Earlier this year we Reviewed Volume 1 of the King of RPGs manga, and I’m glad to announce that Victor Hao and Jason Thompson have been hard at work churning out a geektastic sequel to the first book.
Described as Yugioh meets just about all the RPGs and CCGs out there, Volume 2 for King of RPGs serves up more of that incredibly niche, incredibly hilarious mix of games and over the top manga plot developments. Where Volume 1 pitted our protagonists Shesh, Theodore and their gaming buddies against CCGs and an evil card-flopping businessman where CCGs are just another business venture, this time our stalwart (and slightly sociopathic) gamers face the gaming company that is Maelstrom, and the MMORPG runaway success that is World of Warfare. No points for guessing who those are supposed to be parodies of.
Along the way the RPGers face down gold farmers, more character spoofs (this time it’s a certain halfling from a certain RA Feist series), an especially overzealous cop and IBLIS, Maelstrom’s supercomputer and a cross between HAL, GLaDOS and an over-controlling crazy DM. Cue hijinks.
Like the first King of RPGs book, Volume 2 is a frantic love letter to all things geeky. More passionate than polished, King of RPGs has some plot weaknesses that you could find fault with if that’s really your thing. But once your suspension of disbelief kicks in, it’s an amazingly fun ride, that I believe will be a cult favourite. As a fan of everything that King of RPGs represents, I love it, and will continue to support it and whole-heartedly recommend it to gamers of every stripe.
King of RPGs volumes 1 and 2 are available now! Convince your FLCS to bring it in, or ship it in!
