Our Little Adventure: Not Even Discrete

[whatisgoingon]

So I just came across this, and made an account to post it here. It's called Our Little Adventure, and it's a carbon copy of OOTS. Seriously. It's ridiculous. I'm not sure if you guys have heard of it or not, but here it is.

http://danielscreations.com/ola/

[Domochevsky]

That better not be a disguised plug.

[whatisgoingon]

Originally Posted by Domochevsky

That better not be a disguised plug.

I assure you it isn't. This legitimately makes me angry.

[Querzis]

Anyway, I'll say the same thing I said in their forums, love the humor and the characters though I cant say I'm all that interested in the main plot...to be fair, the characters forget what the main plot is half the time anyway. Unlike the «there is no player» approach of the OOTS, those guys have players and its part of the humor, bring back lots of good nostalgia of old, less serious campaign I did with my friends. But yeah pretty funny comic (with lots of updates too) although the first three pages are very clumsy, wish the author would remake them cause I almost stopped reading right there. Mind you, the start of the campaign is almost always clumsy so I dunno if its referencing that.

[Weimann]

I'm reading through it now, and I'm currently at page 31. There are definite similarities to OotS, but I'd not call it a carbon copy.

The character design is obviously inspired by OotS, but frankly, the art style isn't that similar. Look at Keychain of Creation, for example; the majority of that comic looks way more similar. The D&D 3.5 setting is also a similar point, but it's an individual setting, and they approach it way more blatantly than OotS does, at least later OotS. Last, and importantly, the first page does mention OotS as an inspiration, so there's appropriate credit given.

The differences are bigger than the similarities in my mind. The bard is the sensible one, focusing on healing spells and being married (and way too happy with her bardic lore), not a naive hunk with too many illusion spells. The caster is an outspokenly female human sorceress in her early teens, not an age-old androgynous wizard elf. I'll agree that the rogue is pretty similar to Belkar with his douche bag tendencies are stubbly hair, but that alone isn't nearly enough to call copycat. The humour is more adult than OotS, and the characterization is less developed.

I can see where the inspiration comes from, but I can't call this a copy of OotS, and it's certainly nothing that annoys me. It seems like a solid foundation for a story from what I've read so far, and if they can handle the characterisation and development right, then it can become something really good.

[Siosilvar]

Originally Posted by whatisgoingon

I assure you it isn't. This legitimately makes me angry.

Really? You're angry that someone was inspired by a good webcomic artist to write their own good webcomic, albeit in a similar style? Man, I'd hate to see what you think of the fan comics section...

[Domochevsky]

I suppose the only real weird part is how similar the site layout is to GitP. "Flagrant", sure, but the comic itself seemingly less so.

[Weimann]

Yeah, the site layout is a bit garish, I kind of agree. The comic though, I've no problem.

Edit: Hah, just noticed the ad at the top.

[Saph]

I like it. The art is decent and the story's good. It held my interest enough to read the whole archives, which most webcomics don't. :)

[lord_khaine]

Yeah, i just read though the entire archive in one go, and i thought it were really good, its defently something i would recomend people to read.

Also, the different references in the comic are quite funny as well, i liked the girl with the brown hair, who sold armor that specificly protected against stabbing attack to the back, or the +4 vs heartless shield that were hangin in the armory :)

[Weimann]

One thing that does annoy me. I've the hardest time to tell male cahracters from female ones. Pauline, for example. I genuinely thought she was a man until well into the comic, I think it was slightly after the fight against the elf and dwarf. Likewise with the green-suited woman from the council.

[Saph]

Originally Posted by Weimann

One thing that does annoy me. I've the hardest time to tell male cahracters from female ones. Pauline, for example. I genuinely thought she was a man until well into the comic.

Heh, I honestly had no idea which she was supposed to be. It got to the point where I was specifically looking for someone in-comic to refer to her as a 'she' or a 'he' so I'd know (which I think took about 50 comics). Maybe she was supposed to be masculine-looking and so the artist deliberately made it hard to tell?

[Weimann]

Well, she does wear big bulky armour, so it's kind of consistent.

[Querzis]

Originally Posted by Weimann

Well, she does wear big bulky armour, so it's kind of consistent.

Also shes a barbarian. So yeah, I didnt know either at first but it definitly make sense that she would look masculine after her backstory, her 16 strength and all that.

Also, pretty damn sure all the elves are supposed to look androgynous. Its no fun otherwise.

[Gez]

Originally Posted by whatisgoingon

It's called Our Little Adventure, and it's a carbon copy of OOTS. Seriously. It's ridiculous.

There's a lot of OotS clones out there. Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C, and what you bring here would be Exhibit D. (I'm not even listing Keychain of Creation because it used a different setting, a different model of stick figures, and it went away from that art style entirely.) I don't doubt there are many, many more I've never heard about.

[Squark]

And now there's an ad for it above here. That's... a pretty big coincidence. Did the author find this post or something? Are we sure this wasn't a stealth plug? Or testing the waters or something?


For the record, I don't see what the big deal is. We have our own subforum dedicated to "OotS ripoffs" (Emphasis on quotation marks). I enjoyed the archive binge.

[lord_khaine]

Nahh, there were an add up for the comic before this thread were created.

[Fri]

I agree. It's actually really good. Quite distinctive art style and character and storyline as well. Definitely one of the best out there, beside things like keychain of creation and such.

[phy]

The sun and the moon creep me out way more than they really ought to.

[Cieyrin]

Originally Posted by Weimann

One thing that does annoy me. I've the hardest time to tell male cahracters from female ones. Pauline, for example. I genuinely thought she was a man until well into the comic, I think it was slightly after the fight against the elf and dwarf. Likewise with the green-suited woman from the council.

I agree, the characters are a bit difficult to tell the sex of at times.

I just finished my archive binge and I do agree, there's a lot of heart to the story and characters and I enjoyed my time through. The misspelling of 'weird' bugged me a bit, especially since it wasn't just in one place but kept recurring whenever the word was used.

The only other thing I'm a bit at odds with is...well, it may be just me but it felt like Angelo and Brian being an evil married couple subtly said something about equating homosexuality with evilness. I mean, there's no other thing about it in the comic that would imply an alignment connection, other than one of Pauline's mooks being made fun of for being gay, so perhaps I'm seeing things that aren't there, that I'm reading too much into it, so I don't know...

[Lord Seth]

So is people coming into complain about how some comic rips off Order of the Stick (giving it publicity) only to never make another post again a thing now?

[Friv]

Originally Posted by Cieyrin

The only other thing I'm a bit at odds with is...well, it may be just me but it felt like Angelo and Brian being an evil married couple subtly said something about equating homosexuality with evilness. I mean, there's no other thing about it in the comic that would imply an alignment connection, other than one of Pauline's mooks being made fun of for being gay, so perhaps I'm seeing things that aren't there, that I'm reading too much into it, so I don't know...

You are not.

In addition to the Angelo and Brian thing, there is the running joke about whatsisface, the husband, being a closeted gay who married to convince himself that he was straight, in which the punchline is always "and then maybe I was gay!" There is also the truly awful running "Twisted Fruit" joke that starts at 169 and continues until that character (the only other gay person, who is also conveniently evil) is killed with a "twisted smoothie" joke.

It probably continues past there, but that was really the point where I quit the comic in disgust.

[lord_khaine]

You are not.

In addition to the Angelo and Brian thing, there is the running joke about whatsisface, the husband, being a closeted gay who married to convince himself that he was straight, in which the punchline is always "and then maybe I was gay!" There is also the truly awful running "Twisted Fruit" joke that starts at 169 and continues until that character (the only other gay person, who is also conveniently evil) is killed with a "twisted smoothie" joke.

It probably continues past there, but that was really the point where I quit the comic in disgust.

Actualy you both are either reading far to much into this, or else taking it personal for some strange reason.

To start with Angelo and Brian are the 2 most powerfull and succesfull people we have seen in the comic so far, and while he might be evil then he isnt stupidly so, when he does something evil its for a reason, and not for fun.

Also, at the same time while its common knowledge that the 2 of them is married, then we doesnt hear anything about it being unatural or anything like that, actualy noone bats and eye at the notion of 2 men being married, making it an unusualy openmindet world.

Also, i dont know where you get the idea that Lenny might be gay, but when you considder what he gets up to with his wife in the boat episode, then that myth should be consideret bustet.

He might also at the same time have an attraction towards tall dark and muscular men, but that would make bisexual.

[Friv]

Originally Posted by lord_khaine

To start with Angelo and Brian are the 2 most powerfull and succesfull people we have seen in the comic so far, and while he might be evil then he isnt stupidly so, when he does something evil its for a reason, and not for fun.

That does not change the fact that there are exactly three gay people in the story, all three of them are evil, and it is considered totally acceptable to refer to one as a "fruit" several times a strip until his death.

Also, i dont know where you get the idea that Lenny might be gay, but when you considder what he gets up to with his wife in the boat episode, then that myth should be consideret bustet.

He might also at the same time have an attraction towards tall dark and muscular men, but that would make bisexual.

Fair enough, I may have read too far into that; I recall it being used differently, but I really can't be bothered to look it up given that it doesn't change my primary complaint, which is the idea that being gay is an acceptable punchline to this comic.

[Bastian Weaver]

You don't think that all the gay people are good and nice and helpful, do you? Because it's not really better than supposing otherwise...
Yeah, the main villains in OLA are a married gay couple. So what? They're bad because they do bad things, like kill people, burn towns, brainwash good guys, that sort of thing. I especially liked the part about the bards refusing to work for the evil empire.
And Lenny is bisexual, he returned to women because guys kept breaking his heart.
That third bad guy? He was just emulating Angelo. I'd say he was more nuts than fruit, tee hee.
Anyways... it's more of an homage to OotS, not rip-off. There are some nice references to OotS, like Lenny's dream (Oh, Mr Greenhilt, your +5 sword is so nice! May I touch it?) - that was hilarious.
It's a nice comic. And I'd say the only similarity between protagonists here and there are that both live in D&D-esque parody world. Oh, and the rogue's hair color.

[lord_khaine]

That does not change the fact that there are exactly three gay people in the story, all three of them are evil, and it is considered totally acceptable to refer to one as a "fruit" several times a strip until his death.

Thats also missing the point that its a lot more gay people than you will find in allmost any other work of fantasy fiction.

And that more importantly, it isnt consideret anything out of the ordinary, that world is actualy an utopia in that regard, being more tolerant than at least 80% of the real world.

Also, Brian is a head of a state, i challenge you to find just 1 other real world example of someone in an equal position of power, who is outside the closet!

[Cieyrin]

Originally Posted by lord_khaine

Actualy you both are either reading far to much into this, or else taking it personal for some strange reason.

To start with Angelo and Brian are the 2 most powerfull and succesfull people we have seen in the comic so far, and while he might be evil then he isnt stupidly so, when he does something evil its for a reason, and not for fun.

Also, at the same time while its common knowledge that the 2 of them is married, then we doesnt hear anything about it being unatural or anything like that, actualy noone bats and eye at the notion of 2 men being married, making it an unusualy openmindet world.

Also, i dont know where you get the idea that Lenny might be gay, but when you considder what he gets up to with his wife in the boat episode, then that myth should be consideret bustet.

He might also at the same time have an attraction towards tall dark and muscular men, but that would make bisexual.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy the comic, as I couldn't stop reading it the past couple days, I'm just saying said jokes are rather in poor taste. As for no one batting an eye about Angelo's and Brian's marriage is, being Angelo has a tendency to kill people that displease him, so it would be foolish to talk about it within ear shot of him or any of his cultists. Anyone dumb enough to do so probably isn't talking any more, let alone breathing.

Lenny is also definitely bi, there've been plenty of instances and conversations that hint at it, if not outright say it. So I suppose there's an example of a good gay person to talk about.

Originally Posted by Bastian Weaver

You don't think that all the gay people are good and nice and helpful, do you? Because it's not really better than supposing otherwise...
Yeah, the main villains in OLA are a married gay couple. So what? They're bad because they do bad things, like kill people, burn towns, brainwash good guys, that sort of thing. I especially liked the part about the bards refusing to work for the evil empire.
And Lenny is bisexual, he returned to women because guys kept breaking his heart.
That third bad guy? He was just emulating Angelo. I'd say he was more nuts than fruit, tee hee.
Anyways... it's more of an homage to OotS, not rip-off. There are some nice references to OotS, like Lenny's dream (Oh, Mr Greenhilt, your +5 sword is so nice! May I touch it?) - that was hilarious.
It's a nice comic. And I'd say the only similarity between protagonists here and there are that both live in D&D-esque parody world. Oh, and the rogue's hair color.

I'm not saying that sexual orientation and alignment has anything to do with each other and I myself was unsure if such a connection was being made, hence why I brought it up. I suppose a lot of the gay jokes were from characters that aren't exactly open minded about such, like Pauline's band of bandits making like a group of high school athletes against their one friend or the drow being both racist and homophobic. So I don't necessarily see the comic artists making the statement, though a few of the punchlines ain't that great, either.

[Corneel]

Originally Posted by lord_khaine

Also, Brian is a head of a state, i challenge you to find just 1 other real world example of someone in an equal position of power, who is outside the closet!

Elio di Rupo, Prime Minister of Belgium
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland

[lord_khaine]

Elio di Rupo, Prime Minister of Belgium
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland

Impressive, i guess those 2 places really are some of the most open minded in the world.

[VariaVespasa]

Originally Posted by Bastian Weaver

You don't think that all the gay people are good and nice and helpful, do you?

Colton, for example... :P