“Dungeons and Dragons” is a role-playing fantasy play that provides various adventure-based fantasies and military formations. The “Eberron” is back with campaign settings formed in the fifth edition D & D. This campaign setting introduced just after the forgotten realms of the beloved.
I think I've mentioned I play Dungeons and Dragons and it's hard to be in that community without having heard of Critical Role. I'm still listening to campaign one so of course, I had to read Legends of Vox Machina when I saw it was available.
I absolutely adored this graphic novel. For one thing, I really captured the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons. For example, Scanlan singing Queen even though the band wouldn't - or at least, shouldn't - exist in a mystical fantasy world. Or the quirky humor and problem-solving. Or the way combat worked, how we see everyone's turn. It read like an actual Initiative and that made it more fun to read.
Additionally, I don't think you'd have to be a D&D player in order to enjoy this. It's a well set up fantasy world. The rules are clear, the characters engaging and realistic, and the problems are worth investing in.
Final rating: 5/5 Where you're a player or just a curious reader, you'll enjoy this graphic novel.
Scanlan and Vax peeing on the ruin to destroy it is the most D&D thing that could have been done and I lost it at that part.
Okay, not exactly book-related, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn't try?
Some dear friends of mine are working hard to make their dream a reality. Beginning August 12, you will be able to listen to Bard Time Stories: A D&D 5e Podcast. I know there are books based off of the lore of Dungeons and Dragons, so I figured, why not spread the word? If you or someone you know enjoys the time of entertainment Bard Time Stories will offer, be sure to tune in! Link is in the title!
Thank you. As you were.
This starts with Namari and the Tansus' party, along with an ominous reminder that resurrection spells don't always work. Also, there's a bit of fantasy politics: the elves say the dungeon belongs to them and they want it back. Mr. Tansu tells the local lord to stall. Meanwhile, Laios' party has finally caught up to the red dragon.
Although they're woefully outmatched, desperate and risky moves help them win. Unfortunately, Falin has been reduced to mere bones. Marcille uses dark magic to revive her, which may have pissed off an elf (the one from the painting back in volume 2?).
This was a fun volume, with lots of action (and, of course, more cooking). I really liked Kui's artwork - not only is this a delicious-looking food manga, the action scenes are clear and easy to follow.
I was really surprised that Laios and the others came across the red dragon so soon. I figured that particular storyline was going to be dragged out for at least another few volumes. It'll be interesting to see where the series goes from here. It bugged me a bit that not a single person from the party asked Marcille why the spell she performed
is considered dark magic and what its drawbacks are. I have a feeling that's going to be extremely important in the next volume or two.
I loved the revelation that Senshi has cookware that doubles as high-quality shields and weaponry.
I'm looking forward to continuing this series. I want to see where the elf storyline goes, and I'm sure that the dragon's presence on the fifth floor, an area where it isn't usually found, is important in some way. And hey, the entire party still has to make it out of the dungeon somehow.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
This one took me a bit to get my bearings on since I hadn't realized that these guys would appear again and therefore hadn't really mentioned them in my past posts. I believe this volume starts with the same party that the series regulars came across back when they found the treasure insects. They're revived and continue on, only to be killed yet again by fish-men. The series regulars see them, are attacked by a kraken, and make a meal out of kraken parasite meat - kraken, as it turns out, isn't tasty like real squid. They also make a porridge using grain and waterweed collected from fish-men. Then Marcille
uses up all her mana battling an angry Undine. The party comes across an old party member, a female dwarf named Namari. With her help, they eventually defeat and eat the Undine, which restores Marcille's mana. After that, the party wears Giant Frog skins to survive a tentacle choked area.
This is still a creative and fascinating series, even if Laios' and Senshi's insistence on figuring out how to eat literally everything they come across in the dungeon is a bit ick. The kraken parasite meal made my skin crawl. (And Laios deserved what he got for eating one of those things raw.)
In this volume, readers learn that Marcille and Falin met in school - Falin was skipping class to read in a real dungeon, which she'd observed enough to learn a lot about (back to the whole "dungeon ecosystem" thing). Marcille, meanwhile, wanted to learn how to create a safe dungeon, a place with all the benefits of a real dungeon (access to goods that can only be grown or found in a dungeon) but without the danger.
As usual, the story got a bit ridiculous, but in ways that made sense. I laughed at the
"okay then, I'll just drink the Undine to fix my problems" part (only these characters would propose drinking or eating the thing that nearly killed them in order to continue on). And the frog suit was silly and gross, but otherwise a believable solution to their paralytic tentacle problem.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
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