We would huddle together, sharing stories around food and drink while tossing bones around. We weren’t cavemen, but what went on every half-hour during our middleschool lunch was decidedly archaic. Instead of gameboys or LAN parties, my group of geeky friends and I would bring out the tomes and character sheets. I knew every stat adjustment for every race in the player’s handbook, what levels fighters would get their bonus feats, and what ‘ambidextrous’ meant at age 10.

It was interactive storytelling. Cooperative imagination—mired in rules and tables, sure—that has been the source of so many awesome adventures we still reminisce on. Ludicrous characters and moments and in-house jokes galore.

"That statue's got stats!" One of us yelled, upon making a spot check at the dungeon master's notes. Roleplaying be damned, our characters now feared every inanimate object to have a base attack bonus!

One of the sources of so much humor is the clash between realism and the almighty D&D god. I’m not talking about Pelor or Obad-Hai, but of RNG—the random number generator. A talented DM can take a result and interpret it in a hilarious way:

'I sleep lightly' is what fearful players would say to prevent being caught flatfooted at night. One critical '20' dice roll later and my druid had slept so lightly, the DM described, that he levitated in air!

More than a good time

These games have brought out more than just evenings of laughter. For me and other roleplayers, these game sessions have proven to be the source of our own creations:

Back in 1985 a group of Japanese guys got together, had the Japanese equivalent of Mountain Dew, and played out what would later be novelized and televised as Record of Lodoss War. Rune Soldier Louie—my personal favorite—also stemmed from one of their sessions.

Roleplaying games provide a creative launchpad for novelization. The setting and main quest have already been established, and your cast of characters—well, their personalities and quirks are written for you by the players! As a writer the party has already haphazardly stumbled through the dungeons for you. Writing over an already-treaded path is a hundredfold easier than cutting through an unknown jungle!

This allows you to focus on dramatization and pacing, gives you time to add in tension and twists which couldn’t be done during a dynamic roleplaying session. Dungeon master-turned-author beware! There are pitfalls found in self-inserts and awkward game mechanics. It makes sense in a game to be bound by spell tables and skill trees. But if they carry over to your writing, you’re screwed.

Oriental Adventures Online

Samurai of Hyuga didn’t have an outline in the traditional sense, but it was created from an Oriental Adventures-ish campaign created by my brother. Over the course of two group chat sessions where we instant messaged our dialogue and dice rolls, the world of Hyuga was made.

We never made it out of Yamato. It was a short-lived campaign (like so many of my brother’s), but I immensely enjoyed the bodyguard-magical girl dynamic my friend and I had. The bickering between my ronin and her shugenja came so naturally that I knew we had created a great duo. We argued as we dodged ninja stars and ran from samurai, and while our D&D characters never made it past the city gates…

…their literary versions continued to live on, through Samurai of Hyuga and beyond!