The Gamearth Trilogy is a series of sword and sorcery

Sword and sorcery

Sword and sorcery is a sub-genre of fantasy and historical fantasy, generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...

 fantasy novels by Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...

, comprising Gamearth (1989), Gameplay (1989), and Game's End (1990). They are set in the world of Gamearth, which is a 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...

 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...

invented by four teenagers.

Plot summary

At the beginning of the trilogy, Scott, Tyrone, David and Melanie have been playing Gamearth for approximately 2 years. David has grown bored of the game and tries to convince the others that it is time to quit. When Melanie thwarts him, David decides that his characters will begin a war of conquest with the ultimate aim of destroying the world. Melanie then sends her characters on a quest to stop this.

What none of them know is that their characters have achieved sentience and want to control their own affairs. They look on the four players as gods, calling them the "Ruleslords" and "Ruleslady". When they come to understand that their players are conspiring to end the world, they begin to take their own steps to hurt the players in the real world.

Characters

Many of the main characters are based on role-playing game stereotypes. They include:

• Delreal, a burly warrior.
• Vailret, Delreal's cousin. He is a meek scholar who hates adventuring and often curses the gods for making him do so.
• Bryl, a lazy, arrogant sorcerer.
• Sardun, a highly powerful, aristrocratic and elderly sorcerer.

Things of Power

• The Four Elemental Stones: the crystallized powers in the shape of die left behind after the (Sorcerers) Departed. If held by a magic-user, each stone can increase the spells per day of the holder by one, and increase the abilities geared toward the stone's element. When all four are gathered together by a sorcerer character and rolled with the highest possible point values, unforeseeable power is granted. They are the Air Stone (a 4 sided diamond), the Water Stone (a 6 sided sapphire), the Fire Stone (an 8 sided ruby) and the Earth Stone (a 10 sided emerald).
• Scartaris: possibly a character, the sentient plant was created by David to leach the life from the Game.
• The Cannon: a giant cannon developed by Professor Verne and requisitioned by the manticore's army as a method of fighting the Ruleslords/Lady.
• The Weapon: a device reminiscent of an atomic bomb, an experiment deemed failed by Professors Verne and Frankenstein, captured by the manticore's army at the same time as Professor Verne.