Order of the Stick: How long will they put up with Miko?

[Storm Raven]

...as today's comic illustrates.

True, talking about how the game is supposed to be having fun while defending the fast and loose application of the rules to justify a DMPC railroading the party in a direction they didn't want to go is just missing the point.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Wait, hang on. I'm confused here. Are there folks in this thread who are:

a. Complaining about the 'direction' the comic is headed when, as far as I can tell, it's not doing anything it hasn't done before (and last week I re-read them all from issue #1);
b. Complaining about a plot railroad in a comic that is parodying plot railroading;
c. Complaining that they don't like a character who is written as the epitomy of unlikeable paladin PC's;
d. Nitpicking the actual combat mechanics behind a D&D comic strip where all of the PC's are aware of their own character sheets.

Have I got that right? I'll be over here with my head in my hands.

It's the same reason why people don't like Mr. Mytzlplk. They don't read Superman comics to see a stupid plot device ruin everyone's day for no reason. They read it to see Superman beat unbeatable odds and save the world again and again.

Mostly the reason why people are picking this apart is that it is clear that Miko, the DM, cheated. And that's where you lose a lot of people. The DM isn't supposed to cheat. Not in your game, not in mine, and not in the OotS game either. But he did, and from our perspective, it's just busted all the credibility behind the story. Now the OotS wins when the DM decides they win and not a moment before. It's no longer about how the Order goes through their adventures and be interesting characters and fight a lich. It's now about them just being dragged along through the plot like tourists, since it's been shown that they now have absolutely no control over their destinies. Characterization and plot both eliminated in one fell swoop. What's left? D&D jokes.

And I'll let you in on a little secret. It's not the D&D jokes that keep people coming back.

 

[Sejs]

You know, looking over the imagined combat log, something kinda struck me as odd. Other than the fact that Miko never misses and the Order made a bunch of tactically poor choices, I mean.

Belkar's locked down time and again by Miko's stunning blow, consistantly failing his will save. All levels in classes with poor will saves and having a crappy wis will do that.

But it's not a will save for stunning blow.. it's a fort save. Which Belkar should be able to handle no problem. The little sociopath shouldn't have been out of the fight at all.

 

[Sejs]

Wait, hang on. I'm confused here. Are there folks in this thread who are:

a. Complaining about the 'direction' the comic is headed when, as far as I can tell, it's not doing anything it hasn't done before (and last week I re-read them all from issue #1);
b. Complaining about a plot railroad in a comic that is parodying plot railroading;
c. Complaining that they don't like a character who is written as the epitomy of unlikeable paladin PC's;
d. Nitpicking the actual combat mechanics behind a D&D comic strip where all of the PC's are aware of their own character sheets.

Have I got that right? I'll be over here with my head in my hands.

Yes, yes, you have fun over there being better than the rest of us. We'll be over here enjoying our bitter griping and bellyaching, thanks.

 

[Lazarous]

Back in my day, we had real bellyaching. If someone decided he'd be angry at something, he shot himself in the stomach! THAT was something you could get angry about! Kids these days, taking the easy way out with their message boards and talking. Psh.

 

[wedgeski]

When words like 'credibility' and 'DM cheating' are used in reference to OotS, I'm absolutely bemused. Do you truly, honestly read that comic with the expectation that all the rules are dotted and crossed, that every combat has been meticulously worked out, and *that you are actually following the adventures of an actual campaign*, like some kind of stick-figure story hour? Surely the self-aware PC's, who attack, outwit, and take advantage of the rules behind their characters, who know eachother's feats, skills, and ability scores, and who say things like "Y'know, I think I just failed a Listen check!" suggest that this is not the case?

It's now about them just being dragged along through the plot like tourists, since it's been shown that they now have absolutely no control over their destinies. Characterization and plot both eliminated in one fell swoop. What's left? D&D jokes.

I just can't bring myself to believe that you, or anyone, has so deftly missed missed the point of the entire strip, so instead I will chalk it up to different folks expecting wildly different things out of the comic, and leave it at that.

Me, I love it!

 

[Storm Raven]

Belkar's locked down time and again by Miko's stunning blow, consistantly failing his will save. All levels in classes with poor will saves and having a crappy wis will do that.

But it's not a will save for stunning blow.. it's a fort save. Which Belkar should be able to handle no problem. The little sociopath shouldn't have been out of the fight at all.

Damn. I can't believe I missed that. Let's list that as yet another rule error in the strip. Let's see, as a Ranger/Barbarian, Belkar's base Fortitude save should be around +9. Add in some Constitution bonus (he's clearly a min/maxed combat character, so his Constitution should be reasonably high) and that goes up to +12 or so.

Miko's stunning fist save DC should be 10 + 6 (for half her class levels, guessing she is 12th level) + 4 (assuming she has an 18 Wisdom) = 20. Belkar should make that more often than not.

 

[Storm Raven]

When words like 'credibility' and 'DM cheating' are used in reference to OotS, I'm absolutely bemused. Do you truly, honestly read that comic with the expectation that all the rules are dotted and crossed, that every combat has been meticulously worked out, and *that you are actually following the adventures of an actual campaign*, like some kind of stick-figure story hour? Surely the self-aware PC's, who attack, outwit, and take advantage of the rules behind their characters, who know eachother's feats, skills, and ability scores, and who say things like "Y'know, I think I just failed a Listen check!" suggest that this is not the case?

Part of the fun of the strip has always been that the members of the OotS understand the rules under which their lives operate. Ignoring them for convenience saps away much of that fun.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I just can't bring myself to believe that you, or anyone, has so deftly missed missed the point of the entire strip...

the point of the strip is to entertain and amuse the readers of the strip. When some of the readers of the strip fail to be entertained or amused when that was what they had grown accustomed to, they sometimes bitch about it with other readers of the strip. Folks who try to explain that it is entertaining in spite of us not feeling entertained are the ones missing the point.

 

[WizarDru]

I suppose it's a mark of how popular OoTS has become that folks are so worked up over this current storyline.

Which just makes it funnier, to me. And proves that Paladins really are a polarizing factor, I guess.