That’s our Haley.
OK what’s the joke with the title, because there clearly is one? Obviously the idiomatic “out of pocket” means losing money, what’s the alternative meaning that applies here?
What an absolute nut log.
Google tells me that “out of pocket” can be used as slang for someone acting loopy or saying nonsense. That would fit the strip. I’ve never heard it used in that manner though.
Why should it have a double meaning? Not everything does. Haley didn’t get the money she was expecting, that’s like losing money. I don’t see any other meaning, or any need for one.
Have you not read the titles of OotS stips? They are almost all puns, double meanings or reactions to something asked in the strip. Those few that aren’t are more substantial than “out of pocket”. A short incomplete phrase like that is not going to be just a straight one definition description of a single event in the strip.
I wondered if it referred to Bloodfeast.
It could be a reference to this series of strips about the fight with Calder being a small “pocket” in the overall narrative, which we are now done with. Burlew could be acknowledging the complaints of some readers like “when are we getting out of this room and back into the main story?”
Same planet, different worlds.
TBF, isn’t she saving her father’s ransom or some such? More than just greed, anyway.
Her father is now free and plotting the revolution in the Empire of Blood.
So is Bloodfeast stuck in big mode now?
Also, it’s funny how even Chaotic PCs like Haley have their inviolable rules. “There HAS to be a treasure!”
The title definitely had me expecting that she’d try going through the dragon’s pockets. I wasn’t sure if it’d be funnier if she failed or succeeded.
That’s a distinct possibility. I’ve lost track - are they in a pocket dimension room? Can they leave the pocket, now that the fight is over?
Ah. My memory gets fuzzy on these decades-long story lines.
On July 27th, Rich announced that Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tails was now available on pdf.
If you’re not familiar with this book (which has been out-of-print for a while now), it’s where I compiled the OOTS comics that appeared in the late great Dragon® magazine. There are also a bunch of original non-canon odds and ends, like Julio Scoundrél fighting a mummy and Roy’s interpretation of Hamlet, that I wrote to round out the page count.
But for this new digital edition, I am also throwing in an additional six comics that have never been collected before! They’re the ones that appeared in the late perfectly-fine Gygax™ magazine! This very short-lived publication asked me to provide original OOTS comics starting back in 2013, and they follow the general vibe of the Dragon comics that came before them (i.e. primarily game-themed jokes). I also wrote up a new page of commentary on how that came about, along with a look back at the original content of Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales, which was first published as an Ookoodook exclusive all the way back in 2011, when Fourth Edition was a big deal. And I switched some of the frontmatter to color, which I realize doesn’t matter to anyone else but I wasn’t able to do it back then due to printing cost, and now I can because color pixels aren’t more expensive than greyscale ones.
Get it here: The Order of the Stick: Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales
I’ll give Burlew credit for getting back on track, 6 day turnarounds for the last few strips.
Adios Bloodfeast.
Probably related to the reprinted book having been finalized.
And Chekhov’s gun goes back on the wall.