Dungeon Detective

We are a gnoll, one of those hyena-like monsters of the Dungeons & Dragons bestiary, and we're now earning our way as a private detective. It's a very similar aesthetic to "Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic", which bases much of its humour and drama on the humanity (if that's the right word) of canonically "evil" creatures, without turning them into "humans who look different". Similarly, while our protagonist, Sniff, is made to be relateable, he remains a gnoll with a gnoll's sensibilities, and not a human in a hyena suit.

Sniff is clearly intelligent, though illiterate. His speech tends to be of the "me Tarzan" variety, but one wonders if that's simply a function of his mastery of the Common Tongue: we do meet another "monster", Rotha, whose command of the language seems even worse, but who is literate and, apparently, highly articulate in her own language. Sniff himself seems unusually articulate when questioning Rotha, but I don't think that's intentional on the part of the author.

Meanwhile, we get a hint of troubles in Sniff's past and of an ongoing struggle to make ends meet. This helps to flesh him out as a character. We don't go too deeply into all this, which may be a good thing, at least for a story of this length: I think that to do more would come off as "trying too hard".

The story itself is simple. We're to investigate the theft of a dragon's gold: of course, it's a case of adventurers, but which adventurers? This means checking all the links we come across for clues. While this can be lawnmowered, I do note that it actually takes a little bit more in at least one case to draw all the conclusions we can. The game asks us to pay attention to details even when we're not investigating. As well, I note that the order in which we investigate things can make a difference. It's usually only a cosmetic difference, but it's entertaining enough nonetheless.

All in all, it's a pretty cute game. As a breakfast, it feels like butter melting over hot toast, a hardboiled egg still in its shell, and a mug of cinnamon-infused apple cider: simple but flavourful, and a great beginning.