Order of the Stick

Started in 2003, this webcomic has grown to one of the most well known in the business and is still at less than 700 pages (at the time of writing). The story follows a group of six characters through Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) style adventures. So far they have fought off a lich named Xykon, defended their innocence against a samuri style group of paladins, defended a city against goblin invasion, helped relocate the citizens of said city when they failed, and are currently setting off on another adventure. This group of characters and their adventures have become so popular that the artist has created (and is selling at a decent clip) five books and a board game based on the comic.

At first this strip seems like one of your garden variety “joke a strip” types in a D&D setting, but the reader soon realizes just how well thought out and well developed the story arcs are. I’ve seen jokes set up for a dozen comics before hand, and still have them come out funnier than I thought they would be. Also, on the same site, the writer (Rich Burlew) has notes of a d20 world (the type of thing that D&D is) that he is creating: there are stories and D&D homebrew material from Rich and some of his friends, and even a few essays on play theory.

Another thing that becomes readily apparent in this comic: Rich Burlew is a D&D nerd. Many of the jokes are tailored for other D&D nerds and aren’t as funny for those who haven’t spent Saturday nights around a table battling orcs. Some of the jokes don’t even make sense if you have played D&D or some other d20 module. Fortunately there is a saving grace for the laymen. A goodly sized portion of the jokes make sense to anyone who understands English.

Overall, this comic is a good read no matter your level (or lack of level) of geekyness.

For people who have played D&D: (5 stars)
For those people who haven’t played D&D: (4 stars)

You can find the website at : http://www.giantitp.com/

The first strip is at:http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html