Dungeons & Dragons (novels)
Encyclopedia
Dungeons & Dragons novels are works of fantasy fiction that are based upon campaign settings released for the Dungeons & Dragons
role-playing game
.
based on the Dungeons & Dragons game was Quag Keep (1978) by Andre Norton
. Based upon Norton's first experience at playing the Dungeons & Dragons game, it told the story of seven gamers who were drawn into a fantasy setting. The sequel, Return to Quag Keep (2006), was published after Norton had died in 2005.
A series of authorized novels began in the early 1980s with a survey of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons players. The feedback indicated that the players wanted more dragons
in the media products from TSR, Inc. In May, 1983, TSR commissioned Tracy Hickman
to produce a new campaign setting that would be called Dragonlance
. For marketing purposes, TSR also decided to release a series of books based in the same setting. The first three books became the highly successful Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy.
As the time and cost needed to develop a commercial role-playing game are rarely matched by the profits made from selling the end product, the rulesbooks are primarily sold to create a market for the sale of related products. TSR found a lucrative market when they released a series spinoff novels based on the Dragonlance
and Dark Sun
campaign setting
s. These novels stood on their own and did not require knowledge of the game rules, making them accessible by a more general audience.
The most successful of the novel series produced by TSR during the 1990s were the books based upon the Forgotten Realms
and Dragonlance
settings. These works also proved to have an unusual shelf life, remaining in print for at least a decade. As a result, some fantasy fiction authors that were introduced through the TSR novels became popular authors. Among these are R. A. Salvatore and the writing partnership of Margaret Weis
and Tracy Hickman. Before they went bankrupt in 1997, TSR had published 242 novels based in their campaign settings, with 55 set in the Dragonlance setting and 64 set in the world of Forgotten Realms. TSR's novels were published in ten languages and some made it on to international best seller lists. Other publishers followed the TSR model, including FASA
, White Wolf
and West End Games
.
By the 2000s, a significant portion of all fantasy paperbacks sales were being published by Wizards of the Coast
, the American game company that acquired TSR in 1997. The works of R. A. Salvatore in particular have proven very popular, with his novels appearing on the New York Times best seller list 22 times as of 2010.
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
.
History
The first novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
based on the Dungeons & Dragons game was Quag Keep (1978) by Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
. Based upon Norton's first experience at playing the Dungeons & Dragons game, it told the story of seven gamers who were drawn into a fantasy setting. The sequel, Return to Quag Keep (2006), was published after Norton had died in 2005.
A series of authorized novels began in the early 1980s with a survey of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons players. The feedback indicated that the players wanted more dragons
Dragon (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game , dragons are an iconic type of monstrous creature used as adversaries or, less commonly, allies of player characters...
in the media products from TSR, Inc. In May, 1983, TSR commissioned Tracy Hickman
Tracy Hickman
Tracy Raye Hickman is a best-selling fantasy author, best known for his work on Dragonlance as a game designer and co-author with Margaret Weis, while he worked for TSR...
to produce a new campaign setting that would be called Dragonlance
Dragonlance
Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...
. For marketing purposes, TSR also decided to release a series of books based in the same setting. The first three books became the highly successful Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy.
As the time and cost needed to develop a commercial role-playing game are rarely matched by the profits made from selling the end product, the rulesbooks are primarily sold to create a market for the sale of related products. TSR found a lucrative market when they released a series spinoff novels based on the Dragonlance
Dragonlance
Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...
and Dark Sun
Dark Sun
Dark Sun is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting featuring the fictional desert world of Athas. The original Dark Sun Boxed Set campaign setting was released in 1991....
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
s. These novels stood on their own and did not require knowledge of the game rules, making them accessible by a more general audience.
The most successful of the novel series produced by TSR during the 1990s were the books based upon the Forgotten Realms
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...
and Dragonlance
Dragonlance
Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...
settings. These works also proved to have an unusual shelf life, remaining in print for at least a decade. As a result, some fantasy fiction authors that were introduced through the TSR novels became popular authors. Among these are R. A. Salvatore and the writing partnership of Margaret Weis
Margaret Weis
Margaret Edith Weis is a fantasy novelist who, along with Tracy Hickman, is one of the original creators of the Dragonlance game world and has written numerous novels and short stories set in fantastic worlds.-Early life:Margaret Weis was born in 1948 in Independence, Missouri, and later attended...
and Tracy Hickman. Before they went bankrupt in 1997, TSR had published 242 novels based in their campaign settings, with 55 set in the Dragonlance setting and 64 set in the world of Forgotten Realms. TSR's novels were published in ten languages and some made it on to international best seller lists. Other publishers followed the TSR model, including FASA
FASA
FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001. Originally the name FASA was an acronym for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration", a joking allusion to the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. This tongue-in-cheek attitude was...
, White Wolf
White Wolf
White Wolf is a publisher of role-playing games, notably the World of Darkness.White Wolf may also refer to:*White Wolf , a location in Yosemite National Park*White Wolf , a Canadian heavy metal band...
and West End Games
West End Games
West End Games was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania...
.
By the 2000s, a significant portion of all fantasy paperbacks sales were being published by Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
, the American game company that acquired TSR in 1997. The works of R. A. Salvatore in particular have proven very popular, with his novels appearing on the New York Times best seller list 22 times as of 2010.
Authors
The following authors have written one or more full length Dungeons & Dragons novels:- Lynn AbbeyLynn AbbeyLynn Abbey is an American computer programmer and author.-Background:Born in Peekskill, New York, Abbey was daughter of Ronald Lionel and Doris Lorraine . She attended the University of Rochester, where she began as an astrophysics major. She earned a A.B...
- Mark AnthonyMark Anthony (writer)Mark Anthony is an American author who lives and writes in Colorado. He is best known for The Last Rune series, which he developed to explore the idea that reason and wonder need not exist in conflict. Recently he has written under the pseudonym Galen Beckett, coming out with a novel entitled The...
- Keith Baker
- Don BassingthwaiteDon BassingthwaiteDon Bassingthwaite was born in Meaford, Ontario, and now lives and works in Toronto. He has degrees in anthropology and museum studies and is the author of numerous fantasy and dark fantasy novels. Many of his works are set in the fictional universes of role-playing games...
- Elaine BergstromElaine BergstromElaine Bergstrom is an American author in the genres of fantasy and horror. She has had 13 novels published.-Biography:Bergstrom was born in Cleveland and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin....
- John Gregory BetancourtJohn Gregory BetancourtJohn Gregory Betancourt is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels as well as short stories. He has worked as an assistant editor at Amazing Stories and editor of Horror: The Newsmagazine of the Horror Field, the revived Weird Tales magazine, the first issue of H. P...
- Edward Bolme
- Timothy BrownTimothy Brown (game designer)A game industry veteran of twenty years, Timothy B. Brown has been a designer at Games Designers' Workshop, an editor at Challenge magazine, and the director of product development at TSR, Inc....
- Richard Lee ByersRichard Lee Byers-Biography:Richard Lee Byers holds a Master's degree in Psychology. A resident of the Tampa Bay area, he worked in an emergency psychiatric facility for over a decade, then left the mental health field to become a writer. He is also a fencing and poker enthusiast. He is the author of over thirty...
- Andria Cardarelle
- Tonya R. Carter
- Scott CiencinScott CiencinScott Ciencin is an American author. He sometimes writes with Denise Ciencin.-Biography:Scott Ciencin is a New York Times bestselling author who writes adult and children's fiction and works in a variety of mediums including comic books. Among his works are novels written for the Dungeons &...
- Adrian ColeAdrian ColeAdrian Cole , writer.He was born in Plymouth, Devonshire in 1949. He is known for his Dream Lords trilogy, the Omaran Saga and Star Requiem series, and his young adult novels, Moorstones and The Sleep of Giants....
- David CookDavid Cook (game designer)David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years.-Early life:...
- Paul Crilley
- Elaine CunninghamElaine CunninghamElaine Cunningham is an American fantasy and science fiction author, especially known for her contributions to the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game campaign setting of Forgotten Realms, including the realms of Evermeet, Halruaa, Ruathym and Waterdeep.-Biography:Elaine Cunningham grew up in New...
- Tina Daniell
- Graeme DavisGraeme Davis (game designer)Graeme Davis is a writer and editor. He has worked extensively in the gaming industry and was one of the original designers of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay....
- Troy DenningTroy DenningTroy Denning is a fantasy and science fiction author and game designer.-Career:Denning joined TSR as a game designer in 1981, and was promoted a year later to Manager of Designers, before he moved to the book department...
- Gene DeWeeseGene DeWeeseThomas Eugene DeWeese is an American writer of fiction, particularly science fiction but including Gothics, mysteries, romances, suspense, fantasy, and horror; as well as non-fiction books on technology and folk art...
- Parker De Wolf
- P. N. ElrodP. N. ElrodPatricia N. Elrod is an American novelist specializing in urban fantasy. She's written in the mystery, romance, paranormal, and historical genres with at least one foray into comedic fantasy. Elrod is also an editor, having worked on several collections for Ace Science Fiction, DAW, Benbella Books,...
- Rose EstesRose EstesRose Estes is the author of many fantasy and science fiction books, including full length novels and multiple choice gamebooks.-Career:After contributing extensively to TSR, Inc.'s Dungeons and Dragons Endless Quest series , she wrote her first full length novel, Children of the Dragon...
- Nigel FindleyNigel FindleyNigel D Findley was a game designer, editor, and an author of science fiction and fantasy novels and role-playing games .-Biography:Nigel Findley was born in Venezuela, in 1959...
- Matt Forbeck
- Christie GoldenChristie GoldenChristie Golden is an award-winning author who lives in Loveland, Colorado, United States. She has written over thirty novels and several short stories in fantasy, horror and science fiction.-Career:...
- Ed GreenwoodEd GreenwoodEd Greenwood is a Canadian writer and editor who created the Forgotten Realms. He invented the Forgotten Realms as a child, as a fantasy world in which to set the stories he imagined, and later used this world as a campaign setting for his own personal Dungeons & Dragons playing group...
- Jeff GrubbJeff GrubbJeff Grubb is an author and game designer. He has worked on a number of computer and role-playing games and has written a number of successful novels, short stories and comics...
- Thorarinn GunnarssonThorarinn GunnarssonThorarinn Gunnarsson is the pseudonym of an American author of science fiction and fantasy. For several years, he claimed to be of Icelandic birth but recently admitted that this was false....
- Gary GygaxGary GygaxErnest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
- Laurell K. HamiltonLaurell K. HamiltonLaurell Kaye Hamilton is an American fantasy and romance writer. She is the author of two series of stories. Hamilton is known for her New York Times-bestselling Anita Blake series, featuring a professional zombie raiser/supernatural consultant for the police as the protagonist in a world where...
- Simon HawkeSimon HawkeSimon Hawke is an American author of mainly science fiction and fantasy novels. He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D...
- D.J. Heinrich
- Samantha Henderson
- Tracy HickmanTracy HickmanTracy Raye Hickman is a best-selling fantasy author, best known for his work on Dragonlance as a game designer and co-author with Margaret Weis, while he worked for TSR...
- Russ T. Howard
- Tanya HuffTanya HuffTanya Sue Huff is a Canadian fantasy author. Her stories have been published since the late 1980s, including five fantasy series and one science-fiction series. One of these, her Blood Books series, featuring detective Vicki Nelson, was adapted for television under the title Blood...
- Ryan Hughes
- J. Robert KingJ. Robert KingJ. Robert King is a novelist who has also worked as a game designer on a number of products for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game from TSR.-Biography:...
- Mary KirchoffMary KirchoffMary L. Kirchoff is an American writer. She is the author of more than ten published works, including the Dragonlance novels Kendermore, Wanderlust , Flint, the King , The Black Wing, and the Defenders of Magic trilogy...
- Jeff LaSala
- James LowderJames LowderJames Daniel Lowder is an American author and editor, working most often within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres.-Early life and education:...
- Dixie Lee McKeone
- Roger E. MooreRoger E. MooreRoger E. Moore is a designer of role-playing games. He is best known for his long-running tenure as editor of Dragon magazine, and was the founding editor of Dungeon magazine.-Early life:...
- Douglas NilesDouglas NilesDouglas Niles is a fantasy author and game designer. Niles was one of the creators of the Dragonlance world and the author of the first three Forgotten Realms novels, and the Top Secret S/I espionage role-playing game.-Early life:Niles was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, and...
- Kate NovakKate NovakKate Novak grew up in Pittsburgh, where she graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in Chemistry. She is a fantasy author primarily published in the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft shared worlds....
- David A. Page
- Ellen Porath
- Thomas M. Reid
- Marsheila Rockwell
- R. A. Salvatore
- Morris Simon
- Kevin Stein
- Paul B. ThompsonPaul B. ThompsonPaul B. Thompson is a freelance writer and novelist. He has published twenty books to date, many of which are novels set in the Dragonlance fictional universe. A number of these novels are co-authored with Tonya C. Cook....
- Tim WaggonerTim WaggonerTim Waggoner is the author of numerous novels, two short story collections, and over one hundred published stories in the Fantasy, Horror, and Thriller genres. He graduated from Wright State University in 1989 with a Master of Arts in English with a Creative Writing Concentration...
- Margaret WeisMargaret WeisMargaret Edith Weis is a fantasy novelist who, along with Tracy Hickman, is one of the original creators of the Dragonlance game world and has written numerous novels and short stories set in fantastic worlds.-Early life:Margaret Weis was born in 1948 in Independence, Missouri, and later attended...
- Michael WilliamsMichael Williams (author)Michael Williams is an American author. He is known for his Dragonlance novels.Williams was born and lives in Louisville, Kentucky. He has lived in Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Ireland and England. His first novel, Weasel's Luck, was published in 1988...
- Chet WilliamsonChet WilliamsonChet Williamson is the author of nearly twenty books and over a hundred short stories published in The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, and many other magazines and anthologies.-Biography:...
- Steve WinterSteve WinterSteve Winter is a game designer who has worked on numerous products for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game from TSR and later Wizards of the Coast.-Early life:Steve Winter was born in Dubuque, Iowa on December 8, 1957...
- Rich Wulf
- James WyattJames Wyatt (game designer)James Wyatt is a game designer and a former United Methodist minister. He works for Wizards of the Coast, where he has designed several award-winning supplements and adventures for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game...
Campaign settings
The following Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings have had one or more published novels based in the same fantasy world:- Birthright
- Dark Sun
- Dragonlance
- Eberron
- Forgotten Realms
- Greyhawk
- Kara-Tur
- Mystara
- Planescape
- Ravenloft
- Spelljammer