Squeaking in at the tail end of December, I finished reading the 37th book of the year. (I finished number 36 three days ago, a Young Adult version of the Spider-Man origin story, told from the point of view of Mary Jane. I may write about that later.) Since I'm trying to finish Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (in order to be able to start Rhythm of War; or perhaps the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin; or maybe another Art of Magic: The Gathering book; or a history book called Plantagenet that is, as one might assume, about the Plantagenets; or maybe Hamnet, a rave-reviewed novel about the death of William Shakespeare's son; or perhaps the new Attack on Titan that arrived on Christmas Eve, to say nothing of the scores of older, unread books adorning my shelves), I feel as though I've read enough pages to constitute more than simply 37 books. Maybe in 2021 I'll do a page-count instead of title-count to see how that makes me feel.
Anyway, the reason I read Of Dice and Men is because David Ewalt's history about the creation and progress of Dungeons & Dragons is key to my upcoming Winterim. January 2021 will see me and another teacher at my school doing a three-week intensive course on tabletop RPGs, with the original brand smack dab in the middle. We'll also be looking at a handful of other versions of RPGs, then tasking the students to create their own new TTRPG. It should be a lot of fun, and though I'm not quite as excited for this Winterim as I have been in the past (truth be told, I've never been less pumped for a Winterim than I am this year, though it has nothing to do with my topic, coteacher, or students enrolled), mostly because my life feels like a pending storm is on its way. That has left me feeling a bit despondent, a topic I wrote about here, if you want details. Nevertheless, I am on break, which means that I'm reading new D&D manuals, watching YouTube videos of people, trying to wrangle enough patience to try playing with my kids, and finishing up the reading of this book. You know…teacher on break stuff. One of the things about Ewalt's book is his unabashed appreciation for the game. It's true that there is a level of geekery that Dungeons & Dragons attracts, so it shouldn't be surprised that someone who is interested in the past of the game is also interested in the game. Nevertheless, I liked his tone: It's inviting and general, yet clearly connected to the source. He'll use metaphors that require footnotes, but it's not done in a condescending tone, and they always help add to the world of the game that he's documenting. And though I knew a bit about the beginnings of the game thanks to the documentary In the Eye of the Beholder, there are a lot of extra details that Ewalt puts into the book that contextualized what I saw in the film. Not only that, but there is space in a book to go over parts that aren't as tightly refined as what In the Eye of the Beholder could cover. One example that I thought was interesting--and, frankly, underserved--was the chapter on the satanic panic of the eighties. The passing awareness I have of that particular moment in the pop cultural history has always been light, and I was hoping that there might be more in it with Ewalt's book, but he remains focused on D&D for the entirety of that chapter. (I'm interested to see what my students think: They were given the assignment of reading the entire book before we start in January, so they should come in prepared to discuss sections like that with me.) I also liked how he walked me through the history of the different editions without getting bogged down in minutiae. I've only recently started playing--a handful of students introduced me to D&D 5e (fifth edition) a couple of years ago--so though I've been aware of tropes and how to play TTRPGs to a certain extent, I didn't see how there could be so many changes to what seems like a pretty solid foundation. And what's the difference between Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and the others? Ewalt manages to navigate this area pretty well, bringing about the salient historical points and putting everything into the narrative of a small, ambitious business, complete with the missteps and mistakes that led to nearly losing the game entirely. It didn't all sing to me, though. There are moments when he narrates a campaign that he's in with his friends, and while I appreciate what he's trying to do with that, it felt a little self-indulgent and not really the point of the book. This happens more toward the end, as Ewalt's love of the game and his excitement interacting with the potential of the new edition (this was written before D&D 5e came out) overpowers the narrative structure that he's been working so hard to establish. His digression on trying a LARP-lite experience was puzzling, as it didn't seem to really connect with the point of his book. I mean, I'm glad that he had fun at Otherworld where he had an opportunity to play a scripted campaign beyond the tabletop, but…how does this really fit in with discussions about the original creators, their own foibles, the process of creating a game with such massive influence on the pop cultural landscape? Admittedly, the subtitle of the book is The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It, and since Ewalt is one of those people, I guess it makes sense that some of his own life leaks in? I found it distracting, though. I read Ethan Gilsdorf's Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks a number of years ago, so I had already passed through a contemplation about what it means for someone to try to join in with the LARPing community and to balance an interest in exploring fantasy fiction. In fact, a lot of Ewalt's experiences mirrored Gilsdorf's. It made that particular section of the book a bit samey, though that's not really Ewalt's (or Gilsdorf's) fault. On the whole, however, I found the book to be worthwhile. I like history, I like pop culture, I like D&D…this is definitely the sort of thing that would resonate with me. I would probably recommend it to anyone who's looking for a bit of an insight into what might otherwise be an opaque topic--why do people pay so much money to just sit around and tell each other stories?--and also fans of the game will likely enjoy this trip down memory's dungeon. If you're only passingly interested in how tabletop RPGs got started, then you're probably fine missing this one. Writing is a weird business--and I don't mean, like, on the financial side, wherein a person hallucinates stories and then convinces people to pay to read them off of the pulped remains of a tree. It's weird because one never really knows where or when lightning strikes, why an idea will come to a writer (or won't), or why a story will catch on with readers. Certainly I have little control over any of those, yet they're all necessary components for writing a book.
However, just because I'm not in control of those things doesn't mean that I don't have the occasional experience with these particles of writing. Today is a great example: Out of nowhere--absolutely nowhere--as I was brushing my teeth, I thought of the title of a book. (This doesn't usually happen to me, as I tend to struggle with titles (or find passingly sufficient ones that don't do a whole lot besides name the book) and I almost never start with one. Instead, I tend to come up with a concept for the world or a character, then develop story ideas from there.) As I was scrubbing away at my mouth bones, I thought, Letters from late-capitalism. That's an interesting idea. I poked at it a bit further, trying to devise just what my brain meant by these specific words in this unexpected order. Then, the weird part of my brain that sometimes does this sort of thing perked up and puked out a couple of additional words to go along as a subtitle: A novel of essays. Or, an essayist novel. A novelist essay. Now, to be fair, epistolary stories are not new. Dracula, as those few who've actually read it know, is epistolary. So is the majority of the New Testament. The Color Purple (which I haven't read, sadly) is epistolary, as is The Screwtape Letters (which I have read, but it's been a long time and I had to use Dr. Google to help jog my memory). So there's plenty of these types of stories, ones in which the story is unfolded via letters sent back and forth, or snippets of newspapers and journals keep the narrative moving. In fact, now that I think on it, Bruce Coville's Diary of a Mad Brownie is another great example of the form. So when my mind conjured the 'novel of essays' idea, I knew that I was trying to think of a modern version of epistolary novels. And, in many ways, this format is one that has become rather natural to me. I've written now over a thousand essays (or close to it) over the years, and I've written over 1.6 million words of fiction. What better way to fuse what I've done than to turn my essaying into some sort of fictional story? Sadly, though I have the device for the story, I don't know what it would be. I don't know what the title means, aside from the obvious, and I really couldn't even begin to guess why someone would want to read it. But, hey, two out of the three weird parts happened today. So I guess I can't complain, right? Today.
Today was a pinball experience, with me playing Superfight with two different classes, teaching my Shakespeare class how to cook, having that soup we were working on not finishing in time, plus my wife and son coming to the school, on top of an assembly at the end of the day. Then, once that was all finished, a two hour long session with ten people in the party led to a very chaotic and raucous gaming session of D&D. When I got out of school--which ended with me talking to a coworker about potential ways of writing a memoir she's thinking of--I took my two older boys to Barnes and Noble for a celebratory birthday treat and to buy some books. We then went to Toys "R" us to see if there were any good deals (there weren't; they're closing, but everything is only 10% off right now). Then I came home, inviting my little brother over to create a character for a D&D campaign that I'm running tomorrow with my boys. Needless to say, I'm surprised that I'm not falling asleep in my chair as I write this. So, in order to maximize my time (Gayle wants to watch Sword Art Online and I'm not one to dissuade her), I'm going to use my daily writing as a chance to sketch out an idea for tomorrow's campaign. Since I bought some city tiles that I can use to make a map, I think I'll start off with the adventurers in a city… The heroes will already be in a party, ready for what may come. They're in the streets when they hear a cry. I'll get them to investigate the shout, only to see that there's a person being attacked by a couple of kobolds. This is odd, since the city normally has a pretty good police force. The heroes will engage and defeat the kobolds. The victim will be dead by the time they finish. On the person--who will definitely be looted, since one of the characters is a greedy rogue--will be information that will let them know that the victim was going to be waiting to help someone through the city gate at midnight. At this point, the sun will be setting, so that'll give them a chance to look around the city and move across the map. Then, once I'm bored with them dinking around, I'll flashforward to midnight and they'll arrive at the gate. Then there will be an advance scout crew of kobolds who are there to ransack the city. The adventurers will choose between helping out--taking the role of the victim--and stopping the kobolds. Odds are almost certain they'll stop them, since most of the adventurers are good or neutral good. Since I'm pretty sure they're going to attack the kobolds, I'll have one of them escape, running toward the sewers. In his hand, there is a glittering key. They can either chase him down or they can go to the guards to report the problem. Either way, the heroes will end up down into the bowels of the city, where they will hunt through some typical monsters--spiders, rats, bats, and maybe a wild-boar that got lost in the tunnels beneath the city. After dispatching these creatures--and maybe having to restore some health--they'll arrive at an underground warren where the kobold has led them. They'll have a chance to sneak in and try to get the key. If they're successful, they will be faced with a choice of taking it to the guards or, if the guard is with them, giving it over. When they do, the guard will attack them, claiming this prize for the Prince of Thieves. If the adventurers agree to join the guard, they'll be shown into a deeper recess, unlocked with the key. If they disagree, they'll attack him and his kobold minions. Provided they survive, they will then have to choose: Destroy the key and keep the kobold thieves out of the city, or use it to explore deeper into the recesses below the city…. And that's as far as I got. I don't want to go too much farther, because I don't know if my kids can maintain that kind of concentration with anything that isn't also a glowing rectangle (they can play Minecraft for three hours straight and forget that they haven't eaten, but if I try to carry on a conversation with them, they space out within three minutes). I don't think this is a really thrilling or exciting adventure, but I'm also trying to think of ways of making the story more involved than a "You walk down the street. Oh, no, you're being attacked by robbers. You killed them. Now you're at an inn" kind of story. There's nothing wrong with that, of course: I just want to do something with a bit of intrigue and the possibility of having them accomplish other tasks that don't involve swinging a sword or, in the case of Puck, completely misfiring yet another magical cantrip and missing his target entirely. Anyway, I know this isn't the most thought-provoking or profound essay I've ever written, but I hope that tomorrow's campaign will be enjoyable and that everyone will end wanting to play some more of it. And, hey, if it's really that much fun, then maybe I'll be writing a "sequel" to this campaign next Friday. Who knows? Stranger things have happened. |
AuthorWould you like to support my writings? Feel free to buy me a coffee (which I don't drink, but I do drink hot chocolate) at my Ko-Fi page. Thanks! Archives
July 2022
Categories
All
|