DnDoggos is a graphic novel that follows four canines on their adventures learning and playing D&D! With both in-game and out-of-game scenes showing characters and players AND the game explinations, it’s a great book for learning about TTRPGs or just having fun seeing what it would be like if your doggos tried the game!

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What is DnDoggos all about?

DnDoggos is not a game but a wonderfully illustrated graphic novel that follows the story of four dogs (three players and one GM) who are all playing a game of D&D together!

You’ll get the story of the players sitting at the table and talking about the game as they see it AND the story of the characters in the game trying to save their little buddy and uncover the mystery of the missing squeakers. The adventure spans the hub city of Tail’s Bend, a dark forrest full of some “fun” encounters, and a gangster hideaway full of baddies in need of tricking.

There’s fun spillover between the two realms mixed with doggo shenanigans on both sides and a great sense of humor. The doggos, Magnus, Tonka, Zoey, and Pickles, all have their own personalities that bring their characters to life and give some fun in-game situations as the party’s bard, fighter, and cleric all approach the situations a bit differently and push the story forward.

Who would DnDoggos be great for?

I think DnDoggos would be great for any age as long as the reader is OK with some mild peril and a couple fight scenes (it’s all very PG, just, there are a couple of “boss fights”).

For reading level, I think this would hit about a 4th grade reading level for going solo. My kid is 6yo and into early reader books, so I read most of it and kiddo jumping in on a few boxes where comfortable. One of the great things about graphic novels is that the text is broken up into bubbles and boxes, so it’s more modular, making it easier for new readers to give it a try since it may seem less intimidating than a whole page of text. The illustrations are also great at moving and telling the story alongside the text, giving an easy picture based visual that listeners can see and still engage with on their terms.

DnDoggos would ALSO be great for any TTRPG lovers who have also ever wondered what kind of class their pet would be since this takes the personalities of the doggos directly into how a particular class would typically operate (i.e. the fun-loving playful doggo is a bard who loves jokes and puppets). While we don’t have a dog, we do have a cat, and he would totally be paladin.

How DnDoggos teaches how to play TTRPGs

Because DnDoggos flips between the game table and the game world, we get to see how the players make decisions for their characters, how dice rolls impact the game, and why certain things may happen.

This story is also framed with a couple of the players still learning the game basics, so it shows how to handle when something new comes up and explains certain elements by means of the GM answering player questions. There’s points where someone rolls the wrong die, so the group does a rewind and re-rolls and where a player asks what options there are, so the GM answers and explains what he’s asking for.

Having active explinations both shares info about how the game is run for any new players, so they get the same explination as the doggos AND it models good questioning and answering methods for players and GMs to use in game, when needed.

Our favorite parts of DnDoggos

It is really hard to pick just one or two favorite parts in this, because the whole DnDoggos book was just great at every turn.

Kiddo’s favorite part was anything about Squish, the little buddy that the group was trying to track down and save. Squish is the mayor’s son and is just a puppy, but he idolizes the DnDoggos. Kiddo thought Squish was SO CUTE and understood why he wanted to be like the DnDoggos (just like how kiddo wants to be like some of our game characters), so I think there was a special connection made there.

For me, I really liked this one scene where the group needed to distract a big group of guards towards the end, and it was done in a very fun way – it tapped the skills of the group’s bard, and it is just the type of plan I would see some of my players coming up with in the middle of a bandit camp. It was wonderful.

There’s also a ton of little fun moments and puns and general mischief that make for many memorable moments and laughs with kiddo.

Overall thoughts on DnDoggos

DnDoggos is a great book, and I highly recommend for some lighthearted D&D/TTRPG story fun for any age (kids and grown ups alike). It’s cute, the illustrations are on point, and we enjoyed the whole story. I think it can be an engaging tool for helping new players learn the overall gist of what a TTRPG is and is a fantastic model for running a friendly gaming table.

Find a copy of DnDoggos

You can find a copy of DnDoggos at booksellers like Parnassus Books, Bookshop.org, and Macmillan.

Looking for more TTRPG and D&D themed books? Check out my list of “TTRPG and D&D themed chapter books and graphic novels”!

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Review of DnDoggos, a graphic novel about dogs playing D&D!