Skip to main content

story identification - 80's (or earlier) book about a role-playing group getting sucked into a new realm


The details I can remember are:



  • The trope of a role-playing group getting sucked into a different realm, possibly becoming their characters.

  • One of the females becomes graceful, has the power to fly like a moth, possibly something about bracelets as part of her abilities(?).


  • In one scene she might get stuck in a huge spider web.

  • One of the males is a scrawny guy but becomes a muscle-bound oaf in the realm they travel to.

  • They do get back to their own Earth realm, to the gaming table, but everyone was pretty bummed because they no longer had their alternate abilities/bodies.

  • It seems to have been some "journey to adulthood" type theme overall.


This was a book that was in my high school library in the 90's, was possibly published in the 80's or earlier. I've searched for a bit, but have not found any books that fit what I remember.



Answer



This could be The Twilight Realm by Christopher Carpenter which was first published in 1987.


Description from Amazon editorial review:




Unemployed or starting college, Paul and his friends are uncertain what life holds for them. Their weekly meetings to indulge in role-playing games are a peaceful escape, until one night they step through a mirror into another world and the game becomes real. In Xhandarre, each of the five possesses special powers that complement their earthly attributes. These are powers they need in their quest to free the land from the despotic sorcerer Avron Kromar. Water serpents, birdbats, human wolves and deep dungeons lie in wait for them, but so do Prince Jarmassad (the rightful heir to the throne) and his loyal wizard Meldorion.


This pleasant fantasy-adventure is distinguished by its characterization: the friends remain fallible people who must conquer their own weaknesses as well as magical foes




  • One character (Teresa) gains powers of mental illusions and thought sensing, plus the ability to become incorporeal when she strikes her bracelets together. In this incorporeal form she can pass through solid matter and fly

  • When her RPG character is introduced it includes a reference to appearing like a delicate dragonfly (due to her clothes & posture)

  • Another character (Justin) is transformed from a "slim young man" into a "huge musclebound man"

  • Once transformed he also finds he can no longer speak properly, when he tries "all that emerged were a series of grunts"

  • At one point Teresa is trapped in a giant web "spread eagled like a giant butterfly"

  • At the end of the story they are returned to their normal lives with varying degrees of happiness


  • From memory & quick scan there is a theme of growing up or learning about themselves. Certainly when they return some of the characters make decisions to change their lives based on their experience in the alternate realm.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...