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Thoughts on the craft of writing fantasy and fantasy gaming, from building believable worlds to telling stories that keep readers turning pages.

How to Blend Fantasy and Reality in Your D&D Adventures

Every once in a while, you play or run a Dungeons & Dragons adventure that blurs the line between fantasy and reality, and something magical happens.

I’m not talking about fireballs or wish spells. I’m talking about those stories where the real world and the fantasy world overlap in strange, unexpected ways.

Maybe a group of modern teenagers finds a set of dice that somehow pulls them into a D&D world. Or maybe the characters from that fantasy world discover a portal that leads to our own, and they have to navigate cars, smartphones, and skeptical baristas.

That kind of crossover, when fantasy and reality collide, scratches a very particular itch for both players and Dungeon Masters.

Why We Love The Blend

There is a reason stories like Jumanji, The Chronicles of Narnia, or even Stranger Things feel so compelling. They take something familiar from our world and mix it with something impossible yet alluring.

As players, that is a powerful hook. It gives us a bridge between our own experiences and the adventure itself. We can connect to it because it taps into both our experienced reality and our imagination.

As Dungeon Masters, that setup gives us endless opportunities to surprise players. Imagine describing a castle lit by glowing neon runes, or a dragon that knows about modern weaponry because it has been watching us through a rift between worlds. You can bend tone and theme in ways that pure fantasy doesn’t always allow.

Two Directions, Two Flavors

There are two directions you can go with crossover adventures.

The first is going from the real world into the fantasy realm. This is where characters from our world get pulled into a D&D setting. Maybe it’s a group of friends who are playing a campaign when something goes sideways. They wake up inside the game as their characters.

The classic way this happens is the real-world players are exploring some place, perhaps a lava tube up in the national forest or the steam tunnels under a college campus, when all their flashlights go out. They bump around in the dark until one of them says the elven word for “light” and they discover they’re now dressed as fighters, clerics, rogues and wizards.

This setup is classic because it’s relatable. Every D&D player has wondered, “What if I became my character?” It’s wish fulfillment with a dangerous edge. Suddenly the hit points and saving throws matter for real.

The second direction is transporting from the fantasy realm into our present reality. What would happen if your D&D characters appeared in our world? This one can be a bit trickier but it can also be hilarious. Imagine a party of adventurers appearing in a shopping mall.

You can play it for comedy or for existential dread, depending on your tone. Maybe the cleric starts questioning their gods when they realize there is a world without magic. Or the rogue immediately joins a biker gang.

What would happen if your campaign spilled into the real world?

What Makes It Work

The trick to running these kinds of adventures, or writing them, is to use the crossover as contrast, not just novelty. It’s also about connecting the two sides to something familiar.

If you bring modern characters into a fantasy world, let them struggle. Their phones don’t work. Their pop culture knowledge is useless. They might understand teamwork, but not swordsmanship or spellcasting.

If you bring fantasy characters into the real world, flip the problem around. They have magic, but no understanding of technology or social rules. They might think a police officer is a rival knight, or believe an EV is powered by demons — one of them actually is. And why is it so hard to buy a horse in downtown Seattle?

The joy comes from watching them adapt, and just as often, watching them fail.

Also, make sure there is a clear reason for the crossover. Maybe a magical artifact has gone wrong, a god’s experiment reveals their divine sense of humor, the party finds a dimensional rift and so forth. That way, players have a goal to pursue. It is not just weirdness for weirdness’ sake; it’s a problem they can actually solve.

A Few Fun Examples Of Crossover Adventures

Here are a few ideas you can drop into your own campaign:

1. A player rolls a cursed set of dice that traps them and their comrades inside the world of their characters.

2. Someone visits a modern museum exhibit of ancient magical artifacts that turn out to be real relics, and those relics want to get back to their home universe.

3. On the flip side, you can have a wizard experimenting with planar travel and accidentally opens a portal to downtown Seattle, and your party is sent to seal the breach.

4. Or maybe your group of fantasy heroes follows a quest that takes them to our world, and everyone assumes they are a LARP group that takes itself way too seriously.

Each of these setups lets you explore the same question from different angles: What happens when the imaginary becomes real?

Recommendations From Books And Movies

There are lots of examples of fiction, both books and movies, where crossovers occur between the real world and the fantasy world. One of the best books I can recommend is “The Sleeping Dragon” by Joel Rosenberg. It’s about a group of college students that get transported by their college professor slash game master into the D&D-like fantasy world they play within. It’s their quest to get back home.

“The Sleeping Dragon” is book one of “The Guardians of the Flame” series, which first came out in 1983.

It’s no longer in print as far as I know, but if you can get your hands on a copy, it’s a great read.

Why It Sticks With Us

I think crossover stories resonate so readily because they are metaphors for what we’re already doing when we play D&D. We can relate to them because they metaphorically connect what we’re actually doing with what we are doing in our imaginations. Everything’s already there; we’re just putting them together.

Every time we sit down at the table, we cross over a little bit. We step out of our regular lives and into a world of our own making. We become someone else, somewhere else.

And when the game itself acknowledges that, when the wall between fantasy and reality cracks just a little, it gives us a reminder of why we fell in love with the game in the first place.

It’s not just about rolling dice or fighting monsters. It’s about exploring what happens when imagination and reality meet halfway.

Be Brave

Whether you’re a player dreaming of waking up in the Forgotten Realms, or a Dungeon Master wondering what would happen if a half-orc barbarian met a police officer, don’t be afraid to mix your worlds.

That line between fantasy and reality is thinner than you think, and the concept is ripe with possibilities.

Summer Break: Refilling the Muse

For various reasons, I don’t spend much time writing during the summer. To be more accurate, I don’t spend any time writing during the summer. That doesn’t mean I’m not being creative or productive, though.

I am refilling my muse.

To me, writing is an indoor sport, something to be done when it’s cold and dark and rainy outside. A winter sport. During the summer, I spend time outdoors, often traveling by motorcycle or sleeping in a tent next to a stream. Scenery is my muse. Visiting small towns and meeting new people is my muse. Zooming along a narrow winding road as it follows the curving contours of a mountain river is my muse.

This summer in particular, I have added Dungeons & Dragons to my creative fuel tank. I have been the Dungeon Master for a group of eight players that meet once a week to seek adventure. I have designed a campaign that will last several months and is intended to play-test a plot idea for my next book. I am allowing the dynamics of an active D&D adventure to provide inspiration. So far it has been productive. I am learning what aspects of my plot will work well in a book, and what parts of the game must remain part of the RPG itself.

Every author has their own voice.

The Taesian Chronicles has been available for several months now and I continue to get feedback from readers. Although all of it has been very positive and encouraging, I have learned there is a reason why there are 31 flavors at the ice cream shop. My take-away from this experience is that my original intention of writing a book I would want to read is the best approach as an author. Every author has their own voice. If I write to please my audience, I will be traveling away from my genuine self and the story will suffer for it.

Tank filled up, ready to write

Mr. Hemmingway, image provided by Getty Images

After a summer break to refill my muse, and many many hours spent designing and conducting a Dungeons & Dragons campaign to play-test a plot idea, my creative fuel tank is full and I’m ready to get back to writing.

I have begun the conceptual phase of my fourth novel — holy shit, I can’t believe I’m writing a fourth book! — I hope to get my plot event list finished by Thanksgiving at the latest. I’ve confirmed my editor, Alison, will be on-board for the story editing phase, but I will likely need to hire a new copy editor; Alison’s schedule will likely keep her from being available for that phase of the project.

As with my other projects, my target for publication is in Q1 of 2017.

In other news, I am strongly considering releasing each of the first three books in the Taesian Chronicles trilogy as paperbacks. Currently, the only way to get those words in a dead-tree edition is to buy the whole trilogy, The Taesian Chronicles. Stay tuned for updates on this effort.

The Taesian Chronicles now at the Sandy Public Library

I am pleased to announce that The Taesian Chronicles is now available for lending at the Sandy and Hoodland Public Libraries.

A Riddle of Scars

And so it begins … again.

I have begun the process of writing another book. This will be my fourth novel, continuing the Taesia series. My vision is to write a trilogy of trilogies. Three series of three books each. The first trilogy is The Taesian Chronicles, with book one: Ohlen’s Arrow, book two: Ohlen’s Bane, and book three: Paragon’s Call.

A Riddle of Scars will be the first book of the second trilogy, or book four in the overall series. The second trilogy is tentatively called The Pillars of Taesia.

Currently I’m in the planning phase of the project. I’m finalizing the plot design and character names. Next steps include character development, where I create write-ups about each main character. These describe their appearance, background, motivations, fears, and other key elements. I refer to these notes when writing scenes and dialog to make sure I am staying consistent with their personalities and actions.

After that, I’ll be writing up my Plot Event List. Some would call this an outline, but I don’t because it’s just a list, not something in outline format. My Plot Event List is a series of single sentence descriptions of every scene in the book, arranged in the order they will appear. I use this as a roadmap when primary writing begins.

Although I don’t have an ETA on when the book will be finished, I do hope to have the primary composition completed by mid to late spring 2019.

Stay tuned!

Coming soon: A Riddle of Scars

As mentioned previously, I’ve been working on my fourth novel, A Riddle of Scars, since the first of the year. I’m nearing the end of primary composition and hope to have it completed within the next 10 days or so.

My goal is to have the book published and ready for sale by the middle of June, 2019, and so far that goal is very realistic.

In other news, I’m participating in a book signing at Goin’ Gaming in Troutdale. The owners and my friends, Becky and Allen, are hosting the event. It is Saturday May 4th, 2019, beginning at 1 PM. I hope to see you there!

New book: A Riddle of Scars

I am very happy to announce the availability of my fourth novel, A Riddle of Scars. It is sold exclusively through Amazon in paperback, and coming soon, Kindle format. This is book one of a new trilogy, The Pillars of Taesia. I hope to write books two and three in the next two years, respectively.

Work began on this story almost three years ago, but I didn’t actually start writing it until January of this year (2019). Prior to composition, I came up with the story idea over a period of about a month, jotting notes into my paper notebook as I went. After another few months went by, I play-tested several key elements of the plot with my D&D group.

This is the first book I’ve written where I tested out the plot through role-playing. Some things worked better for the RPG format, while others work better in prose form. I synthesized that experience and adjusted the book’s plot accordingly.

It took me about a month to generate my plot event list. This is my version of outlining my plot. I write a single sentence or two to describe each scene and then arrange them in the order they will appear in the book. This gives me a chance to eliminate plot holes and make sure foreshadowing occurs where needed. I also spend some time profiling my characters. I make detailed notes about their physical and emotional characteristics as well as their emotional development, trials, and troubles that will occur throughout the book.

For this project I worked with my editor, Alison, and cover designer Steven Novak. These two brilliant folks have been with me since Ohlen’s Bane, my second novel. Novak actually helped me revamp the cover to my first book, Ohlen’s Arrow, so technically speaking he’s been with me almost since the beginning of my writing career.

Alison played a key role on this project, not only by providing proofreading and editing services par excellence, but also by helping me flesh out the characters and giving them even more life than I had hoped. When I was close to beginning work on the project, I decided that if she wasn’t on board, I wouldn’t write the book at all.

A Riddle of Scars is available here .

And So It Begins… Part 5

I have begun work on my fifth novel.

That is a phrase I never anticipated uttering until recently. I’ve always wanted to be an author, even when I was a kid. But it had been a sort of lofty dream without real expectations, kind of like hoping to win the lottery or being able to fly like Superman.

That dream came true, though. And it wasn’t that difficult, either. How?

“Putting a man on the moon wasn’t a miracle, we just decided to go.”
Tom Hanks

Me writing a novel — or five — wasn’t a miracle, either. I just decided to do it.

This fifth book continues my Taesia series. As a reminder, my vision is to write nine books, all connected, in the form of three trilogies. The first trilogy, The Taesian Chronicles, is completed. This new book will be the second book in the second trilogy (“The Pillars of Taesia”).

Confused?

Don’t. Just read the books in order and you’ll be fine.

My goal is to get this book completed and available for sale by summer of 2020. Stay tuned.

Time Keeps On Slippin’ Slippin’

Do you have Steve Miller stuck in your head now? Sorry.

I look at the calendar and see that it’s October 14th and feel blown away by how quickly the last two months have gone by. I think September only had 17 days in it.

Since August I have spent most afternoons practicing guitar, keyboard, bass and drums. I’m learning all four instruments with the goal of writing music inspired by my first novel, Ohlen’s Arrow. That is going well but except for savants, learning to play and compose music is not an overnight endeavor. I’ve played all these instruments in the past, so fortunately I’m not starting from ground zero, but I still have a long way to go.

I’ve also been thinking about continuing my Taesia series of novels. The next step would be to write book 5. I already have the bulk of the plot figured out, but haven’t formally nailed down the outline. An avid reader of mine recently shared their view that I really need to keep writing and continue the story. We’ll see.

Currently I’m reading Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. Although it’s a real page turner, I’m struck by how expository Clancy is. The old maxim, “Show me, don’t tell me” is one Clancy apparently never heard. Unlike popular belief, rules are not made to be broken but you certainly can if you know about them and have a good reason. In Clancy’s case, this book wouldn’t work without all the ‘tell me’ expository text.

In the cycling part of my life, I recently purchased a Wahoo KICKR Core smart trainer. I previously had a traditional spin bike but sold it as it was uncomfortable and had very poor ergonomics. The smart trainer will be hooked up to Zwift for a virtual riding experience. I may write a review after I’ve used it a bit. It will be nice to train on my own bike (Trek Domane AL5) rather than a rigid and poor substitution like a spin bike.

Can you turn a D&D game into a novel?

“Against the Giants” (G1-3, TSR) is one of the best-rated and most-beloved modules from the AD&D era. In fact, it was written before the release of the original three core rule books. It is challenging yet rewarding and requires players to be at the top of their game (pun intended) to survive.

Then TSR allowed it to be turned into a novel and it was a miserable flop.

I have met several dungeon masters who shared a desire to turn one of their D&D campaigns into a fantasy novel. None ever got that far (writing a book is hard) and based on the track record of others who have, it’s probably a good thing they never took their effort far enough to be published.

“Just because each of them tastes good doesn’t mean you should put Hershey Kisses on a pepperoni pizza.”

The premise seems sound on the surface. A D&D game plays out similar to a fantasy novel. It can have all the necessary ingredients: risk and reward, character development, amazing scenery, dangerous villains, and heroic main characters. Even the side characters (NPCs) can lend some appreciated depth and flair to the story as it unfolds.

Why can’t you take the transcript of a D&D campaign and turn that into a fantasy novel?

Like putting chocolate on pizza, it’s a good idea in theory but rarely (if ever) a good idea in practice.

This is because what happens in a D&D game isn’t planned nor will it likely follow the standard kind of flow and plot points most people implicitly expect to find in a well-crafted fantasy novel.

Writing a novel is a different skill and craft than running or playing in a fantasy role-playing game.

There is one caveat to all this. What happens around a D&D gaming table can provide a treasure trove of inspiration for memorable action and even dialogue. Character names and personalities can come out from players who really get into their role. Even NPCs can provide inspiration for side characters that appear in a fantasy novel.

Ensuring the characters have the desired (and implicitly expected) struggles and development throughout the story requires understanding how to write far more than understanding how to game.

There is an integration or connection of sorts between my fourth novel, A Riddle of Scars, and my D&D game. Back in 2019, I came up with the story idea for my book, then decided to play-test it within the game of Dungeons & Dragons.

I converted my book’s plot into a campaign and ran it with a half dozen experienced players. These players knew that I was play-testing my book idea but were warned that what stayed in the book’s plot was still to be determined solely by me.

You’ll note that I already had the book idea first before introducing it to the D&D game. Doing it the other way around is what this article is all about — and is where my warning comes in. Don’t do it.

In the end, what ended up in the book was essentially the same as the original plot idea I created. Play testing it within the game of D&D didn’t change anything substantial. However, I did introduce a new character to the book based on one of the player characters (with the player’s full permission, of course). Other than that, the book’s plot survived being run as a D&D campaign, and according to the players, the campaign itself was immensely enjoyable.

Having gone through that experience and given it a lot of thought, I think it’s a fun source of inspiration to take a book’s plot and base a D&D campaign around it. Conversely, I’ve run many campaigns throughout my career as a dungeon master and none of them would make for a good fantasy novel. I’ve gotten tidbits of inspiration from the game, and as mentioned a great character idea, but the plot and sequence of what happens doesn’t translate very well from game to book.

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When to stop plot expansion

My second novel is now available, Ohlen’s Bane

Subjective reader perspectives