Review of Knights of the Dinner Table: Special Edition #1

I admit it. I’m a Knights of the Dinner Table (KODT) junkie. I have bought and read almost every issue since the mid-thirties and when I spotted Knights of the Dinner Table: Special Edition #1, I eagerly scarfed it up. If you aren’t familiar with it, KODT follows the exploits of several groups of gamers that act like well, pretty typical (if slightly dysfunctional) gamers. They argue, back-stab, joke, and of course sit around a table and game. This is not an ‘action’ comic. The humor comes from the dialog between the characters and the situations they find themselves in. Also, while the humor is usually exaggerated, if you have played RPGs for any length of time you are sure to find something or someone in KODT to relate to and that’s part of the comic’s charm. In a typical issue, some strips are ‘one shots’ and some follow a continuing plot line from one issue to the next.

This special issue is 32-pages long with a color cover and b&w interior. If you have never seen KODT, the best way to describe the art is ‘lovingly crude’, but since most of it is just talking heads anyway, there is really no need for great artwork. The emphasis is on the dialog between the characters. This special issue focuses on the comic’s main group of misfits, the Knights of the Dinner Table. Unlike the regular comic, this special issue includes only three strips and none of the gaming material you typically find in an issue of KODT. It does include a ‘Who’s Who In KODT’ section which provides biographies for the comic’s main characters. These are funny to read and particularly useful for new readers. The book wraps up with a page of single panel comics and a ‘parting shots’ page with some additional goodies.

The first strip, entitled ‘Payback Rides a Dark Horse’ is a CattlePunk strip. CattlePunk is to Boot Hill what HackMaster is to D&D. Usually I am especially fond of these strips, but I thought this one was merely ok. It relies too much on the old min-maxing player gone wrong scenario, which frankly KODT has done to death. The ending is a bit of a surprise, but the rehashed idea makes it a bit of disappointment.

The next strip, “The Writing on the Wall” is a short two-pager and reverts back to HackMaster, the subject of most KODT strips. It serves as a lead-in for “Trouble Comes in Threes”, the last and longest strip. This strip is the best of the lot in my opinion. The humor is better developed and the situation feels more like something that might actually happen in a real gaming session. It also shows exactly why random encounters can be a bad idea, both for the players and the DM…

If you are a regular KODT reader, you will probably pick up Special Edition #1 as a matter of course. If you are not a regular reader or you just want to find out more about KODT, this is a good place to start. At $2.99 for 32 b&w pages, the price might seem a little high when you compare it to a typical all-color DC or Marvel comic, but where else will you find so much gaming geek goodness?

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Post Title	Author	Date
Ah...	RPGnet Reviews	April 17, 2003 [ 07:39 am ]