 Fantasy: February 05, 2020 Issue [#10003] |
This week: Using D&D Resources in Writing Edited by: Warped Sanity  
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| The writing process shared in this newsletter is brought to you by my 19-year-old daughter, who is a fledgling Dungeons and Dragons geek. For the past couple of years, tools in the RPG game have been a helpful aid in writing her novel. |
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I must admit, I have never played Dungeons and Dragons. From the minimal information I had learned, I really didn't understand what the hype was all about. My daughter recently began playing Dungeons and Dragons, but she is not new to the material. For some time now she's used the game elements as a resource in writing her fantasy novel, which is what piqued my interest in learning about it.
The game itself is like a novel filled with plot twists, only the readers are active participants in the story. It is no wonder they are using it in some classrooms. Many teachers have discovered that its incorporation into the classroom fosters critical thinking, group skills, and a love for reading and writing. Educators are even creating campaigns centered around literature they are reading in the classroom. Check out the one in the video below based on the classic Beowulf.
Whether you play the RPG game or not, the character sheets alone are a wonderful tool for creating interesting and diverse characters. Plus, I'm always reading or hearing from fellow writers that their characters develop a mind of their own, running amock and causing them to rewrite their intended plot. This isn't so bad when writing short stories, but when it is a novel, it can be particularly troublesome, especially if you have to rewrite the first half of your book. Having a character sheet to fall back on could keep your characters in line.
In a sense, my daughter writes her novel how someone would play D&D because she leaves some outcomes up to chance, letting the roll of the dice choose the outcome. Ten or higher is one outcome, while anything below is another outcome. Sometimes the dice are used when she is stumped.
Recently, she has begun playing with the intent of learning how to be a dungeon master. As the dungeon master, she can incorporate the world she has built in her novel and see how it is perceived by an audience who's main interest is her chosen genre. Of course, the characters might not be the same as in her novel, due to the fellow player choices and the role of the dice, but the overall theme can be tested. Then again, characters that emerge might encourage her muse to include them in her current novel or a future one.
Now that I've been introduced to the benefits of Dungeons and Dragons to the writing process, I'm curious if the concept would work with other genres such as horror. Is anyone interested in a paranormal campaign with a setting in a haunted carnival? 
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