D&D General Tracy Hickman: The third founder of (modern) D&D?

[Shiroiken]

Really? I would give that to Against the Giants/Decent into the Depths/Vault of the Drow/Queen of the Demonweb Pits.

The Slavelords sequence looks pretty much like a modern adventure path when bundled together too.

While they are connected adventures, they aren't something you can set a full campaign around, which is the goal of an AP. You can (as I have) take several of these connected adventures and forge your own AP out of them by starting with the Temple of Elemental Evil, onto the Slavers, then Against the Giants, Descent, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. The DL series, however, was completely intended to serve as a full campaign by running each adventure.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The GDQ series certainly is linked, but it does not really have a story that the players are taking part in.

And the better modern adventure paths don't force the PCs to act out a predetermined plot either.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For D&D perhaps. Call of Cthulhu had Shadows of Yog-Sothoth in 1982 and Masks of Nyarlathotep in 1984. Both are clearly adventure paths as we'd recognize them today.

I agree that Shadows of Yog-Sothoth had everything you would expect of a modern adventure path, but, whilst it predates Dragonlance, it came after Demonweb and Slavelords (both completed 1981). It was first to be published as a single volume though.

There is a tendency to forget about the non-D&D games that where around in the 80s that made significant contributions to modern D&D.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As for the concept of the story driven adventure, I would say The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (1981), by Browne and Turnbull, got there before the Hickmans.

But all those Not-D&Ds were already putting out story driven adventures, because they didn't have the dungeon bash conceit as a default.

1980.

 

[Mannahnin]

Not a founder, but I agree that Laura and Tracy Hickman are indeed hugely influential, pivotal figures in the shift of tone, scope, and goals of quite a lot of D&D and D&D groups between 1st ed and 2nd ed. Whether that's to the good or the bad is largely a matter of taste.

Going back to the origins in the 70s, as Jon Peterson talks about in Playing at the World and his recent The Elusive Shift, you had fantasy fiction fans wanting to use D&D as more of a story emulator (the wargamers or quasi-wargamers were the other big "faction" of players). Laura and Tracy were arguably the first (or at least the most prominent) writers at TSR to seem to REALLY cater to that goal and orientation. And by the time 2E came out, that was more the default expectation of the rulebooks.

 

[jayoungr]

Out of curiosity, why Tracy Hickman specifically? Why not Weis and Hickman?

 

[Yora]

Because it's not just Dragonlance that is relevant here.

While it seems Laura Hickmann was involved in Dragonlance in some form, she's not credited as a writer of the adventure series, from what I can tell, which is mostly Tracy Hickmann and Doug Niles.

 

[Steampunkette]

I wouldn't say Hickman. It would have to be both Weis and Hickman. She may not have written the adventures, she was hired on as an editor and wound up working with Hickman to write the books and plot out the adventures, consequently, for "Project Overlord" Dragonlance.

Those names are just as inextricably linked as Gygax and Arnesen, for me.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Because it's not just Dragonlance that is relevant here.

While it seems Laura Hickmann was involved in Dragonlance in some form, she's not credited as a writer of the adventure series, from what I can tell, which is mostly Tracy Hickmann and Doug Niles.

Laura is credited for DL8 (Dragons of War), but given how women where credited back then her contribution may have been much greater.

 

[Arilyn]

Dragonlance kept me from abandoning D&D in the 80's. I was getting tired of the mindless dungeon-crawling, and the story-based approach made me realize there was a whole aspect of D&D I was previously unaware of. (Though I have to agree, attempting to run the actual DL module series is unappetizing - as would attempting to recreate a campaign doing the same exact Lord of the Rings as the books. But the ideas and general storyline are great!)

And hands down, Ravenloft is my favorite adventure of all time.

I wouldn't put Hickman as a founder, but definately an architect and an influencer.

I agree. Having more story attracted more players, who were looking to be heroes in their own tales. The recommended reading in Appendix N, in my opinion, is not what you got in early D&D. I was initially so excited about the idea of roleplaying, and I got a series of puzzles and poking cautiously down endless corridors.

I abandoned D&D before DL. Warhammer's "The Enemy Within" brought me back into roleplaying because it was a big sprawling adventure. RPGs and playstyles are a huge mix right now, and that's good for attracting more people to the hobby. I believe DL was a first step in opening things up.