Adventure Zone Volume One: Here There Be Gerblins

The roleplaying world gets ever more meta, this is a comic that is based on an actual-play podcast of presumably a D&D game.

The foreword is gushing but also seems only fleeting aware of what roleplaying is. What is here in this book is archetypal ironic D&D gaming turned into a comic. The characters are self-aware murderhobos while the GMs characters do the heavy lifting as the story takes on more typical fantasy literature arcs.

After one village is annihilated it falls to a NPC to mourn the dead villagers in the face of the indifference of the actual players.

The group is then inducted into a global secret society, not because of their talents, or their desire to progress the groups goals but really because they are the narrative focus, protected by the story covenant that so many OSR fans hate and reject.

The art is good with some imaginative panel framing, in particular for the GM’s interactions and in the concluding flashback scene which sees a ring of redrawn earlier panels around a central portrait of the characters.

The colouring is excellent, particularly when it comes to environmental effects and some of the more freaky sections of art such as the inferno scenes. Each section of the book has a consistent and distinct palette that reflects the tone of the section.

Technically the whole book is excellent and a delight, I’ll probably read the next one too. It’s just that the source material it’s based on is weak. Your ability to enjoy the book as comedy will probably be based on your reaction to the name of one of the villains who is called “Magic Brian” if this kind of interplay of low absurdist humour and high fantasy tropes is your bag then you’re probably going to love it. Otherwise you may want to endure it for the craftsmanship but this is pop culture at its best and worst.

I’m sure that there are many other games that deserve the technical love and attention that has been lavished here but that’s the random nature of what finds and audience and what doesn’t.