How has OOTS influenced your D&D campaigns?

[The Aboleth]

Mods: Not sure if this topic is more appropriate here or in the Roleplaying forums; feel free to move if you see fit to do so.

For those of us who play D&D, have you put any OOTS references into your character backstories and/or campaigns? For example, in a campaign I DM I named the High Priest of Zues "Murkon Lightninghammer" as a callback to this comic:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0917.html

So, how has OOTS influenced your D&D campaigns?

[Synesthesy]

It isn't dnd, but in my old Minecraft server, the whole World was shaped by the legacy of an Empire old of a thousand years, an evil Empire that ruled everything for nearly 30 years, when a little group of heroes brought justice to his wicked ruler. A ruler who said in face of death "If you win, you get to be a King. If you lose, you get to be a Legend".



Then, role play aside, I think that oots is an infinite source of humor that the right crowd will never know you didn't invented yourself

[KorvinStarmast]

Mods: Not sure if this topic is more appropriate here or in the Roleplaying forums; feel free to move if you see fit to do so. For those of us who play D&D, have you put any OOTS references into your character backstories and/or campaigns? For example, in a campaign I DM I named the High Priest of Zues "Murkon Lightninghammer" as a callback to this comic:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0917.html
So, how has OOTS influenced your D&D campaigns?

Not at all.

If I were to ever put a cameo appearance of any OoTS character in my campaign world, it would be O'Chul or Lien, maybe, but would more likely be a character inspired by one of those two characters.

[hroþila]

How has OOTS influenced your D&D campaigns?

By making me want to play them.

To no avail, I might add.

[Sloanzilla]

1. I'd say I've considered a little bit of Rich's POV in terms of alignment and even used O'Chul vs. Miko to explain a little bit in terms of what I'm expecting from paladins.
2. I played one character that I'd probably describe as a non-evil version of Belkar. If non-evil Belkar was a sorcerer who took the luckstealer prestige class.
3. I really like the idea of small towns getting all $worked$ up when rich adventurers come through town and may have incorporated that once or twice.
4. Monsters with high damage reduction are tickled when they take no damage.

[Hecuba]

Certain arcs have encouraged me to revisit elements and conventions of D&D that I don't otherwise use often.

For example, the split party after the fall of Azure City - and the seemingly parallel off-screen arcs run with 2 half parties augmented by Kazumi/Diego/Hinjo & Niu/Isamu/Than put the idea in my head to run similar parallel set of campaign arcs at one table.

Laurin in particular and the Empire of Blood arc in general convinced me to run a short 2nd Ed Dark Sun campaign with a focus on psionics.

There are also a couple elements I cribbed outright when the idea fit well: the Ghost Martyrs, the idea of the domain agreement between opposing deities, and Malak's protection from sunlight for a vampire BBEG.

[Darth Paul]

By making me consider my NPCs' motivations and lives, trying to make them more than obstacles between the PCs and some loot. I've tried to give them some inner lives, even if only in my notes and in my head, to influence how I run them. I even tried to have a villain arc or three (not with much success I regret to say, but I tried).)

[Linneris]

By making me want to play them.

This. OOTS got me interested in playing D&D. It also inspired me to go for a more lighthearted style when DMing, sometimes leaning on (but not outright breaking) the fourth wall.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

By making me want to play them.

To no avail, I might add.

Also this. One of the first things I did after finishing OOTS for the first time was purchase the Player’s Handbook. I still haven’t really ever gotten a campaign off the ground.

[zimmerwald1915]

Also this. One of the first things I did after finishing OOTS for the first time was purchase the Player’s Handbook. I still haven’t really ever gotten a campaign off the ground.

I was also inspired to check out D&D by The Order of the Stick. I have seen precisely one long-running campaign through to completion: in sophomore and junior years of univerisity. And that was as a player, never as a GM.

[Ornithologist]

One of the things that influenced my GMing, was less OOTS as whole and more of Rich's World design/RPG charcter blog he started way way back in the day.

[knag]

I'd like to join in the chorus of folks who were lured into D&D through OOTS. In my case I had played quite a bit, but it was many years ago. I came across OOTS maybe four years ago and it really whetted my appetite for D&D again. Since then I've played a campaign of 5e, and more recently I started DMing my own campaign of 1e AD&D, which is what I started on back in the day.

As for how it has influenced my campaign, I'd say mostly just in the inclusion of humor in the campaign. My players (and I) enjoy a good joke woven into the play, and it doesn't hurt the heroic feel of the campaign otherwise. I can't think of any direct influences. I guess we've had a higher number than I expected of gender fluid characters (and familiars) in my campaign, but I'm not sure that's due to this comic.

[Sobeit]

When our party found a bag of tricks my shout of dibs was heard from England to France.

I completely ignored fancy magic weapons and +1 gear for a chance to play Roy and throw a weasel in the face of an ogre.

Sadly that didn't happen so I settled with a badger critical hitting a fire giant for a mighty 2 dmg. Then he was squashed...

[Emanick]

I've been reading OOTS long enough to use the "I got a 4!" joke both in the campaign I DMed as a middle schooler and in the one I currently play in, where we're all 25. It's weird to think that I've been following this comic for half my life.

I haven't spent much time as a DM since those middle school years, but I did get the chance to run a brief campaign where the slaadi talk the same way they do in the OOTSverse (or the way they do in Elan's imagination, anyway). As a player, aside from the occasional reference that only one other player gets, I'd say the story has only really influenced me by leading me to treat orcs and goblinoids a bit more sympathetically, and maybe by influencing the accent my half-orc cleric with a Intelligence of 7 used.

[Elanasaurus]

I know infinitely as much of D&D now than before I started reading OOtS.

[Verappo]

OotS definitely got me in the right mood to start playing DnD when a bunch of old friends offered, and we've been playing steadily for 3 years or so, even though I'm in another country so I have to be the guy inside the skype call most of the times.

The most direct influence was recent though, since our DM introduced a character who kept trying to steal my cat, which in turn led me to find creative uses for mage's hand a-la Varsuuvius' "Bugsby's cat-retrieving hand"

[Paschendale]

My current character has some of early V's belief in the superiority of arcane magic. But unlike V's TN, this wizard's LG alignment makes that belief also include a obligation to use that superior power to do good. Bad wizards make him kinda nuts.

[Emanick]

OotS definitely got me in the right mood to start playing DnD when a bunch of old friends offered, and we've been playing steadily for 3 years or so, even though I'm in another country so I have to be the guy inside the skype call most of the times.

That's impressive! My group has often joked about using Skype to facilitate a D&D session when one of us was away, but we've never considered it a realistic possibility. Any tips on making it work?

[Verappo]

That's impressive! My group has often joked about using Skype to facilitate a D&D session when one of us was away, but we've never considered it a realistic possibility. Any tips on making it work?

It BARELY worked at the start, to be honest . Aside from making sure that we both had decent internet connections (sometimes we use whatsapp too, seems to work even better somehow), things strangely started getting better when they forfeited the laptop in favor of using one of their phones.
I'm usually held by a guy close to the DM so I can hear him well, and if I have issues making my voice heard I can always relay the info to him. It also helps that he's the most patient guy I know, and he makes sure to keep the others quiet if I absolutely must make a big speech.

Also I try to make myself useful enough to the team that they don't mind waiting a minute more for the inevitable lag. Like, the only significant lag we had during the last session was right when I wanted my character try to get everyone's attention (a character had died and the group was at each other's throats, so she wanted to hand out individual gifts) and all I could get out was "I have a surprise!" before the connection broke for a few minutes. So I guess the promise of a reward helps if you want to keep people's attention

Battles are more of a puzzle since I can't always see the board, but if the technicalities take too long I just give a general idea of what I want to do to see if it's at all feasible. In the end it doesn't really matter if my wizard lands in square F5 or F6, the important is that she's behind the fighter shooting magic missiles.

During the lag-induced downtime I doodle the most recent plot item or whatever, but generally I try to be aware that I might have to say things quickly, so I prepare myself to make the conversation as short and painless as I can

[Elvensilver]

Well, another on here that was influenced by OOTS in their campaign. Our DM brought in a Vampire Cleric with Protection against sunlight, stepping out of his crypt to meet the challenge...unfortunately, we were to genry-savvy and used dispel magic, just as Zz'dritz did. And another one: the cleric in our group (Pathfinder) got Turn Undead as a feat, because in OOTS, everyone was doing it- so it had to be good. Well, normal channel Energy is more helpfull 95% percent of the time, so there...

[Linneris]

Another thing that was probably influenced by OOTS: one player in our club roleplayed the 5e Detect Magic ritual by repeatedly chanting "...detectmagicdetectmagicdetectmagic...", and I took that habit from him.

[D.One]

It made me think a lot about the stereotypes we use in DnD, and Roleplaying in general.

I've made some characters over the years taking some inspirations from characters I've seem in the comic.

And I have a short campaign (yet unplayed, because I live far from my old group nowadays) almost completely ready, that works as spin off: Stickverse Tales - Little Troubles in Big Cliffport.

[RatElemental]

There was a powerful cleric who stopped in the city most of the campaign has taken place in, to rest and get ready for more demon slaying and whatnot when he left. (He ended up staying for reasons unrelated to oots)

While he was there, he was planning to do some charity work. However, the head priest (who isn't even half as powerful as him) would turn people away who couldn't afford the 'donation.'

When the party found out about this and told the cleric, he was furious. On the first day of the head priest's successor taking over, there was even a man missing a hand waiting in line to see if he could get it restored. Not as extreme as an arm, but still.