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Gary Gygax, RIP
This is my tribute to Gary Gygax, who died yesterday, March 4, 2008. I was blown away when I heard the news.
I hesitated to post this here, since I'm not sure if anyone on my Friends list even knows who Gary Gygax is. In case you don't know, he is the creator of the Dungeons and Dragons game, which as far as I know, was the first role-playing game of its kind. Today you can walk into a hobby store and find hundreds of various fantasy/sci-fi/horror RPGs on the shelves, and they all owe a debt to D&D, without which they might never have come into existence.
After thinking it over, I realized that D&D did influence my fanfiction writing, in ways both subtle and obvious, so I decided to go ahead and post this. Besides, I wanted to figuratively raise my glass to Gary, even if I'm the only one who reads this.
I hesitated to post this here, since I'm not sure if anyone on my Friends list even knows who Gary Gygax is. In case you don't know, he is the creator of the Dungeons and Dragons game, which as far as I know, was the first role-playing game of its kind. Today you can walk into a hobby store and find hundreds of various fantasy/sci-fi/horror RPGs on the shelves, and they all owe a debt to D&D, without which they might never have come into existence.
After thinking it over, I realized that D&D did influence my fanfiction writing, in ways both subtle and obvious, so I decided to go ahead and post this. Besides, I wanted to figuratively raise my glass to Gary, even if I'm the only one who reads this.
I've always loved fantasy books, and my interest in D&D was a natural outgrowth of that. In high school, a bunch of friends and I gamed regularly, and I still have all my old D&D handbooks, game modules, and Dragon magazines (a magazine devoted to the D&D game) dating back to that time. Well, technically we played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons--if you're an uber-geek, you'll know that's different from the original just plain ol' Dungeons and Dragons. ;) After everyone went to college, I stopped gaming for awhile, then started up again after I found a new group. I actually haven't gamed for at least a few years now, but I still treasure those memories, and I would still pick up a Dragon magazine from time to time, until it ceased print publication some time last year.
Btw, my very first character was a magic-user, so I was into wizards even back then! ;) (I'm probably dating myself somewhat, but this was before the Harry Potter series came into existence.)
Mostly, I played as a character while someone else was the DM (Dungeon Master, who runs the game), but occasionally I would run a game myself. I loved buying the modules (pre-packaged game scenarios) and imagining all the great adventures that would result from them. I loved the big boxed sets that would give you a whole world setting, with unique gods and characters and magical creatures and spells and whatnot you could use as a basis to run an adventure, or rather a whole series of adventures (what we D&D geeks would call a "campaign".) After awhile, I even created my own fantasy world, with a bunch of demon-worshipping dark sorcerers. I wasn't really a good DM, though, because the players would always react in a way that I didn't predict, and throw my carefully planned scenarios out of whack--which is part of the fun, but I wasn't really that good at shifting directions and making stuff up on the fly. Also, I got very fond of my villains and didn't really want the players to kill them.
Much, much later, it dawned on me that what I really liked about the game was the storytelling. I loved playing the game--it was sort of like acting out a fantasy novel. But I didn't really want to be a DM. What I really wanted to do was be a storyteller--without any pesky players coming along to mess up my nicely planned story. ;) (Although the characters occasionally do that themselves, reacting in ways that I hadn't planned!) I had much more fun creating stories in my mind from those game modules than I did actually running the games.
So in a roundabout way, D&D led me to become a fanfiction writer. You can also see the D&D influence in my writing. The elemental summoning that Professor Blackmore teaches in the Always series? Stolen--er, borrowed--from the D&D game, baby! Especially the "material components" that are needed for the spell, which we don't really see in the HP world. In D&D, spells require up to three elements: the material components, which are usually symbolically related to the spell--e.g. a feather for a flying spell; an incantation; and gestures. Some spells require only one or two elements; others require all three. I wanted to make the summoning spell a bit more difficult and complex to cast than just flicking a wand, so I borrowed that bit from the game.
Branwen's raven familiar, Bane? Also influenced by the game. In D&D, familiars are bonded to the mage, and the mage suffers great harm if the familiar is killed--they can even die from shock themselves, although the wizards in HP don't seem to have that sort of connection to their familiars, who are more like pets. The spell that nearly killed Branwen in Return of the Raven, the one that Anwir cast that conjured up multiple silver blades? Influenced by a D&D spell called "Wall of Swords," which is pretty much what it sounds like.
The para-elementals in Aftermaths are also borrowed from D&D. Looking back on this now, I should have provided proper acknowledgement to the game in my story notes or afterwords, which I didn't originally, although I think I did starting with Aftermaths and I think when I posted the old stories on Moonshadow. But in my defense, D&D borrowed heavily from Tolkien--I'm a little embarrassed to say that I first heard of orcs in D&D, and only later learned they were modeled after the orcs in Lord of the Rings. ;) And the D&D halflings are obviously based on the Hobbits.
So I will raise my glass of Mountain Dew (a staple of gaming sessions, although personally I prefer Diet Coke) in Gary's honor, while Bane croaks out a dirge.
(Btw, if you are a D&D fan, John Kovalic of the Dork Tower webcomic posted a moving tribute, and the Order of the Stick webcomic paid tribute in a slightly more humorous fashion.)
Btw, my very first character was a magic-user, so I was into wizards even back then! ;) (I'm probably dating myself somewhat, but this was before the Harry Potter series came into existence.)
Mostly, I played as a character while someone else was the DM (Dungeon Master, who runs the game), but occasionally I would run a game myself. I loved buying the modules (pre-packaged game scenarios) and imagining all the great adventures that would result from them. I loved the big boxed sets that would give you a whole world setting, with unique gods and characters and magical creatures and spells and whatnot you could use as a basis to run an adventure, or rather a whole series of adventures (what we D&D geeks would call a "campaign".) After awhile, I even created my own fantasy world, with a bunch of demon-worshipping dark sorcerers. I wasn't really a good DM, though, because the players would always react in a way that I didn't predict, and throw my carefully planned scenarios out of whack--which is part of the fun, but I wasn't really that good at shifting directions and making stuff up on the fly. Also, I got very fond of my villains and didn't really want the players to kill them.
Much, much later, it dawned on me that what I really liked about the game was the storytelling. I loved playing the game--it was sort of like acting out a fantasy novel. But I didn't really want to be a DM. What I really wanted to do was be a storyteller--without any pesky players coming along to mess up my nicely planned story. ;) (Although the characters occasionally do that themselves, reacting in ways that I hadn't planned!) I had much more fun creating stories in my mind from those game modules than I did actually running the games.
So in a roundabout way, D&D led me to become a fanfiction writer. You can also see the D&D influence in my writing. The elemental summoning that Professor Blackmore teaches in the Always series? Stolen--er, borrowed--from the D&D game, baby! Especially the "material components" that are needed for the spell, which we don't really see in the HP world. In D&D, spells require up to three elements: the material components, which are usually symbolically related to the spell--e.g. a feather for a flying spell; an incantation; and gestures. Some spells require only one or two elements; others require all three. I wanted to make the summoning spell a bit more difficult and complex to cast than just flicking a wand, so I borrowed that bit from the game.
Branwen's raven familiar, Bane? Also influenced by the game. In D&D, familiars are bonded to the mage, and the mage suffers great harm if the familiar is killed--they can even die from shock themselves, although the wizards in HP don't seem to have that sort of connection to their familiars, who are more like pets. The spell that nearly killed Branwen in Return of the Raven, the one that Anwir cast that conjured up multiple silver blades? Influenced by a D&D spell called "Wall of Swords," which is pretty much what it sounds like.
The para-elementals in Aftermaths are also borrowed from D&D. Looking back on this now, I should have provided proper acknowledgement to the game in my story notes or afterwords, which I didn't originally, although I think I did starting with Aftermaths and I think when I posted the old stories on Moonshadow. But in my defense, D&D borrowed heavily from Tolkien--I'm a little embarrassed to say that I first heard of orcs in D&D, and only later learned they were modeled after the orcs in Lord of the Rings. ;) And the D&D halflings are obviously based on the Hobbits.
So I will raise my glass of Mountain Dew (a staple of gaming sessions, although personally I prefer Diet Coke) in Gary's honor, while Bane croaks out a dirge.
(Btw, if you are a D&D fan, John Kovalic of the Dork Tower webcomic posted a moving tribute, and the Order of the Stick webcomic paid tribute in a slightly more humorous fashion.)