Knights of the Dinner Table Bundle of Trouble Volume 3 Issue 7

At this point, the comics went from just having comics to having various articles interspersed throughout, becoming a full-fledged gaming magazine. The Bundles have mostly comics but have other things, such as funny fake ads for Hard Eight products. Also, the stories have become denser. This requires a change in the format of these reviews. I will give the summary, then give my thoughts on each individual story.

Issue 7 – The Dice Man Cometh

Five Green Towels – the Knights grab everything from a dungeon that isn’t nailed down and split up the goods, and Brian takes advantage of the situation. Again we see how Brian treats life like a zero-sum game. He wrote down everything they collected in the dungeon in large letters, but the stuff he wanted for himself was in very small letters so no one would notice. It’s humorous, but it’s kinda sad that he would do this to his only friends.

A Call for Heroes – the Knights head for the city of Krandaneer, where they save the city from a joyous event. Here we run into humor that may be problematic for some. Obviously humor is subjective, and I found the jokes here funny, but some may find that the Knights using a female NPC like a pack mule and making her wear a chainmail bra and leather thong so no one would know she was a princess would probably not find that funny. 

The Lord of Steam – Nitro Fergueson makes his first appearance, replacing B.A. as guest gamemaster with his own home-brewed adventure. Here we see how big he is, and how lucky Bob wasn’t totally destroyed by this guy. And we also see how he runs his adventures, which is completely off the rails. We will see more of this when his RPG group, the Black Hands make their appearance in the comic.

The Boy Could Play – the Knights reminisce about Johnny Kizinski. This was a big reason why I never described this early member of the Knights. This comic does a pretty good job of doing that for me.

Brian’s Challenge – Brian challenges Rotgut the dragon to a wine-tasting contest, Brian slips the dragon a polymorph-to-insect potion, and the dragon gets stomped on (literally). This was really funny. If I thought for one second this would work on any roleplay session, I would have used this tactic long ago.

Armload of Trouble – a trap lowers the fighting power of Bob and Dave by half, but moves Sara and Brian up several tax brackets. I love the fact that a simple trap can lay low even the greatest of player characters if they’re not careful. And this is all played straight. There’s no cheating on B.A.’s part. Just lack of control on Bob and Dave’s part. This is a game session done right.

Coward of the County - an NPC torch-bearer calls out the Knights’ cowardice, and the town of Fern Forks pays the price. I like the humor in this comic, but there’s no getting around the fact that B.A. basically goaded Bob, Dave and Brian into wiping out the entire town and its inhabitants. But let’s not forget that their reaction to the situation was excessive, to the point that Sara thinks solo adventures are looking pretty good.

Best Line:  I am the Walrus!! I am the Dice-man!! Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo!! – Nitro Fergueson