  |
We've got some tentative solutions for the server issues. We're going to be migrating the site to a new server, AND we're going to switch the message board software to something that doesn't suck up all of the resources. The schedule on this is uncertain, but there's a good chance it will happen next weekend (October 20-22). While it's going on, the message board will be completely shut down, probably for several days. It is strongly advised that if you have any material on the message board that is particularly near and dear to your heart--homebrew game material, posts from an active play-by-post game, a PM with a girl's phone number--that you make sure you have a copy on your hard drive BEFORE October 19th. We're going to attempt to import the existing message board into the new software, but it may not work 100% and we are not responsible if something you poured your heart and soul into gets eaten. In the short term, the Search function has been disabled on the message board until further notice, in order to lighten the server load. In other news, we'll be at UberCon VIII in Secaucus, NJ, that weekend, which will make the transition process ever so convenient. But we'll have books and maybe even games for sale, with autographing potential no less. The third and penultimate chapter to Amber's story is now up as well. The delay was all mine, do not hold it against Amber. In case you haven't noticed, we're having some issues with our server these days. Mostly with the message board, but also with the system we use to add content to the site. (I had a heck of a time getting this news post added, for example.) We're addressing the problem on our side, and may have some (fairly drastic) solutions, but until those are in place we have to ask the following: STOP REFRESHING THE SITE! Yes, the comic has been up fairly regularly around midnight for a few weeks, but when you sit there and refresh it over and over, you are sucking down tons of bandwidth that eventually bring down the server so that NO ONE (yourself included) can see the comic. Limit your refreshes to no more than once every 15-20 minutes, at the absolute most, and refresh THIS page, and NOT the message board. The message board is a resource hog; we went through the trouble of putting the link to the latest comic on the sidebar specifically so you wouldn't need to refresh either the comic page or the message board. Please, for the sake of everyone who wants to see the comic, refresh this page (or better yet, one of the article pages) instead of the board. Finally, to encourage people to stop waiting with trigger fingers to post, "FIRST POST!" when the comic goes up, effective immediately, we will delete all message board posts that say anything referring to the number of posts that have occurred in the thread. There, now no one has any reason to care whether they see the comic the moment it goes up. With a little patience and restraint, we will struggle through this and end up with better service that will allow us to keep growing. Thanks. I've been told that the OOTS Adventure Games has reached Houston, and is being shipped out to those who preordered them right now. Kevin predicts they will all be shipped by Monday, along with any copies of Paladin Blues ordered. Note that this only applies to people who preordered directly through APE Games; if you ordered from some other website, you'll have to wait until the games get through several layers of distributor before you'll see anything. That's one of the perks of ordering direct from us. Well, that and a free Belkar magnet, while supplies last. As near as I can tell, APE hasn't actually hit the 1000 copy mark on the game. If you order now, you might still get them next week, instead of waiting. No pressure, I'm just saying. Just a quick note: I'll be making a personal appearance at a Webcomics Symposium being offered by Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, this Friday and Saturday. There's a big panel discussion Friday night at 7:00 pm, and workshops on a variety of subjects the next day from 1:30-5:30ish. Joining me will be Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary, Shaenon Garrity of Narbonic, and Eric Burns and Wednesday White of Websnark. All of whom are frankly much more talented than I am in at least one way, so you should listen to them. You can get driving directions here, and then make your way to the Science Center. If you're within an hour or so of Philadelphia, I think it will be worth it. Plus, I'll probably drag some books and t-shirts with me to sell, so you can snag an autographed copy of the new book. Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and our fine Forum Moderators have dressed their avatars up in full pirate regalia for the day, as have many of the regulars. We also have a pirate design contest going on in the Design Contest forum, for those interested in statting up their own pirate. You may notice that I'm not talking like a pirate right now, but this is because technically, this is writing, not talking, and Write Like a Pirate Day is sometime in May, I think, and at any rate was never very successful due to the high percentage of illiteracy among buccaneers of the 17th century. In other news, I've been told that APE games will be freezing preorders of the OOTS Adventure Game at 1000 copies, which they are not too far from reaching, in order to make sure that the first print run has enough product to fulfill retailer needs. So if you don't have a game store near you that you think will carry it, you might want to head over to APE now and order before the cut-off. As it stands now, we expect the first print run to sell out fairly quickly at the distributor level, which means if you see it in the store, you might want to grab it before it's gone (or at least temporarily unavailable while APE reprints). The games are inside the US, incidentally, on their way to APE's Houston corporate headquarters. From there, they will spread through the world like a virus! A virus packaged in an 11" square cardboard box, but a virus nonetheless. When they ship to stores, so will No Cure for the Paladin Blues, so we're very close to me having an exact in-stores date on that for you. Of course, Paladin Blues is on sale right now in APE's online store, if you want it shipped to your doorstep. The previous two books are currently sold out, but we're working behind the scenes to get them reprinted. Also, some of you may have noticed that the schedule has returned, if somewhat clarified. I figured it would be best to meet the schedule for a week or two before making it formal. Arrr, we're havin' clear sailin' ahead, me mateys. So the book signing was a big hit up in Cambrisdge last week. We had about 60-70 fans come by and get their books signed, as one is wont to do at a book signing. Luckily I have a break from the personal appearances for a while...we won't be anywhere in an official capacity until UberCon in October. I can actually stop parceling my time out in terms of "Days Left Until X" and concentrate on things here. If you didn't notice, the second chapter of Amber's story, The Duke's Wolf, is up now. Go read it! If you happen to be anywhere within driving distance of Cambridge, Massachusetts, this Saturday, stop by to visit our friends at Pandemonium Books and Games. I'll be there speaking and signing books, including No Cure for the Paladin Blues (but NOT including the Adventure Game...I couldn't get my hands on any copies in time). Come at 1:00 pm for a Q&A panel, followed at 3:00 pm by signings. If we can, we might break open my demo copy of the game afterwards and teach people how to play. Oddly, this event isn't yet listed on the Pandemonium site schedule, but rest assured, I'm driving up to Boston this weekend so I will be there. Hey all, so I guess some of you didn't get that there weren't going to be any new comics while I was in Indiana, so for that I apologize. I'm still on the road home, but I was able to get a strip done here at a hotel along the way. As far as the site redesign, I must stress again that it is a work in progress. We will be tweaking a lot of things. For example, this News page is forcing horizontal scroll right now because of the piece of art two posts down. That needs to be fixed, there shouldn't be h-scroll. The sidebar is also going to have some art going down the side under the content, but it's not finished yet. And yeah, the News header appears on the forums, and other places. But keep in mind that angrily demanding changes to the design is likely to result in being ignored. We just don't work that way. GenCon was fantastic, by the way. We'll have pictures and words and (gasp!) even movies of the convention soon, once we get back to Philadelphia. Wait, what? What is all this? A new sidebar, new art? I can't find the comic! Well, remember waaaaaay back on the first of the year or thereabouts, when I announced that GiantITP.com would restart its practice of publishing game content, as well as short fiction stroies. Yeah, well, this is that, just delayed a little. It's not perfect yet, it still has a lot of changes coming, but it's more or less functional now. Expect to see older articles tweaked to fit the new format over time, and new stories and articles to start appearing. The new sidebar is a lot more functional, and will tell you whenever new content appears. Note the first part of a serialized fantasy story from my good friend, Amber E. Scott, linked on the left. Also, an OOTS RSS feed is very close to being done. Part of that process means a new URL for the latest OOTS comic. Right now, it should automatically redirect you (fingers crossed), but soon you will need to update your bookmarks. For now, click on the number and title in the sidebar to be taken to that comic. The "Comics" link instead takes you to the Archive of comics. So, yeah. Big changes, not much time to talk since I'm already late for setting up my booth here in Indianapolis. I'm keeping WampaX waiting while I write this, so watch this space for more news as I am able to write it.
The amount of free stuff we're giving away at the booth this year boggles the mind. For starters, every customer who spends $25 or more at the booth will get this spiffy black Belkar refrigerator magnet, while supplies last. (It goes on your fridge, hence Belkar's comment.) This item will only be available at the convention, or to those who preorder the Adventure Game right now at APE Games' store; it won't be on sale anywhere. Which brings us to the second giveaway, the coveted Elan with Banjo the Clown pin, which will be handed out to the first 500 customers, regardless of their purchase. So if you show up early and spend 25 bucks, you'll walk off with both. But what's that? You want free books? Free OOTS books, you say? Done. While supplies last, if you buy Dungeon Crawlin' Fools and No Cure for the Paladin Blues at our booth, you'll get a copy of On the Origin of PCs free! That's a savings of $13.95 for the full OOTS book collection. And you can get all three books signed by me, the author, unless I'm at a seminar or taking a leak or something. You'd have to be brain damaged to order them from somewhere else if you're going to Indianapolis. Heck, you'd have to be brain damaged to order them from somewhere else if you know anyone who knows anyone who's going to Indianapolis.
Now, just so you don't all think I've lost my mind, we've also got some new products for sale, too. Check out these sweet new t-shirt designs, below. If these sell really well, they might even show up here to buy online. So if you're not going and you desperately want one, cross your fingers and try to mentally project your will onto GenCon attendees.
Just a few quick news bites here. First, if you're going to San Diego Comic-Con, don't forget that OOTS books are on sale there at the Sluggy Freelance/PartiallyClips/yadda yadda booth, #1317, as mentioned below. Pick up the Supercollider comic with your copy of "No Cure for the Paladin Blues." Second, in regards to that: I had been told preorders for Supercollider would be halted when the con began, but now I have learned that they will stay open for the duration of the con, THEN close. So you can still get your order in before Sunday night. And third, apparently I've won the Webcartoonist's Choice Award for Best Fantasy Comic, an honor for which I tied with another comic last year. (I say "apparently" because there is no official announcement on the website, but I received a notification from the chairman of the whole thing.) This makes me the winner for one-and-a-half years in a row.
I announced a while back that I would not be able to attend San Diego Comic-Con (July 20-23) due to personal reasons. What I didn't talk about was that up until that announcement, I was to be part of a collective booth with a few fellow webcomic artists--and that these artists (and I) produced a group comic book together. I won't be there, but my work will still be found in the comic. Supercollider: A Webcomic Mash-Up is a 24-page black-and-white comic book that tells the tale of a pair of shapeshifting demigods as they travel through the worlds of Sluggy Freelance, Fragile Gravity, The Devil's Panties, PartiallyClips, SuperFrat, and the Order of the Stick (not necessarily in that order). It features six pages of original Order of the Stick comic goodness, drawn and written by me. (It also has a nice cover by Chris Moreno, who interpreted Elan and Roy in his own way.) The folks behind those comics will be selling this book only at San Diego Comic-Con (booth 1317) for $5, or through presales on Unseen, LLC's website for $8 (they're the fine folks behind Fragile Gravity). Once the convention starts, though, presales will be stopped and you'll lose your chance to get this piece of what someone might someday call webcomic history (but probably not). Order it by clicking HERE. (By the way, they're also selling a great "WebKomiks" t-shirt that you need to see.) (Oh, and that booth 1317 at SDCC? Will have No Cure for the Paladin Blues for sale. In very-limited-because-shipping-to-California-is-expensive quantities.) (Parentheses are fun.)
The book will be available in retail stores in Fall (we don't have an exact date yet, but I think late September or early October). But wait! You don't have to wait that long if you're going to Origins Expo (Columbus, OH, June 29-July 2) or GenCon Indy (Indianapolis, IN, August 10-13)! Because I'll be bringing a very limited amount of Sneak Preview copies of the book for sale at both conventions. So if you're one of the lucky first 750 people who get to our booth at Origins next Thursday, you can get your hands on the next OOTS book four months early--and get it autographed by me while you're at it. So, that's pretty big, but really, everyone KNEW there was going to be another book. This second announcement will probably be a little more unexpected.
Giant in the Playground has teamed up with APE Games to produce the first ever OOTS game, The Order of the Stick Adventure Game: The Dungeon of Dorukan. This game will be kind of a hybrid between a card game and a board game, with strong influences from games like Talisman and the old Dungeon! board game. Each player will take on the role of one of the OOTS members and delve down into the dungeon to fight Xykon, while choosing whether to help or screw over their fellow party members. Note that this isn't just a matter of me licensing the characters to APE; Kevin Brusky of APE Games and I have been working closely for more than a year to develop a game that captures the spirit of the Order of the Stick while still being a good board game. You can find more details here (just scroll down) or by visiting the APE Games website here. The game won't be available to buy in stores until after we premier it at GenCon Indy (Indianapolis, IN, August 10), though we will have a demo set at our Origins booth next week. We will be taking preorders at Origins, I'm told, and exclusively through the APE Games website store starting on July 5th. The really scary part? I'm not even done announcing stuff. But this will do for now. So it turns out my rich(at)GiantITP(dot)com email has been down for a few days, and will remain down for a few more. Until further notice, use the GiantITP(at)gmail(dot)com email for me. If you emailed me something since last Friday, please resend it. Thanks! Some complications with the product announcement(s) surfaced; we'll get them sorted out soon. I think there was some confusion when I announced the change in schedule. It was my intent to basically say, "There is no schedule right now; I'll try to get them up on Days X and Y, but, you know, no promises." There's been a lot of complaining about the "lateness" of posting since then though, so let me spell this out in no uncertain terms: There is no schedule right now. None. The comic cannot ever be late, because I am no longer telling you when there will be a new one. I will TRY to do a comic on Monday and Wednesday. I will fail, often. For that, I apologize, as well as for the failure to be this clear the first time I posted about it. OK, on to other news. (Yes, I have some. What?) Due to a surprise personal commitment, I will no longer be attending San Diego Comic-Con in July, at all. I regret any inconvenience to West Coast fans that were intending to meet me there, but this is completely out of my control. However, don't be surprised if there is some OOTS goodies there anyway; I was intending to partner up with some of my webcomic peers, and they're all still going. More details later. Speaking of more details later, I'm just about ready to make an announcement about the next book. At the earliest, tomorrow, but more likely Friday. IMPORTANT! If you are an international (non-USA) customer who ordered the book between January 3rd and March 3rd, and you have not yet gotten your book, I need to hear from you (if I haven't already) at rich@GiantITP.com. Put the words "MIA Overseas Order" in the subject line of the email. I am getting together a list to confront the printer with, due to the large number of overseas orders that have failed to arrive at their destinations. If you have emailed me asking about your order, then I have your name on my list, even if I didn't respond. There may be legal action involved about this, so please, if you can, email me ASAP if you fit into that category. Oh, and BaltiCon was kind of lame. We met a few fans, introduced a few more people to OOTS, but for the most part, Margie and I sat at our table, bored out of our skulls. There just weren't enough attendees that were into gaming or comics; it seems it's more of an old-school literary convention. Oh well. While I hope to get the comic up on Monday and Wednesday, note that the schedule listed at the top of the comic specifies "usually" Monday and Wednesday. This past Wednesday, I had to drive back to NY for an unexpected funeral, so the comic didn't get done. There's a new one now, though, so you're still getting two this week. Well, as unpopular announcements go, this one will probably top the list. You may have noticed that there was no comic on Friday. The fact is that I got bogged down in a very important deadline for an OOTS product, and made the decision that the product had to come before the online strip in my priority-o-meter. See, without the books and other merchandise I produce for OOTS, I couldn't afford to continue to make the comic full-time, and if I failed to meet this particular deadline, I was going to be in deep trouble in terms of successfully earning my yearly budget. Since the justification for going to the three-day-a-week schedule was because I was able to devote the time I previously devoted to my Day Job, I figured that anything that threatened that was enough reason to cut back to two last week. I wasn't sure I wasn't going to get one out late Saturday, but the deadline kind of bled into the entire weekend, and I only just finished the bulk of the work this morning. The problem arises when I realize that I have additional deadlines for the entire remainder of May and June--followed by three major conventions in the space of six weeks. Now, I'm not foolish enough to think that I won't once again be in the situation of not being able to get both the online strip and my other work done at the same time. I don't think it has escaped anyone's notice that the strips are being posted later and later every day, something I am not happy with but have been unable to seem to correct. So, for the summer, OOTS is returning to a twice-a-week-schedule temporarily, effective immediately. Unlike before, it will update (hopefully) on Mondays and Wednesdays, so it will just be as if I took Fridays off. Mind you, if I find myself with a copious amount of free time, I may post a comic some Fridays anyway, but don't expect them. Consider them bonus strips if they appear. The point is, I would rather tell you guys up front that I will not be able to manage three strips a week until after GenCon in August. At that time, I will ramp back up to three--heck, I might even do a few seven-in-a-row weeks in the fall to make up lost ground. Again, I can't stress enough that this is temporary, and I thank you for your patience. For those who may have missed it, I was lucky enough to do a guest strip for Scott Kurtz's webcomic, PVP. You may not get the joke if you don't know PVP, but then again, you might. PVP was, incidentally, the first webcomic I ever saw, so in a sense you can thank (or blame) Scott for the existence of OOTS in the first place. So sit back for a moment and prepare to hear a harrowing tale of conventions gone wrong: We were invited to MidSouthCon last year sometime, and we decided to drive there. Plane tickets were offered, but we had two books and t-shirts and assorted booth paraphernalia to take with us, more than would fit in checked luggage. After all the problems I'd had with shipping stuff, I decided I trusted only myself to get my stuff to the con. Things began badly, though, as proven by the fact that Wednesday's strip was posted late, even for recent trends. Friday's strip wasn't done yet, but I figured, "Hey, the convention doesn't start until Friday afternoon. Even leaving a few hours late, we can get into Memphis at 6:00 am, enough time for a nap and to draw and post Friday's comic." So we left Philly at 10:00 am Thursday morning. A mere 22 hours later, we roll into Memphis, Tennessee. (Note that MapQuest pegged the trip at about 17 hours, and we only stopped for 2 one-hour meal breaks.) It's now 8:30 am, Friday, local time, and we walk up to the desk at the convention hotel to check in. Only, they canceled our reservation for not showing up. Despite the fact that the con staff had told them we would be checking in late. The front desk rudely informed us we could try back at 3:00 pm, their normal check-in time, when they MIGHT have a room. We can't get a hold of the con guest relations person, since I was an idiot and copied her cell phone number down wrong. Faced with exhaustion and the need to shower, nap, and prepare for the dealer's room to open at 4:00, we drive around until we find another hotel with an available room that will let us check in early. We find one. We check in. I take a three-hour nap, then get up and draw Friday's comic; I finish it at 2:30 pm. I go to hook up to the wireless internet--and discover that this hotel, unlike the convention hotel, doesn't HAVE wireless internet. They have wired internet--only, their system more or less assumes you have a PC laptop, not an iBook, and I don't even have a port on my computer that matches the cable coming out of the wall. After showering, I bring the laptop with me to the convention hotel, where I find out that, oh, no, the wireless internet there is down. (As point of fact, it remains down for every point in time at which I had my laptop with me during the entire convention.) A quick phone book survey of the neighborhood reveals that there are no internet cafes, Kinko's, or similar services anywhere near the hotel. I give up, and call Ray to tell him to post the filler that graced the Comics page for the last few days. Once the entire weekend had passed without the convention hotel's internet access ever being available, I decided to just wait until I got home. I left Memphis on Monday afternoon, and made it into Philly at about 6:00 pm Tuesday, at which time I posted the strip immediately, then started writing this post. The convention was a lot of fun, despite these problems. None of it was MidSouthCon's fault; the hotels were awful, and the hotel staff was rude and unhelpful. So, regarding the comic: Today's comic is actually Friday's. Tomorrow night, you'll get a double-sized comic, representing Monday and Wednesday of this week. This Friday's comic will post as normal. So there won't be any shortfall of comic, merely a more compressed schedule for them.
|
Let's talk GenCon, shall we? Now, if you've been reading this page, you already know about No Cure for the Paladin Blues, which will be available in virtually-unlimited quantities, and the Order of the Stick Adventure Game, which will be available in sharply limited quantities. (Seriously, if you want the game at GenCon, be there Thursday morning.) But I'm now here to talk about something that is vitally important to each and every gamer--nay, every consumer. I'm here to talk about free stuff.
Now, that stuff is cool, but this next bit is near and dear to my heart. Ever since we started doing conventions, we've had parents bringing their young ones with them to the booth. Often, seeing the colorful characters, parents ask whether we have anything for the kids. We never did--until now. We printed up a great 4-page The Order of the Stick coloring book (well, more of a coloring sheet, really) that we will be giving away free to all children (or people with children at home), along with a free box of 24 crayons to color and draw with! We have a lot less crayons than sheets, so we'll only be giving them out to the actual children who come by, until we run out. What could be better than that? Well, how about if those kids then had a chance to win more than $50 in art supplies, just with their crayons? Giant in the Playground Games is proud to offer what we hope to be our first annual Kid's Coloring Contest at GenCon. By coloring and drawing on the OOTS coloring sheet and letting us hang it up in our booth for the duration of the con, kids under 12 have a chance to win one of three age-appropriate art supply gift baskets, each valued at over $50. I'll judge each entry and pick my three favorites at 12:15 PM on Sunday, August 13, and every child who shows up to hear the winners announced will get a prize, just for entering! And then they'll get their pictures back, don't worry.
Oh, I said there was more coming.
Well folks, looks like it's finally time to let you guys see some of what I've been working on. First up, the next book in the Order of the Stick series, titled No Cure for the Paladin Blues. This second full-color compilation weighs in at a whopping 244 pages and covers everything from the village through the bandits and the dragon to the introduction of Miko, the night at the inn, the trial, and the aftermath. That's a lot of comic goodness right there, folks, but you know what? It wasn't enough! So I've added 14 all-new bonus comics and more than 12 pages of author commentary--and yes, full translations for all cryptograms. You can read more about the book by clicking 