Tonka, Pickles, Zoey, and Magnus are dogs, friends, and a D&D party. Magnus is the game master, Tonka is a goofy puppet-wielding bard, Pickles is an impatient fighter, and Zoey is the thoughtful cleric. Their quest? to track down the mayor’s son Squish, and figure out why all of the squeaky toys in the kingdom have gone missing. Their real-life quest? to eat as many snacks as possible. So, you know, your average D&D adventure. The narrative bounces back and forth between the imagined D&D quest and the mechanics of the four players as they roll for initiative, damage, and hot dogs.
DnDoggos began as a web comic that creator Scott Underhill developed based on their own adorable dogs. Now it’s a new middle grade graphic novel series (book 2 is on the way). I picked this for the tween Comic Book Club I run at the library, and sure enough it was a hit. One of my participants who does not play D&D found the narrative a little confusing, but the artwork is so cute, it helps newbies coast through. Beginner and seasoned players will have no trouble following. The book is a great pick for book club or introducing kids to tabletop RPGs. We created our own dog characters based on an extremely simplified character sheet. Naturally, all of the children assigned “infinity” to every skill. But none of them walked home with any of my personal sparkly dice collection, so a win is a win.
