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Order of the Stick

2020-01-20T11:38:46Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293: /* The Party */

{{/co/}}
[[Image:PostersTogetherBig.jpg|center|500px]]

{{Topquote|Holy shit, this is still ongoing?!|Every anon, at some point}}

'''Order of the Stick''' (also known as '''WORDSWORDSWORDS'''), written and drawn by Rich Burlew, is by far one of the most popular /tg/-related [[webcomic]]s in existence. Essentially, it's about a party of classic [[Dungeons & Dragons]]-style adventurers on an epic, high fantasy adventure, except they are well aware they're actually in a game (which isn't to say that they break the fourth wall, but rather they casually discuss things like saving throws and to-hit bonuses as though they were common knowledge). However, it quickly grew from a very funny parody of D&D to serious pastiche of fantasy in general (a lesser form of the condition what TVTropes calls as [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CerebusSyndrome Cerebus Syndrome]), gaining a complicated-yet-interesting plot, a host of characters from all sides of the [[Alignment]] table, while retaining the humourous tone the comic is known for.

This has caused OotS to devolve into a [[skub]] topic, at least on /tg/. Half of /tg/ thinks the comic has shit pacing, poor jokes, and an army of sycophants who refuse to see that everything has gone wrong, whereas the other half of /tg/ believes that the comic is just as funny as it always was, and with better plotlines than most fantasy novels to boot. Many fa/tg/uys also complain that the comic is "too simplistic" art-wise, given it has a strict stick-figure aesthetic. Burlew has proven his drawing chops on many occasions and notes in the FAQ that the stick-figures "bring the right air of humor to the strip," not to mention the fact that the style, for better or worse, has become the comic's hallmark and can't be changed now. Also, compared to [[Servants of the Imperium]], the later OotS strips are pure gold. That being said, Burlew is a fan of the "wall of text" method of comic design, and frequently seems like he'd be much happier just writing a book.

In other words, standard skub stuff, and has given rise to the fa/tg/uy project [[thog edits]], redos of the comic to eliminate the words and in the process twist the dialogue into something dirty.

[[Image:Miko_ready_to_smite.png|thumb|Spared no expense on the art budget for this climax]]

Rich Burlew's only other claim to fame is coming in second place (or, as he likes to call it, "first loser") in [[Wizards of the Coast]]'s "design a campaign setting" contest. He lost to Keith Baker's [[Eberron]]. This is either a great thing or a terrible thing, depending on how you feel about Eberron. Unfortunately, WotC kept all rights to the setting and put the designers under NDA, so we'll never actually see his entry, as it seems they locked it in a darkened room and forgot about it.

The comic has been put into a number of printed volumes, with the latest volumes funded via [[Kickstarter]].

==The Cast==
Of course a D&D story would be nothing without [[PC]]s, [[BBEG]]s and a supporting cast of [[NPC]]s. They are on all sides of the spectrum between [[skub]] tier and god tier.

{{spoilers}}

===The Party===
The titular Order of the Stick, named first for the artstyle, then retconned into a nearby object. All of their builds are purposely terrible (on Burlew's part) to both A) make the fight scenes last longer than two panels, and to B) emphasize reliance on clever tactics and teamwork to win. The exception, impossibly enough, being Elan.

* Roy Greenhilt, the party's [[fighter]] and leader. Despite avoiding the whole "INT is a fighter's [[dump stat]]" thing, he still spends most of his time hitting things with his green-hilted (get it?) greatsword, putting up with the party's bullshit and, for a good chunk of the comic, being dead. Comes up with the plans and gives out the orders too, if they'd <s>down</s>upgraded to 4e he'd be a [[warlord]]. Or a tactician archetype in [[Pathfinder]]. Or a battle-master in [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|5e]]. Or... let's just say that subsequent editions were much kinder to his archetype than the one he's playing in. There was a gag about him not going for [[warblade]], a class he'd probably excel at, because his bitter old wizard father didn't want to shell out for a ''doctorate'' from Fighter College.
* Haley Starshine, the party's [[rogue]] and second in command. [[Blood Ravens|Will steal everything that isn't bolted down, then steal the bolts, followed by stealing the thing that was bolted down.]] Has an actual reason to do so: to pay off her father's life-sentence in prison. Then, when she met him he wanted nothing to do with her because she was snackin' on the rapier of the son of the man who put him there. Welp. Wields a bow and is comfortable with fighting as dirty as possible to win. Despite her greed and cynicism she is a loyal party member, and manages to stay "[[Chaotic Good]]-ish." Dating Elan after a messy incident involving her being unable to speak for about a hundred comics and him meeting a Final Fantasy character.
* Elan, the party's [[bard]]. He is the living embodiment of every derpy character you ever rolled up just to screw with your friends. He's as thick as a loaf of fine [[meatbread]], sucks at barding duties (often resulting in "wacky" hijinks) and has a [[prestige class]] that forces him to make bad puns as he fights. As the story goes on, he starts to suck less, and it helps that he's the ONLY member of the team with an optimized build. (Maxed CHA for everything bard-related, plus that prestige class adds it to his attack and damage, meaning that he doesn't suffer from [[MAD]] as much as a typical bard.) Apparently, if Haley can be trusted, that maxed CHA is worth a good deal "under the hood." As a bard consciously aware that he exists in a fantasy story, Elan is the character most, "narratively equipped," to deal with the environment and is often able to use rules of traditional storytelling to predict, even manipulate events. In other words, he's a metagamer.
* Durkon Thundershield, the [[dwarf]]en [[cleric]]. Gruff, dutiful and honorable, as all good dwarves should be. Pretty stereotypical and solid in his support of the team. Has an accent so thick that it affects the way his dialouge is spelled, despite no other dwarf family in the comic talking like him. His clan had a vision that his return would herald a great cataclysm, so they sent him away and told him they'd tell him when he could come back and never did, because no one in fantasy stories has ever read a fantasy story. Was turned into a [[vampire]] for 200 strips until he got staked, died, got resurrected, died ''again'' 30 seconds later after an ill-advised marriage proposal, then got resurrected for real. Received a hell of a plot dump from Thor while dead, and was tasked with convincing Redcloak to betray his dark god and save the world(s). Also now wields a powerful lightning hammer which Thor told him where to find.
* Belkar Bitterleaf, the chaotic evil [[halfling]] [[multiclassing|multiclassed]] [[ranger]]-[[barbarian]]. A hard-drinking, hard-fighting, hard-fucking killing machine, Belkar is one of the best characters in the comic. [[Murderhobo|He kills what he can't fuck and he fucks what he can't kill, sometimes fucking things before he kills them]] (but not the other way around, ew). His style of fighting involves stabbing as many dudes as possible with as many knives as possible. Despite being able to steamroll regular enemies, his low Will means that any spellcasters he faces will kick his ass, and his effed-up build (barbarian-ranger is an unhappy marriage where XP is concerned, his low STR means he mostly has to kill minions with tricky maneuvering, and his low WIS makes him useless at casting Ranger spells) means that bigger people (like Roy) can still kick his ass. Still, he is murderously awesome and the PC with the biggest body count thus far (or would be if it wasn't for the time a powered up Vaarsuvius cast an evil epic spell that unintentionally caused a far bigger genocide than they intended). Has a pet cat called Mr. Scruffy, hurting him will cause Belkar to rip you inside out,and vice versa. Also has a motherfucking allosaurus (currently polymorphed into a small lizard).
* Vaarsuvius, the [[elven]] [[wizard]]. V's undescribed gender is something of a running joke - emphasis on "something"- in the series, which makes you wonder what their voice must sound like for it to be of no help in the matter. They have a spouse at home who is also of unknown gender, and it isn't even clear if they are the same or different sexes; both are likely a play on elven androgyny. V's primary M.O. is "use fireball", [[Meme|and if that doesn't work, "use more fireball"]] (fitting, given their name). They also like to prank people with the Explosive Runes spell, and other forms of blaster magic may or may not be prominent. The fact that this is probably the worst way to play a wizard in no way diminishes the fact that V is easily the most powerful member of the Order by a country-mile, able to turn the tide of entire battles unless some convenient dramatic device takes them out of the action for a while, which it often has. While they used to possess an ego befitting both an elf and a wizard, V was recently taken down a notch when they were forced to sell their soul to a [[Tanar'ri|demon]], [[Baatezu|devil]] and [[Yugoloth|daemon]] (all at the same time) to save their spouse and (adopted) children from a black [[dragon]]. They eventually [[RAGE|flipped the fuck out]] and [[powergamer|killed up to a quarter of all black dragons in existence through a nasty 'Familicide' custom spell]] alongside their direct non-blood related (read: non-dragon) families in order to posthumously spite said dragon. They are horrified when they realized the unintended consequences of this caused the deaths of countless innocent people with black dragon ancestry or even with no dragon ancestry who had relations to those people.
* Minrah Elle Shaleshoe: A female Dwarf Cleric/Fighter multiclass who joins the party much later in the story. She first joins with them to stop an attack on the dwarven lands by vampires lead by vampire Durkon, but at the end of that arc decides to join up with them permanently after learning about the threat of the Snarl while she and Durkon were both dead.

===Antagonists===
====Team Evil====
* Xykon the [[lich]]. An [[epic]] level [[sorcerer]], Xykon is bored out of his skull and as such toys around with holes in reality that serve as gates to [[Warp|a dimension containing a world-eating snarl]]. Doesn't like [[wizard]]s because they were condescending to him during his life, and likes beating the shit out of them with his ability to cast spells over and over again (like Energy Drain). He is wholly and unapologetically evil, and [[Eldrad|kind of a dick]], but he's still kind of funny because his charisma is through the fucking roof.
* Redcloak the [[goblin]] [[cleric]]. Xykon's main henchgoblin and ruler of a major goblin tribe, Redcloak is the guy who's told to "get it done". And hoo boy, does he get it done. He murders the resistance to his people's occupation of a major city, has another of Xykon's servants eaten by her own wights and reveals that he was using Xykon from the beginning for the good of his people, all in the span of a half dozen pages. Has a lot of backstory in the prequel comic, but you have to pay for it so f*#$ that noise.
* The Monster in the Darkness is a creature of many mysteries and few truths. All we know that it has two yellow eyes and acts even stupider than Elan. It also is stupidly powerful: it can punch people so far they are launched into the sky; it stomping on the ground is powerful enough to cause localized earthquakes; and it can teleport people with but a word and a thought. Has the personality of a child (a non-evil one). After extended contact with O-Chul, has begun to think for himself, discovering, to his own surprise, that he is actually ''extremely'' intelligent and doesn't ''want'' Team Evil to win, and so has begun subtly undermining their efforts from within, something that has been enormously successful because none of his teammates see it coming or expect him to do ''anything'' smart. [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?488773-Summon-MitD-IX-Roll-on-Section-3a If you think you've got the brains, feel free to jump on the ride that never ends and try to follow the breadcrumbs and figure out what he is.] We'll wait. [[Troll| Remember to only pick ones with Trenchant Political Analysis as a listed special attack!]]
* Tsukiko, a mystic theurge. A necrophile necromancer with a crush on Xykon. She was in charge of the wight brigade until she discovered Redcloak's plan to double-cross Xykon, which got her eaten by her own wights for her troubles.
====The Linear Guild====
* Started out as evil counterparts of the PCs (which was deliberately done by their leader, Elan's twin brother Nale (get it? Nale is Elan backwards!)). The Guild consists of three core members plus two other slots that keep having replacements due to death or quitting:
** Nale, a Fighter-Rogue-Sorcerer multiclass specializing in enchantment, which is, if you didn't notice, basically a [[bard]] only [[Tzeentch|more complicated]] and capable of being Lawful Evil. Is permanently dead; he was stabbed by his father and was subsequently disintegrated for murdering Malack and rejecting his father's attempt to reconcile.
** Sabine, a [[succubus]] and Nale's lover with whom she shares a deep and fulfilling relationship based on human sacrifice. Is currently stuck somewhere in the Lower Planes, trying to get revenge on her boyfriend's murderer, and since Thog is also probably dead she the last member not to die or quit.
** Thog, a [[Half-Orc]] [[barbarian]] who's part of the Dumbass Triumvirate alongside Elan and the Monster in the Darkness. He talks like the Incredible Hulk. Although unconfirmed, he likely is dead after Roy tricked him into collapsing a ceiling on himself, burying him under a ton of rubble.
* On the four different occasions the teams have clashed the Linear Guild employed a subset of the following people:
* '''First Encounter'''
** Zz'Dtri, the [[drow]] wizard. An obvious copy of [[Drizzt]], he was hauled off by the lawyers of [[Wizards of the Coast]] for being an obvious [[Drizzt]] copy. [[Wat|Yes, that happened]]. Later returned ([[Wat|because he was a parody, not a copy, protected speech bitches!]]) and clashed with V using all the interim levels to tailor his build just to fighting the wizard. This did him no good against Durkon, the party cleric, particularly with that vampire strength boost. Currently dead
** Hilgya Firehelm, a dwarven cleric of [[Troll|Loki]] who fucked, fought and fled from Durkon during the Guild's first encounter with the Order, in that approximate order. Reappeared after over 1000 strips to save the party from a vampire horde in the nick of time. Has a self-serving memory, believing everyone around her is selfish when she's one of the most selfish beings on the planet. Brought Durkon's baby into the battle [[Dwarf_Fortress|like a true dorf]].
** Yikyik the [[kobold]] ranger. Was beheaded by Belkar and turned into a [[hat]]. Currently dead.
* '''Second Encounter'''
** Pompey the [[half-elf]] wizard (get it? Pompey and Vaarsuvius are named after Pompeii and Vesuvius! We're clever). Had a crush on Roy's sister and teamed up with the Linear Guild so that he could have her, but he was defeated, imprisoned, and then escaped, signing on with Leeky. Has not been seen since.
** Leeky Windstaff the [[gnome]] [[druid]]. Turned into a giant monster and rampaged through a city (get it? [[CoDzilla]]!) before being defeated by Durkon and escaping alongside Pompey.
** Yokyok, son of Yikyik. A parody of [[The Princess Bride|Inigo Montoya]] who attacked Belkar for... oh do I even have to say it? Belkar was under a curse preventing him from killing, so he set a tavern full of [[adventurer]]s loose on Yokyok, then turned his head into a nacho repository. Currently dead.
* '''Third Encounter'''
** Yukyuk. Yet another kobold: this one was dominated (the status effect, mind you) by V and got used as a litter box ([[Sick| without being decapitate first!]]) and living trap-springer before dying in a horrific accident protecting a [[cat]].
* '''Fourth Encounter'''
* The fourth encounter with the Linear Guild included Tarquin and Malack (as below). It also involved Chancellor Kilkil (Urd, a Kobold variant... with wings! Its in the 2nd ed MM), who is more a clerk and personal assistant than a combatant, though he is a hyper-competent bureaucrat and a flying calculator.
** General Tarquin, a human [[warlord]], general of the Empress of Blood and de facto ruler of the Empire of Blood. Despite the suggestion of him being aligned to [[Khorne]] this is far from the truth: he is a friendly and cheerful person like his son Elan, but at the same time is outright ruthless and has the evil smarts like his other son, Nale. He is the ultimate in [[Alignment|Lawful Evil]]: he understands that his rule is not eternal, but his legacy can be. As such he is forging an entire continent into his empire: even when he is defeated (which he holds as being inevitable) he gets to be a legend. Though he's not very keen on the "being stabbed by a hero" part, it would mean he gets to live like a god for who-knows-how-long, and only the last few minutes sucked. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html The man himself explains it best.] On the other hand, given his Lawful obsession with forcing the messy chaos of reality to conform to the outline of a neat little story, refusing to conform to the character archetype he expects you to fill (e.g. playing a [[bard]] when he thinks you're the protagonist) causes him to quickly fly into a fit of [[butthurt]] rage to put [[That Guy]] to shame and start [[railroading]]. On joining the Linear Guild he disguised himself as Thog.
** Minister Malack is a lizardfolk (possibly yuan-ti) cleric of Nergal and serves as adviser to the Empress of Blood and Tarquin. Is actually a [[vampire]] and has just turned Durkon into one. Like his former adventuring companion Tarquin, Malack is an affable and well-spoken person and is the heir to the Empire of Blood after Tarquin's death. When he does become the next Emperor he plans to [[Emperor|sacrifice a thousand people to his god per day]] [[grimdark|in rooms that serve as gas chambers/abattoirs, the sacrifices generated by a continent's worth of people living and dying for the glory of Nergal]] (although the writer later stated he means meat packing rooms as he plans to use the thousand sacrifices to feed to himself and his vampiric spawn, who'll be running the empire). Like I said, real nice guy. Has a beef with Nale for killing three of his "children", but set aside his grudge at Tarquin's behest. Even then he is a honorable person: when he promises not to kill someone despite it serving his goals, he does so. A very different sort of Lawful Evil, but still fits. Perma-dead, having been killed by Nale with sunlight, which has a disintegration effect on vampires.

===Other Characters===
* Miko Miyazaki, an absolutely and fanatically [[Lawful Stupid]] [[Paladin]]. None of the other paladins like her so they send her on far away missions as much as possible. She is sent to capture the Order of the Stick after they destroy one of the gates containing the Snarl and though Roy initially is attracted to her he later realizes that she really is a horrible unlikeable person. She is so convinced that she is a good person who does everything right due to being a servant of the gods that she becomes increasingly detached from reality as the evidences stacks up that she is doing wrong. After losing her paladin powers, she tries to redeem herself by sacrificing herself to save the day, but [[Fail|the only thing she accomplished was making the situation worse]].
* O-Chul. The Lawful [[Awesome]] Paladin. He is everything that a paladin should be and everything that Miko isn't. He is reasonable and a nice guy. While captured by Team Evil, he is put through all kinds of tortures both for Xykon's amusement and Redcloak trying to get information and survives all of them, never giving up defying them. During his time as a prisoner he manages to befriend The Monster in the Darkness and convince him that Xykon and Redcloak are not his friends. He is another poorly optimized character. He used to be a normal Fighter so his charisma score is terrible, and thus is bad at casting his paladin spells, but has an insanely high constitution that lets him tank godly amounts of damage (he has a hit point total on par with ''young adult dragons'').

==Before You Get Butthurt About Battle Strategies...==
{{topquote|Here's the thing: No matter what I draw in any battle scene, within ten minutes of posting it someone chimes in about how the characters are stupid for not executing this, that, or the other tactic. Never mind that said tactic would likely end the fight in one panel when it is my job to provide you with an entertaining battle scene. Never mind that said tactic may result in the person winning whom the plot does not need to win. Never mind that the fight may not be over yet. No, all that matters is that these characters are not living up to someone's imagined D&D tactical mastery. Well, I don't give a damn anymore. The characters fight the way they fight to make an interesting page. They may make subpar decisions, I don't care. I don't spend enough time with the D&D rules anymore to eke out all of these Ultimate Killer Strategies anyway, so we're really running up against the limits of my knowledge and ability. The characters can't be better strategists than I am, and I care more about other aspects. Such strategies are usually boring to read and visually bland to look at anyway. There aren't going to be a lot of invisible save-or-die effects thrown around, because there are only so many ways I can draw characters succeeding at Fortitude saves (and then I still have to verbally explain what just happened). You should stop expecting them, because I'm not going to use them. My job is to entertain, not to showcase perfect D&D tactics. If you can't be entertained by anything BUT perfect D&D tactics, that's on you.|A quote from Burlew on the matter}}

It helps that Burlew has never revealed what anyone's level is, specifically so he can fudge the rules. To pull a random example, Vaar snags 13 people in Mass Enlarge Person, implying they're level 13, only to immediately use four Wiz6 spells (Mass Bull's Strength, Mass Bear's Endurance, two Disintegrates) in less than two minutes -- level 13 Wizards should only be able use two Wiz6 spells per day.

In spite of this, however, fans have [[Get shit done|speculated extensively on the levels, abilities, and feats of various characters]], and have managed to create a [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?545476-Class-and-Level-Geekery-XV-What-s-the-Damage-of-a-Thrown-Pineapple fairly comprehensive list] of these, usually accurate to 1-2 levels.

== Links ==
* [[Skub]]
* [http://www.giantitp.com/Comics.html The website]
* [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick The article on] [[TVTropes]] where you can see all the clichés Burlew uses/makes fun of.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Webcomics]]

Order of the Stick

2020-01-20T11:34:12Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293: /* The Party */

{{/co/}}
[[Image:PostersTogetherBig.jpg|center|500px]]

{{Topquote|Holy shit, this is still ongoing?!|Every anon, at some point}}

'''Order of the Stick''' (also known as '''WORDSWORDSWORDS'''), written and drawn by Rich Burlew, is by far one of the most popular /tg/-related [[webcomic]]s in existence. Essentially, it's about a party of classic [[Dungeons & Dragons]]-style adventurers on an epic, high fantasy adventure, except they are well aware they're actually in a game (which isn't to say that they break the fourth wall, but rather they casually discuss things like saving throws and to-hit bonuses as though they were common knowledge). However, it quickly grew from a very funny parody of D&D to serious pastiche of fantasy in general (a lesser form of the condition what TVTropes calls as [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CerebusSyndrome Cerebus Syndrome]), gaining a complicated-yet-interesting plot, a host of characters from all sides of the [[Alignment]] table, while retaining the humourous tone the comic is known for.

This has caused OotS to devolve into a [[skub]] topic, at least on /tg/. Half of /tg/ thinks the comic has shit pacing, poor jokes, and an army of sycophants who refuse to see that everything has gone wrong, whereas the other half of /tg/ believes that the comic is just as funny as it always was, and with better plotlines than most fantasy novels to boot. Many fa/tg/uys also complain that the comic is "too simplistic" art-wise, given it has a strict stick-figure aesthetic. Burlew has proven his drawing chops on many occasions and notes in the FAQ that the stick-figures "bring the right air of humor to the strip," not to mention the fact that the style, for better or worse, has become the comic's hallmark and can't be changed now. Also, compared to [[Servants of the Imperium]], the later OotS strips are pure gold. That being said, Burlew is a fan of the "wall of text" method of comic design, and frequently seems like he'd be much happier just writing a book.

In other words, standard skub stuff, and has given rise to the fa/tg/uy project [[thog edits]], redos of the comic to eliminate the words and in the process twist the dialogue into something dirty.

[[Image:Miko_ready_to_smite.png|thumb|Spared no expense on the art budget for this climax]]

Rich Burlew's only other claim to fame is coming in second place (or, as he likes to call it, "first loser") in [[Wizards of the Coast]]'s "design a campaign setting" contest. He lost to Keith Baker's [[Eberron]]. This is either a great thing or a terrible thing, depending on how you feel about Eberron. Unfortunately, WotC kept all rights to the setting and put the designers under NDA, so we'll never actually see his entry, as it seems they locked it in a darkened room and forgot about it.

The comic has been put into a number of printed volumes, with the latest volumes funded via [[Kickstarter]].

==The Cast==
Of course a D&D story would be nothing without [[PC]]s, [[BBEG]]s and a supporting cast of [[NPC]]s. They are on all sides of the spectrum between [[skub]] tier and god tier.

{{spoilers}}

===The Party===
The titular Order of the Stick, named first for the artstyle, then retconned into a nearby object. All of their builds are purposely terrible (on Burlew's part) to both A) make the fight scenes last longer than two panels, and to B) emphasize reliance on clever tactics and teamwork to win. The exception, impossibly enough, being Elan.

* Roy Greenhilt, the party's [[fighter]] and leader. Despite avoiding the whole "INT is a fighter's [[dump stat]]" thing, he still spends most of his time hitting things with his green-hilted (get it?) greatsword, putting up with the party's bullshit and, for a good chunk of the comic, being dead. Comes up with the plans and gives out the orders too, if they'd <s>down</s>upgraded to 4e he'd be a [[warlord]]. Or a tactician archetype in [[Pathfinder]]. Or a battle-master in [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|5e]]. Or... let's just say that subsequent editions were much kinder to his archetype than the one he's playing in. There was a gag about him not going for [[warblade]], a class he'd probably excel at, because his bitter old wizard father didn't want to shell out for a ''doctorate'' from Fighter College.
* Haley Starshine, the party's [[rogue]] and second in command. [[Blood Ravens|Will steal everything that isn't bolted down, then steal the bolts, followed by stealing the thing that was bolted down.]] Has an actual reason to do so: to pay off her father's life-sentence in prison. Then, when she met him he wanted nothing to do with her because she was snackin' on the rapier of the son of the man who put him there. Welp. Wields a bow and is comfortable with fighting as dirty as possible to win. Despite her greed and cynicism she is a loyal party member, and manages to stay "[[Chaotic Good]]-ish." Dating Elan after a messy incident involving her being unable to speak for about a hundred comics and him meeting a Final Fantasy character.
* Elan, the party's [[bard]]. He is the living embodiment of every derpy character you ever rolled up just to screw with your friends. He's as thick as a loaf of fine [[meatbread]], sucks at barding duties (often resulting in "wacky" hijinks) and has a [[prestige class]] that forces him to make bad puns as he fights. As the story goes on, he starts to suck less, and it helps that he's the ONLY member of the team with an optimized build. (Maxed CHA for everything bard-related, plus that prestige class adds it to his attack and damage, meaning that he doesn't suffer from [[MAD]] as much as a typical bard.) Apparently, if Haley can be trusted, that maxed CHA is worth a good deal "under the hood." As a bard consciously aware that he exists in a fantasy story, Elan is the character most, "narratively equipped," to deal with the environment and is often able to use rules of traditional storytelling to predict, even manipulate events. In other words, he's a metagamer.
* Durkon Thundershield, the [[dwarf]]en [[cleric]]. Gruff, dutiful and honorable, as all good dwarves should be. Pretty stereotypical and solid in his support of the team. Has an accent so thick that it affects the way his dialouge is spelled, despite no other dwarf family in the comic talking like him. His clan had a vision that his return would herald a great cataclysm, so they sent him away and told him they'd tell him when he could come back and never did, because no one in fantasy stories has ever read a fantasy story. Was turned into a [[vampire]] for 200 strips until he got staked, died, got resurrected, died ''again'' 30 seconds later after an ill-advised marriage proposal, then got resurrected for real. Received a hell of a plot dump from Thor while dead, and was tasked with convincing Redcloak to betray his dark god and save the world(s). Also now wields a powerful lightning hammer which Thor told him where to find.
* Belkar Bitterleaf, the chaotic evil [[halfling]] [[multiclassing|multiclassed]] [[ranger]]-[[barbarian]]. A hard-drinking, hard-fighting, hard-fucking killing machine, Belkar is one of the best characters in the comic. [[Murderhobo|He kills what he can't fuck and he fucks what he can't kill, sometimes fucking things before he kills them]] (but not the other way around, ew). His style of fighting involves stabbing as many dudes as possible with as many knives as possible. Despite being able to steamroll regular enemies, his low Will means that any spellcasters he faces will kick his ass, and his effed-up build (barbarian-ranger is an unhappy marriage where XP is concerned, and his low STR means he mostly has to kill minions with tricky maneuvering) means that bigger people (like Roy) can still kick his ass. Still, he is murderously awesome and the PC with the biggest body count thus far (or would be if it wasn't for the time a powered up Vaarsuvius cast an evil epic spell that unintentionally a far bigger genocide than they intended). Has a pet cat called Mr. Scruffy, hurting him will cause Belkar to rip you inside out,and vice versa. Also has a motherfucking allosaurus (currently polymorphed into a small lizard).
* Vaarsuvius, the [[elven]] [[wizard]]. V's undescribed gender is something of a running joke - emphasis on "something"- in the series, which makes you wonder what their voice must sound like for it to be of no help in the matter. They have a spouse at home who is also of unknown gender, and it isn't even clear if they are the same or different sexes; both are likely a play on elven androgyny. V's primary M.O. is "use fireball", [[Meme|and if that doesn't work, "use more fireball"]] (fitting, given their name). They also like to prank people with the Explosive Runes spell, and other forms of blaster magic may or may not be prominent. The fact that this is probably the worst way to play a wizard in no way diminishes the fact that V is easily the most powerful member of the Order by a country-mile, able to turn the tide of entire battles unless some convenient dramatic device takes them out of the action for a while, which it often has. While they used to possess an ego befitting both an elf and a wizard, V was recently taken down a notch when they were forced to sell their soul to a [[Tanar'ri|demon]], [[Baatezu|devil]] and [[Yugoloth|daemon]] (all at the same time) to save their spouse and (adopted) children from a black [[dragon]]. They eventually [[RAGE|flipped the fuck out]] and [[powergamer|killed up to a quarter of all black dragons in existence through a nasty 'Familicide' custom spell]] alongside their direct non-blood related (read: non-dragon) families in order to posthumously spite said dragon. They are horrified when they realized the unintended consequences of this caused the deaths of countless innocent people with black dragon ancestry or even with no dragon ancestry who had relations to those people.
* Minrah Elle Shaleshoe: A female Dwarf Cleric/Fighter multiclass who joins the party much later in the story. She first joins with them to stop an attack on the dwarven lands by vampires lead by vampire Durkon, but at the end of that arc decides to join up with them permanently after learning about the threat of the Snarl while she and Durkon were both dead.

===Antagonists===
====Team Evil====
* Xykon the [[lich]]. An [[epic]] level [[sorcerer]], Xykon is bored out of his skull and as such toys around with holes in reality that serve as gates to [[Warp|a dimension containing a world-eating snarl]]. Doesn't like [[wizard]]s because they were condescending to him during his life, and likes beating the shit out of them with his ability to cast spells over and over again (like Energy Drain). He is wholly and unapologetically evil, and [[Eldrad|kind of a dick]], but he's still kind of funny because his charisma is through the fucking roof.
* Redcloak the [[goblin]] [[cleric]]. Xykon's main henchgoblin and ruler of a major goblin tribe, Redcloak is the guy who's told to "get it done". And hoo boy, does he get it done. He murders the resistance to his people's occupation of a major city, has another of Xykon's servants eaten by her own wights and reveals that he was using Xykon from the beginning for the good of his people, all in the span of a half dozen pages. Has a lot of backstory in the prequel comic, but you have to pay for it so f*#$ that noise.
* The Monster in the Darkness is a creature of many mysteries and few truths. All we know that it has two yellow eyes and acts even stupider than Elan. It also is stupidly powerful: it can punch people so far they are launched into the sky; it stomping on the ground is powerful enough to cause localized earthquakes; and it can teleport people with but a word and a thought. Has the personality of a child (a non-evil one). After extended contact with O-Chul, has begun to think for himself, discovering, to his own surprise, that he is actually ''extremely'' intelligent and doesn't ''want'' Team Evil to win, and so has begun subtly undermining their efforts from within, something that has been enormously successful because none of his teammates see it coming or expect him to do ''anything'' smart. [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?488773-Summon-MitD-IX-Roll-on-Section-3a If you think you've got the brains, feel free to jump on the ride that never ends and try to follow the breadcrumbs and figure out what he is.] We'll wait. [[Troll| Remember to only pick ones with Trenchant Political Analysis as a listed special attack!]]
* Tsukiko, a mystic theurge. A necrophile necromancer with a crush on Xykon. She was in charge of the wight brigade until she discovered Redcloak's plan to double-cross Xykon, which got her eaten by her own wights for her troubles.
====The Linear Guild====
* Started out as evil counterparts of the PCs (which was deliberately done by their leader, Elan's twin brother Nale (get it? Nale is Elan backwards!)). The Guild consists of three core members plus two other slots that keep having replacements due to death or quitting:
** Nale, a Fighter-Rogue-Sorcerer multiclass specializing in enchantment, which is, if you didn't notice, basically a [[bard]] only [[Tzeentch|more complicated]] and capable of being Lawful Evil. Is permanently dead; he was stabbed by his father and was subsequently disintegrated for murdering Malack and rejecting his father's attempt to reconcile.
** Sabine, a [[succubus]] and Nale's lover with whom she shares a deep and fulfilling relationship based on human sacrifice. Is currently stuck somewhere in the Lower Planes, trying to get revenge on her boyfriend's murderer, and since Thog is also probably dead she the last member not to die or quit.
** Thog, a [[Half-Orc]] [[barbarian]] who's part of the Dumbass Triumvirate alongside Elan and the Monster in the Darkness. He talks like the Incredible Hulk. Although unconfirmed, he likely is dead after Roy tricked him into collapsing a ceiling on himself, burying him under a ton of rubble.
* On the four different occasions the teams have clashed the Linear Guild employed a subset of the following people:
* '''First Encounter'''
** Zz'Dtri, the [[drow]] wizard. An obvious copy of [[Drizzt]], he was hauled off by the lawyers of [[Wizards of the Coast]] for being an obvious [[Drizzt]] copy. [[Wat|Yes, that happened]]. Later returned ([[Wat|because he was a parody, not a copy, protected speech bitches!]]) and clashed with V using all the interim levels to tailor his build just to fighting the wizard. This did him no good against Durkon, the party cleric, particularly with that vampire strength boost. Currently dead
** Hilgya Firehelm, a dwarven cleric of [[Troll|Loki]] who fucked, fought and fled from Durkon during the Guild's first encounter with the Order, in that approximate order. Reappeared after over 1000 strips to save the party from a vampire horde in the nick of time. Has a self-serving memory, believing everyone around her is selfish when she's one of the most selfish beings on the planet. Brought Durkon's baby into the battle [[Dwarf_Fortress|like a true dorf]].
** Yikyik the [[kobold]] ranger. Was beheaded by Belkar and turned into a [[hat]]. Currently dead.
* '''Second Encounter'''
** Pompey the [[half-elf]] wizard (get it? Pompey and Vaarsuvius are named after Pompeii and Vesuvius! We're clever). Had a crush on Roy's sister and teamed up with the Linear Guild so that he could have her, but he was defeated, imprisoned, and then escaped, signing on with Leeky. Has not been seen since.
** Leeky Windstaff the [[gnome]] [[druid]]. Turned into a giant monster and rampaged through a city (get it? [[CoDzilla]]!) before being defeated by Durkon and escaping alongside Pompey.
** Yokyok, son of Yikyik. A parody of [[The Princess Bride|Inigo Montoya]] who attacked Belkar for... oh do I even have to say it? Belkar was under a curse preventing him from killing, so he set a tavern full of [[adventurer]]s loose on Yokyok, then turned his head into a nacho repository. Currently dead.
* '''Third Encounter'''
** Yukyuk. Yet another kobold: this one was dominated (the status effect, mind you) by V and got used as a litter box ([[Sick| without being decapitate first!]]) and living trap-springer before dying in a horrific accident protecting a [[cat]].
* '''Fourth Encounter'''
* The fourth encounter with the Linear Guild included Tarquin and Malack (as below). It also involved Chancellor Kilkil (Urd, a Kobold variant... with wings! Its in the 2nd ed MM), who is more a clerk and personal assistant than a combatant, though he is a hyper-competent bureaucrat and a flying calculator.
** General Tarquin, a human [[warlord]], general of the Empress of Blood and de facto ruler of the Empire of Blood. Despite the suggestion of him being aligned to [[Khorne]] this is far from the truth: he is a friendly and cheerful person like his son Elan, but at the same time is outright ruthless and has the evil smarts like his other son, Nale. He is the ultimate in [[Alignment|Lawful Evil]]: he understands that his rule is not eternal, but his legacy can be. As such he is forging an entire continent into his empire: even when he is defeated (which he holds as being inevitable) he gets to be a legend. Though he's not very keen on the "being stabbed by a hero" part, it would mean he gets to live like a god for who-knows-how-long, and only the last few minutes sucked. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html The man himself explains it best.] On the other hand, given his Lawful obsession with forcing the messy chaos of reality to conform to the outline of a neat little story, refusing to conform to the character archetype he expects you to fill (e.g. playing a [[bard]] when he thinks you're the protagonist) causes him to quickly fly into a fit of [[butthurt]] rage to put [[That Guy]] to shame and start [[railroading]]. On joining the Linear Guild he disguised himself as Thog.
** Minister Malack is a lizardfolk (possibly yuan-ti) cleric of Nergal and serves as adviser to the Empress of Blood and Tarquin. Is actually a [[vampire]] and has just turned Durkon into one. Like his former adventuring companion Tarquin, Malack is an affable and well-spoken person and is the heir to the Empire of Blood after Tarquin's death. When he does become the next Emperor he plans to [[Emperor|sacrifice a thousand people to his god per day]] [[grimdark|in rooms that serve as gas chambers/abattoirs, the sacrifices generated by a continent's worth of people living and dying for the glory of Nergal]] (although the writer later stated he means meat packing rooms as he plans to use the thousand sacrifices to feed to himself and his vampiric spawn, who'll be running the empire). Like I said, real nice guy. Has a beef with Nale for killing three of his "children", but set aside his grudge at Tarquin's behest. Even then he is a honorable person: when he promises not to kill someone despite it serving his goals, he does so. A very different sort of Lawful Evil, but still fits. Perma-dead, having been killed by Nale with sunlight, which has a disintegration effect on vampires.

===Other Characters===
* Miko Miyazaki, an absolutely and fanatically [[Lawful Stupid]] [[Paladin]]. None of the other paladins like her so they send her on far away missions as much as possible. She is sent to capture the Order of the Stick after they destroy one of the gates containing the Snarl and though Roy initially is attracted to her he later realizes that she really is a horrible unlikeable person. She is so convinced that she is a good person who does everything right due to being a servant of the gods that she becomes increasingly detached from reality as the evidences stacks up that she is doing wrong. After losing her paladin powers, she tries to redeem herself by sacrificing herself to save the day, but [[Fail|the only thing she accomplished was making the situation worse]].
* O-Chul. The Lawful [[Awesome]] Paladin. He is everything that a paladin should be and everything that Miko isn't. He is reasonable and a nice guy. While captured by Team Evil, he is put through all kinds of tortures both for Xykon's amusement and Redcloak trying to get information and survives all of them, never giving up defying them. During his time as a prisoner he manages to befriend The Monster in the Darkness and convince him that Xykon and Redcloak are not his friends. He is another poorly optimized character. He used to be a normal Fighter so his charisma score is terrible, and thus is bad at casting his paladin spells, but has an insanely high constitution that lets him tank godly amounts of damage (he has a hit point total on par with ''young adult dragons'').

==Before You Get Butthurt About Battle Strategies...==
{{topquote|Here's the thing: No matter what I draw in any battle scene, within ten minutes of posting it someone chimes in about how the characters are stupid for not executing this, that, or the other tactic. Never mind that said tactic would likely end the fight in one panel when it is my job to provide you with an entertaining battle scene. Never mind that said tactic may result in the person winning whom the plot does not need to win. Never mind that the fight may not be over yet. No, all that matters is that these characters are not living up to someone's imagined D&D tactical mastery. Well, I don't give a damn anymore. The characters fight the way they fight to make an interesting page. They may make subpar decisions, I don't care. I don't spend enough time with the D&D rules anymore to eke out all of these Ultimate Killer Strategies anyway, so we're really running up against the limits of my knowledge and ability. The characters can't be better strategists than I am, and I care more about other aspects. Such strategies are usually boring to read and visually bland to look at anyway. There aren't going to be a lot of invisible save-or-die effects thrown around, because there are only so many ways I can draw characters succeeding at Fortitude saves (and then I still have to verbally explain what just happened). You should stop expecting them, because I'm not going to use them. My job is to entertain, not to showcase perfect D&D tactics. If you can't be entertained by anything BUT perfect D&D tactics, that's on you.|A quote from Burlew on the matter}}

It helps that Burlew has never revealed what anyone's level is, specifically so he can fudge the rules. To pull a random example, Vaar snags 13 people in Mass Enlarge Person, implying they're level 13, only to immediately use four Wiz6 spells (Mass Bull's Strength, Mass Bear's Endurance, two Disintegrates) in less than two minutes -- level 13 Wizards should only be able use two Wiz6 spells per day.

In spite of this, however, fans have [[Get shit done|speculated extensively on the levels, abilities, and feats of various characters]], and have managed to create a [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?545476-Class-and-Level-Geekery-XV-What-s-the-Damage-of-a-Thrown-Pineapple fairly comprehensive list] of these, usually accurate to 1-2 levels.

== Links ==
* [[Skub]]
* [http://www.giantitp.com/Comics.html The website]
* [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick The article on] [[TVTropes]] where you can see all the clichés Burlew uses/makes fun of.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Webcomics]]

Lords of Madness

2020-01-20T10:36:21Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293:

'''Lords of Madness: The Book of [[Aberration]]s''' is a [[Splatbook]] for Dungeons and Dragon 3.5 edition. The book goes into great detail about the fluff of several of the game's most famous aberrations and introduces some new ones, as well as introducing some new [[Prestige Classes]] for fighting against aberrations, and tons of useful stuff for DMs wanting to run aberration-based campaigns.

== Chapter 1: What is an Aberration? ==

Discusses what defines an aberration and where they come from.

== Chapter 2: The Deep Masters ==

All about [[Aboleth]]s. Includes new variants of the aboleth: amphibious aboleth, uobilyth (aerial aboleth), and stygian aboleth. Also has a prestige class specifically for aboleths called the aboleth savant which specializes in the creation of magical aboleth glyphs, several feats for aboleths, and a short sample aboleth adventure ''The God in the Lake''.

== Chapter 3: The Eye Tyrants ==

All about [[Beholder]]s. Includes the elder orb beholder variant, and the infamously overpowered beholder mage class, several beholder feats, magic items made for beholders, plenty of fluff, and two short adventures: ''Sekarvu's Lair'' and ''Cult of the Hungry Eye''.

== Chapter 4: The Mind Flayers ==

[[Illithid]]s! Includes magic items for illithids and the sample adventure ''The Lair of Sarkt''.

== Chapter 5: The Slave Takers ==

A chapter about the [[Neogi]] a race that mostly only apears in the [[Spelljammer]] setting. Includes the stats the standard neogi adult, neogi spawn, and neogi great old master, and also includes several neogi variants, dwarf neogi, neogi defiler, neogi slavemaster, and neogi sorcerer. Also include the adventure ''Wreck of the Mindspider''.

This chapter made adult neogi player characters an official thing.

== Chapter 6: The Eaters ==

On the [[Grell]]. Includes stats for the standard grell, grell philosopher, grell hatchling, grell juvenile, and grell patriarch, as well as grell magic items, and the adventure ''Sangkon Bhet''.

== Chapter 7: The Wearers of Flesh ==

The first appearance of a new aberration race called the [[Tsochar]]i. Includes the stats for standard tsochar and toschar strand, and also tsochar spells and items, and the adventure ''The House of Deros Frist''.

== Chapter 8: New Monsters ==

Even more awesome and terrifying aberrations for players to encounter.
* [[Beholder]]kin
** Hive Mother
** Director
** Eye of the Deep
** Overseer
** Spectator
* Cildabrin: an aberation resembling both a giant spider and a giant scorpion.
* Shadowcloak elder: A more powerful variant of the [[Cloaker]]
* Elder Brain: The final stage of the illithid life cycle and rulers of illithid society.
* Elder Eidolon (template): A powerful construct build in ancient times based on another monster. Includes the Elder Eidolon Kraken as an example.
* Gas Spore: A floating [[Fungus]] that mimics the appearance of a [[Beholder]].
* [[Gibbering Mouther]]
* Half-Farspawn (template): A hybrid of a outsider from the [[Far Realm]] and a more familiar monster. Includes the Half-Farspawn Grey Render as an example.
* Hound of the Gloom: A large tentacled dog monster that may be related to the [[Displacer Beast]].
* Illithidae: These creatures are to illithids what normal animals are to humans. These are monsters distantly related to illithids that came with them from the same world. All of them have several psionic abilities.
** Embrac: A large lumpy sack of flesh with many legs, eight tentacles, and a beak like mouth.
** Kigrid: A cat like monster with red eyes that are placed underneath its jaws.
** Saltor: A small ape-like scavenger with a beard of tentacles. They are capable of speech and able to use weapons and tools.
* [[Illithid|Mindflayer]]
** Alhoon (template): not even a proper template, but some tips for grafting the Lich template onto an illithid, which you normally can't do because only humanoids can become liches
** Ulitharid: A more powerful varient of the illithid with six tentacles instead of four.
** Vampire Illithid: An undead illithid that drinks blood. They are not true vampires and lose their intelligence, becoming feral.
* Psuedonatural creature (template): A horrifying outsider from an alien plane that resembles a more familiar creature. A more powerful version of this template previously appeared in the [[Epic Level Handbook]]. Includes the Psuedonatural Hippogryph as an example.
* [[Psurlon]]: A race of psionic abberations resembling worms with many legs and eyes. This book makes some changes to their origins, which have varied over the editions they appeared in.
** Average Psurlon
** Elder Psurlon
** Giant Psurlon: A psurlon with a mutation that causes it to grow larger than normal, but does not gain the abilities of an elder.
* Shaboath: A construct created by an aboleth made of water and slime that takes the form of a several liquid tentacles.
* Shadow creature (Template): A monster from the plane of shadow that is a counterpart of something from the material plane. Includes the Shadow Choker as an example.
* Silthilar: It looks like a monster with four upper limbs ending in long spines, and four lower limbs ending in hands, and a head of tentacles, but it actually is a swarm of tiny creatures sharing one mind. These creatures once were a race that had mastered the art of [[Fleshcrafting]] but when they accidentally unleashed a plague they escaped by shattering their bodies and minds into pieces. Surprisingly, they actually are usually Chaotic Good.
* Urophion: A [[Roper]] that has undergone the same process used to turn humans into illithids.
* Zeugalak: A strange quadruped with stinger tail and a three tentacled mouth. It uses electric attacks, and when hit with electricity it takes no damage and can teleport to the source of the attack. It likes to catch natural lightning bolts to teleport into the sky and feather fall back down.

== Chapter 9: The Aberation Hunter ==

Discusses how to fight the various kinds of aberrations. Describes gods worshiped by aberrations and their cults: [[Ghaunadaur]], The [[Great Mother]], [[Ilsensine]], [[Mak Thuum Ngatha]], [[The Patient One]], and [[Tharizdun]]. Lists several feats for those who fight aberrations, and those with aberration blood, or have been influcent by aberrations in some way. Also includes several new [[Prestige Class]]es.
* [[Abolisher]]: One who fights to exterminate all aberrations for the sake of protecting nature. Although isn't required that the player be a [[Druid]], it is designed to work best if the player is one. Can join the Circle of the True.
* [[Darkrunner]]: Specializes in surviving and exploring underground. Works well with the [[Ranger]] class. Must join the Darkrunner Guild.
* [[Fleshcrafter]]: A spellcaster that specializes in [[Fleshcrafting]]. You modify your familiar and gain great skill in grafting.
* [[Keeper of the Cerulean Sign]]: Specializes in protecting the world from aberrations and cultists who worship them. Skilled at infitrating cults and makes heavy uses of the spell ''Invoke the Cerulean Sign'', which weakens aberrations. This class is difficult to qualify for without multiclassing except as a [[Bard]]. They do not have an organization, but are friendly with both the Circle of the True and the Topaz Order.
* [[Sanctified Mind]]: Specializes in fighting against evil [[Psionics]] users. It can work with either divine caster classes or manifesting classes and can gain the abilities of either as it levels up, but most of the class's own abilites are focused on melee combat, and you must have at least some psionic ability. You are taught by the Society of the Sanctified Mind.
* [[Topaz Guardian]]: Specializes in fighting against aberrations, with a special hatred for monsters that enslave humanoids with magic. Works best with the [[Paladin]] class. Must Join the Topaz Order.
The chapter also lists several spells, including some that previously apeared in the [[Book of Vile Darkness]] and several new magic items and grafts. The book concludes with describing several organizations that fight against aberrations.
* Circle of the True: Dedicated to protecting nature from the aberrant. Most members are Abolishers.
* The Darkrunner Guild: Profits off of exploring the underground. Most are Darkrunners.
* Society of the Sanctified Mind: Dedicated to fighting evil psionics users. Is affiliated with the church of [[Saint Cuthbert]].
* The Topaz Order: Fights against mind controlling aberrations. Many of them are Topaz Guardians. Affiliated with the church of [[Heironeous]].
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]
[[Category:Game Books]]
[[Category:Splatbook]]

Supers

2020-01-20T09:53:29Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293: /* Notable subtypes */

The usual nickname for RPG settings and systems with Superpowers, especially those with Superheroes. Called "Supers" probably in part because the word "Superhero" is trademarked by Marvel and DC.

And, yes, [[Batman]] counts as Supers; very low powered superpowers, usually, but impossible-super-science gadgets (which even the Dark Knight trilogy and the Adam West version engaged in), and that level of recovery from injury both count as "Superpowers".

==Some General Trends==

There's a vast amount of territory covered by Superpowered RPGs, in keeping with the comic books and TV shows that birthed most of them. There are a few general trends:

* Secret Identities:
** As a general rule, as time has gone on, fewer and fewer superheroes have them, as the reason to have one has gone down. That being said, the usual explanation nowdays is to protect unpowered family members, which as reasons go is at least reasonable.
** Further, as a general rule, at Marvel, there's a general feeling that "Street-level" superheroes are allowed a secret identity; those whose ''individual'' aspirations extend beyond a city are not (e.g., The Fantastic Four, Iron Man (even back when Iron Man was Tony Stark's "bodyguard", there was no question but that Iron Man worked for Stark))
** Japanese (and East Asian more generally) superheroes either don't have them, have them a transformation as part of their powers, or have them more because the hero is an benevolent infiltrator of some kind.
* Power level:
** As powers get more powerful, the "relatability" of the hero goes down.
** It's possible to make this work, by emulating [[mythology]] and going full SuperGods.
** Live-action TV shows tend to love superpowers that don't require any expensive special effects, such as Telepathy or Mind Control. Look out for budget cheats.
** A setting can have a very vast degree of scale of powers; DC has Green Lantern (cosmic scale science fiction) alongside Batman, where Killer Croc (mild super-strength and crocodile traits) and Mr. Freeze (who has a freeze gun and immunity to cold) are unusually powerful.
* Unpowered Superheroes
** They exist. They're usually impossibly well-trained and skilled, but, again, that still counts as the level of training or skill in question is usually impossible for a real person.
** Usually exist in either lower-powered settings, or are effectively just masterminds or stealth operatives.
* Villains and Sanity
** How insane the villains are is something of a variable from setting to setting, and villain to villain. Some villains can be "ordinary" criminals, just some of them have powers; some villains are obsessed with destroying the universe (and haven't thought through the "but that's where I keep all my stuff!" objection), and have the power to pull it off.
** Nowdays, more rational villains are more common then they were back in the Silver Age. There's usually some flaw in their thinking, admittedly, but mostly gone are the days of robbing banks so you could fight Superpoweredheronumberseventyeight.
* Technology
** Civilian technology on Earth is usually kept just barely beyond the current state of the art, to maximize "relatability". Heroes and villains can invent super-science gadget and/or own giant, supposedly innovative, companies while villains can plot to steal inventions from labs, but none of the stuff seems to actually get to market. Military technology is rarely better for the common soldier, but don't be surprised to see special projects that produce something (even if flawed or unreproducable) or them having something to throw at a superpowered threat. The most common exception, if the age rating requires it, is the proliferation of energy weapons.
** But the Important Named Characters usually have access to stuff that's flat out impossible.
** This leads to a certain tendency of Super-Inventers to be restricted in some way.
* Genre
** If you don't count "Supers" as a genre, or only partly so: While individual settings and stories can be Mundane, Horror, Science Fiction, [[Urban Fantasy]], or a few others, most supers settings that get glommed together as they evolve (such as DC/Marvel or many animated ones) tend to be classifiable as [[Science Fantasy]].

== Notable subtypes ==
* Street-Level: Characters, generally of low power, that fight local threats instead of global conspiracies and alien invasions.
* Mystery men: Low power pulp heroes, especially powerless gadget wielders set before 1942.
* Cosmic: The exact opposite of the two above; if they're fighting Dieties on a regular basis, it's probably "Cosmic".
* Tokusatsu (特撮, literally "special effects"): A Japanese genre of masked, transforming heroes (the better to change actors so they can film those scenes on the cheap). Often includes giant robots and size changing to allow fighting a multiple scales. Examples include Super Sentai (which Power Rangers recycles footage from), Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and the 1970s Japanese Spider-Man (which is a fascinating story all in itself).
* Magical Girl: Girls change into super powered forms to (generally) fight evil. Unlike Toku heroes, magical girl forms generally aren't masked but instead have some kind of physical element to the transformation that hides the user's identity. Despite being strongly associated with Japan, Mary Marvel is the earliest proper example.

== Commonly Cited Non-/tg/ or /v/ Originating Settings ==

* DC Comics. Most notable heroes for /tg/ purposes: [[Batman]], [[Superman]], Green Lantern. Most notable villains for /tg/ purposes: Darkseid, Lex Luthor, Ra's Al Ghul.
* Marvel Comics. Most notable heroes for /tg/ purposes: Iron Man, Spider Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk. Most notable villains for /tg/ purposes: Thanos, Galactus, Paste-pot Pete (that last for the idea "they can't all be winners")
** The X-Men have, since their 1975 revival, and particularly since the 90s, been sort of their own continuity, almost-but-not-quite separate from the main Marvel one.
* Various adaptions of the two above.
* A few anime; notable Supers anime include "My Hero Academia", "One Punch Man", and "Sailor Moon".
* The Super Hero Time programming block of Super Sentai (which was mined for stock footage to create Power Rangers) and Kamen Rider.
* Pretty Cure/PreCure: Bucking the trend of magical girls being aimed exclusively at young girls, PreCure takes the unusual direction of simultaneously marketing itself to men with disposable income 16-35 by making the fights extremely physical. Airs adjacent to Super Hero Time and is widely considered an unofficial member.
* Wild Cards, a setting masterminded by the same George R.R. Martin of [[Game of Thrones]].

== Supers Roleplaying (Or: /tg/ Relevance) ==

There have been plenty of Supers roleplaying games. Here are some of the more notable ones:

* Various DC and Marvel adaptions. There have been several of both.
* [[GURPS]] has books dedicated to just the mechanics ("GURPS Supers"), and a few settings (notably, International Super Teams (or "IST") and licensed adaptions of Hellboy and Wild Cards)
* [[Savage Worlds]] similarly to GURPS, has support for Supers roleplaying.
* [[Champions]]
* [[Mutants & Masterminds]].
* [[Villains and Vigilantes]]
* [[Superworld]]
* [[Princess: The Hopeful]] is essentially "Magical Girls in [[Chronicles of Darkness]]"

[[Category:Gamer Slang]]

Template:D&D-Settings

2020-01-20T09:49:52Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293:

<center>
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em; border: 2px solid black;"
|-
!align=center colspan=2 bgcolor="#cccccc" | [[Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]
|-
| align=right|'''Basic [[D&D]]:''' || [[Mystara]] ([[Blackmoor]]) - [[Pelinore]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[AD&D]]:''' ||[[Birthright]] - [[Council of Wyrms]] - [[Dark Sun]] - [[Dragonlance]] [[Forgotten Realms]] ([[Al-Qadim]] - [[The Horde]] - [[Icewind Dale]] - [[Kara-Tur]] - [[Maztica]]) [[Greyhawk]] - [[Jakandor]] - [[Mystara]] ([[Hollow World]] - [[Red Steel]] - [[Savage Coast]]) [[Planescape]] - [[Ravenloft]] ([[Masque of the Red Death]]) - [[Spelljammer]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[3e|3rd/3.5 Edition]]:''' || [[Blackmoor]] - [[Dragonlance]] - [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] [[Ghostwalk]] - [[Greyhawk]] ([[Sundered Empire]]) - [[Ravenloft]] - [[Rokugan]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[4E|4th Edition]]:''' || [[Blackmoor]] - [[Dark Sun]] - [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] - [[Nentir Vale]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[5E|5th Edition]]:''' || [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] - [[Greyhawk]] - [[Ravenloft]] - [[Ravnica]]
|-
| align=right|'''Third Party:''' || [[Dragonmech]] (3E) - [[Dragonstar]] (3E) - [[Golarion]] (3E) - [[Humblewood]] (5E) [[Kingdoms of Kalamar]] (2E/3E/4E) - [[Midgard]] (3E/4E/5E) - [[Midnight]] (3E/4E) [[Ptolus]] (3E) - [[Rokugan]] (3E) - [[Scarred Lands]] (3E/5E) - [[Spellslinger]] (3E) [[Wilderlands of High Fantasy]] (Basic/3E)
|}
</center>[[Category:Roleplaying]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]

Humblewood

2020-01-20T09:49:20Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293: /* Religion */

{{dnd-stub}}

'''Humblewood''' is a third-party campaign setting for [[Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition]], produced by the folks at The Deck of Many. Its big selling point is its focus on classical heroism in a world in chaos, its central theme revolving around the mystical associations of nature, and its use of [[beastfolk]] instead of [[demihuman]]s.

==Official Writeup==
Humblewood is an exciting new Campaign Setting for 5th Edition that includes ten original player races, new monsters, magic items, and a compelling adventure for 1st to 5th level characters.

In the world of Everden, nestled between the mighty Crest mountain range and the vast marshes of the Mokk Fields, lies a mystical forest known as Humblewood that hums with the Great Rhythm of nature. It has been ruled for generations by the birdfolk who inhabit the Great Tree City of Alderheart. Humblewood has endured for centuries thanks to the industry and compassion of its people but now the fires have come, and the Woods have been thrown into chaos. Flames ravage the land and destroy the homes of the humblefolk, stoking a growing resentment against the birdfolk, whose cities have managed to avoid the worst of the fires so far. Hatred burns in the hearts of those who have lost lives they cherished, and these once peaceful peoples now take up the sword and turn to banditry. The disaffected turn their gaze on Alderheart, and threaten to reduce an age of peace to ashes. Yet there is still hope. Even in these dark times, brave heroes can be found within the Wood. Only they can quell the raging flames that have been unleashed upon the land, and restore balance to the realm.

==Races==
In Humblewood, races are divided into major groupings.

Firstly, and most iconically, there are the '''Birdfolk''' are a collective of anthropomorphic avians, consisting of the ''[[Luma]]'' (Pigeons), ''[[Corvum]]'' (Crows/Ravens), ''[[Raptor]]s'' (Hawks/Eagles), ''[[Gallus]]'' (Wildfowl) and ''[[Strig]]'' (Owls). These can be considered the most powerful of the races, as the largest (and only) city-state within Humblewood, the treetop city of ''Alderheart'', was constructed by birdfolk and is predominantly inhabited by them. Birdfolk make up the Birdfolk Council of Alderheart, which is effectively the ruling body of Humblewood, politically speaking.

Secondly, there are the '''Humblefolk''', who are anthros based on assorted medium-to-small forest mammals; the ''[[Vulpin]]s'' (Foxes), ''[[Mapach]]'' (Raccoons), ''[[Jerbeen]]'' (Jerboas/Kangaroo Mice), ''[[Hedge]]'' (Hedgehogs) and ''[[Cervan]]s'' (Deer). These are not one race, but instead a collective of races whose former warring and banditry was brought to an end by peace treaties brokered by the birdfolk of Alderheart. Officially equals, in practice they are more a vassal race in collective, and ever since the flames scorched the Humblewood, old inequalities and resentments are starting to bubble to the surface.

==Subclasses & Backgrounds==
Three new subclasses are presented in Humblewood; the ''College of the Road'' is a jack-of-all-trades nomadic path for the [[Bard]]; the [[Cleric Domain]]'s of ''Community'' and ''Night'', and the ''Scofflaw'', a [[Fighter]] archetype representing roguish warriors who live by the creed of "anything goes", and exploit all manner of dirty tricks to ensure that they come out of battles victorious.

The setting also features three new backgrounds; the ''Bandit Defector'' (a former member of the Bandit Coalition, turned rogue); the ''Grounded'' (a birdfolk who chose to live on the ground rather than in trees, giving them greater rapport with the humblefolk); and the ''Wind-Touched'' (a birdfolk believed to be marked for destiny by the spirits of the wind).

==Religion==
The birdfolk and humblefolk both worship a pantheon known as the [[Amaranthine]], a collection of nature deities who each take responsibility for a specific aspect of nature. There are twelve Amaranthine in total; one spiritual patron for each of the [[beastfolk]] races of the setting, plus a duotheistic pair of pantheon leaders who, whilst depicted as birds, are regarded as above such a divide and thusly are connected to all races equally.

* [[Altus]]
* [[Ardea]]
* [[Cairith]]
* [[Clhuran]]
* [[Gaspard]]
* [[Gesme]]
* [[Hanera]]
* [[Hath]]
* [[Reya]]
* [[Henwin]]
* [[Kren]]
* [[Tyton]]

{{Template:D&D-Settings}}

Template:D&D-Settings

2020-01-20T09:47:13Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293:

<center>
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em; border: 2px solid black;"
|-
!align=center colspan=2 bgcolor="#cccccc" | [[Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]
|-
| align=right|'''Basic [[D&D]]:''' || [[Mystara]] ([[Blackmoor]]) - [[Pelinore]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[AD&D]]:''' ||[[Birthright]] - [[Council of Wyrms]] - [[Dark Sun]] - [[Dragonlance]] [[Forgotten Realms]] ([[Al-Qadim]] - [[The Horde]] - [[Icewind Dale]] - [[Kara-Tur]] - [[Maztica]]) [[Greyhawk]] - [[Jakandor]] - [[Mystara]] ([[Hollow World]] - [[Red Steel]] - [[Savage Coast]]) [[Planescape]] - [[Ravenloft]] ([[Masque of the Red Death]]) - [[Spelljammer]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[3e|3rd/3.5 Edition]]:''' || [[Blackmoor]] - [[Dragonlance]] - [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] [[Ghostwalk]] - [[Greyhawk]] ([[Sundered Empire]]) - [[Ravenloft]] - [[Rokugan]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[4E|4th Edition]]:''' || [[Blackmoor]] - [[Dark Sun]] - [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] - [[Nentir Vale]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[5E|5th Edition]]:''' || [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] - [[Greyhawk]] - [[Ravenloft]] - [[Ravnica]]
|-
| align=right|'''Third Party:''' || [[Dragonmech]] (3E) - [[Dragonstar]] (3E) - [[Golarion]] (3E) - [[Humblewood]] (5e) [[Kingdoms of Kalamar]] (2E/3E/4E) - [[Midgard]] (3E/4E/5E) - [[Midnight]] (3E/4E) [[Ptolus]] (3E) - [[Rokugan]] (3E) - [[Scarred Lands]] (3E/5E) - [[Spellslinger]] (3E) [[Wilderlands of High Fantasy]] (Basic/3E)
|}
</center>[[Category:Roleplaying]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]

Template:D&D-Settings

2020-01-20T09:42:57Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293:

<center>
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em; border: 2px solid black;"
|-
!align=center colspan=2 bgcolor="#cccccc" | [[Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]
|-
| align=right|'''Basic [[D&D]]:''' || [[Mystara]] ([[Blackmoor]]) - [[Pelinore]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[AD&D]]:''' ||[[Birthright]] - [[Council of Wyrms]] - [[Dark Sun]] - [[Dragonlance]] [[Forgotten Realms]] ([[Al-Qadim]] - [[The Horde]] - [[Icewind Dale]] - [[Kara-Tur]] - [[Maztica]]) [[Greyhawk]] - [[Jakandor]] - [[Mystara]] ([[Hollow World]] - [[Red Steel]] - [[Savage Coast]]) [[Planescape]] - [[Ravenloft]] ([[Masque of the Red Death]]) - [[Spelljammer]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[3e|3rd/3.5 Edition]]:''' || [[Blackmoor]] - [[Dragonlance]] - [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] [[Ghostwalk]] - [[Greyhawk]] ([[Sundered Empire]]) - [[Ravenloft]] - [[Rokugan]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[4E|4th Edition]]:''' || [[Blackmoor]] - [[Dark Sun]] - [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] - [[Nentir Vale]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[5E|5th Edition]]:''' || [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] - [[Greyhawk]] - [[Ravenloft]] - [[Ravnica]]
|-
| align=right|'''Third Party:''' || [[Dragonmech]] (3E) - [[Dragonstar]] (3E) - [[Golarion]] (3E) - [[Humblewood]] (5e) [[Kingdoms of Kalamar]] (2E/3E/4E) - [[Midgard]] (3E/4E/5E) - [[Midnight]] (3E/4E) - [[Ptolus]] (3E) [[Rokugan]] (3E) - [[Scarred Lands]] (3E/5E) - [[Spellslinger]] (3E) - [[Wilderlands of High Fantasy]] (Basic/3E)
|}
</center>[[Category:Roleplaying]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]

Template:D&D-Settings

2020-01-20T09:40:42Z

2601:203:480:4C60:5DAF:DFE6:6664:E293:

<center>
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em; border: 2px solid black;"
|-
!align=center colspan=2 bgcolor="#cccccc" | [[Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]
|-
| align=right|'''Basic [[D&D]]:''' || [[Mystara]] ([[Blackmoor]]) - [[Pelinore]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[AD&D]]:''' ||[[Birthright]] - [[Council of Wyrms]] - [[Dark Sun]] - [[Dragonlance]] [[Forgotten Realms]] ([[Al-Qadim]] - [[The Horde]] - [[Icewind Dale]] - [[Kara-Tur]] - [[Maztica]]) [[Greyhawk]] - [[Jakandor]] - [[Mystara]] ([[Hollow World]] - [[Red Steel]] - [[Savage Coast]]) [[Planescape]] - [[Ravenloft]] ([[Masque of the Red Death]]) - [[Spelljammer]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[3e|3rd/3.5 Edition]]:''' || [[Blackmoor]] - [[Dragonlance]] - [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] [[Ghostwalk]] - [[Greyhawk]] ([[Sundered Empire]]) - [[Ravenloft]] - [[Rokugan]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[4E|4th Edition]]:''' || [[Blackmoor]] - [[Dark Sun]] - [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] - [[Nentir Vale]]
|-
| align=right|'''[[5E|5th Edition]]:''' || [[Eberron]] - [[Forgotten Realms]] - [[Greyhawk]] - [[Ravenloft]] - [[Ravnica]]
|-
| align=right|'''Third Party:''' || [[Dragonmech]] (3E) - [[Dragonstar]] (3E) - [[Golarion]] (3E) - [[Humblewood]] (5e) - [[Kingdoms of Kalamar]] (2E/3E/4E) [[Midgard]] (3E/4E/5E) - [[Midnight]] (3E/4E) - [[Ptolus]] (3E) - [[Rokugan]] (3E) - [[Scarred Lands]] (3E/5E) [[Spellslinger]] (3E) - [[Wilderlands of High Fantasy]] (Basic/3E)
|}
</center>[[Category:Roleplaying]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings]]