Potential prequel books

[Whiffet]

No, actually. The first indication that Xykon wasn't already a lich when he met Redcloak was in Start of Darkness.

What about Redcloak's holy symbol being Xykon's phylactery? It isn't a guarantee, but it's a good guess that Redcloak had something to do with the change.

[Procyonpi]

I'm a big fan of the Scribble prequel idea.
Also, though we have a general idea what happened to make the Scribbles break up, we don't know exactly what caused Soon and Girard to hate each other's guts. Disagreements over alignment don't cause teammates to try to kill each other. If they did, the Order of the Stick would be missing half its people.

Plus, I think Rich is hiding a few key details from us. "Anger and resentment that had simmered from years of adventuring were suddenly unleashed. Words were said that could never be taken back." Where did this anger and resentment come from? What possible words could be said that would get three adventuring buddies ready to vaporize each other? Kraagor's death doesn't seem like a strong enough catalyst for such a fight. I think there was something else going on that we don't know about. My current theory is that Soon abandoned Kraagor at the rift and got him sealed inside. I'm not going to know if I'm right or not unless a Scribble prequel comes out.

Considering that Girard views Soon as being responsible for the unmaking of a teammate's soul, that could very well be catalyst for a party break-up.

[Morgan Wick]

There would be plenty of material for a Scribble prequel. The question is, at what point would we know enough for the Giant to decide to reveal the rest, and for what reason would the story not be revealed to the OOTS themselves?

[Gift Jeraff]

Another point in favour for the Linear Guild is that they've actually had their own sequence and it worked. And the Giant's commentary on it says:

This is the first time--but certainly not the last time, if I have my way--that an entire section of story has been given over to the Linear Guild, headed by Elan's evil twin brother, Nale.

Also, in the same book, he implies that the third prequel book was going to be announced (or released?) a year after SoD. So, yeah, I'm willing to bet it's not a Scribble book. (Though I think there may eventually be one.)

And one opinion I forgot to mention about a "collection of NPC stories" book: my least favorite part about On the Origin of PCs is that it feels more like a collection of several short stories that loosely tie together than it does a single, cohesive story. An Azure City book could also fall into that trap, unless every single Azurite character has something in their past which ties them together, but that might run too close to "Anakin built C-3PO"/"Chewbacca knew Yoda" inanity, IMO.

[Armitage]

An Order of the Scribble book would be fitting, in order to tell what really happened back then. However, it can't come out until the very end of the OOTS, to avoid it spoiling the main history.

I disagree.
That book would probably be written from the POV of the Order of the Scribble.
So we would only get information that they had at that point.
They probably don't knew much more about the nature of the Snarl or anything on that level than we now know, probable even less.

Plus, Rich wouldn't have to reveal everything in that book. He could still leave out the juicy, sorry, the important bits to be revealed in the series proper.
Actually, he would need to, as he stated in the past that the books should not add stuff that is essential to the main series.


He could key the release of that book to the OotS having a lengthy talk with Girard or finding a diary of Serini or suchlike. He would mention the relevant information in the main series, and the prequel book would give us the rest of the information that the OotS would get from that event.

[MoonCat]

Plus, Rich wouldn't have to reveal everything in that book. He could still leave out the juicy, sorry, the important bits to be revealed in the series proper.
Actually, he would need to, as he stated in the past that the books should not add stuff that is essential to the main series.

No he didn't, actually. He said that you didn't need to have read the extra books to understand what is going on in the main comic, that he'd cover it in comic if it was necessary. He never said that that meant he'd keep out anything from the prequels.

[Carry2]

Also, though we have a general idea what happened to make the Scribbles break up, we don't know exactly what caused Soon and Girard to hate each other's guts. Disagreements over alignment don't cause teammates to try to kill each other. If they did, the Order of the Stick would be missing half its people.

Well, I would argue that alignment differences actually have led to significant frictions between, say, Roy and Belkar, Haley and Belkar, V and Belkar, Durkon and Belkar and, on occasion, Elan and Belkar. The main reason why these haven't resulted in dead team members thus far is because Belkar was possible to bully at first, coerced later, and also sheer dumb luck.

[Armitage]

No he didn't, actually. He said that you didn't need to have read the extra books to understand what is going on in the main comic, that he'd cover it in comic if it was necessary. He never said that that meant he'd keep out anything from the prequels.

Which is basically what I wrote in the last sentence you quoted, right?
Essential stuff will be in the main comic, so that people who haven't read the prequels can understand what's going on.

The first part of what I tried to say may be somewhat unclear.
What I meant so say is that he doesn't need to put everything that the Order of the Scribble knows in the hypothetical prequel book. He could just put stuff in there that doesn't spoil the main comic, so that he can reveal these things when the time is right.

[MoonCat]

Well, I would argue that alignment differences actually have led to significant frictions between, say, Roy and Belkar, Haley and Belkar, V and Belkar, Durkon and Belkar and, on occasion, Elan and Belkar. The main reason why these haven't resulted in dead team members thus far is because Belkar was possible to bully at first, coerced later, and also sheer dumb luck.

Sorry, this doesn't have much to do with your debate, but the list of disagreement made me laugh quite hard.

On topic, there is still much to be fleshed out in that respect, it would be an interesting read. Add that there is one team couple and Serini's crush on another team member, plus the story about how they found the gates and so on would make for a great read, IMO.

Which is basically what I wrote in the last sentence you quoted, right?
Essential stuff will be in the main comic, so that people who haven't read the prequels can understand what's going on.

The first part of what I tried to say may be somewhat unclear.
What I meant so say is that he doesn't need to put everything that the Order of the Scribble knows in the hypothetical prequel book. He could just put stuff in there that doesn't spoil the main comic, so that he can reveal these things when the time is right.

Oh, I see. I seem to have misread you, I thought you were saying he couldn't write anything that could be plot relevant later. Sorry.

[Carry2]

Another point in favour for the Linear Guild is that they've actually had their own sequence and it worked. And the Giant's commentary on it says:

This is the first time--but certainly not the last time, if I have my way--that an entire section of story has been given over to the Linear Guild, headed by Elan's evil twin brother, Nale.

Gods, I hope not. The Linear Guild have no character development and no drama to speak of, except insofar as they accidentally trigger it in others. (As a character whose sole ambition is to embody a series of distasteful stereotypes, I find Nale particularly tedious.)

[Gift Jeraff]

And prior to the Battle of Azure City, Team Evil probably had even less character development and depth than Nale. Heck, most of their development and Durkon's came in the prequels.

[Morgan Wick]

Oh, I see. I seem to have misread you, I thought you were saying he couldn't write anything that could be plot relevant later. Sorry.

Yeah, Start of Darkness would seem to be a massive point against that interpretation.