 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (October 2022) |
| The Order of the Stick | |
|---|---|
 Principal characters, from left to right: Belkar Bitterleaf, Vaarsuvius, Elan, Haley Starshine, Durkon Thundershield, and Roy Greenhilt | |
| Author(s) | Rich Burlew |
| Website | www |
| Current status/schedule | Active (no standard update schedule) |
| Launch date | September 29, 2003[1] |
| Publisher(s) | Giant in the Playground |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy, comedy, parody |
The Order of the Stick (OOTS) is a comedic webcomic that satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy. The comic is written and drawn by Rich Burlew, who illustrates the comic in a stick figure style.
Taking place in a magical world that loosely operates by the rules of the 3.5 edition of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the comic follows the sometimes farcical exploits of six adventurers as they strive to save the world from an evil lich sorcerer. Much of the comic's humor stems from the characters' awareness of the game rules that affect their lives or from having anachronistic knowledge of modern culture. This in turn is often used by the author to parody various aspects of role-playing games and fantasy fiction. While primarily comedic in nature, The Order of the Stick features a continuing storyline serialized in one- to four-page episodes, with over 1300 such episodes released as of April 2024.
Although it is principally distributed online through the website Giant in the Playground,[2] ten book collections have been published, including several print-only stories (On the Origin of PCs, Start of Darkness, and Good Deeds Gone Unpunished). An alternate version of the strip appeared monthly in Dragon magazine for 22 issues; these strips, among others, are collected in Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales.
- ^ Burlew, Rich (2003). "New Edition". The Order of the Stick (#1). GiantITP.com. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
- ^ "Giant in the Playground".