The Show’s Back On!: Reviewing IDW’s ‘D&D Saturday Morning Adventures’#2

Welcome to the table,

Fill up your cereal bowl, and grab your dice, IDW’s  Saturday Morning Adventures: Dungeons & Dragons #2 is rad, Rad, RAD! And it hits shelves today.

Picking up after the portal hopping events of issue one, the kids find themselves landing in Waterdeep and in the company of a new NPC* named Phaelona. Phaelona seems to be trapped in a run-down temple that is full of many well know magic items from D&D lore, I was really amused to see things from my Encyclopedia Magica* casually mentioned in the dialogue.

Phaelona also mentions she has Wild Magic and that immediately caught my attention because it really feels like they are setting up to add the Sorcerer class to the already established party as she both exhibits portals and summoning abilities and this could work nicely into opening new spaces for the kids to explore.

Speaking of the kids, they are still fighting and I think the growing pains of being both actual kids fighting in life-and-death situations and being children plays very nicely in the narrative and adds some depth that I was hoping for after the prickly feelings present in issue one.

The issue also has gnolls, dark mantels, gelatinous cubes, and more so those who are keen on monsters of the realms will not be left wanting.

Seriously, these issues do not feel long enough. I can’t wait till issue #3 drops. This is such a fun book and long-time fans* of D&D will feel right at home as this Saturday Morning Adventure unfolds.

*NPC – Non-Player Character. This is when the Storyteller who is running the game and simulating the universe portrays a character not played by the players.

*Encyclopedia Magica – Humble brag I know. I do have them though. All four volumes are in almost perfect condition. They are some of my most prized possessions and I have had them for years and years now.

*Long-time fans – I’m speaking purely to the people who love D&D and TTRPGs and fantasy and having fun. Not the “Back in my day is the only way, orcs have to be dumb and mean, why are the women not wearing bikini chainmail, no girls allowed at the table, blah blah blah… ” people.

I have no room for those folks at my table. My table is no place for racist, homophobic, xenophobic, sexist nonsense. I said what I said.