Webcomic / Dungeons & Doodles: Tales from the Tables

Dungeons & Doodles: Tales from the Tables is a webcomic by Polish-Canadian artist DoodlePoodle set in the Forgotten Realms settings based on Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition rules, revolving around Angela Hawthorne and her party as they embark on adventures in the Sword Coast helping people and fighting evildoers. The comic explores and pokes fun at tropes that are prevalent in the tabletop game.

The comic's first page was posted to Twitter / X on 30 June 2021 as a side project to the ongoing real-life campaign in which DoodlePoodle is one of the players, playing Angela as mentioned earlier. Since then, it has been updated with a new page every month.

The Main Cast as of this writing consists of:

• Angela Hawthorne, a human paladin who seeks to clear the name of her falsely convicted father;
• Eriawynn Jhaeros, a wood elf cleric;
• Redwen, a tiefling rogue;
• Rumples Rockfist, a mountain dwarf fighter;
• Rudolph, a firbolg barbarian;
• The Forever DM, an unearthly being responsible for running the campaigns in which the adventurers partake in.

The Best Available, a Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play taking place within the same setting but in an Alternate Continuity with Angela in a different party, is currently in the works and can be watched on YouTube.

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Well met, fellow Tropers! I seek Tropes for a noble quest!

• Action Insurance Gag: The Session Zero Tavern & Inn where the party regularly hung out since the first episode finds itself getting destroyed now and then by a destructive patron. Fortunately, the tavernkeeper who runs it receives insurance every time it happens.
  Tavernkeeper: Ha ha no worries, lass. Half this tavern's income comes from insurance.
• Animesque: The comic's overall art style has some anime influences to it, with the use of Sweat Drops and the characters sometimes having their expressions comically exaggerated.
• Beggar with a Signboard: As a result of Eriawynn losing most of the party's funds in Episode 19, they're shown in the next episode panhandling on a street in Waterdeep, even using Angela's shield as a signboard.
  Sign: WILL FIGHT MONSTERS FOR COINS
• Bookends: The final panel of episode 24 has Redwen saying the same thing Angela said in the end of the first episode when the Forever DM lampshades her acting outside of her alignment.
• Broke Episode: The party in Episode 19 find a huge cut of their loot all gone in one day because Eriawynn paid a huge sum for a powerful magic item, the Non-Fungible Trident, which turns out to be a paper certificate to a weapon they can neither touch nor see.
• Cerebus Syndrome: While the comic is mostly lighthearted and comedic, things take a serious turn on occasion. Episode 29 in particular is when the comic began to focus a little more on the characters' Story Arcs, shedding light on some of their Dark and Troubled Past as well as working towards resolving those, one episode at a time.
• Chest Monster: The classic D&D mimic shows up twice.
  • First in "I Worked Hard on This", the Forever DM discreetly replaces a genuine treasure chest with a mimic because the party is coming up with a plan to bypass all his dungeon traps (and are taking their sweet time planning it out) much to his annoyance.
  • Then in "Echoes of the Past", Eriawynn is too hasty in checking a big chest, despite Redwen warning her out, and ends up almost swallowed whole. She really ought to have noticed the eyes all over it before opening it.
• Continuity Nod: Laeral Silverhand in Episode 32 reveals that the wizard Tsiflam's research is backed by some of the Masked Lords of Waterdeep, to find means of addressing the Illithid threat that just emerged in Baldur's Gate as they say.
• Crossover: With The Handbook of Heroes twice over. This was reciprocated with Angela having cameos a couple times in the latter webcomic.
  • The party confronts Antipaladin in "Don't Judge by Appearance". Patches the Unkicked and Witch also show up.
  • In "Friends in High Places", the party meets with Wizard and Thief in Lady Silverhand's mansion. Redwen quite gets along with Thief, unsurprisingly.
• Crossover Cameo: Fellow adventurers from other D&D-themed Webcomics, as well as a few Original Characters, have made their appearances as background characters in some episodes.
  • Before they were replaced with Eriawynn on Tapas and Webtoons, Episode 5 featured Bethaniel, Velatha and Tobias, characters from The Best Available Actual Play who are played by the creator's fellow players in real life.
  • Episode 9 has Sir Becket, Tovard and Shad sitting in the tavern background. Link, Trevor Belmont and Alucard also appear during the Bar Brawl that ensues.
  • Episode 15 ends things off with the party exiting a dungeon after a vicious beholder battle, only to encounter a mighty red dragon... specifically, Den of the Drake, a storyteller with an interest in tales of the cringy variety. The encounter itself was showcased at the end of one of Drake's videos as seen here.
  • Episode 16 has Prestige Perkins, Dorilys Happ and Gelatinous Cube from Rusty and Co. in the audience of the bard doing stand-up comedy. (And maybe Mimic too as a common, unassuming piece of furniture, who can tell...)
  • The constable questioning the party in Episode 17 looks like Natalia, a police detective drawn from Polish comic artist Robert Adler (a.k.a. "Au" or "Boli-blog"). A pair of City Watch guards who arrest the party early on also look like Górsky & Butch from the eponymous comic made by the same artist.
  • Episode 20 has Alice and Obi from 1 HP Club walking past the party, the latter donating a few gold coins to the party.
  • Yuuka Bear, a Virtual YouTuber who voices Angela in the comic dub hosted by Solus Astorias, appears in a portrait on episode 30.
• Dragons Prefer Princesses: Episode 12 uses the virgin variant for humor when the party is sent to deal with a dragon said to have developed a particular taste for the flesh and blood of innocent virgins, which he can supposedly smell from a mile away. The cleric and rogue aren't especially worried ("Good thing we're all adults, then"). The paladin, who it later turns out doesn't believe in premarital sex, doesn't quite share her friends' confidence. Subverted in the next episode however, as it is revealed the girls that were supposedly missing are actually maids hired to serve the Benevolent Boss bronze dragon As'trasahar.
• Dynamic Difficulty: Lampshaded on a few occasions. When the party in Episode 7 attempts to bypass all the traps the Game Master has worked hard on setting up, he decides to replace one of the chests with a mimic.
  Eriawynn: What was that feeling of dread just now?
  Angela: Is it just me, or did the Challenge Rating of this room suddenly change?
• Failed a Spot Check: Redwen in Episode 10 attempts to look for traps in a hallway using only her Darkvision to see them without a torch. When she sees it is all clear, she takes a step in... Only to end up triggering a trap and getting herself set on fire for her trouble. Her allies reveal that the traps were marked in red by the scholars all along — Redwen just could not perceive colours through darkvision.
• Flashback:
  • Episodes 29 and 36 reveal parts of Angela's memories surrounding the arrest of her father, along with her mother's death that badly affected her and her siblings.
  • Meanwhile, Episode 31 has Redwen reveal her Dark and Troubled Past as the adopted "child" of an abusive, racist noble whom she ended up killing in his sleep for taking her locket. Then in Episode 35, Redwen's locket points her to a Magic Mirror that reveals the circumstances of her birth — a result of the curse cast upon her parents when they made a deal with a mysterious man to save their gemcutting business.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: There's a poster of a Missing Child at the end of Episode 21 in the background. This becomes a crucial plot point in the next few episodes, when the small intellect devourer the party found in the gutter turned out to be the same child who ended up missing after having his brain extracted and transformed by Tsiflam.
• Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter: When Redwen sees Obi from 1HP Club walking by, she attempts to make an advance towards him before Angela pulls her back, saying this word for word.
  Redwen: Oh fine, fine... but just to clarify, that ain't mine. [points towards an actual intellect devourer in the gutter]
• Go-Karting with Bowser: The party find themselves facing down a red dragon... who proceeds to invite them over for tea and biscuits to make them listen to his doorstopper-worthy list of cringy stories, leaving them shaken till their next visit to the tavern.
• Hope Spot: Angela finally finds the man who knows about the location where her Disappeared Dad is being held prisoner. Much to her dismay however, a newly-joined warlock gets too impatient to let her listen to vital information.
  Guard: I know you're desperately searching for your father. He's alive! He's being held at— [gets stabbed from behind]
  Kiruto: Enough of all this RP! Can we just move on already?
• House Fire: The Party in Episodes 32 to 35 is tasked with investigating the fate befalling Lady Eleanor and Lord Cedric, a married couple of jewelcrafters whose mansion burned down 20 years ago due to a curse. A curse that was brought upon them as a result of a Deal with the Devil. By the time Angela and co. reach their homestead, bandits of Zhentarim have already established their outpost on top of its remains.
• Hypocritical Humor: Redwen, Bluriel and Luv'Ander, a trio of Tiefling rogues in the first episode scoffed at Angela for being an "unoriginal" human fighter, all while in a tavern full of other rogues of the same race as them. Luv'Ander also criticises Angela's armor, calling it "sexist" for having a boob plate and skirt despite blatantly wearing nothing but a short cape, long gloves and boots, and a thong.
• Imagine Spot: As Angela's boyfriend Mark joins the party with his new character, she daydreamed a colourful in-game scenario where an exact lookalike of him, dressed as a Knight in Shining Armor approaches her and extends his hand toward her like a Prince Charming that she views him as. And Then her world shatters when Mark's actual character turns out to be a Firbolg barbarian.
• Jump Cut: As soon as the tiefling trio finishes bullying Angela, the next panel shows the Session Zero Tavern in the background destroyed and set ablaze, implied to be Angela's doing.
• Madness Mantra: In episode 19, Angela keeps repeating to herself "Must uphold my oath..." to resist the temptation of strangling Eriawynn for wasting all of their money on a worthless certificate for a magic item they can't ever get. Redwen, on the other hand, has no such restraints.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Redwen in Episode 6 casually talks to Eriawynn as the cleric casts Cure Wounds on her while a tomahawk is sticking out of her cranium.
• Mook Horror Show: The Zhentarim bandits in Episode 33 end up on the receiving end of an invisible axe-swinging barbarian's rampage, getting chopped down and tossed around helplessly by his might. The Party comments upon it, seeing it as the nature-loving Firbolg manifesting as the wrath of the forests coming upon them for cutting down too many trees for their stakewalls.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Played for Laughs. The party in Episode 3 all huddle together in a haphazard defensive formation, with Oh, Crap! expressions on their faces as they prepare for an ambush in a dark room that seems empty.
• Not What I Signed on For: The party in Episode 13 took up the quest to slay a dragon, not help it with family therapy.
• Out-of-Character Moment: The Dungeon Master lampshades this when Angela and later on, Redwen act out of their established moral alignment.
  The DM: So about your alignment...
  Angela: [after blowing up the tavern] I don't give a damn!
• Pressure Plate: Episode 10 has a room full of pressure plates, thankfully previously marked by scholars. Unfortunately, Redwen tries checking the room by darkvision alone before going through, missing all the red markings (since darkvision doesn't show colors). BOOOOM!
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: The Dungeon Master pulls this on Kiruto the warlock in episode 8, giving Angela the ability to smite despite her being a fighter at the time.
  Kiruto: [as a ghost] It's not fair, how can she even smite? She's not even a Paladin!
  The DM: You know what? Just for you, I'll allow it.
• Shout-Out:
  • Some episodes end with a "To Be Continued..." arrow-sign that looks awfully similar to the one used in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
  • The Pressure Plates signaled by red markings in episode 10 are spoofing Minesweeper.
  • Redwen, trying to demonstrate she can do magic in episode 17, does so with a cantrip causing dramatic lighting and a booming voice while reciting Galadriel's infamous hammy speech from The Lord of the Rings.
  • Rudolph's eyes flash yellow as he prepares a killing blow behind an unsuspecting bandit while invisible, as a homage to Predator.
    Rumples: Rudolph! You son of a biscuit!
• Take That!: Episode 27 introduces The Millstone of the infamous Kender race to the party, who serves as their temporary guide through a dungeon they were in. All while "Borrowing" items from said party and charging blindly at danger head-on instead of sneaking around them. The party, save for Angela who is unaware of their plan, all resort to stuffing the Kender inside the chest.
• Tempting Fate: Episode 15 has Rumples the dwarf unwisely boasting, "HA! THAT DUNGEON WAS SO EASY! WE TOTALLY STEAMROLLED IT!" The girls freak out and try to silence him, but it's already too late as the DM naturally takes this as a challenge. Next panel, he drops a red dragon on the panicking adventurers. Luckily for them, said dragon is content with reading his cringy stories to them... (though they might have preferred being eaten).
• You All Meet in an Inn: The first episode has Angela visiting the inn to find adventurers to join her party... Only to find herself under a barrage of insults from a group of Tiefling rogues who don't take kindly to the human patron's presence. Double Subverted and Downplayed in the next episode, as only one adventurer in the inn, the rogue Redwen, ends up joining her party while Eriawynn and Rumples make their first appearances in the next episode.

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