy?

Worse -- the first major fight he gets into after coming back?  He fights a better Big Guy (who is an idiot, but still kicks Roy's butt, while pointing out that int doesn't grant any mechanical bonuses in a brawl).

So.  A little bitter about that twist, personally, yeah.  It's also followed up with Varsuvius being incredibly smart, overcoming his anger ... and also losing anyway.

Drac and I have money on Roy getting his ass kicked by Thog even in round two until that big dino eats Thog, denying Roy the chance to actually win (vs. survive).

Sorry.  Enough ranting from me on this.

[Dracos]

Well, I also begrudge that the bad guys are repeatedly better  than the good guys at the good guy's specialties (and have other stuff as well) in all recent scenes.  Sure, there's some winning by abandoning their specialty, but even so, ...not really?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Varsius out-thinks Supa-Drow.  Result: Varsius loses by last minute Plane Shift.
Roy- Beaten black and blue.  Result: Pending
Haley - Result: Instafragged by stone spell.
Durion - Result: Offscreenified.
Belkar - Result: Doesn't even join the fight
Elan - Manipulates good guys to fight bad guys.  Result: Is double teamed, Out Sword Fought, and Out Charisma'd.  Seriously?

[Jason_Miao]

Actually, it's not a venerable DnD comic; it started right at the launch of 3.5, if I recall the opening gag correctly.

You sure about that?  While the comics in the archives may only go back to that point, my understanding was that it was serialized in Dragon magazine, when those were still being published.

But that's only an impression of something I've heard in online chat, so who knows how accurate that is?

[Brian]

You sure about that?

I think the confusion here may be 'venerable'.  I guess it is close to a decade old, and I'm having a 'dang kids!  get off my lawn!' moment here.  I think of 'venerable' as 'before second edition'.

I remember second edition.  Ah....

Anyway.  Yeah, OotS launched in 2003, Dragon didn't go under until 2007.

[Jason_Miao]

Anyway.  Yeah, OotS launched in 2003, Dragon didn't go under until 2007.

Oh, maybe that's it, then.  I was under the impression that Dragon went under much earlier.

[Brian]

Well, they sure as heck faded away before then.  :p

Anyway, we're drifting, so:

http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/index2.php

Art starts out weak, but does actually get a lot better.  Writing comes and goes, and is mostly pretty good.  It can be slow, and the current arcs aren't as good (IMO) as some of the older ones -- but I very much enjoyed this one (and actually still am).