Preview: A Man’s Quest For Escapism Goes Off The Rails In ‘Side Quest’ #1
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
I’ve been running TTRPG games for as long as I can remember. So many settings, so many encounters, and so many variables that change from session to session, from dice roll to dice role. The one thing that never changes though, is that no matter how much prep work you do (and I do a ton), no matter how clear the path is, and no matter what the NPC* tells them directly, the players are going to wander off on side quests.
Sometimes these quests take an hour, sometimes a few hours, a few years ago the party started a side quest that took two years for them to circle back to the main quest on, and by the time they did, the villains had won, the kingdom had been taken over, and the population had been replaced by a bunch of snake-people with charms to make them look like the citizens they had eaten.
So when I saw Scout Comics had a book called Side Quest coming out, I knew I had to keep an eye on it.
The setup is that D’arik and his fellow adventurers are roaming the countryside of Tol Kestra, something they are want to do more often than not, when their main quest has them wander off on a seemingly darker and more sinister mission. A dastardly Big Bad is threatening the land and terrorizing children and D’arik must find a way to help his friends, save the day, and still keep his home life intact.
As the group sets off on their mission, D’arik can’t help but worry if he will be able to balance his duties as an adventurer and a family man or if he can protect his loved ones while also saving the land from destruction.
The creative team of writer Grant Stoye, line artist Alaire Racicot, color artist Martina Bonanni, and letterer Toben Racicot round out a nice creative party who come together to offer some really fun pages for this thrilling offbeat tale that will feel right at home in the pages of a comic or around the table for your weekly TTRPG game.
The alternate covers look rad, the concept seems fun, and a Big Bad who is straight out of children’s stories feels like it is going to be delightful from beginning to end.
I will keep you posted as more news on this sure-to-be cult classic series comes across my desk.
Until next time, if the priest with the magic owl tells you “Hey… I think there are some weird snake cultists trying to take over the city that is a week’s walk away.” maybe don’t wander off to see what’s in the spooky woods and follow a hole in a tree deep down below the earth where the things that birth nightmares reside.
