This is the thread for discussion of The Order of the Stick plot, characters, etc. We have a separate thread
for discussing game rules and mechanics. Excessive rules discussions here may be thumped as off-topic.
OP edited to make this header - Fighteer
edited 18th Sep '17 1:08:08 PM by Fighteer
#1199: Helpful for Counting Though
Just like the team to get into an argument over how many party members (and hands) they have.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"That must be recent, since a common gripe has been that the title of the comic only appears in the sidebar while it's current, meaning you have to go to the archive to see it afterward.
Edited by Fighteer on Apr 9th 2020 at 11:12:19 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"That's a real recent change, maybe two weeks at most. I first noticed it when I went to cite Oona's statement about keeping the ecology of the caverns intact.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.Maybe, maybe not.
Rich doesn't really seem to do anniversary or milestone comics anymore.
One Strip! One Strip!At the risk of making things a little too complicated, what if revealing the gate does require a sacrifice - but not necessarily a new one? Serini experienced personal loss linked to the gate (Kraagor) and would thus have her shortcut as discussed above, but anyone else trying to gain access would need to lose or have lost somebody (or maybe something) of personal value in pursuit of that goal.
Of course, this idea is refuted by the argument brought up earlier of requiring willing sacrifice being pretty damn evil in effect (if not in intention), and also by the structure of the gate's security. After all, meeting lots of monsters provides ample opportunity for a sufficiently motivated individual to sacrifice themselves, even in an Evil group. Besides, being unwilling to sacrifice for a goal or for people important to you doesn't seem to be a universally Evil trait in Rich's world, so I am personally quite ambivalent about this idea.
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If it's not human sacrifice, it's basically spell components / cost of making magical items, which is a standard part of the world. Sacrifice a diamond in the process of resurrecting someone. Have 20,000 gold disappear as you make a magic item. In the world of D&D, it's assumed they're used (and consumed) in the process of doing the magic, but in the world of OOTS, I want to say they're just shown vanishing. So not evil.
Maybe not a sacrifice, but the memory of one?
I'm not up to speed on D&D artifacts, but's let's say... something that makes you forget an important memory, or that you can give a memory to in exchange for something else. Or maybe a creature, put there like some kind of metaphysical toll booth, where you give it the memory of something important of your own in exchange for passage.
I'm not sure it fits the story or Serini's character, but I started having the idea, it got away from me, and now it's there. I don't know if I got anywhere near anything, but I sure know it's going to make it into the story next time I run a D&D session.
Yep. That's it. That's the one.
Speculation about the nature of the Gate can end, because this proposal wins forever.
And the "sacrifice" is the sacrifice of your hard-earned dollars!
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.You could make it an ironic sacrifice.
Like, in order to reach it, you have to give up whatever goal requires you to reach the gate.
Redcloak has to give up on the plan, Xykon has to die permanently (when his actions are about not doing so).
So it deliberately puts them in a Morton's Fork where the thing they have to give up to get to the get is the same thing they want the gate for, making it impossible for them to reach.
Not sure what the order would need to give up though. Most of them are in it to save the world and they can't sacrifice the world in order to reach the gate because that would mean destroying the gate.
One Strip! One Strip!

EDIT: dangit pagetopper
Edited by Will29 on Apr 8th 2020 at 3:53:10 PM