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Table of Contents
1. Introduction...................................................................................................4
1.1. Dragonlance.............................................................................................4
1.2. Approach..................................................................................................5
1.3. Methods....................................................................................................6
1.4. Perspectives..............................................................................................6
2. From fairytales to fantasy fiction................................................................8
2.1. Fairytales..................................................................................................9
2.2. Fantasy fiction........................................................................................12
2.3. Secondary worlds of fantasy fiction.......................................................14
2.4. The secondary worlds of Toliken and Lewis..........................................15
2.5. The characters of Tolkien and Lewis......................................................17
2.6. The secondary world of Dragonlance and according to Tracy Hickman.18
2.7. Fantasy role-palying (FRP)....................................................................19
2.7.1. The history of role-playing games (RPG)..........................19
2.7.2. How to play live role-playing games?................................20
2.7.3. Why to play live RPG?.......................................................21
2.8. Fantasy fiction and RPG in contemporary American literature.............23
3. Analysis........................................................................................................25
3.1. Structure of analysis...............................................................................25
3.2. Dragons of Autumn Twilight...................................................................26
3.2.1. The setting..........................................................................27
3.2.2. The characters.....................................................................35
3.3. Dragons of Winter Night.........................................................................42
3.3.1. The settings and the characters...........................................43
3.4. Dragons of Spring Dawning...................................................................47
3.4.1. The settings and the characters...........................................48
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3.5. From autumn to spring, from hero to human...........................................51
4. Conclusion......................................................................................................51
4.1. The world of Dragonlance.......................................................................53
4.2. The characters of the Chronicles..............................................................54
4.3. Eucatastrophe...........................................................................................55
5. Appendix.......................................................................................................56
6. Bibliography.................................................................................................67
7. Summary........................................................................................................69
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1. Introduction
1.1. Dragonlance
Once upon a time there was a man, called Tracy Hickman. Tracy was a dreamer, he
dreamt about a world, a realm where man can be free from the stress of the real world, a
realm of adventures where magic and heroes are not just words which meaning only
children know...Tracy shared his thoughts with his wife, Laura, who had always been
fond of dragons and she also dreamt about another kind of world where these creatures
could exist with all their shadows and myths. Man and wife together created the world
of Krynn, which gave home to all kinds of creatures and supernatural beings of their
imagination. They were so satisfied with this new world that they contacted a fantasy
publisher (TSR, Inc.) hoping that by publishing their adventures they might find others
who want to join their realm. TSR had already had created a similar world, which was
very popular among some people called gamers, as they played live or board role-
playing games in the already existing imaginary world, which they called simply
Dungeons & Dragons, though in D&D there were more dungeons than dragons, which
made Tracy‘s and Laura‘s Krynn was heartily welcome in TSR. But something was
missing. The adventures demanded extra characters. Luckily TSR had contact with a
third dreamer (with great writing talent), Margaret Weis. Margaret fell in love with
Krynn and joined Tracy and Laura in their work of creation. Soon they decided to start
the creattive process with simple role-playing, just like their target audience. They
created the first characters (the protagonists and two protagonist-antagonists of the
Chronicles), described the settings to some of their colleagues from TSR who wanted to
join the game, and they started to play...
Dragonlance is a shared world on which a series of fantasy novels (containing more
than 190 books) well known and very popular among both fantasy role-players and
readers of fantasy novels are based. Most of the novels were written as gaming
modules for role-playing games, but they can also be read as separate novels for
reading only.
The first part of the series, Dragon of Autumn Twilight was published in 1984
and was followed by Dragons of Winter Night (published in 1985) and Dragons of
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Spring Dawning (published in 1985), and this way the Dragonlance Chronicles was
born, which is the core element of the Dragonlance world describing the settings of
all of the DL novels and DL fantasy role-playing games (fantasy RPG‘s), and
introducing the core characters of DL. Today DL is one of the most popular shared
world fantasy fiction series.
1.2. Approach
The Dragonlance Chronicles’ main success as fantasy literature lies in its literary
quality, as well as its richness in terms of characters and adventure possibilities,
which makes it an ideal frame for fantasy role-playing games (e.g.: pen-and-paper,
board game and live RPG). The three novels of the Chronicles were actually born
from a live RPG session arranged by the authors. During my interviews my attention
was called to the problem of the well defined characters and the importance of the
detailed description of the settings of a fantasy story or novel to be ideal background
to live RPG. That is why my focal point of interest in my project is the characters and
the settings of the Dragonlance Chronicles, a work of modern fantasy fiction that can
work as background story for live RPG. In my project report I try to find the answer
to the following questions:
Why is the settings of the Dragonlance Chronicles ideal for live fantasy role-
playing games, while the characters are not; and how do they function together
as a background of live role-playing games in the 21st century?
6
1.3. Methods
In order to analyze the Dragonlance Chronicles as a piece of fantasy literature, I first
needed a firm knowledge of the fantasy genre. In my project report I follow Tolkien‘s
and Lewis‘ description of fairytales/fantasy fiction, and their creative process, which
influenced the authors of the Chronicles. However the Chronicles is not just a fantasy
trilogy, but also a supporting literature to live role-playing games, that is why I
interviewed a Game Master (Mark ), who explained the basic principles of creating a
live RPG with DL as background literature emphasizing the role of the settings and
the characters of a fantasy novel; thus I involve sociological criticism to analyze the
role of the readers as possible players (using the characters and the settings of the
Chronicles) in shaping the text and possibly determining the social context of the text
and to analyze how the readers interpret the text when reading it as the supporting
literature of live DL RPG.
1.4. The perspectives of fantasy role-playing
The interest in fantasy as a literary genre has been more or less even since the
appearance of the first modern fantasy novels (i.e.: Tolkien‘s and Lewis‘ works
among others). Of course there are subgenres, such as dark fantasy (horror) or science
fiction that periodically takes over, especially successful Hollywood productions
based on a work of the genre raise the awareness of the reading public and calls the
attention to this kind of literature (like in the case of the movie version of Harry
Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Narnia etc.). The connection between fantasy and role-
playing is so strong, that when readers start being interested in fantasy fiction they
usually come across the topic of role-playing, as well. It does not mean that they
become role-players, but they get some pieces of information about this activity
through the internet, friends and forums. As Nicoline Olsson (manager, Ros-live,
Roskilde) told in the interview I made with her about live role-playing, there is a
7
declining tendency of the interest in live fantasy role-playing, which started about
five years ago. Mark Langer (game master, Ros-live) explained it with the growing
awareness of live role-playing games other than fantasy (he based his explanation on
his experience as the game master of live RPG‘s other than mainstream fantasy/i.e.
Dragonlance or Dungeons and Dragons/, such as World of Darkness). The two
interviews made me draw the conclusion that the way of fantasy as literary genre and
the way of live role-playing games goes into two different directions. While a decade
ago role-playing was almost entirely based on fantasy fiction as supporting material,
nowadays there is a growing tendency of building role-playing games on computer
games and movies, thus using a more realistic setting for live RPG‘s. Furthermore the
rapid spreading of internet usage (especially among teenagers) gives opportunity to
play role-playing without physical boundaries (not live, e.g.: in chat forums), and the
interactive websites, such as Second Life makes it possible to create so called avatars
(kinds of role-playing characters) and form the given secondary world as one wishes,
thus putting role-playing in a different context than fantasy. Thus, though there
always will be traditional fantasy enthusiastic role-players, the perspective of live
role-playing is about to turn toward a more realistic and a more extreme direction.
Live role-players (Crystania and raistlin) photo by Tiger Standingsstill
(http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs16/f/2007/154/4/9/Raistlin_and_Crysania_by_Tiger_Standingstill.jpg)
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2. From Fairytales to Fantasy Fiction
The first part of my report is concerned with the genres of fairytales, fantasy fiction
and role-playing games, following the development of the genre of modern fantasy
fiction. My project report is based on the Dragonlance Chronicles which is a piece of
fantasy fiction, on which different types of role-playing games are based on.
In this chapter I describe the origins and nature of fairytales by referring to two
legendary authors in the ‗world of fantasy‘, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who both
used several elements of the genre of fairytales in their works, so that they considered
modern fantasy fiction and fairytales one and the same genre. Tolkien, the English
scholar and fantasy author is considered to be the father of fantasy role-playing, as his
exact description of Middle Earth (the secondary world of The Lord of the Rings, The
Hobbit and The Silmarillion) gave birth to the first live RPG settings; Tracy
Hickmann, the creator of the Dragonlance settings acknowledged Tolkien and his
works as his biggest influence in his creating process.
C.S. Lewis, friend of Tolkien, the creator of Narnia (another popular secondary
world) was the most serious critic of his friend, Tolkien, and at the same time his
biggest fan. Although the two authors shared the same idea about fantasy fiction and
fairytales, Lewis‘ creative process was different from that of Tolkien‘s, reaching the
same success among fantasy fans, with his settings of Narnia and the settings he
created in his science fiction novels he inspired Hickman to create the earthly
medieval setting on another planet.
In my project I treat fairytales as ‗premature‘ fantasy fiction from which the
‗modern fantasy fiction‘ originates, which provides a background to today‘s role-
playing games.
9
2.1. Fairytales
Fairytale as a genre has been being a part of human culture and history from the very
beginning; they originated from myths, which accompanied rituals closely connected
to natural forces (e.g.: to explain natural disasters, the shift of seasons etc.). Later on,
when the rituals were fading and finally were forgotten, the stories were preserved in
oral form first, and later with the birth of printed press in written form (Sammons 26).
Marie-Louise Franz mentions in her Interpretation of Fairytales that Plato (Greek
philosopher, lived in the 5th century B.C.) writes about mothers telling symbolic
stories (mythoi) to children (Franz 4) building fairytales into children‘s education, but
she also claims, that moral themes, like the beauty and the beast has also been
existing in fairytale-form for about 2000 years (e.g.: ―Amor and Psyche‖). Though
opinions among critics and authors (like Tolkien, Lewis and Franz) who have been
studying the genre can differ about the origins of folk stories, they all agree on one
point: fairytales arose from the collective psyche of mankind as did legends, myths
and fantasy fiction.
J.R.R. Tolkien was among the first scholars who studied fairytales (or fairy-
stories, as he called them) from a literary point of view in the late 1950‘s; he traced
fairy-stories back to nature myths connecting deities (―the Olympians‖) to natural
forces (lightning, thunder, earthquake etc.) trying to find explanation of different
natural phenomena (e.g.. stories of the Norse god, Thor), as he describes in his essay
―On Fairy-stories‖. These myths or allegories were later localized with real places as
their settings, and mortal men as main characters, finally to ―dwindle down‖ to
become nursery stories (Tolkien: 1983 p. 123).
In Tolkien´s interpretation fairytales are not stories about elves, fairies and other
mythical creatures, like most of the folklorists and anthropologists state. Tolkien
argues that this viewpoint is too ―narrow‖. Fairy-stories are about Faërie, ―the realm
10
or state in which fairies have their being.‖ (Tolkien: 1983 p. 113). The realm of
Faerie gives home to all kinds of supernatural creatures, magical power and all the
shadowy vistas of human fantasy: ―shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is
an enchantment and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.‖
(Tolkien: 1983 p. 111), but probably the most important characters of such stories are
ourselves, i.e. ―mortal men‖.
In his essay on fairy-stories Tolkien also emphasises that the history of fairytales
(as a genre) is more complex than the history of mankind, he compares the
development of fairy-stories to language development and he states that in the
production of a web of fantasy stories (just like in case of language production, which
he based his creative process) the three most important elements are invention (which
demands an inventor), inheritance (the place where the inventor lived or lives, this
place either originates or affects the development of the story) and diffusion (the time
when the story is being multiplied). Tolkien puts his theory on fairystories into
practice in his fantasy novels, of which the most well-known ones are the trilogy of
The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, this latter is about the creation of Middle
Earth (a prototype of Faery) and the fall of its first inhabitants, the humanoid
creatures, called elves. After the success of the movie version of The Lord of the
Rings trilogy thousands of fantasy-lovers joined live RPG clubs, and most of the
secondary worlds of live fantasy RPG is still based on Tolkien‘s Middle Earth
because of the author‘s detailed style, such as the following citation form The Lord of
the Rings:
―Twilight was about them as they crept back to the lane. The West wind was sighing in the
branches. Leaves were wishpering. Soon the road began to fall gently but steadily into the dusk.
A star came out above the trees in the darkening east before them.‖ (Tolkien: 2007, p. 101)
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C.S. Lewis, the creator and father of Narnia, a place (or world) resembling to
Tolkien‘s Faery, a very good friend of Tolkien shared his literary companion´s
opinion on most points, but he had his own view on the genre of fairy-tales, of which
the most significant one is the notion of simplicity, as Martha Sammons (professor of
Wright State University) explains in her book War of the Fantasy Worlds (Sammons
21-41).1 Lewis found the language of fairytales being especially charming and useful:
the simple vocabulary and the lack of erotic expressions, which made it especially
suitable for children to read; and as his target audience were mostly children Lewis
used the language of fairytales in his works. Furthermore he also thought the simply
built characters to be very useful to borrow.
Based on Tolkien´s and Lewis´ definition or rather description of fairytales (as
they both attempted to describe these stories and not define them) I summarize the
major elements of fairytales the following way (Tolkien: 1983 p. 109-161, Sammons
24-41):
They have one or more inventors or authors (Tolkien)
―Once upon a time‖ starting (Lewis)
Numbers like 3 or 7 (magical numbers) occur more often than others (Lewis)
The storyline is about the adventures of mortal men/women in an enchanted
land where they often interact with supernatural creatures (both)
The presence of supernatural creatures (fairies, orks, witches, sorcerers, fays,
dragons etc.) with human abilities (both)
The setting is an enchanted world (Faery, the Perilous Realm, a forest or
castle) (both)
The main characters are mostly flat ones, either good or bad to the extremes, it
is easy to make difference between a good and an evil character (Lewis)
The presence of Good vs. Evil, the good wins at the end (Lewis)
1 In her book Sammons analyzed Tolkien‘s and Lewis‘ writing method and their view on fairytales and fantasy fiction
very effectively.
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Magic (having magical power, operating with magic) (both)
Prohibition (usually the cause of the central conflict) (Tolkien)
Three elements of focus: Nature-Supernatural-Man (Tolkien)
Have a moral message (both)
As I mentioned in the introduction of this chapter in Tolkien‘s and Lewis‘
understanding fairytale and fantasy fiction is one and the same genre. On one
occasion talking to Tolkien Lewis remarked: ―There is too little of what we really
like on stories. I am afraid we shall have to write some ourselves.‖ (Sammons ix).
And the genre of modern fantasy fiction was born:
2.2. Fantasy fiction
Fantasy is the essence of fairytales as it is our fantasy or imagination that creates the
Secondary World of the fairytales and fantasy stories (and RPGs). Fantasy fiction as
a genre is hard to define since all fiction is a work of fantasy; thus instead of defining
the genre I give examples how scholars describe the most important elements of
fantasy fiction.
Richard Matthews2 in his work Fantasy, the Liberation of Imagination describes
fantasy fiction as ―a type of fiction that evokes wonder, mystery, or magic – a sense
of possibility beyond the ordinary, material, rationally predictable world in which we
live.[...] Fantasy as a distinct literary genre, however best be thought of as a fiction
that elicits wonder through elements of the supernatural or impossible. ―(Mathews 2).
Mathews relates fantasy to myths, legends, fairytales and folklore, he also adds that
even the most realistic works can contain elements of fantasy (just as daydream), but
it is the element of the supernatural, the phenomena that cannot exist in our reality
that makes fantasy fiction a separate genre.
2 Professor of English in the University of Tampa
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Tzvetan Todorov‘s literary theory defines the fantasy genre through the
‗fantastic‘, which he regards to be a state of the mind, in his major work about
fantasy, The Fantastic. He thus defines fantastic as a genre this way: ―[...] the
fantastic is based essentially on the hesitation of the reader – a reader who identifies
with the chief character – as to the nature of an uncanny event.‖ (Todorov 157)
According to this theory the fantastic is set in the primary world (the real world)
and can vary between different degrees of uncanny (real) and marvellous (unreal):
Fantastic (hesitation)
real (fantastic uncanny) unreal (fant. marvellous)
In the fantastic uncanny the event of a text is actually an illusion that happens in the
real world (like the appearance of a ghost), while in the fantastic marvellous a
supernatural event happens which cannot be explained by the laws of reality (like
taking the shape of a frog by magic). If the text makes the reader decide that the
narrative event is closer to the fantastic marvellous (which means that the event is
unreal) we talk about a text of fantasy genre. Todorov claims that every story of the
fantasy genre has to contain three common elements (Todorov 33):
1. The setting of the story should be based on the real world, so the reader
hesitates ―between a natural and a supernatural explanation of the events
described‖.
2. This hesitation should also be fulfilled by a character of the story, so the
reader can identify himself with that character (and imagine that he takes part
with the story).
3. The reader of the story has to adopt an attitude of rejection of allegorical or
poetical interpretations that would drag the decision to the uncanny.
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According to Todorov, the fantastic entails not only an uncanny event, but one of the
most important features of the fantastic is that it ―implies an integration of the reader
into the world of characters, that world is defined by the reader‘s own ambiguous
perception of the events narrated [...]‖ (Todorov 30-32) His description of fantasy
actively involving the reader, explains the connection between live role-playing
games and fantasy literature they are based on, as a role-player must certainly read a
piece of fantasy fiction (as a supporting literature to RPG) with identifying himself
with one of the characters, so later on he can actually take over the character‘s role in
a gaming session.
2.3. Secondary worlds of fantasy fiction
The imaginary creation of the Second Worlds is a form of sub-creation, as the
creativity of human fantasy is often restricted by one´s experiences of the Primary
World (reality, the world we live in), but it does not mean that we need to meet a
dragon to be able to imagine its existence, its form and its nature, as we know
creatures that look like dragons (lizards and other reptiles) but they cannot
communicate verbally or with telepathy and definitely cannot split fire. It is our
imagination that personalizes them and gives them the ability to speak. Fantasy gives
them wings and magical power and enlarges them so mortal men can ride them.
According to Tolkien most of the subcreators (authors, storytellers and game masters)
would like to be creators and live in their Secondary World as they do in the Primary
one. This process is fulfilling a repressed desire:
―Probably every writer making a secondary world , a fantasy, every sub-creator, wishes in some
measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of
this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it. If he indeed
achieves a quality that can fairly be described by the dictionary definition: ‗inner consistency of
reality‘, it is difficult to conceive how this can be, if the work does not in some way partake of
reality.‖ (Tolkien: 1983 p.155)
And this is how fantasy role-playing games (FRPG) work:
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2.4. The secondary worlds of Tolkien and Lewis
―Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the
overbold.‖ (Tolkien: 1983 p 109)
Tolkien’s Middle Earth
―The setting is Mother Earth in an imaginary time.‖ (Sammons 124). Middle-Earth is
not never-land; it has the same natural features, seasons, terrain as Earth. However it
feels like being another dimension for some readers. Tolkien reaches this
contradiction with a fragile balance between reality and imagination in his secondary
world, Middle Earth.
In Tolkien‘s writing process both the ―overall and the individual settings‖
(Abrams 330) of his works were equally important. He planned and drew maps of the
world he wanted to create (with names of the towns, hills, lands etc.) and then, after
creating the overall setting he started to write the plot (or rather he waited for the
story to write itself, as Sammons notes in her book, p. 16). The attractive atmosphere
and background of a story were significant, because with their help the action of the
story could be more believable, compelling, exciting and relevant. On the other hand,
according to Tolkien the secondary world of a fantasy story must not be too unreal
and imaginative; it has to be based on the primary world of the reader, or else the
secondary world‘s settings lose their enchanting quality and the reader falls back to
the primary world, losing his interest in the story. Neither should the author work
against the laws of nature when inventing a secondary world, but use additional
imaginary forces, like magic to explain possible unnatural elements (Sammons 117-
137), just like the supernatural power of the Sauron‘s ―magic‖ ring.
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Lewis’ Narnia:
Lewis‘ creative process was different from Tolkien‘s, and his secondary world was
further away from reality, than Middle Earth. While the reader of The Lord of the
Rings could imagine the setting on Earth (maybe on a far away continent in the
Middle Ages), Narnia is a parallel world and needs a portal to be entered, thus its
setting is more alien compared to the reader‘s primary world. Lewis had pictures in
his mind, on which a scene, later a whole story was built. His style was also detailed,
like Tolkien‘s, but more vivid, more fairytale-like. He did not care as much about the
natural laws in his fantasy fiction as Tolkien did. Instead, Lewis mixed some features
of the genre of science-fiction into his stories that were based on fairytales, Sammons
explains in her book about Lewis‘ writing process (Sammons 17-36). She also adds
that when creating Narnia, Lewis was also very careful to go into details about the
geography and the history of his secondary world.
Lewis’ science fiction:
The secondary worlds of novels of science fiction is usually different from that of the
settings of fantasy fiction in being more restricted by the laws of nature, i.e. magical
occurrences must be given natural or rational explanation. Though in the science
fiction of Lewis he does not intend to describe everything logically; however he gives
enough scientific explanations to the reader so that events can be imagined as
―superficial plausibility‖ and not probability (Sammons 33). Just like Tolkien, Lewis
thought it to be important to base the secondary world on the only world the reader
can actually experience (i.e. reality), but he disliked the idea of putting characters and
actions to another planet just to create the setting of science fiction. The characters
and happenings should be natural in the given settings. This idea inspired Hickman in
creating the setting of Krynn (more about Krynn in the analysis).
Furthermore, both Tolkien and Lewis agreed that fantasy novels should have a
moral message, they were both Christians, and the Christian morality was built in
17
their works (Tolkien‘s Sirmarillion is about the fall of elves, which is a symbol of the
fall of man). They both thought it to be essential to take the moral laws of the primary
world to their secondary worlds (Sammons 148).
2.5. The characters of Tolkien and Lewis
Although in Tolkien‘s works the setting and atmosphere had a great importance, he
created his characters just as carefully. The central character-types of his novels
resemble average man, but some human characteristics are over emphasised and this
way a new species is created, e.g.: the elves are physically beautiful, but colder in
terms of feelings, they love nature and creating beautiful things from wood and stone;
while their ‗counter species‘, the orks are ugly and destructive; just like in fairy tales
most characters are either on the good or evil, and which side they belong to can be
seen on their physical appearance. Man, as Sammons points out in her book about
Tolkien‘s and Lewis‘ works, is mostly described as a positive character and without
the extremity of superheroes (Sammons 144). She also adds that Lewis found it
especially important that the heroes of a story could be born of average man, so the
reader could identify himself with the hero. Another important element is the
relationship of the hero and the plot, according to Lewis the more unconventional the
actions of a story are, the more conventional the hero should be (Sammons 144). The
hero (who is usually a good character) stands on the good side, but he usually makes
this decision after an inner battle, so every adventure of the hero is a spiritual quest as
well, and as the reader tries to identify himself with the hero, this journey is a moral
quest for the reader, too.
Good characters are difficult to make interesting, because their inner qualities and
thoughts have to be ‗seen‘ by the reader, e.g.: elves in Tolkien‘s works are primarily
good characters, but as they do not exist in reality, it is hard to portray their inner
18
quality, that is why the author used a classical fairytale feature: described them as
physically beautiful.
2.6. The secondary world of Dragonlance according to Tracy Hickman:
The concept of Dragonlance according to Tracy Hickman, the author of the first
Dragonlance novels, the designer of the DL RPG and the creator of Krynn, the
secondary world of DL was built around a specific philosophy, the idea on which all
actions of the characters and the plot were based (in the novels and the games, as
well). This philosophy is pictured the following way (http://www.trhickman.com/my-
works/novels/dragonlance/):
Point A, Band C of the triangle are more or less fixed and immobile comparing to
point D (at the center), which constantly swings between the three static points.
―It is the motion of point D between points A, B, and C that gives motion and life to
the structure ―explains Tracy on his official homepage. He clarifies the idea of this
basic structure with explaining the meaning of the four points:
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(A) Good
(B) Evil
(C) Chaos
(D) the will or choice of humanity (freewill). ―Man‘s agency of choice is then seen as
the motion which drives the universe of Krynn.‖
Practically this structure represents the following in DL:
(A) Good - The Solamnic Knights and their forces
(B) Evil - The Dragonarmies of Takhisis and her Highlords
(C)Chaos - The overall world of Krynn (its population)
(D) Freewill - The core characters, or heroes of DL (whose choices can swing the
balance between A, B and C).
2.6 Fantasy Role-playing (FRP)
2.6.1 The history of fantasy role-playing
The history of role-playing started with war games, and war games were present in
human history since the first wars (i.e.: in the whole history of humanity). The
ancient Summers had already used sand table to draw their plans and strategies of
coming battles, and soon the first war games appeared. The contemporary form of the
war-games (where dices are used to determine different elements and the outcome of
the battles) was first used in Prussia in the 19th
century, but it did not take long for the
popular game to be spread all over Europe both for military and private use, this latter
was introduced by the sci-fi author, H.G. Wells, who wrote down the system of rules
of war games for amateurs. The next impact in the world of RPG was the publishing
of Tolkien‘s The Lord of the Rings, which opened a whole new world (in all sense of
the word) for gamers. ―People wanted to know just how much damage a Balrog could
do, and what the range was on a lightning bolt spell.‖ (Darlington 1) The imaginary
20
medieval setting became popular, but it was Ernest Gygnax´s Chainmail (published
by Tactical Studies Rules–TSR, Inc.) that created the platform for the first real
fantasy role-playing scenario in the form of a board game. Gygnax and his friend
David Arneson kept on playing, creating and testing game rules and it finally lead to
the establishment of Dungeons & Dragons, the first commercially available RPG. As
the popularity of RPG grew new literary genres, like science fiction (e.g.: Star Trek
RPG), horror (e.g.: Chtulhu‘s Dawn, Vampire the Masquarade) or adventure (James
Bond 007) entered the scene of FRP (fantasy role-playing), and the popular movie
versions of some fantasy stories make these games more and more attractive for both
adults and children.
2.6.2 How to play live role-playing games (RPG’s)?
The most of the RPG‘s (role-playing games) have some common elements.
Depending on the genre of the game (fantasy, science fiction, industrial, vampire
etc.), the players choose well defined setting (a world), e.g.: if someone plays
Dragonlance, this world is Krynn (which is described in the DL series, a map of
Ansalon – a continent in Krynn, where most of the adventures take place– can be
found on the internet – and the time is the Age of Dispair), while in The Mascarade
(live RPG with vampires as characters) it can be any kind of place existing in reality
or only in fantasy, usually played in the present. Then the players have to choose a
character appropriate to the world (they usually fill out a pre-determined character
sheet /example of character sheet appendix D/ with the help of a 10 or 16 sided dice,
transcribing the personal attributes and skills to numerical values, the meaning of
which is usually defined by the rules that can be read in different background
literature; this is not the case though with DL, which means that the gamers have to
borrow other games‘ rulesystem or create their own rules based on the DL fantasy
novels).
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After listing the characters, the Game Master builds up a storyline (sometimes
borrowing scenes or the whole plot of an already existing novel) and guides the
characters through this story by describing what they see, experience or whom they
meet. The most important turns in the plot or storyline are decided with the help of a
dice (the GM calculates for example the outcome of a fight from the number given by
the dice and the strength number of the fighters; this calculation method can be
necessary after every big movement /especially when using weapons/). The length of
a game can vary between a few hours and many days, sometimes an adventure does
not end at all, but a good GM tries to lead the players or gamers toward a possible
ending not leaving loose ends. This gives the characters the feeling of finiteness
which helps them starting a new adventure later on. At the end of the procedure most
of the playing groups use some minutes to summarize the course of the game.
2.6.3 Why to play RPG?
―The imaginations of participants are both aided and restricted by the games system, which imposes a
structure onto the game universe, typically providing rules for resolving any action or encounter a
character could be involved with. […] The essential feature of roleplaying is that the action of the
game is generated and enacted in the imaginations of players. […] The GM describes the glacier, the
difficulty of the climb, the effect of the cold on the characters etc, while calling for ability rolls on the
dice at appropriate times. The players respond by describing their imagined feelings and fears, by
talking to each other in character and by calling up images of the scene in their imaginations. With an
experienced group a genuine dramatic tension is evoked that leads to strong feelings of anxiety and
rushes of adrenaline, all without stepping outside of the Lyneham living room. Such is the power of
fantasy.‖ (Hughes 4)
In the beginning fantasy role-playing was the hobby of teenagers but as the market
widened (in terms of new worlds and literary works) more and more adults became
interested in RPG. This interest (both children‘s and adults‘) is based on both social
and psychological aspects, as Nicoline Olsson, the manager of Ros-live (Union of
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Fantasy Live Role-Playing Games in Roskilde) explained in the interview I made
with her (appendix A).
According to Tolkien reading fantasy or fairytales have the following
advantages for the readers (Tolkien 109-161):
Recovery: The secondary world of fantasy fiction helps us see the primary world
in another setting, and what happens in the secondary world in our imagination
can be applied in reality (reference to the moral journey I mentioned before).
Escape: (not escapism!) getting away from the evil and cruelty of our world
(hunger, industrialism, conventionality etc.).
Fulfilment of desires: imagination satisfying desires like living forever, having
magical power etc., things we cannot do or be in reality, possibly because they do
not exist. This statement is also underlined by the game master of Ros-Live who
emphasized the players‘ excitement for trying to play a character that is very
different from the players‘ own personalities (e.g.: a peasant in the middle ages,
without education, with different cultural background; or a vampire who is
hundred year old and have occult knowledge and power – interview with Mark
Langer /game master, Ros-live/, appendix B)
Eucatastrophe: sudden turn of the story, right before the happy ending, a good
catastrophe, that creates the feeling of excitement in the reader. (I return to this
term in the analysis)
Nicoline Olsson‘s explanation about the reason of the players‘ joining to a live RPG
team shows great similarity to Tolkien‘s Theory about the reason of reading fantasy
fiction. According to Olsson many insecure players gain self-confidence through
playing live RPG and this confidence improves their life quality in reality (appendix
A) (Recovery). Another benefit of RPG that was mentioned in the interview was that
children with different social background are treated the same way, even if someone
looks physically ―strange‖ he is accepted among the other players (Escaping).
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Olsson talks also about the social aspects of live RPG that attracts players, i.e.:
people with similar interests gather for playing sessions and many of them become
friends in reality, too.
2.7 Fantasy Fiction (and RPG) in Contemporary American Literature
They were there from the beginning. The poets and authors, who belonged to ‗the
other side‘, who chose not to follow the mainstream literary tendencies, but wrote
about other worlds or about this world but in another way. Richard Mathews3 in his
work, Fantasy, the Liberation of Imagination (2002) lists the most influential works
of fantasy fiction in chronological order. This list starts with The Epic of Gilgamesh
ca. 2000 B.C.E. and contains tales, fables and sagas from the ancient Greece to India,
from North Africa to North America. On this list Jonathan Swift‘s acknowledged
work, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is equal to Walpole‘s not really accepted The Castle
of Otranto (1765), and the list goes on this way. Many critics do not acknowledge
fantasy fiction as proper literary works, because many of them are written for
children, but as Tolkien and Lewis assumed, it is not one‘s age, but one‘s taste, that
makes one read or write fantasy.
The elements of fantasy fiction can be found in almost every literary period,
e.g.: Spencer‘s Faerie Queene (1590) in the Renaissance (characters), Poe‘s
transcendental tales of mystery and the macabre (at the beginning of the 19th century),
Howard´s The Hour of the Dragon (1935) in modernism, Gibson‘s Neuromancer
(1984, with cyberpunk theme) in the contemporary American literature just to
mention a few of them (works from the Chronology of fantasy literature listed by
Mathews pp. xv-xx). ―...the literary genre of modern fantasy is characterized by a
narrative frame that unites timeless mythic patterns with contemporary individual
experiences.‖ (Mathews 1). According to Mathews, who summarized the history of
3 Professor of English at University of Tampa
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fantasy as a separate genre, fantasy formed the mainstream literature of the Western
world until the Renaissance. After the 1600‘s science and reason gave birth to other
genres also in terms of fiction, ―the trend toward a literature purified by reason and
reality was unmistakable‖ (Mathews 2). But imagination could not be restrained, and
elements of fantasy and folklore appeared in mainstream literature from time to time.
At the end of the 18th century the genre of the Gothic was born (with Walpole‘s
Castle) from which the genre of science fiction emerged, e.g.: Mary Shelley‘s
Frankeinstein; by the influence H. G. Wells‘ works of science fiction, Hugo
Gernsback established a magazine of sci-fi, titled Amazing Stories, which was
launched in 1926 and was published through almost eighty years. This magazine
published the works of some of the most well-known science fiction authors of
modern and contemporary science fiction and fantasy fiction, like Isaac Asimov,
Ursula K. Le Guin and H.P. Lovecraft. In 1983 Amazing Stories was passed to the
hands of TSR, Inc., which as mentioned above soon started to cooperate with the
creators of Dragonlance. TSR, Inc. and later Wizards of the Coast (who purchased
TSR, Inc. in 1997) attempted to drive Amazing Stories into a more modern and
successful direction, but the magazine was suspended in 2005 (Wikipedia, Amazing
Stories). It did not put an end to the success of fantasy and science fiction. Out of
transcendental and gothic fiction dark fantasy and horror fiction was born (e.g.:
Stephen King‘s novels) which made the literary genre enter Hollywood. And
Hollywood spread zombies and vampires, wizards and centaurs all over the world
with the help of Dracula and the Twilight Saga, Harry Potter and Narnia, the movie
version of The Lord of the Rings, and the Avatar. The mixture of life, books and
movies is what motivated and still motivates people to convert stories into role-
playing games, thus adding their own creative thoughts to the genre of fantasy. (More
about the history of role-playing and the motivations of role-players in the previous
part of my report p.17-20).
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3 Analysis
After the theoretical introduction dealing with the genre of fantasy, I analyze the
three novels of the Dragonlance Chronicles as the parts of a trilogy. In my analysis I
use the ideas of Tolkien, Lewis and Todorov as a theoretical background, and the
interviews made with Mark Langer (Game Master of Ros-live - the non-profit union
organizing live role-playing games in Roskilde) and Nicoline Olsson, leader of Ros-
live, experienced gamer, who also played Dragonlance live.
3.1 Structure of analysis
In my interview with Mark Langer I tried to find the answer to what makes a fantasy
fiction an ideal supporting literature to live RPG‘s. He explained to me that in order
to start a live RPG the settings of a story are the most essential (the whole interview
is attached to my report in the appendix). The time, place and the atmosphere of a
novel together with the characters define the genre of the game (science fiction,
historical, fantasy, cyberpunk etc.), but while well-defined characters can be
problematic, as only the experienced players can play them convincingly, the more
detailed the settings are, the easier both for the Game Master and the players to create
the atmosphere and the actions of the plot of a game, which is the most important to a
good gaming session. That is why I chose to analyse the settings (time, place, weather
and atmosphere) and the characters (protagonists, antagonists and supporting
characters) in my analysis.
I chose to analyse the three novels of the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy
separately, because this way I can call the reader‘s attention to the development of the
characters and the change in the use of the settings following the actions of the plot.
Thus the analysis of each novel is divided into settings and characters, examining the
influences of the author (Tolkien, Lewis, Todorov), and how the particular features of
26
the text can effect a possible live RPG session. At the end of the analysis I compare
the three novels looking at the overall settings and the character development.
3.2 Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Dragons of Autumn Twilight is the first part of the Dragonlance Chronicles. Those
who are interested in Dragonlance (both players and readers the novels) are
recommended to start learning about the world of DL by reading the three novels of
the Chronicles, because they introduce the reader to the world of Krynn. The Autumn
is the novel which introduces the overall setting and the core characters of DL.
Plot summary: After five years‘ lonely journey Tanis, Flint, Tas, Caramon, Raistlin,
Kitiara and Sturm are supposed to meet in their home village, Solace. Kitiara, the
half-sister of Caramon and Raistlin (and the ex-lover of Tanis) does not show up, she
sends a message that she has other duties. The reason of the friends‘ departure was
the growing restlessness throughout Krynn (they heard stories about armies coming
to start a new war), that is why Kitiara‘s absence (and her message) is interpreted as a
bad omen. Later in the evening Raistlin, a mage, discovers, that the constellations of
Krynn have changed, the one representing Takhisis, an evil goddess is missing
together with the one representing Paladin, a good god. He describes that it means
that they both came to the earth to fight each other, to gain power over humans. In
their meeting place the heroes meet two strangers, Riverwind and Goldmoon, who
are carrying a mystical healing staff. As healing disappeared with the old gods from
Krynn the staff causes a lot of trouble, because the new clerics do everything to find
it and give it to their new lord (Verminaard). The heroes chose to help Goldmoon and
Riverwind escaping from the clerics‘ solders and to find out where the staff comes
from. They start a voyage which takes them to all the places they want to avoid
(Darkened Forest, Pax Tsarkas). Throughout their journey they meet creatures that
were thought to be extinguished or never existed (centaurs, unicorn etc.), they also
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discover that a new race, the draconians appeared in Krynn whose intention is simply
evil; moreover the dragons have returned to the world. Finally they find out the
purpose of the healing staff, and Goldmoon becomes the cleric of Mishakal (healing
goddess).
They return to Solace which is almost totally destroyed by the dragon army,
whose clerics and soldiers they were escaping from. They become prisoners of the
draconians, but they manage to escape with the help of Tanis‘ childhood friend, the
elf Gilthanas. After learning about the situation of wars in Krynn (the dragonarmy
rapidly takes over, the draconians want to exterminate the whole race of elves) they
enter Qualinesti, the homeland of elves. Here Tanis meets Laurana, his childhood
love and his heart is now split between Kitiara and Laurana. The next station of the
journey of the heroes is Pax Tharkas, the cavesystem of dwarves, where prisoners
from the whole land are captured. The heroes manage to free them (with the help of a
dragon).
3.2.1 The setting
―He looked around him, his eyes lingering fondly over the familiar landscape. The mountainside
below him formed one side of a high mountain bowl carpeted in autumn splendor. The
vallenwood trees in the valley were ablaze in the season‘s colors, the brilliant reds and golds
fading into the purple of the Kharolis peaks beyond. The flawless azure sky among the trees was
repeated in the waters of Crystalmir Lake. Thin columns of smoke curled among the treetops,
the only sign of the presence of Solace. A soft, spreading haze blanketed the vale with the sweet
aroma of home fires burning.‖ (Autumn 11)
The general time of the Chronicles (introduced in Autumn):
The Age of Despair:
The history of the world of Krynn is divided into five ages:
1. The Time of Creation, when the gods were born and Krynn was formed.
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2. The Age of Dreams is noticeable about the fast growth of the world's first
civilizations and the appearance of new races. This era is the time of the first
dragon wars, as well.
3. The Age of Might, during which the Cataclysm destroys the empire of Istar and
changes almost the entire surface of Krynn.
4. The Age of Despair: the Cataclysm was followed by a three-hundred year
depression. This period also marks the War of the Lance, the plot of the second
and third book of the Chronicles.
5. The Age of Mortals, when the old gods and with them magic leaves Krynn.
The time of the Chronicles is the Age of Despair, about three hundred years after the
Cataclysm. The Cataclysm was the result of the anger of the old gods, who got tired
of the people‘s greed (Biblical reference to Noah‘s Flood; like Tolkien, Hickmann
also communicates moral messages in his novels) and dropped a fiery stone to the
empire city of Istar, which was diminished by the disaster, and the earthquake
following the impact changed the landscape of the world and made some species
extinguish (like dragons). People of Krynn thought that the gods left the world and
soon they forgot the ancient ones. The years after the Cataclysm were about wars and
hard work, without hope, only despair: this atmosphere dominates the overall setting
of the Chronicles. The individual setting of the scenes of the plot of the Autumn is
increasingly dark and threatening, as the actions contain more fighting scenes and
more danger toward the end of the Autumn. One of the scenes is so terrible from the
characters point of view, that it is actually described as a dream of Tanis, creating a
visionary atmosphere:
―Other images. He remembered Goldmoon standing in the center of her father‘s ruined house,
trying to put together the pieces of a broken vase. He remembered a dog – the only living thing
they found in the entire village – curled around the body of a dead child. […] And so they left
Que-Shu […] each wanting to push his body to the point of exhaustion so that, when finally
slept, there would be no evil dreams. But the dreams came anyway.‖ (Autumn 117)
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The overall setting of the Chronicles follows the ideas of Tolkien and Lewis. They
both emphasized that in order to keep the readers‘ attention and excitement the
setting has to be compelling, that is why it needs to be based on reality. The Age of
Despair can be understood or imagined as the ‗dark‘ Middle Ages of Earth: the
clerics of Krynn can be compared to the members of the Inquisition (they even burn
witches), chivalry is represented by the character of Sturm, the characters wear
medieval clothes, they cook their meal by a campfire and travel around on foot or on
horseback (or on Pegasus and dragon) and the list could be continued. Themes and
motives of the mythology of the primary world of the reader can create the same
feeling of familiarity as historical facts, because these stories are the part of the
western culture; that is why it can be a good means to base the settings of a secondary
world, as well. In the case of Krynn as secondary world, the story of the city of Xak
Tsarot (and Istar) can remind the reader of the lost isle of Atlantis, or the Biblical
story of Noah‘s Flood. The overall setting of fantasy novels being based on reality
helps the role-players (or rather the game masters) to follow the description of the
author in placing the game (e.g.: into a dark forest or into a village). It also helps the
players to play more authentically (as authenticable fantasy live role-playing can
be…).
The general atmosphere of the Chronicles (introduced in Autumn)
Autumn Twilight:
―Twilight. The pale sun set. Shafts of yellow and tan streaked the western sky, then faded into
dreary night. The companions sat huddled around a fire that offered no warmth, for there existed
no flame on Krynn that would drive the chill from their souls.‖ (Autumn 116)
The title of the first book refers to the individual setting of the novel in terms of
atmosphere and time. Autumn is the season leading to winter, when the world seems
to pass away. Twilight leads to night, when light disappears and darkness takes over.
During the development of the plot the weather becomes more and more chilly, the
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major actions (fighting scenes and turns of the plot) take place first around sunset (at
the Inn of the Last Home), the next day in daylight but in pouring rain (they fight
against the draconian), and the third day at night (in Darkened Forest). In the last part
of the plot (in Xak Tsaroth) it is not the time of the day which is significant, but the
atmosphere of the forsaken city and its placement (under the ground), which creates a
different kind of darkness, unnatural and more depressing than the natural night.
The change in the individual setting of the novel describes and helps the
development of the plot. The darker the setting is, the more dangerous it is for the
characters to start a fight or to defend themselves. A good example of the relationship
between the change of the atmosphere and the progress of the plot is Raistlin‘s
remark right before the evil dragon rises from the underground: ―Can‘t you feel it?
Any of you? Half-Elf? Evil about to waken and come forth.‖ (Autumn 143). This
observation makes some of the characters hide, and this way save their lives. The
climax of the plot is the fight against the dragon, which is set underground in a ruined
city, where all lights are diminished by the dark cloud created by the dragon‘s magic.
At this part of the plot everything can happen to a character that cannot see whom he
fights against. The scene ends with Goldmoon‘s death (she returns later as the cleric
off Mishakal – eucatastrophe/Tolkien).
The setting, especially the change of the atmosphere also symbolizes the
characters‘ inner reality and internal change, which I explain by describing the most
important places of the novel:
The place of the Chronicles (introduced in Autumn)
Krynn: The secondary world, the overall setting of Dragonlance. Following
Tolkien‘s example Tracy Hickman first created world or setting for a story (not so
detailed though as his influencer did, leaving place to other co-creators, like his wife),
and later his together with wife, Laura they added the first characters to the settings,
31
the dragons, and these creatures defined the atmosphere of the world and the plot of
the story, as well.
Geographically Krynn resembles Earth (lacking floating mountains and similar
fantasy elements) it has the same shifting seasons and the same climate (the main
continent, Ansalon has continental and ocean climate), but the presence of three
different moons at night (the red Lunitari, the black Nuitari and the silver Solinari)
and the constellations that can leave the night sky to enter the world assumes that it is
actually another planet (inspired by Lewis‘ science fiction settings), and not a parallel
universe (like Lewis‘ Narnia). The majority of the actions of the three novels of The
Chronicles take place in the only well-defined continent of Krynn, called Ansalon
(the map of Ansalon can be found in the Appendix of this report). There are some
major villages and towns that are described more or less detailed (depending on the
actions that take place there), all of them mentioned by their names, sometimes with
their history and the races or the character of their inhabitants, e.g.: Qualinesti – the
homeland of Tanis, inhabited by elves, placed in the middle of a forest-land, called
Qualintos; Xak Tsaroth, the forgotten city that lies beneath Newsea (a sea created by
the Cataclysm).
The individual setting of Autumn:
―The Inn of the Last Home was built high in the branches of a mighty vallenwood tree, as was every
other building in Solace, with the exception a blacksmith shop. The townspeople had decided to take to the
trees during the terror and chaos following the Cataclysm. And thus Solace became a tree town […] The Inn
of the Last Home was the largest building in solace and stood forty feet off the ground. Stairs ran round the
ancient vallenwood‘s gnarled trunk. As Otik had said, any visitor to the Inn would be heard approaching long
before he was seen.‖ (Autumn 7)
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The Inn of Last Home (illustration: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.colorado-
dad.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/the-inn-of-the-last-home-in-the-tree.jpg)
The first novel (Dragons of Autumn Twilight) starts with a meeting of the main
characters, this meeting takes place in Solace, their home village. Solace is a central
place in DL, some book is written with only this village as a setting (e.g.: The Raistlin
Chronicles 1998). One of the central locations of the novels of DL is the Inn of Last
Home, an inn in Solace, where the characters often return to; this place is especially
well described, going into details in the Chronicles (Autumn 5-38), where the Inn is
the physical symbol of the connection between the core heroes of the Chronicles, it is
the place where according to their oath, which they made when they departed five
years before, they should gather again; as one of them (Kitiara, who is not physically
present in the first book of the Chronicles) breaks this oath by her non-attendance in
the inn, the atmosphere of the place becomes negative and the locale turns from a
destination of a finished action (the heroes‘ solitary travel) into a starting point of the
plot of the first book (they know that something is about to happen, as Kitiara, who is
a mercenary would not break her oath unless her new lord made her do that, this
makes it clear for the other characters, that an army is about to start a war in Ansalon,
which worries them; addition to this new turn in the plot is the arrival of two
strangers, bearing a mystic healing staff, chased by the new, generally disliked
33
clerics; with the help of an old man /Fizban, an always returning character/ the heroes
decide to help the strangers finding out the purpose of the healing staff and they start
their journey, which ends in the third book of the DL Chronicles). It is not pure
coincident, that the plot starts at the Inn of Last Home. To start the plot of a fantasy
fiction that is based on an RPG session requires a significant set of actions with many
different characters; in most cases some of the characters should be outsiders
(comparing to the core characters), bringing a message or initializing a conflict by
other means. These very different characters need a meeting location, and in DL it is
almost always the Inn, because being a public place an inn is ideal setting for the
different characters to gather, while for instance a private home would only give
place to the already familiar characters; a street would have hiding opportunities, so
the conflict could be avoided. The core characters of DL come often to the Inn of
Last Home and they always have to leave urgently, because they get into a fight of
some kind. The Inn plays especially important role later in the series, when some of
the core characters take it over and drive it in the time of peace (which is rare in DL).
There are two other locales described detailed in the first book: Darken Wood
(Autumn 80-112) and Xak Tsaroth (Autumn 127-224).
Darken Wood is an enchanted forest that no living creature has ever left alive. The
forest is feared by all of the characters, and they enter it because a white stag (visible
only for Sturm) leads them there. The enchanted forest as a setting motivates the plot
of the novel, as leaving the only path of the forest leads to new conflicts (which
Raistlin forsees): the forest is the residence of different fantasy creatures, like
centaurs, pegasi, unicorn and ghosts who guard the forest from the evil that possible
intruders can bring. Leaving the path makes these creatures get in touché with the
characters who have to prove that they do not have evil intentions. Thus this locale
also helps the reader to get new information about the protagonists‘ skills and nature:
the power of Raistlin as a mage (can communicate with the dead), the curiosity of
Tas (about flying), the royal dignity of Goldmoon (by her behavior when meeting the
34
forest master). The dark mysterious enchanted forest makes Tanis uncomfortable and
insecure as a leader of the group, because being a half-elven his personality is pure
and material. Raistlin feels at home in these surroundings, being dark and bitter in his
soul (until entering the forest his cynic nature was mentioned only) so Tanis seeks
Raistlin‘s advice. The mage gives his advice but he also makes it clear how he feels
about his companion, too:
――Even if I am twisted and warped… Yes, I am smarter than you – all of you. And some day I
will prove it! Someday you – with all your strength and charm and good looks – you, all of you,
will call me master!‖ His hands clenched to fists inside his robes, his eyes flared red in the
crimson moonlight.‖ (Autumn109)
Xak Tsaroth is a forsaken ruined city sunk down under Newsea. This is the setting of
the catastrophe of the novel, described in details (atmosphere, history, looks). The
once magnificent, now ruined city lays underground, it is dark and wet. The ruins, the
smells and the darkness wakes fear in the characters. One of the most significant
scenes, when the dragon (the first one the characters have ever seen) rises from a well
is the symbol of evil rising from the underground, refers to the development of the
plot of the other two books. The characters‘ task in the novel is to find the sacred
disks of Mishakal (healing goddess) and to remove it from the nest of the dragon, in
the centre of Xak Tsaroth. The nest as a location for the action is ideal in RPG, as it is
a place hard to come close to, but not impossible. The characters need to work out a
strategy and to cooperate while carrying out their plan.
The overall setting of the Chronicles is well-described and detailed (an influence of
Tolkien and Lewis), which makes the trilogy an ideal supporting material for live
RPG‘s. The overall setting of the first novel (Dragons of Autumn Dawning) gives the
reader an idea about the general atmosphere, the time and the world of DL, while the
individual setting of the novel supports the actions of the plot and the development of
the characters.
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3.1.2. The Characters
―As Margaret says, that‘s like asking which of your children your favorite is: they all
are loved. Still, each holds its own place in my heart — and I‘ll admit to some bias.I
have often said that Sturm is who I want to be; that Tanis is more like me; and that I
come across more like Fizban the Fabulous. I also must admit to something of a Kender
spirit in me as well. As to Raistlin — he‘s all Margaret‘s and don‘t let anyone else tell
you differently.‖ (Tracy Hickman about who his favourite character was:
http://www.trhickman.com/my-works/novels/dragonlance/)
The novel introduces the major characters of the Dragonlance series (listed in the
next paragraph). In the Dragons of Autumn Twilight two of the protagonist
(Goldmoon and Riverwind are ‗guest characters‘ comparing to the other DL novels),
while Raistlin is a protagonist here, but antagonist in other books. There are
furthermore characters being supporting characters (or are not present but mentioned
by other characters on more occasions) in this particular novel, but become
protagonist or antagonist in the next novel of the series (like Tika Waylan or Kitiara
Uth Mathar).
―An unlikely group of heroes…‖ (the protagonists, as listed on the very first
page of the novel, without page number):
Tanis Half-Elven: ―The leader of the companions. A skilled fighter who detests
fighting, he is tormented by love for two women – the tempestuous swordswoman,
Kitiara, and the enchanting elfwoman, Laurana.‖ Tanis can be seen as the character
played by the game master or a player instructor (experienced players, usually
playing predetermined characters, helping supporting the game master‘s storyline).
Many times the situation is seen from his point of view, he is the leader, and he
makes the most important decisions. Being a half human, half elf determines his
personality: for humans he is too much elf-like, for elves he is a human (Autumn 66),
so he feels divided in heart and belonging to nowhere and both places, that is
represented in his love for a human and an elf woman at the same time. His elf blood
36
gives him a long life (they live hundreds of years), that is why in the companion he is
one of the eldest and wisest; his body is also a mixture of two races: beard shows his
humanity and his ears are his elf heritage.
Sturm Brightblade: ―Knight of Solamnia. Once revered in the days before the
Cataclysm, the knights have since fallen into disgrace. Sturm‘s goal is – more
important to him than life itself – is to restore the honor of the knighthood.‖ Sturm
can be seen as a stock character (following the description of characters of Kennedy-
Gioia), as he embodies the chivalrous knight of fairytales. He is proud, strong and
melancholic.
Goldmoon: ―Chieftain‘s Daughter and the bearer of the blue crystal staff. Her love
for a tribal outcast, Riverwind, leads them both on a dangerous quest in search of the
truth.‖
Raistlin: ―Caramon‘s twin brother and a magic-user. Though his health has been
shattered, Raistlin possesses great powers beyond his young age. But dark mysteries
are concealed behind his strange eyes.‖ Raistlin is one of the most round characters,
his personal development is significant in the novel, with which he surprises both the
other characters and the reader when he becomes an antagonist (from a protagonist).
Caramon: ―Raistlin‘s twin brother, warrior. A genial giant of a man, Caramon is the
exact opposite of his twin. Raistlin is the one person he cares for – and the one person
he fears.‖ One of the flat characters; a simple personality, absolutely dependent on his
twin brother.
Flint Fireforge: ―An axe man of the hill dwarves and Tanis‘s oldest friend, the ancient
dwarf regards the others like his children.‖ A flat stock character with the typical
characteristics of the dwarf race of modern fantasy stories (very old, proud, a little bit
bitter, hard to make friendship, but if someone gains his trust, he becomes a life-long
companion. In DL he is Tanis‘ best friend, he and Tanis practically adopted
Caramon, Raistlin and Sturm.
37
Tasselhoff Burrfoot: ―One of the kender, a race immune to fear. Trouble just seems to
follow him wherever he goes.‖ The kender race is the innovation of DL, this is the
fantasy world, where the race was born. The kinder were originally planned as
―hobbits with shoes‖ as Tracy states on his official homepage, refering to Tolkien‘s
characters (http://www.trhickman.com/my-works/novels/dragonlance/), then by the
character of Tasselhoff whole new race was created. Tas is a flat character, as every
other kinder is. He is like a child that never grows up, he presumably dies as a child,
too. According to the DL books kenders do not even recognize when they die, they
just move to another funny place, to the kender heaven.
Following Tolkien‘s and Lewis‘ example the core heroes of the DL were creates
as average men who become heroes by their heroic deeds. Both Lewis and Tolkien
thought the simplicity of the main characters to be essential for fantasy, so the readers
can easily identify themselves with them. This process is important for keeping the
attention and interest of the reader. According to Lewis for a compelling story there
have to be a balance between the characters and the plot, so that the more
unconventional the plot is, the more conventional the characters should be. The plot
of Autumn is quite unconventional (the fights against ghosts and dragons, the heroes
outnumbered by the enemies most of the times), but the heroes are normal persons
even if they are from different races (elf, dwarf, kinder etc.).
Being based on a role-playing session, the Dragonlance Chronicles does not have
one main character, because one cannot play fantasy role-playing game on his own.
Though as mentioned before, many scenes are seen through the eyes of Tanis, which
makes him the main protagonist of the novel together with Raistlin, whose history
and development is described more detailed than the other characters‘.
The basic features of the characters of the DL books, especially of the
Chronicles, were predetermined by Tracy Hickmann and Margareth Weiss. The
authors later decided to develop the plot of the novels in a playing session with some
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of their colleges from TSR, Inc. During this session (in Hickmann‘s apartment) the
players chose their characters, while they were already familiar with the settings of
DL. Then Hickman told the storyline of the game (as a game master, he did not have
a character on his own) by describing the basic situation in Krynn (the basic situation
of the Chronicles) and the game started. This first session ended as the Chronicles
does. The creator of the DL world allowed the players to develop their characters as
they wished, thus giving every hero their own personality. Tracy refers to this playing
session this way in the foreword to The Soulforge (the first book of The Raistlin
Chronicles):
―[we] were just settling in to the game when I turned to my good friend Terry Phillips and asked
what his character was doing. Terry [Terry Phillips, game designer, the player of Raistlin]
spoke...and the world of Krynn was forever changed. His rasping voice, his sarcasm and
bitterness all masking an arrogance and power that never needed to be stated suddenly were
real. Everyone in the room was both transfixed and terrified. To this day Margaret swears that
Terry wore the black robes to the party that night.‖ (Weis 1)
This comment explains how important some of the characters of DL are not just in
the plot development (as players), but also in creating the settings of the secondary
world of Krynn, especially the individual setting of the different books.
The other core characters of the first book of the Chronicles were played by the
following people:
- Terry Phillips designer (TSR, Inc.) played Raistlin Majere
- Duglas Niles (author, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms) played Flint
- Gary Pack (author, Dragonlance) played Tanis Half-Elven
- Janet Pack (author, Dragonlance) played Tasselhoff
- Harold Johnson (TSR employee) played Sturm Brightblade
- Margaret Weis played Fizban the fabulous (not a core character, but he is the
one who inspires the heroes to start their journey)
39
The characters (or heroes of the novel) play an important role in the development of
the plot. Like in RPG‘s it is the characters‘ decision that forms the actions of the plot,
but at the same time the happenings of the plot helps the characters‘ development.
In the first book of the Chronicles on more occasions the protagonists have to
decide which way they should go to get information about the healing staff, so they
come up with different ideas and argue about the possible routes. As the author (or
game master) had a plan where to lead the characters, he created supporting
characters, to inspire the protagonists, who still had to make a decision about
following this inspiration or not. The inspirational supporting characters were the
white stag, who lead the heroes to the Darkened Forest, where they otherwise would
have not entered. In the forest they had to face a new conflict (the ghosts), but as they
solved this problem new supporting characters entered the scene (centaurs), who lead
them to the forest master (the unicorn). The unicorn told them their opinion about
what the next destination should be, but it was Tanis and Raistlin who decided that
the group should follow the advice; every decision of the characters has a
consequence, which is usually a problem they have to solve, and every solved
problem leads to a new quest, new actions of the plot.
It is not just the characters‘ decisions and actions the plot grows out of. The
characters‘ personality, especially their inner development also leads to new
conflicts, which builds the plot toward the catastrophe. The most significant change
becomes visible when we read the trilogy as a whole, but the three books shows a
character development separately, as well. In Dragons of Autumn Twilight, that
introduces the characters, the most considerable development is that of Raistlin‘s and
Goldmoon‘s. Both characters become a round character out of a stock character:
Raistlin as a stock character embodies a typically cynic and selfish wizard, or magic
user. In the beginning the reader does not even understand what Raist (as the others
call him sometimes) is doing together with the other positive figures, especially on a
40
quest to help some strangers. He is disliked by the heroes, he is often characterized as
cynic, cold and dark. He earns the others‘ respect with his abilities as a mage, and
with his intelligent (they often ask his opinion and advice). Still he is detested by
everyone (except for his twin brother):
―Raistlin was laughing. Tanis had never heard the mage laugh before, even when Raistlin was
a child, and he hoped he would never hear it again. It was weird, shrill, mocking laughter.
Caramon stared at his brother in amazement, Goldmoon in horror…‖ (Autumn 138)
But in the last scene of the book, he wins the readers‘ sympathy, when he prays for
the gods for the little gully dwarf, Bupu‘s safety. Recognizing that Raistlin has
feelings (besides hatred) turns him into a more round character (the picture about his
personality becomes whole at the end of the third novel).
Goldmoon is described as a typical cold beauty, a tough and proud princess,
who does not accept help from strangers. It is her love for Riverwind (his warrior
companion) that first shows the reader another side of the woman, later her care and
mourn for her people opens and develops her personality. It is her motivation to find
out where her healing staff came from, that starts the adventure of the heroes and the
plot of the novel, and it is her becoming a cleric that changes the other characters‘
relationship towards the old gods, which is an important starting point of the next
novel. The characters regain their trust in the old gods, which makes them fight
against the dragon armies in the next book (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, book 2).
Goldmoon‘s development happens through her growing responsibility as a cleric of
an ancient god and the tasks it requires.
As a part of the settings of the world of Krynn, this novel introduces other races
or spices, than the ones the main characters belong to. These races are represented by
supporting characters (most of them are not mentioned by their names). I treat them
both as characters and a part of the overall setting of the novel, because their
existence defines the general atmosphere of the world of Krynn.
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The dragons, whose first representative is Khisanth, the first dragon the heroes have
ever seen, that is why all of them are hit by the paralyzing fear, the so-called
―dragonfear‖ (Autumn 144), a term often used in the DL books. The dragons of
Krynn were one of the first creatures inhabiting the world, extremely powerful magic
users, however throughout the history of DL human beings use them as some kind of
a powerful weapon. From their eggs that were corrupted with evil magic, the
draconians were born (they are described on page 73 of the first book, their history is
told in Spring Dawning p.815-820), who are evil half dragon-half human soldiers of
the dragon highlords, sometimes they are called lizardmen, some of them are capable
to use magic. In the first book, draconians as a group are the only antagonists
(without personalizing them), chasing the heroes of the novel. Draconians are
described as flat characters: evil, bloodthirsty, very strong, and quite intelligent. They
are one of the innovative character types of DL, because it is the only fantasy
literature (and RPG) that involves them in the plot.
Another typical DL characters are the gully dwarves or Aghar: small creatures,
generally disguised by the other inhabitants of Krynn, because of their lack of
intelligence, ―living in filth and squalor in places that had been abandoned by most
other living creatures, including animals.‖ (Autumn 165). Even if the gully dwarves
are mistreated by everyone else, they play an important role in the plot. As mentioned
before one of them (Bupu) shows us Raistlin‘s gentle side, later in the second novel
another one helps the heroes to escape from the draconians (Winter 251). They
usually show up in the strangest places and somehow help the protagonists to win a
situation.
Characters supporting the heroes or the antagonists, but not described in details
are: unicorn, centaurs, goblins, ogres. These characters are borrowed from other
RPG‘s, like Dungeons and Dragons. Many of these characters were mythical
creatures appearing in old myths and fairytales (like the centaurs of the Greek
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mythology) and some of them were created by Tolkien and inhabited Middle Earth
(like orks or ogres, elves etc.)
The creation of the main characters of the DL Chronicles was influenced by live role-
playing (the predetermined characters were given life by role-players) therefore all
the protagonists got more individuality and their own personality (both flat and round
characters), than those characters, whom are usually created by one author only.
However, the ideas and theories of Tolkien and Lewis also persuaded Hickman‘s
creative process, which resulted in protagonist who became heroes from average men
thus helping the reader (possible player) to identify himself with the heroes.
3.3 Dragons of Winter Night:
Summary of the plot:
The heroes find the Hammer of Kharas, the equipment essential to make
dragonlances, the only weapon mortals can use against dragons. Soon they have to
split into two groups: Raistlin, Tanis, Caramon and Tika travel to Tarsis (trying to
find out how far the war has been spread throughout Krynn) where they lose each
other. Here they meet Alhana Starbreeze, the princess of the Silvanesti elves. She
explains that her people are fleeting from the continent because of the threat of the
war. The heroes accompany her to Silvanesti, where they find a dragon orb (a krystal
ball that helps controlling dragons), which Raistlin soon learns to use. They travel
further to Flotsam where Tanis meets Kitiara, who became a Dragon Highlord, one of
the most successful ones. He spends three days with her and gets to know that
Takhisis is looking for a man called Berem, or the Green Gemstone Man, and the one
who finds him is going to be rewarded. After three days Kitiara leaves to attack
Palanthas (one of the major cities in Ansalon, the residence of the Knights of
Solamnia), and Tanis recognizes that he loves Laurana, leaves Kitiara and starts to
look for his friends (the other members of his group: Raistlin, Caramon, Goldmoon,
43
Riverwind and Tika). In the meantime Kitiara kills Sturm in a fight and meets
Laurana for the first time. The two women become lifelong enemies.
Laurana, Gilthanas, Sturm, Flint, Theros (a human blacksmith) and Tas takes
to Ice Wall where they find another dragon orb. Later they meet Silvara, a wild elf
who falls in love with Gilthanas. Silvara leads them to the tomb of Huma (the first
warrior to fight and win against dragons), here Silvara confesses that she is actually a
silver dragon (a good dragon fighting on their side) and that she has the power and
ability to teach Theros to make dragonlances. They use the weapons successfully
(together with the dragon orb) after returning to Palanthas in the fight against
Kitiara‘s army (when Sturm dies). It turns the war‘s possible outcome.
3.3.1 Settings and characters
“…The last from darkness, breathing the night
Where the abstract stars hide a nest of words
Where the body endures the wound of numbers
Surrendered to knowledge, until, unable to bless
His blessings fall on the low, the benight.
Nine were they, under the three moons,
Under the Autumn twilight:
As the world declined, they arose
Into the heart of the story” (Winter 383)
The description of the individual settings of the scenes in the second novel is not as
detailed as in the first novel. Only the most important places are described
exhaustively (e.g.: Tarsis p.406, Silvanesti p.466, the Temple of Huma p. 580, The
Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas p. 689). But the reader does not feel this
development as a negative one, or as if something is missing from the story. The first
novel of the Chronicles painted a general picture of the world and atmosphere of DL
introducing Krynn to the reader. In the second novel the development of the
characters plays a more important role than the description of the settings. It is this
44
novel where the main characters (Tanis and Raistlin) become round characters, in
addition another protagonist, Laurana enters the plot together with her enemy,
Kitiara, the main antagonist of the Chronicles.
The overall setting of the second novel is darker and more mysterious than that
of the first novel; at the same time the description of the individual setting is more
concrete and practical considering the actions of the plot compared to the first novel,
where the description of the general atmosphere was emphasized. In Winter the war
is spread to everywhere on Krynn and with it spread darkness, hopelessness and pain,
while in the first novel there were only signs of something terrible coming. The
horrors of the second novel reach their peak when the heroes enter the forest of
Silvanesti (Winter 466). The once beautiful and unique land of elves became entirely
distorted. Again to create a mysterious atmosphere the authors made the characters
enter a dream (a very realistic one). In this dream the characters lose their sense of
time and place, they see visions in which most of them die. This dream is shared
between all of the heroes, though they are travelling in two groups towards two
different destinations. The distorted forest symbolizes both the effect of war on their
world and the growing corruption of some of the characters: Tanis feels guilty about
his betrayal of Laurana; Raistlin is heading toward his destiny (the black robe of evil
wizards); Sturm falls into the trap of his own pride which kills him.
While in the first novel the main role of the description of the settings was to
support the actions of the plot, in the second novel it is the relationship between the
settings and the characters which is emphasized, and the unity of the settings and the
characters helps the development of the plot. Some part of the overall setting is
explained to call the attention to features and qualities of the characters that was
unknown for the other characters (and for the reader). For instance we get to know
the purpose of the three moons: the good white magicians gain their power from the
white light of Solinari, the neutral red magicians from the red light of Lunitari
45
(Raistlin wears red robe) and the evil black magicians from the black light of the third
moon (Nuitari) which can only be seen by those using black magic (Winter 463). This
story has no real importance in this novel, but these pieces of information becomes
significant later when Raistlin changes his red robe to a black one and is capable of
seeing Nuitari, which means that his transformation to an evil mage is complete
(Spring 1020). The same setting (i.e. the shared dream or nightmare in Silvanesti)
symbolizes Tanis‘ split heart, as well, as in this dream he fights together with Kitiara
but feels guilty for hurting Laurana (Winter 483).
The illustration of the individual settings of the above mentioned places serves
not just character development, but like in the first novel introduces the actions of the
plot. Being a background material for RPG‘s this characteristic of the three novels is
essential in the Chronicles, and the authors are consequent in describing the major
places in details. The explanation about the history of the locales is especially
important, because this type of information (the age when the city/tower was built,
and the inhabitants‘ interests /e.g.: Silvanesti elves compared to Qualinesti elves,
their interests and purposes of building their town the way they did p. 466/, gives
knowledge about the overall atmosphere of the individual place. Showing how
magnificent these places were in their golden age and how different they are now is a
means of emphasizing the destruction of the war and the threat of the dragon army,
which forces the heroes to act helping the development of the plot:
Setting characters plot
(mental fight) (physical fight)
The close cooperation of the settings and the characters results the fulfillment of
the criteria Todorov thought to be necessary for every work in the genre of the
fantastic/fantasy: hesitation. For example when the characters enter Silvanesti, they
have to face supernatural occurrences, like the attack of the ghost elf-soldiers. As
46
they did not expect such a scene in a forest, which was famous of its beauty, they first
do not believe that it is reality. Later when they get injured by these creatures, they
believe the situation to be real except for Raistlin, who tells them that they are
dreaming, they need to wake up though to be convinced about it (as they do not trust
the mage). Thus following Todorov‘s theory about the fantastic this scene can be
analyzed the following way:
1. The setting of the story should be based on the real world, so the reader hesitates
―between a natural and a supernatural explanation of the events described‖. This
criterion is fulfilled as I explained when I introduced the world of Krynn.
Silvanesti is a forest inhabited by elves in Krynn.
2. This hesitation should also be fulfilled by a character of the story, so the reader can
identify himself with that character (and imagine that he takes part with the story).
Tanis, Raistlin, Caramon, Tika, Tas, Goldmoon, Riverwind, Sturm and Flint
experience the same hesitating feeling, but it is through Tanis that the reader can be
a part of the story: ―All right. It‘s a dream, Tanis told himself. I will wake up. But
there was no change...‖ and he was fighting again against the ghosts (Winter 477).
3. The reader of the story has to adopt an attitude of rejection of allegorical or
poetical interpretations that would drag the decision to the uncanny. The reader
knows that it is a dream, because Raistlin has told it and the reader has learnt to
trust the mage‘s knowledge, so the reader rejects an allegorical explanation, and as
he yet do not know or cannot explain the happenings, he accepts it to be fantastic.
Similar situations that support Todorov‘s theory on the fantastic are the first
appearance of the dragons in Autumn (p. 127-134) and Lord Ariakas‘ experiences in
Dagaard Keep in Spring (p. 850-862).
While the first novel of the Cronicles introduces the setting and the characters of DL
and therefore both features are described separately, in the second novel the settings
47
and the characters are closely connected, since the settings portray the inner
development of the characters (both the round and the flat characters) while fulfilling
its original purpose of supporting the plot. In Winter the character illustrations are
more significant than the description of the overall settings which was more stressed
in Autumn, because the second novel‘s aim is to demonstrate the development of the
characters introduced in the first novel. Supporting the reader (or player) with a firm
knowledge of the settings and the characters, the two first novels of the trilogy give a
good base to the progress of the third novel, where the actions of the plot are more
emphasized than in the first two novels.
3.4 Dragons of Spring Dawning
Summary of the plot:
The other group of heroes escapes from the town by a ship, where Berem works as a
sailor. The Everman, as Berem is called by Takhisis the dark goddess sails the ship
into the dangerous storm of the Blood Sea while the dragon highlord, Kitiara is
chasing them with her army. They manage to escape with the help of seaelves, who
take them into the underwater city of Istar (or rather into its ruins). Raistlin leaves the
group with the help of the dragonorb, which breaks Caramon heart. Raistlin is
transported to the library of Astinus, where he hopes to find the key to the magic that
can save his life as the orb sucked out all his energy. He finds the answer with the
help of Astinus (the man, who was created to write the history of Krynn, he was born
first in the world and he is the one who is going to die last). In the meantime the other
members of the group reach the surface again and they are reunited with Flint and
Tas in Palanthas. They get to know, that Laurana was appointed to be the commander
of the Knights of Solamnia, the army that suppose to win above the evil dragon
armies, with the help of the good dragons (who returned to Krynn). But Laurana is
kidnapped by Kitiara, who wants the knights to surrender to her. Tanis decides to free
48
Laurana, and goes to Neraka, where the woman is being imprisoned accompanied by
Caramon, Tika, Tas and Flint (the dwarf dies during the journey, Fizban, who turns
out to be Paladin, the good god and enemy of Takhisis takes him to the heaven). In
Neraka Tanis makes an agreement with Kitiara, that he stays with her if she lets
Laurana go. Kitiara agrees, but she also makes a deal with Lord Soth, the dead knight
that he gets Laurana‘s soul after Takhisis is ―finished‖ with her. Kitiara tries to get
the crown that would make her rule over the whole Ansalon, but Tanis refuses to help
her and he gets the crown for himself with the help of Raistlin, who wears the black
robe now (the robe of the evil wizards) and serves Takhisis. Raistlin causes chaos
with helping the halfelf and with not helping Takhisis to enter the world and gain her
full power. In this chaos Tanis and Laurana escapes (just like the other heroes who
were captured by the dragonarmy). Kitiara could stop them but she lets them go
because she is still in love with Tanis. Raistlin helps his brother to escape and he says
farewell to him as he leaves for the cursed Tower of High Sorcery, which is waiting
for him as the master of the place (where no one else can enter, but the lord of past
and present, who is Fistandantilus; the key, Raistlin found for saving his life was a
deal with Fistandantilus according to which Raistlin shares his body with the soul of
the powerful mage, so Fistandantilus shares his powers with the young wizard, thus
the two persons became one). At the end of the novel the temple of Takhisis
explodes, but many of the draconians survive and threaten Krynn with their unnatural
existence. The heroes return home, Kitiara vanishes; Raistlin takes over in his new
home…
3.4.1 The setting and the characters
―She was by herself in the darkness and for a moment she was terrified. The Temple shuddered
around her. Kitiara shrank back against the wall, frightened, alone. So alone! Then her foot
touched something on the floor of the Temple. Reaching down, her fingers closed around it
thankfully. [...] This was reality, hard and solid, she thought, breathing in relief. No torchlight
glittered on its golden surface or flared from its redhued jewels. Kitiara didn‘t need the flare of
49
torches to admire what she held. For long moments she stood in the crumbling hallways, her
fingers running over the rough metal edges of the blood-stained Crown.‖ (Spring 1041)
In the third novel of the Chronicles the actions of the plot is more stressed compared
to the first two novels, where the description of the settings and the development of
the characters played a more important role. This way the authors maintain a balance
between the three novels of the trilogy.
Being a supporting material for role-playing, the third novel does not end with
the victory of the good, it leaves the war open with a permanent success of the heroes
(Kitiara already gives orders to re-gather her army and continue fighting), so the
ending fulfils the requirement that a good RPG session demands: not leaving loose
ends and at the same time giving opportunity for prolonging the story; yet the main
evil is defeated, which is a requirement of fairytales/fantasy fiction according to
Lewis and Tolkien.
The description of the settings (both overall and individual) in Dragons of
Spring Dawning follows the development of the second novel (i.e.: the most
important individual settings are described in details, with the addition of the
historical background) with the difference that the majority of the actions take place
in two places: Palanthas and Neraka. Palanthas, the centre of the ―good‖, the
residence of the Knights of Solamnia was named after the god, Paladin. Neraka is the
village where Takhisis‘ Temple stands, the gathering place of the dragon armies. The
two places symbolize the battle between the good and the evil (Paladin and Takhisis),
thus framing the plot of the Chronicles: the war between good and evil reaches its
crisis; the characters make their final choice:
it is this novel, where Hickman‘s general ―philosophy‖ or concept behind
Dragonlance (the world as a whole) becomes visible on the level of characters:
(A) Good - The Solamnic Knights and their forces represented by Laurana
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(B) Evil - The Dragonarmies of Takhisis and her Highlords represented by Kitiara
(C) Chaos - The overall world of Krynn (its population) represented by the heroes,
the antagonists and the supporting characters
(D) Freewill - The core characters, protagonists or heroes of DL (whose choices can
swing the balance between A, B and C) represented by -Tanis whose choice between
those three points determines his fate and the fate of the world in general (if he
chooses Kitiara, he helps her and her army gaining power over the world).
In Spring Tanis finally makes his choice between the two women, which affects the
whole world (when he refuses to give the crown to Kitiara p. 1013), and what makes
him an absolute round character (i.e.: he surprises the reader convincingly with his
tactic of cooperating with Kitiara then betraying her). Her reaction to Tanis‘ decision
makes Kitiara a round character, as well (especially by her choice to let Tanis and
Laurana go, because it shows the reader a definitely new side of the woman).
The third novel of the Chronicles closes the introductory trilogy of the
Dragonlance. By the end of this novel the reader is familiar with the overall setting
(time, place and atmosphere) of the secondary world and gets a general idea about the
nature of the characters. However the individual settings of some of the places still
play an important role in the novel, because they support the plot by creating the
atmosphere necessary for the catharsis, or rather eucatastrophe following Tolkien‘s
theory about fantasy endings.
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3.5 From Autumn to Spring, from man to hero, from hero to human
Tolkien and Lewis found it necessary that the secondary worlds of fantasy or
fairytales should be based on reality, which criteria the secondary world of DL fulfils
as explained in the first part of the analysis. The two authors mentioned above
suggested moreover that the characters or heroes should resemble average men, so
the reader can identify himself with them. The most of the main characters of the
Chronicles (Tanis, Raistlin, Caramon, Flint, Tas and Kitiara) fulfil this requirement,
as they start their adventure as average men and women, what we get to know
throughout their conversations during their journey. Some of the characters (Flint,
Tas, Tanis, Laurana) are not humans, they are from other races resembling to
humans, which could make the players‘ situation more difficult when playing these
characters (or the reader‘s ability to identify himself with them), but the respective
features of these characters that are typically different from humans are described and
explained exhaustively throughout the novel and in RPG supporting literatures (like
Dungeons and Dragons Players‘ Handbook). Mark Langer, game master admitted in
the interview about live RPG (Appendix B), that sometimes live players choose
characters with different racial background, because the bigger the difference
between the player and the character he plays is, the more exciting the playing
session is for the players.
The reader‘s capability of identification with the characters of a novel is
especially important in the case of role-playing, because the function of the
background literature in connection with RPG‘s is to guide the players to choose a
character that he can play on a playing session. In my interview with Mark he pointed
out that the more round the characters of fantasy novels are, the harder for the players
to identify themselves with them, because they should think and act the same way as
the characters should in new situations which they have not read about. As I
mentioned in the first part of my analyses most of the core characters of DL are
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introduced as flat characters and they do not become round during the plot of the
three novels, moreover some of them are described as stock characters or stereotypes,
which helps the reader/player to further develop the personality of these characters,
possibly mix his own personality and the character‘s personality. These characters
are: Sturm, the knight; Tas, the kinder; Flint, the dwarf; Caramon, the warrior; Tika,
the swordswoman; Riverwind, the warrior; Soth, the ghost knight; and all the
supporting characters or character-types (e.g.: draconians, goblins, dragons). The two
main protagonists, Tanis and Raistlin, together with Laurana and the antagonist
Kitiara goes through a significant progress from flat (Tanis and Kitiara) or stock
characters (Raistlin and Laurana) to round characters, though their personality
develops so much that it is only the most experienced players that can play them
convincingly.
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4. Conclusion
Dragonlance is a secondary world of fantasy fiction created by Tracy Hickman.
When Tracy joined TSR, Inc. (today‘s Wizards of the Coast LLC, publisher of
fantasy fiction) he met Margaret Weis, another talented fantasy author, and the two of
them had written the Dragonlance Chronicles, the introductory trilogy of
Dragonlance, based on a live role-playing session. Soon thousands of fantasy fans
became familiar with the shared world of DL and many of them chose to start role-
playing sessions based on this concept, just like the authors did.
The authors of the Dragonlance Chronicles, especially Tracy Hickmann was
influenced and inspired by Tolkien‘s The Lord of the Rings. The trilogy of the
Dragonlance Chronicles is built up similarly as Tolkien‘s trilogy: the first novel is
about introducing the settings, the characters and the basic situation of the coming
war; the second novel is about gathering the army that can fight against the evil; the
third novel is about defeating evil. Tolkien wrote his trilogy as novels for reading,
while Hickman had to keep it in mind, that his novels are also background literature
for fantasy RPG‘s, that is why the creator(s) of the world of Dragonlance had to fulfil
both the requirement of fantasy novels and RPG supporting material, which they
managed to do through the description and construction of the settings, and the
conception of the flat and round characters of the novels.
4.1. The world of Dragonlance
Following Abrams‘s definition of the setting (Abrams 330) and Kennedy-Gioia‘s
advices about how to analyze the settings of a narrative (Kennedy-Gioia 105) I
analyzed both the overall and the individual settings of the three novels of the DL
Chronicles. Although the three parts of the trilogy is analyzed separately, they
function together as an introduction of the secondary world of DL.
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The first novel of the Chronicles introduces the historical time (The Age of
Despair), its general atmosphere and the place of Krynn. The description of these
features is very detailed (following the example of Tolkien and Lewis) and realistic
(the secondary world is based on the real world of the reader), giving the reader
enough pieces of information to build up the imaginary world in a role-playing
session. Furthermore the well-described individual settings of the three novels help
not only the imaginative creation of a secondary world, but also support the inner
development of the characters (illustrating the thoughts of the protagonists) and the
actions of the plot (by putting the characters into places which determine their
decisions), which makes the trilogy an ideal supporting material for live RPG‘s.
4.2. The characters of the Chronicles
According to Mark Langer, game master of fantasy live RPG (role-playing game) the
characters of a live RPG need to be flat enough to be able to be played by role-
players. The DL Chronicles has three types of characters: round characters (some of
the protagonists), flat and stock characters (some of the protagonists, most of the
antagonists) and supporting characters (mentioned only by their race, without
description of their personality). The round characters undergo a huge development
during the plot of the three novels. Their personality, their thoughts and motives are
illustrated going into the smallest details, which is why they are not ideal for live
role-playing. The flat characters, though, (both protagonists and antagonists) are
portrayed as stereotypes, which gives a lot of opportunity for live role-players to
further develop their personalities, possibly by mixing the player‘s and the
character‘s personality. This process of identification is important both in RPG‘s and
in fantasy fiction (following the theories of Tolkien and Lewis).
55
4.3. The eucatastrophe
According to Tolkien eucatastrophe (i.e. a good catastrophe, a kind of happy ending)
is the only satisfying way to end a fantasy story. The Dragonlance Chronicles is not
just a piece of fantasy fiction, it is a trilogy that introduces a whole new secondary
world to fantasy readers and fantasy role-players, which means that reading public of
the Chronicles (and Dragonlance in general) is wide and variable. To fulfill the
demand of such a large group, the authors had to accomplish a number of criteria,
such as detailed settings, colorful characters and exciting plot, while they had to
balance between writing a novel and a supporting material for role-playing. Hickman
and Weis managed to deal with these problems; they even succeeded in giving the
readers the feeling of eucatastrophe at the end of the novels while leaving enough
loose ends so that the story could be continued. That is why the Dragonlance
Chronicles is one of the most popular fantasy fiction series among role-players and
fantasy fans.
[Antal tegn: Anbefalet 30-45 sider à 2400 tegn = 72000-106000 tegn i alt – ekskl.
referencer.
Denne opgave: 99963 tegn – ekskl. referencer]
56
Appendix
A. Interview with Nicoline Olsson (manager, Ros-Live – Union of Live Role-
playing Games in Roskilde)
Q: Hvordan og hvor lang tid siden startede I at spille live RPG i Roskilde?
A: Vores forening er blevet bygget op af fem teenage drenge. Det startede som et
klub-aktivitet under Klub Ungdomshuset i Roskilde. Og drengene der startede
det op først beskrev verdenen, senere videreudviklede de den, lavede karakterer
og startede bare at spille. For fire år siden lukkede klubben, så startede vi denne
forening. Så i alt har vi eksisteret i omkring 10 år tror jeg.
Q: Når der kommer en fantasy film I biografen har det noget effekt på rollespil?
A: Ja, jeg tror det påvirker deltagerne meget. Når der kommer en film, som fx
Ringens Herre, kommer der flere der slutter sig til os: alle børn skal ud og spille
rollespil…. Men jeg tror ikke at Hobbitten kommer til at have det samme effekt.
Jeg tror det der sker er, at foreningen har fundet en slags naturlig vej, dvs. dem
der spiller er dem der er interesseret i rollespil i forvejen og ikke på grund af en
film.
Q: Så vidt jeg ved deltagerne skal betale for at være med i en playing session?
A: Foreningsliv er meget unikt i Danmark i forhold til rund om verden. Vi kan
overleve på at vi får tilskud fra kommunen, og så har vi en meget lav
brugerbetaling, så der er plads til alle. Det gør at alle har mulighed for at være
medlem. Og vi er så heldige at i vores forening der har vi en lille spejderhytte
ikke så langt fra hvor vi spiller, derfor har vi mulighed for at lave workshops,
57
som nogen af de unge står for at arrangere, hvor vi laver kostumer, spillere laver sine
karakterer, det er ret smart faktisk.
Vi lægger vægt på at vi er en juniorforening, det er børn fra 10 år og op efter der
kan være med, fordi vi gider ikke lege pædagoger. Børn skal være så store at de
selv kan løbe rundt i skoven uden at vi skal bekymre os om dem. Forældrenes
ansvar at de kommer og afleverer deres børn.
Q: Må forældrene også komme med? Vil de gerne komme med?
A: Nej, desværre ikke så mange, der er interesseret. Nu er jeg en af forældrene. Jeg
startede at spille der min datter startede at spille der hun var 10 år. Der gik hun i
Helsinge, der var en lille forening deroppe. Jeg kørte hende der en gang om
måneden. Og så havde de noget kreativt workshop hvor de syede kjoler og jeg
sagde at jeg gerne ville komme med at sy. Så startede jeg også at spille. Det var
slet ikke fantasy, det var by-rollespil, middelalderagtigt. Og så lavede vi en
fantasykampagne ved siden af…det var syv år siden…så jeg har slet ikke spillet
rollespil der jeg var ung. Jeg har dog altid haft interesse for fantasy…pt er det
ikke mange af vores unges forældre der har det.
Q: Hvor får børnene inspirationen for at starte at spille rollespil?
A: Det er svært at sige. Meget af det kommer fra fjernsynet. Der kører Barde…Og så
vi forsøger at lave noget PR i Roskilde, i Halloween fx, eller når sker noget i
Roskilde. Men jeg oplever at de der børn, der kommer ud til at spille, de har
fantasy genren tilbage fra bøger, film og lignende. Men udviklingen er, at der
kommer ikke så mange nye. Det er vores PR arbejde der hjælper for at trække
nye medlemmer.
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Når man kigger på gennemsnitsalderen hos os, det er ret højt når man tænker på
at vi prøver at lave en junior kampagne. Spillere, der er derude, de ligger mellem
14 og 20, tror jeg. Og vi er 5 voksne, som er over 30. Der er ca. 20 unge, der er
mellem 10 og 14.
Q: I har et bestemt regelsæt. I spiller i en bestemt verden. Deltagere skal udfylde et
såkaldt karakterskema. Kan ungerne holde sig til dette system?
A: Det er meget forskelligt. Min egen søn startede at spille rollespil der han var 5 år
gammel. Han er 13 nu. Der han var ti, han kunne godt læse regelsættet og sætte
sig inde i det at lave en karakter. Mange af de yngre går meget op i at de skal
holde sig til reglerne, fordi vi opbyggede dem lige som i en computerspil, så
man optjener evner point for hver spillegang, hvilket betyde at de stiger i level
på sammen måde som i computerspil. Derfor fastholder de også deres karakter,
så efter et stykke tid bliver de super seje. Men det går kun når de spiller efter
reglene.
Q: Er der et bestemt storyline i følger med, der er lavet af game masteren?
A: Ja, han laver en plot, og så sætter han det i gang. Hvis han har nogle primær
karakterer, der skal skabes og sættes ind, så gør han det. Så hiver han nogle
spillevejledere, som støtter op på hans primærspil og spiller de karakter, der blev
skabt af game masteren. Men spillevejledere laver også nogle mini quests, som
hænger sammen med det store plot.
Q: Er spillere også spillere i deres private liv? Har rollespil effekt på deres liv og
tænkegang?
A: Både og. Jeg tror rollespil er et livsstil. Hvis du kigger rundt i mit hus kan du finde
spor af rollespil og fantasy overalt. Rigtig mange af rolespillere, i hvert fald i
Roskilde, er lidt skævt, hvis man må sige det. De har et specielt stil, et af vores
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bestyrelsesmedlemmer fx går på arbejde i rollespil-bukser (she is laughing). Han
er totalt militærtosset og det er hans karakter også (laughing again). Men det er
hvad rollespil er rigtig god til, det har nemlig en stor rumlighed. Der er mange
skæve eksistenser der faktisk godt kan fungere sammen. Det gør ikke noget hvis
man ikke er særligt intelligent. Det gør ikke noget hvis man ser ikke så godt ud.
Man bliver accepteret sådan som man er, eller som den karakter man spiller. Vi
har fx mange børn, der lider af psykiske sygdomme, Esberger, ADHD, eller bare
taler mærkeligt, halter lidt. Jeg synes det er så smukt ved rollespil, det her store
rummelighed.
Q: Hvorfor spiller man egentlig rollespil?
A: Jeg tror rigtig mange af de unge mennesker vil være på et sted, hvor de bliver
accepteret sådan som de er. Og rigtig mange af dem, der spiller har det samme
interesse: de spiller computerspil, læser fantasy bøger, spiller bratspil…de er lidt
nørdede. Og sådan er det bare. Som sagt, de går meget op i fantasy, de ser
mange fantasy og science-fiction films, læser de bøger. Det er en livsstil. Man
synes det er sjovt at klæde sig ud og spille.
Q: Hvad siger forældrene til det?
A: Jamen, det er ikke alle forældre, der har den store forståelse. Men nogen gang
synes de også at det er super spændende. Vi kunne godt tænke os at nogle af
forældrene kommer og hjælpe, men de er ikke interesseret i den slags.
Q: Kan børnene få det økonomiske til at hænge sammen?
A: Du kan blive medlem af foreningen for 300 kr for et helt år, 11 spillegang. Det er
ikke så meget for et helt år. Og prisen stiger aldrig, fordi så er der måske noget,
der ikke har råd til at spille med og det ville være rigtig ærgerligt. Ellers skal
man betale 50 kr, per spillegang, hvis man ikke er medlem.
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Q: Kan man følge med hvis man kommer fx hvert tredje måned?
A: Det kan man ikke hvis man vil være en del af det store storyline, som nogen gang
kører over fem måneder, nogen gang over en eller to spillegange. Men mange af
de spillere, der er mellem 15 og 20 år kommer ikke for at følge med det store
storyline. De kommer derud for det sociale, for at bare spille et andet rolle end i
hverdagene, så de er ligeglade med storyline.
Q: Pleje I at snakke om fantasy litteratur med spillere?
A: På privat plan, når man sidder ned og hygge efter en spillegang, så snakker vi også
om litteratur. Nu har jeg rigtig mange bøger, så børnene kommer nogen gang og
låner dem. Også Dragonlance, eller Forgotten Realms.
Q: Spiller religionen noget rolle i rollespil?
A: Vi har beskrevet vores egne religioner. Hele gudehistorien. Vi skabte vores egen
verden, baseret på fantasy litteratur. Det var børnene der skrev den, så det er
fyldt med stavefejl, det er meget sjovt. Det startede faktisk sådan, at vi har haft
nogle rigtig dygtige rollespillere, de, der etablere foreningen. De fandt på nogle
af de grundlæggende historier og fortalte det til de andre spillere, som fortalte
igen til nogle andre spillere, fuldstændig lige som i gammel kultur, mund til
mund. Så historierne videre udviklede sig. Og disse historier blev skrevet ned af
børnene. Lige som i gamle dage, det er faktisk meget sjovt at tænke på.
Q: Hvad kan ungerne få ud af at spille ud over det sociale, kreativitet og sjovt?
A: Meget. Jeg tager som udgangspunkt mine egne børn. Min søn var meget genert.
Han var så genert der han var lille, at når andre mennesker var omkring så stod
han bag ved mig og holdte fast i min hånd. I dag er han 13 år og rollespil har
gjort alt for ham. Han reflekterede selv over for det, han sagde engang: ‖Mor jeg
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er slet ikke så genert mere med fremmede mennesker.‖ Da han var 10 år sagde
han ‖Mor jeg kan slet ikke forstå, når jeg er malet grønt i hovedet og er goblin,
så tør jeg snakke foran alle.‖… Vi har en briefing efter hver spillegang, hvor en
af hvert gruppe står frem og fortæller hvad gruppen lavede den dag. Men når
han tog sminken af, så var han Jonas igen. Og så blev han genert. Jeg tror det er
udviklingen, når børn tager maling på så bliver de til en anden person, der tør.
Senere når de bliver aldre skal de ikke have maling mere for at have selvtillid.
Så er der det sociale accept, hvor nogle af de socialt belastede børn oplever en
form for accept. Jeg arbejder på det sociale område og ved at der findes ikke
sociale arv, det er nogen gang et stærkt foreningsliv eller en god skolelærer, der
kan vise vej til de såkaldte mønstrebrydere, børn med svært socialt baggrund,
der hjælper børnene til at udvikle sig på en positiv måde. Det er også noget,
rollespillet kan gøre. I Danmark rollespil blev bygget på foreningsliv, og i vores
forening er der meget unge mennesker med i bestyrelsen, der giver en kæmpe
stor ansvar og erfaring når de skal ud i fx erhvervslivet engang.
Vi har også en lille gruppe, der spiller rigtig meget irsk folk inspireret musik.
Nogen gang kommer de med instrumenterne og spiller i min lille krog
(foreningens hytte), men de spiller også i virkeligheden i Gullands, jeg tror hver
fredag aften. De mødtes første gang som almindelige spillere hos os, så
snakkede de sammen om deres interesse anden end rollespil og fandt ud af at de
kan godt lide det samme slags musik, så senere dannede de dette band. Men der
er også en flok mennesker, som ganske enkelt hænger ud sammen også når de
ikke spille. De har lært hinanden at kende via rollespil.
Jeg synes det er rigtigt ærgerligt, at på landsplan er der færre og færre der spiller
rollespil, fordi jeg synes at det er rigtig sund interesse.
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B. Interview with Mark Langer, game master, Ros-live
Q: Som game master hvordan vil du bygge et live rollespil op på en fantasy roman,
hvis mangler baggrundslitteratur, som blev skrevet til spillere?
A: Der forgår lige en debat om det i rollespil foreningerne om hvordan man skal
starte en rollespil, hvor der ikke findes noget baggrundslitteratur. I det tilfælde,
generelt forventer man, at når en arrangør laver en rollespil kampagne, sætter han sig
ind i det... han har mest styr på verdenen, når han så ikke rigtig have styr på
verdenen, så skal man tage stilling til en helt masse ting, der ikke er beskrevet i
bøgerne. Så det er ret hardcore entusiaster, der kan gør det. Fx. nogen har lavet live
rollespil af Fireflies (cyberpunk serie), som er en tv serie af 12 afsnits, og der findes
derfor ikke nogen baggrundslitteratur til rollespil. Men man skal kende verdenen
ellers får spillere ikke rigtig noget ud af det.
Q: Hvad har man brug for at starte et spil op helt fra bunden af?
A: Rigtig masse af motivation! Fx i tilfælde af Kongernes By (live rollespil i
Roskilde baseret på Vampire, the Mascarade) mig og min kammerat, Bastian, vi
besluttede os for at starte en kampagne baseret på en anden kampagne. Så vi har taget
deres reglesystem, deres koncept og spurgte om vi måtte bruge den og det de har sagt
ja til. Så vi kopierede hvad andre har lavet, fordi v syntes at det fungerede rigtig godt.
Så meget af arbejdet var lavet for os, så som regelsystemet, verdenen, der var World
of Darkness var beskrevet i forvejen. Derfor var det overskueligt for os, fordi to
personer er for lidt for at starte en kampagne op.
Q: Hvordan forgår en live RPG session hos Jer?
A: Folk møder op ned i Kildegården hvor vi har et tjek ind, inden det har de lavet
deres karakter og må gerne sende den til os. Så møde de op og tjekker ind. Så vi går
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bare ud i byen, hvor mig og Bastian har allerede arrangeret nogle ting, det kan være
fx. en mand, der sidder i et eller andet værtshus og på nogen måde er knyttet til en af
karaktererne, så vi giver dem en ledetråd om at han sidder der. Det finder de ud af
spillet på en måde. Så opsøger de ham og han har noget opgave til dem. Hele tiden er
der alt muligt indgangsvinkler... men selvfølgelig selve spillerne og deres gruppe er
også med til at udvikle spillet.
Q: Hvordan holder I styr på hvad der sker med spillerne?
A: Det gør vi ikke. Det kan man ikke, når folk er i forskellige steder i byen. Men vi
trækker noget tråder, fx der er nogen der har okkult viden, det betyder at deres
karakter ved noget ting, de ikke kan i virkeligheden. Så de ringer ind at fx nu står jeg
foran det her symbol, hvad ve min karakter om det, fordi den har okkult viden...
Q: Bruger I fantasy romaner i jeres kampagne? Hvis ja, hvad bruger i dem for?
A: Hele tiden. Disse bøger beskriver verdenen rigtig godt. Og der er mange spillere,
der kender bøgerne udad. Så hvis man gerne vil lever op til deres forventning, så
kræver det at man skal holde sig til hvad der er i den verden. Vi opfinde ikke tingene
selv, vi vil gerne holde os il verdenen, det er det folk gerne vil have, dem der kender
bøgerne godt.
Noget miljø er svært at skabe, hvor der er tekniske grænse til at lave det der står i
bøgerne. Det kan være svært ved fx DL at nogen af karaktererne er så vel definerede i
deres verden omkring sig, så det bliver til generic fantasy, lige så snart karaktererne
ikke bliver spillet i den (verden).
Q: Hvis man spille med en fantasy roman som base, må men gerne låne karaktererne
fra bøgen? Hvad er det vigtigste man skal holde øje med når man gøre det?
A: Jeg vil holde godt beskrevet karaktererne væk fra live rollespil, fordi man skal
være virkelig god rollespiller for at kunne spille en veldefineret karakter.
64
Man skal tænke på hvordan de andre spillere ser dig som den karakter, du skal hele
tiden opføre dig sådan som han, opføre dig som andre har set ham for at være
overbevisende over for de andre spillere. Det er noget at leve op til. Nogen er bare
bedre til at rollespille end andre, og kan sætte sig inde i en rolle. Fordi selv om du har
læst om karakteren i mange bøger, den kommer ud for nogle nye situationer så man
skal tænke på hvad karakteren ville gør i det her.
A: Plejer I at låne historien fra en bog?
Q: Det er umuligt at styre. Vi har vores gode gamle joke. PC betyde player
characters, men vi kalder dem plot corruptors, fordi hver eneste gang når vi laver en
plan for hvad der skal ske... jeg tror næsten ikke vi har lavet noget hvor spillerne har
fulgt hvad vi har tænkt på. Selvom nogen gang gjorde vi det rigtig firkantet fx. når I
går fra det her punkt til det der punkt så ser i det, men så gjorde de en kæmpe omvej
eller blev slået ihjel. Man kan bare ikke styre live rollespil. Men selvfølgelig prøver
vi at skabe en historie.
Q: Hvorfor spiller man rollespil?
A: Man kan spille en karakter der er så meget ældre og forskelligt end en selv. Og der
er mulighed for at sætte sig ind i at være en helt anden. Fx når man spiller en mand i
middelalderen, så kan det være ret svært, fordi man skal tænke på at man ikke har
haft noget uddannelse, han har gået i sin mark, han ved ikke engang at Jorden er
rundt...nogen kan sætte sig ind i det, men nogen falder bare tilbage til sin egen
verden. Men fx. i vampire er det nemmere at forstille at man er anderledes, fordi
karaktererne er så meget anderledes sammenlignet med almindelige mennesker.
65
66
67
Bibliography
Primary sources:
Weis, Margaret and Tracy Hickman. (2010) Dragonlance Chronicles. Wizards of the
Coast LLC. Ranton (WA)
Secondary sources:
Abrams, M. H. and Geoffrey Galt Hapham. (2009)A Glossary of Literary Terms.
Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Boston (MA)
Chatman, Seymour. (1978) Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in fiction and
Film. Cornell University Press. Ithaca
Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia. (2010) Literature, an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry,
Drama, and Writing. Pearson. Boston
Franz, Marie-Louise von (1982). The Interpretation of Fairytales. Spring
Publications. Dallas
Mathews, Richard (2002). Fantasy, the Liberation of Imagination. Routledge.
London
Sammons, Martha C. (2010) War of the Fantasy Worlds. ABC-Clio, LLC. Santa
Barbara CA
Tolkien, J. R. R. (1983) ―On Fairy-stories‖ in The Monsters and the Critics and
Other Essays. Edited by Christopher Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
London
Tolkien, J. R. R (2007) The Fellowship of the Ring. Harper Collins Publishers.
London
68
Todorov, Tzvetan. (1975) The Fantastic, a Structural Approach to a Literary Genre.
Cornell Paperbacks, Cornell University Press. Ithaca
Weis, Margaret. (2000) The Soulforge. Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Berchem.
Internet sources:
Darlington, Steve. A History of Role-Playing.
http://ptgptb.org/0001/history1.html (25.03.2011)
Tracy Hickman‘s official homepage:
http://www.trhickman.com/my-works/novels/dragonlance/ (22.05.2011)
Hughes, John. Therapy is Fantasy: Roleplaying, Healing, and the Construction of
Symbolic Order.
http://www.rpgstudies.net/hughes/therapy_is_fantasy.html (25.04.2011)
Wikipedia. ―Amazing stories‖.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Stories (20.05.2011)
Wikipedia. ―Dragonlance‖.
http://dragonlance.wikia.com/wiki/Dragonlance_Timeline (20.05.2011)
Cover illustration by Larry Elmore:
http://www.myfreewallpapers.net/fantasy/pages/dragonlance-meeting.shtml
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Summary
The Dragonlance Chronicles (1984) is an American fantasy trilogy written by Tracy
Hickman and Margaret Weis, who created and developed the world of Krynn (the
secondary world of Dragonlance) with the help of a live role-playing session. After
the success of the first trilogy of this shared world more and more authors joined the
creators to build up one of the most popular fantasy series. The books serve, though,
not just the purpose of reading materials for fantasy fans; learning about the origins
of the series groups of role-players chose the world of Krynn as the setting of their
playing sessions and the heroes of Dragonlance as characters. This project report tries
to find the answer to what makes the world and the characters of DL ideal for live
role-playing.
In order to analyze the Dragonlance Chronicles as a fantasy series both for
reading and for role-playing I studied the genre of fantasy by three of the most
acknowledged fantasy authors: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Tzvetan Todorov.
Tolkien and Lewis originate fantasy from fairytales. The two authors share the same
idea about how a work of fantasy should be created: they both agreed for instance on
that the secondary world of a fantasy novel should be as detailed as possible and
should be based on the real world. They were also on the same opinion about the
characters or heroes of fantasy fiction, which should be simple, like average men, so
the reader could identify himself with them without any difficulty. These ideas of
Tolkien and Lewis influenced the authors of the Chronicles, so that the world of
Krynn is so well-described that it is not a problem for role-players to build a playing
session on DL settings. The characters of DL are a mixture of flat and round
characters, so both the experienced players and those who try a DL session for the
first time can find the character they can easily identify themselves with.
Todorov‘s idea about the fantastic is a most important theory of the fantasy
genre. According to Todorov fantasy is embedded in the marvelous and not in the
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world of empirical experience, which means that the reader hesitates about the reality
of the events in a novel. This hesitation creates excitement, the feeling that the
fantastic is based on. In my report I used Todorov‘s theory to demonstrate the
importance of the characters in creating the atmosphere and the actions that support
the plot of the novels.
In this report I analyze the three novels of the DL Chronicles separately to show
the development of the settings and the characters supporting each other and
maintaining the plot. Since the shared world of DL is a base for live role-playing
sessions I explain those features of the settings and the characters that are important
in creating a fantasy RPG. But as the Chronicles is a series of fantasy fiction, I also
use the ideas and theories of Tolkien, Lewis and Todorov in my analysis, pointing out
the elements that influenced the authors of the trilogy in their creative process.
In conclusion, I summarize the main point of the analysis underlining the
features of the settings and the characters of the DL Chronicles that make it an ideal
supporting literature to live role-playing.