D&D Fiction in the New Yorker

[GRStrayton]

At my writing office someone had left this week's New Yorker magazine opened to a short story called "The Dungeon Master." Curious, I started reading and realized, to my surprise, that it was actually about D&D. It's pretty dark overall, but it's not a negative portrayal of the game (at least, that's how I took it). Some of it felt familiar, reminding me of a few games I played in during the early 80s.

If you're interested, you can read it online at the following link:

Sam Lipsyte: “The Dungeon Master” : The New Yorker

 

[Irondeacon]

Truly disturbing.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I read a bit and thought... wtf? Stopped after about a page...

 

[Ryujin]

Truly disturbing.

Definitely. It read like a chapter out of a slasher book.

 

[beldar1215]

I read a bit and thought... wtf? Stopped after about a page...

I did the same thing. I didn't find it very interesting. Seemed negative to me.

Beldar

 

[Nikosandros]

I didn't mind the story. It also didn't seem very negative to me. Sure, the group is made of weirdos, but the story also shows the other kids in a more 'normal' RPG group.

 

[mgbeach]

It's not light reading for sure; it's more about life than D&D when it comes down to it. I thought it was a good read. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Drammattex]

I thought it was a fantastic piece of work.

 

[Stumblewyk]

It's not a bad read by any stretch. It's definitely dark, as other posters have said; I just worry that it doesn't exactly do gamers any favors.

Yes, the "school gamers" are made to seem quite normal in comparison to the Dungeon Master and his group, but that only serves to make the Dungeon Master and his group look even more unbalanced and disturbed by reflection. Especially since they're described as "the middle-track" kids. They're not the "gifteds". They're the average family's child, and D&D is not portrayed well for them - because their DM is a dangerous, violent misfit.

But...like mgbeach said, it's more about life than D&D. It's just that the life the D&D group has is less than normal. =/

 

[pemerton]

I just read the story following the link from the WoTC interview with the author.

I thought it was a good story. For me, it captured the feel of a group I gamed with on-and-off at university in the mid-90s, which had more than its fair share of self-destructive individuals. I also liked the smoothness of the writer's movements between ingame and out-of-game narration, which captured some features of play really well independent of the dynamics of the particular group being described.

I think those who worry that this sort of thing is bad for the game need to remember that it's a fiction, not a journalistic report. In some ways I think it's good for the game to capture, in a literary way, it's power as a vehicle for communicating emotional and aesthetic experience. For me, at least, the story - especially the first half of the expedition to the dragon's mountain - leaves open the possibility of a game that is emotionally powerful like the one described, rather than anodyne like the school-sanctioned game, but neither destructive nor dysfunctional.

Bart Carroll's interview with the author is worth reading too.