Throwback Thursday: Guardians of the Flame Takes You Inside the Fantasy
When I was a kid, my friends and I loved playing role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, but we never played the right way. In a word, we cheated. We cheated gloriously, elevating the title of Dungeon Master to godhood. We absorbed enough of the rules to create characters and adventures and run them via roll of the dice, then tossed the books aside and made up whatever crazy stuff we wanted. The goal of every campaign was to turn our characters into demigods, larding them with rare magical items and leveling them up rapidly via insane grants of experience points. When we each had a character who could destroy worlds with a thought, we pitted them against each other.
The Guardians of the Flame
NOOK Book $9.99
The Guardians of the Flame
NOOK Book $9.99
At the time there was some hysteria brewing around D&D; the media ran a bunch of overwrought stories about kids going insane and killing each other because they were so fully absorbed in the game (check out Tom Hanks in Mazes and Monsters to get a sense of the tone at the time). That or turning to devil worship, because, I dunno, the game involved magic ? Well, to be fair, and summoning demons. At any rate, my parents actually forbade me from playing. Which totally backfired, because of course it did.
Guardians of the Flame
This is the context that explains my enduring affection for Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series, probably his best-known work. In a nutshell, these books are portal fantasies wherein the characters,RPG enthusiast college students, are magically transported to the universe of the game, where they take on the abilities and appearance of their characters.
At the time there was some hysteria brewing around D&D; the media ran a bunch of overwrought stories about kids going insane and killing each other because they were so fully absorbed in the game (check out Tom Hanks in Mazes and Monsters to get a sense of the tone at the time). That or turning to devil worship, because, I dunno, the game involved magic ? Well, to be fair, and summoning demons. At any rate, my parents actually forbade me from playing. Which totally backfired, because of course it did.
Guardians of the Flame
This is the context that explains my enduring affection for Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series, probably his best-known work. In a nutshell, these books are portal fantasies wherein the characters,RPG enthusiast college students, are magically transported to the universe of the game, where they take on the abilities and appearance of their characters.
Guardians of the Flame: Legacy
NOOK Book $9.99
Guardians of the Flame: Legacy
NOOK Book $9.99
Obviously, there is a fair bit of wish-fulfillment here. As a kid who’d recently discovered he had been born without the baseball gene (or any sports-related gene) and learned he would have to wear glasses thick enough to bend time, the idea that I might someday roll some mystic combination of dice and find myself adventuring as a hybrid Ranger/Thief/Magic User was powerful stuff.
Deeper Than it Appears
What elevates the series from mere portal-fantasy escapism is the way Rosenberg’s characters use their newfound abilities and status in the “game” universe. After an initial period of discovery, anxiety, and experimentation, they actually begin to have a profound transformative effect on the world. They bring ideas and concepts from “this” universe into the medieval setting of the “game” universe, most notably by launching a struggle to end the practice of slavery and the introduction of democratic political structures. What made this fascinating to me is the fact that most RPG universes are pretty fixed—every adventure had certain evergreen elements. Into that static concept, Rosenberg introduced chaos.
Obviously, there is a fair bit of wish-fulfillment here. As a kid who’d recently discovered he had been born without the baseball gene (or any sports-related gene) and learned he would have to wear glasses thick enough to bend time, the idea that I might someday roll some mystic combination of dice and find myself adventuring as a hybrid Ranger/Thief/Magic User was powerful stuff.
Deeper Than it Appears
What elevates the series from mere portal-fantasy escapism is the way Rosenberg’s characters use their newfound abilities and status in the “game” universe. After an initial period of discovery, anxiety, and experimentation, they actually begin to have a profound transformative effect on the world. They bring ideas and concepts from “this” universe into the medieval setting of the “game” universe, most notably by launching a struggle to end the practice of slavery and the introduction of democratic political structures. What made this fascinating to me is the fact that most RPG universes are pretty fixed—every adventure had certain evergreen elements. Into that static concept, Rosenberg introduced chaos.
Guardians of the Flame: To Home and Ehvenor
NOOK Book $9.99
Guardians of the Flame: To Home and Ehvenor
NOOK Book $9.99
That was some heady stuff. It was already a fantasy offering you a chance to escape your life and become a warrior or a wizard—but for Rosenberg, that this was just the beginning. You could actually do more with such power than simply accrue gold and XP. You might actually effect change. There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere about life in our world.
The 1980s-era books are a trifle dated these days; Rosenberg wound up writing a total of 10 novels in the series, with the last three focusing on newer characters, as the originals had aged as the story unfolded. While the hysteria over RPGshas become the stuff of internet nostalgia, anyone who has ever rolled a 20-sided die to find out if a door is trapped will enjoy these books.
That was some heady stuff. It was already a fantasy offering you a chance to escape your life and become a warrior or a wizard—but for Rosenberg, that this was just the beginning. You could actually do more with such power than simply accrue gold and XP. You might actually effect change. There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere about life in our world.
The 1980s-era books are a trifle dated these days; Rosenberg wound up writing a total of 10 novels in the series, with the last three focusing on newer characters, as the originals had aged as the story unfolded. While the hysteria over RPGshas become the stuff of internet nostalgia, anyone who has ever rolled a 20-sided die to find out if a door is trapped will enjoy these books.