Read for Initiative: The Fallbacks: Bound For Ruin

Column by Ed O.

Welcome back to “Read for Initiative” where I, your humble Book Kaiju, read the very best (and worst) books of Dungeons and Dragons lore.  This week we’re diving into Dungeons and Dragons: The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin: a Novel (I cast “Colonic Fortitude”) by Jaleigh Johnson.  It has the distinction of being the newest novel set in the Forgotten Realms.  

Unlike the previous Forgotten Realms novel we read here, this one takes place in some of the more popular locales in Faerun.  There will be references to Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter. Most of the action takes place in Water Deep with the tavern “The Yawning Portal” taking a prominent role.  There’s even throw away references to Moonshae!  This book has everything!  It’s like the DM read a travel brochure for Faerûn.

So what’s this campaign about?  Well the Elven rogue, Tess, just wants to get a functional party together.  You know, go on some adventures, make some gold, have a good time, and have some bard write an epic about her.  The simple things.  

Sadly for her, she’s stuck with a tiefling bard that is a walking stereotype, a human wizard who never met a light socket she wouldn’t put a fork in, a human warrior with a mysterious past, and a dwarf cleric who doesn’t really know how to cleric.  

Oh, and Uggie who is the best doggo.  Um.. I mean, otyugh.  

Together these five adventures are hired to acquire The Ruinous Child.  A book written by a lich, but they don’t have to read it or destroy it.  Just return it to a collector.  No big deal, right?  Turns out several other liches want that book and what’s worse, they've killed the person who hired them so they’re not even going to get paid!  The horror!

Now they gotta decide what to do with this cursed tome.  Turn it into a magical library?  Ditch in the wilderness?  Give it to the local mafia?  Or descend into a dangerous dungeon and destroy it?  Probably going to go with the final option.  More XP that way.

Don’t forget these five adventurers don’t really know each other.  The entire book is a long trust exercise as they discover how to work as a team.  Can they learn to work together and find a therapist as they deal with their issues?  Yet, no matter what the intra-party conflicts, at least Uggie loves them all.  Because Uggie is best otyugh .

As you might have gleaned from the set up, this novel is rather low stakes compared to Darkwalker on Moonshae.  These adventurers aren’t out to save the world from a dark god.  They just want to return a book that might just be a little bit evil and get paid.  Seriously, the entire story is a fetch quest that goes off the rails.

And you know what?  I like that.  I like that the world isn’t really hanging in the balance.  It’s a nice change of pace that none of the protagonists are the chosen ones that will save the day.  These are just five people doing a job, albeit poorly at times, and just want to get paid.  It captured the feel of a DnD session I would play. 

This gets to one of the main reasons I want to do this DnD novel retrospective.  I want to see how people understand the game has evolved.  What tropes were used then compared to now?  I have a theory that the closer to modern day we get, the smaller the stakes and the more personal relationships are highlighted.  I’m curious to see how the testing will go.

So I know what you really want to know:  Who is everyone?

Tess is the serious D&Der.  She has all the books and shiny math rocks.  She LOVES D&D, but she has just one problem:  No one wants to play with her.  Every other member of the party is someone that she has begged, badgered, or blackmailed into playing.  She is going to keep this team together by gods, no matter what.  

Anson?  He’s Tess’s IRL bestie.  He’s been with her through it all.  He’s a solid player who has a backstory for his character because that’s what you do, but is still shocked the DM utilized it in the adventure.  He’s just here to roll dice and be with his friends.  

Lark is the new guy.  Lark’s player has never played D&D before and spaced out during the rules discussion.  He’s here for a good time and he will Leroy Jenkins it up when he gets bored.  And since he has the attention span of a preschooler on five Pixie Stix, he’s always bored. 

Baldric’s player really, really wanted to play an edgy warlock.  He was going to be dark and mysterious and cool!  But everyone complained they didn’t have enough heals and he drew the short straw on who had to play the cleric.  He’s trying to make it work, though.  

Cazador?  She wants to play an edgy character as well.  She’s created this deeply troubled character that could at any minute fall to the dark side.  All it would take is the right temptation and she would become EVIL!  Except that she is a total marshmallow who cries when she remembers that snakes don’t have arms, so they can’t give hugs.  So her most evil act is talking a little too loud in the library.

The characters were fun, the drama wasn’t cringe, and the action was well written.  It captured the spirit of modern DnD without being “tongue-in-cheek and winking” at the reader.  I’m curious where Johnson will take these characters next.  But if anything happens to Uggie I will riot.

So, did I enjoy reading Dungeons and Dragons: The Fallbacks: Bound for Ruin: A Novel?  Overall, yeah.  It was a fun read.  For me it was a success, but not a Nat 20.  Like a 15 or 16.  I suggest you take a chance and roll the dice on it. 

Let me know what you think by emailing us at info@kaijuandgnome.com or message us over on Bluesky @kaijuandgnome.bsky.social.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of all this mundane adventuring.  I’m ready to try something weird and out of this world.  So join me next time as we take to the stars and read about Dungeons and Dragons in SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!  That’s right!  We’re going to check out the strange setting of Spelljammer.