TTRPG and D&D inspired chapter books and graphic novels that I’ve read

Roll for Initiative

Roll for Initiative by Jaime Formato is a middle grade book all about making friends and finding oneself with some help from D&D!  It follows the story of Riley as she rolls with life’s changes when her big brother (and D&D DM) moves away for college.  She grows, makes friends, and starts running her own campaign… and, especially when her brother comes back home and tries to run things his way, learns that she maybe likes taking the initiative.

Whispers of the Voidbringer

Whispers of the Voidbringer by M. Allen Hall is a TTRPG-inspired novel that gives a great example of kids playing D&D.  It follows the epic adventures of a group of player characters as they navigate a classic fantasy world in danger…. And it also follows the parallel journey of the kids playing these characters as they navigate each other, learn the game, and experience this awesome quest.  It was a fun read, and I hope you enjoy it as well!

Princesses of the Pizza Parlor

Princesses of the Pizza Parlor by Maikel Yarimizu is the story of and uncle running a tabletop role playing game for his niece and her tween friends.  It’s a fun tale that follows their character’s adventures in the game… and the drama between the players outside of the game as they navigate their friendships.  There’s many books in the series, so, if your kids enjoy the first one, there’s several more to encourage that spark for reading to continue as the characters grown and discover new adventures together.

Dungeon Critters

Dungeon Critters by Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter is a graphic novel based on shenanigans from their actual TTRPG sessions and follows an awesome story of cute anthropomorphic heroes as they figure out a mystery, their personal stories, and their friendships together.

Complete the Quest

Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library by Brian McLachlan is a choose-your-own-adventure style graphic novel that prompts readers to make impactful choices, roleplay different characters, and go on an epic adventure with lots of twists and turns! The story can end very differently depending on the party members you choose at the start and the choices that you have them make during their adventure, so it’s got amazing re-read value as well.

D&D Dungeon Club

Dungeon Club, Roll Call by Molly Ostertang and Xanthe Bouma is a graphic novel about D&D, school clubs, friendship, and middle school that connects D&D and real life in some awesome ways.  There’s great characters, and it flips quite often between their experiences in game and in actual school to show, very clearly, how tabletop RPGs can help us work through some tough real-world life events and concerns by directly paralleling the game to some all too common school/friendship situations.

TTRPG and D&D inspired chapter book and graphic novel recommendations from others

I have also heard a lot of good things about:

• Sunny Rolls the Dice
• Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Academy
• Buzzing

For other recommendations, let me know what you’d recommend to check out! There’s a lot of adventure-style books out there, and I’m looking for ones that are specifically honing in on books that are not just fantasy adventures but that specifically include TTRPGs in their theme. If you have a suggestion for a book to check out, let me know in the comments, fill out the form here, or email hello@TTRPGkids.com so I can take a look and add it to this section!

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