The Order of the Stick

A nice demonstration of why in the military The Captain's orders are supposed to be obeyed immediately, without question - it's their job to know what they're doing, and in combat, they often won't have time to explain the thought process behind their orders, so, JUST - DO IT!

Nobody give their weapons to Roy any more.

... what if Roy fell out? That was a very likely outcome of Bandana's manoeuvre.

Eh. Narrative luck would have saved him. The ship is built on that shit.

The giant has a much higher center of gravity than him, he had a far lower chance of going completely over the side.

It looks to me like Narrative Luck did save Roy, given his fingers in the big panel.

edited 5th Jun '17 11:08:25 PM by Michael

He did completely go over the side.

Nice inertial assist there, Cap'n.

"Xykon can fly"

Poor Roy just can't get a break from being constantly reminded of dying.

If anything, wouldn't the giant's high centre of gravity mean Roy would have to aim his own mass higher up to knock her backwards, increasing his own risk of going overboard?

Glad this stuff never comes up in-game. *rolls contested Str check*

edited 14th Jun '17 4:10:41 PM by johnnye

If the intent were to maximise torque around the giant's feet, yes, but that's not what balance depends on.

Yes, it does. The giant's weight produces a torque at the edge of her footprint. To knock her over you need to overcome that torque, and the higher you push, the less force you need.

But the ship is rolling, so aiming high shouldn't be a problem. The impact should also slow Roy down enough that he can catch that ledge after the tackle. Not to mention he jumped too.

OMG, are we really having an angular momentum debate over a D&D webcomic?

I think I can say without much exaggeration that this comic has inspired pages long debates over less.

Like "What is Miko's alignment" or "Is Malack actually a good guy?"

And, of course, the incredible rule-wankery inspired by familicide.

edited 16th Jun '17 5:43:19 AM by Kayeka

Sure, but those are actually rooted in game mechanics and/or story.

Cutting the debate mercifully short

Ah, Roy, pragmatic as always when it comes to the details of NPCs' lives.

Dropping their weapons is definitely going to come back to bite them in the ass.

Considering not dropping them would have meant going in circles until they crashed and then wandering the giant infested mountains on foot, I'd take that bite.

Good strip but one confusion. Is the frost giant that Roy and Elan were dumping the Giantess that Roy was battling for the last several strips? It seemed to be, which confused me, as I thought she had plummeted a long distance (which due to game mechanics would incidentally not necessarily have killed her).

Speaking of weapons, also wondering how Roy's going to find his sword.

edited 16th Jun '17 9:39:45 AM by Hodor2

No, that was the male giant seen here.

V should be able to track it down with some kind of scrying, I think. She's familiar with the sword so it shouldn't be an issue unless they just leave without it.

It's even possible they picked up the sword while trying to catch up to the ship.