I’ve said multiple times in my prior columns that good tie-in fiction does exist, and that tie-in is a great place to find certain styles of fantasy. I said this in reference to Sword & Sorcery, in particular, but there’s great tie-in fiction of all sub-genres.
Well, I’m going to put my money where my mouth [...]

I realize that this is a tad outside the norm for columns/articles on Suvudu, but if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to tread slightly into personal anecdote territory and talk about a bit of my own writing experience. I think it’ll serve as a pretty good illustration of some things I talked about in my [...]

Having just talked about why I think up-and-coming writers–or people just interested in studying the development of fantasy–would be well served to participate in role-playing games, I’m now going to look at the yang to that particular yin. (Does that sound dirty, or is it just me?) Specifically, what you should not take from your [...]

Now that I’ve spent some time talking about the linked history between role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and fantasy fiction (here), and the origins of the game and their connections to sword & sorcery (here), I’m going to veer off on a slight tangent. Specifically, I’m going from analysis to advice.
I know a lot [...]

So we’re talking about roleplaying games (primarily, but not exclusively, Dungeons & Dragons), and their relationship with the development of fantasy fiction. But first, I’m going to go off on a tangent a little. See, I’m going to be doing a lot of talk about sword & sorcery as a subset of fantasy, and while [...]

And the bartender says, “What is this, a party?”
…
All right, well, that would’ve gone over a lot better at my D&D game.
For those of you who don’t know me–which is, uh, most of you, I imagine–I’m Ari Marmell. For some years now, I’ve been doing both freelance writing for role-playing games, and RPG tie-in fiction, [...]