Find out how a middle school library would end up being the jumping off point to a world of intrigue and fantasy.
Transcript
Cold Open
Who knew that stumbling across a random fantasy novel in 1989 would inspire me to create a video about it 33 years later?
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and I am going to share my Dragonlance discovery story with you. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to this channel, and ring the bell! Dragonlance has informed many aspects of my life, from my lifelong obsession with fantasy and reading to my passion for storytelling and art. But it wouldn’t all be butterflies and rainbows. Finding the balance as a young man between fantasy escapism and professional development would prove to be a true challenge for me.
Discussion
I stumbled across my fathers Basic Dungeons & Dragons ‘red box’ set as a child. My brother and sisters didn’t know anything about it, and certainly didn’t know that it was being developed into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, so we thought, much like a board game, this red box was all there was. We would spend hours playing the game with each other, and because I was part of the nintendo generation, we would delve headfirst into roleplaying video games like The Legend of Zelda and Dragon Warrior as well. My fantasy, role-playing bombs were primed and ready to explode.
Middle school proves to be a pivotal time for many children. Your hormones are just beginning to build, your interest in others in more than friendly ways is beginning to flourish, and you start experimenting with ideas and topics that were inaccessible before in your developing mind.
For me, I would discover the novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. It wasn’t just the original cover art by Larry Elmore that interested me either, it was the characters and story that would pull me in, and the art was used as the icing on the cake. I would find myself finishing a chapter, scrolling to the beginning of the chapter and looking at the illustrations by Denis Beauvais that would precede it. Then I would relive the moments with that visual in mind, get excited and scroll to the next chapter and imagine what the illustration would portend before devouring the text.
It would inform my artistic journey as well. As a professional in the industry, I was inspired at a young age by my mother who is a talented illustrator in her own right. She encouraged me to explore art and Dragonlance would add fuel to the fire. I would redraw the chapter illustrations in class. I would watercolor the best, and sell them to my friends. Then I moved onto drawing my own characters and creatures from my imagination.
It was about that time that I was introduced to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and my addiction was complete. I have an addictive personality and without knowing it at the time, I found myself ignoring most everything else. I was spending my weekends playing the game with my friends, and when they couldn’t play, I would ride my bike to the library and pick up a new Dragonlance book. Consuming the Chronicles, Legends, Tales, and more! I would track my reading journey as any obsessed completionist, trying to read them all.
As a young man, I would run into people who also knew the novels and begin gaming and becoming close friends with them. We would spend a few hours performing in our garage band, then game and party all night. We began delving into the Dragonlance Gold Box games as well, starting with Champions of Krynn, sharing new novels as they were released and playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition with the Tales of the Lance Boxed Set.
We were forsaking our professional explorations and development with escapism, and though I do believe it is an important tool to develop and explore your imagination, it can also become a crutch, like any addiction for those susceptible. It can develop into a comfort blanket. I would break away from my group, serve my country, and attend college, completely forsaking my past obsession of Dragonlance and Dungeons & Dragons. But Krynn was not done with me and when the War of the Souls began, I dove right back in, like I never left. I connected with local fans online and started gaming in the world of Krynn again.
This time, I had a clear separation between my fantasy escapism, my family life and my professional career. I would occasionally run across other fans and connect with those who could separate their fandom like I did, and we would enjoy our time together. I would also stumble across those who are addicted to gaming and honestly hope they would learn to find balance and I would move on.
With the upcoming Dragonlance trilogy Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman are going to release, and with the hopes of more to come, I am absolutely thrilled to be returning to Krynn.
Outro
But what was your Dragonlance story? Did you ever struggle with the separation between your fantasy escapism and professional development? And are you as excited as I am about the upcoming Dragonlance novels? Leave a comment below, subscribe to the channel and like this video.
This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
It will be a party such as the world of Krynn has not seen since before the Cataclysm! Be ready, Tika Waylan. Be ready!
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