The Ultimate Order of the Stick Book Tournament, Round 10

[137beth]

Greetings playgrounders, and welcome to
The Ultimate Order of the Stick Book Tournament!
Here, you can vote for your favorite of the first eight books in a double-elimination tournament. Each week I will post a new matchup. Vote in this thread, not by PM. You get one vote per person. If your post contains more than the name or abbreviation of the book's title, I ask that you bold your vote. Votes may take the form either of the book's title, the abbreviation, or the number.

The Contestants
Dungeon Crawling Fools
No Cure for Paladin Blues
War and XP
Don't Split the Party
Blood Runs in the Family
On the Origins of the PCs
The Start of Darkness
Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales

Although BRitF has not been released, I think that we have seen enough of it from the online strips to include it in the running.

Last match was a tie, 5-5, until Mike Mearls, lead designer of the fourth edition dimension, decided that Snips Snails and Dragon Tales was overpowered. SSaDT was nerfed in the most recent errata tiebreaker for the fourth edition dimension, leaving No Cure for Paladin Blues victorious!


Current Bracket Standings: clicky!

The Current Match:
Don't Split the Party
vs. Blood Runs in the Family

The loser of this match will be eliminated!

The current match will end Saturday, June 28. Vote away!

[Jaxzan Proditor]

While this contest is still challenging, it is a lot easier to make than last week's. I will support Blood Runs in the Family.

[Bird]

Don't Split the Party is the best volume of Order of the Stick.

Is it perfect? No. Elan's subplot featured a forgettable C-list villain and a new female character whose existence seemed to revolve (sigh) around Elan. Roy-In-Heaven offered some interesting character development--particularly with respect to the Roy/Eugene dynamic--but suffered from a lack of urgency. Durkon did nothing of note the entire book.

Doesn't matter, because the balance of the material was masterful. Daarth Vaarsuvius. The friendship of O-Chul and the MitD. The genesis of Belkar's fake character development. The finest material Haley has had, I think: nice to see her not mooning over Elan, and interacting with another sympathetic female character (Celia). Roy & Eric playing blocks. The Cleric of Loki. Haley chucking Belkar's chocolate bar. The use of multiple color schemes (neither all-azure nor all-sepia). Power equals power. Kazumi's re-population strategy. I adore it.

[ChristianSt]

I really enjoyed DStP, but for now I will go for BRitF.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Ooh, tough call. Both books are pretty solid in the story department, but I think BRitF just edges out.

[Gift Jeraff]

These are both pretty much tied for my third/fourth favorite of all the OOTS books. The Darth V segment and strips #870-914 are the dramatic high points of the series.

I think Don't Split the Party wins by a smidgen.

[Sunken Valley]

Blood Runs In The Family is full of bloat and stuffing. Don't Split the Party only has the good stuff

[Reddish Mage]

Blood runs in the family does seem to be leisurely in getting going, and the desert is just not as interesting or full of character development and drama as Mount Celestia, Don't Split the Party.

[Cizak]

Don't Split the Party lags ever so slightly, but Blood Runs in the Family is great all the way through. It gave huge amounts of character development to a lot of characters, including my favorite, and introduced tons of new things that all add something great.

[Procyonpi]

Blood runs in the Family

Also, sigh, I missed the last round when I could have actually made a difference. The update schedule is super confusing.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Blood runs in the Family

Also, sigh, I missed the last round when I could have actually made a difference. The update schedule is super confusing.

It's starts on Saturday and goes for a full week.

[LadyEowyn]

Wow, this is a difficult one. I really enjoy V's arc in both books, and the Elan-Therkla story in DSTP, and Roy's time in the Celestial Realm (in particular, the insight into how people are judged). The Thieves' Guild arc doesn't really engage me at all, though. And the O-Chul plotline is just fantastic.

In BRiTF, some of the Empire of Blood and Linear Guild plots start to drag, but there's also excellent character development for every character, and basically everything after Malack vamps out is amazing. And we have Gobbotopia, one of my favourite short sections of the comic, and Redcloak awesomely disposing of Tsukiko.

I think I will go with Don't Split the Party. Primarily for the Darth V arc and the O-Chul-Monster friendship. The book created a great story without needing a Gate to make everything revolve around.

[Sylian]

This is a hard one. Both are really incredible books, but I think... I think I might end up voting for Blood Runs in the Family. Yeah, that one gets my vote.

[Inevitability]

BRitF gets my vote. DStP felt like an overly long subplot to me. The book barely involved 'major' points like the snarl and the gates, and while the introduction of the IFCC and the 'Darth Vaarsuvius' arc were nice, it was too little, too late.

BRitF, however, was enjoyable to read. The plot finally moved on, it gave us memorable new characters (Tarquin, Malack, Durkula, and let us not forget Bloodfeast!), and had its Great Moments of Plot Importance. ('V killed Girard!', 'Tarquin is Elan's father!', 'The snarl may be real after all!')

[137beth]

Voting is now closed. The winner, by a 7-5 margin, is Blood Runs in the Family!
Now we are moving on to the first semi-finals!