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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?

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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

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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.

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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

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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,

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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

38

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.

41

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

42

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

50

(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

52

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.

53

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,

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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.

60

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.