Fantasy writer Garth Nix isn’t primarily identified for his connection to Dungeons & Dragons, but it surely’s one thing geeky journalists can’t stop asking him about. Finest referred to as the writer of the Old Kingdom YA novels (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, and extra), Nix has additionally written every thing from kids’s image books to adult short fiction — and articles about Dungeons & Dragons. Nix ran a D&D sport all through highschool and carried on as a tabletop role-player from there, and it reveals in his upcoming middle-grade novel We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord, which follows a bunch of youngsters as they multitask between navigating an alien invasion and enjoying D&D. (An excerpt from the book follows this interview.)
That premise could remind savvy readers of Stranger Issues’ obsession with Dungeons & Dragons, and the title could bring to mind a certain quote from The Simpsons. In an interview forward of the book’s Oct. 15 launch, Nix instructed Polygon he didn’t have both of these references in thoughts when he was writing the book, although he did begin out with that title, earlier than he even had a whiff of story hooked up.
“I actually don’t know where I first heard the phrase,” he says. “It was something that was floating in the aether. […] I’m not a huge Simpsons watcher. I mean, like everyone alive, I’ve seen quite a lot of episodes, but I was never a consistent fan.”
Equally, he’s by no means watched a whole season of Stranger Issues. However he has watched the ’80s films the present evokes for inspiration — and lived the “kids on bikes” life that inspired those movies within the first place.
“Of course those subconscious influences have to be there,” he says. “You don’t necessarily know what your subconscious is drawing upon. I mean, it’s also — totally coincidentally, to me — the 50th anniversary of D&D this year, but that never crossed my mind either. […] Mainly, [10-Year-Old Overlord] comes directly from my own life, and my own D&D-playing life, from when I was 12 and started playing the game, and no one else knew about it.”
The story kicks off in 1975 Canberra, Australia, the place Nix grew up. 10-12 months-Outdated Overlord’s central youngsters — 12-year-old buddies Kim and Bennie, and their respective youthful siblings, Eila and Madir — discover a steel sphere within the shallows of a neighborhood lake, initially considering it appears like a severed head. It seems to be an alien artifact that bonds with Eila and begins speaking along with her telepathically. The sphere, which Eila names Aster, reveals some suspicious conduct, from creating mysterious clouds to killing native animals.
“It’s very much a personal story,” Nix says. “It begins with an event that actually happened to myself and several of my friends — we found something in the lake that we thought was a cut-off head for about 15 minutes. And with some debating — ‘Should we go look at it?’ ‘No, I don’t want to go look at it.’ ‘You sure it’s a head?’ — we did go and look at it, and it was, in fact, a stone with lake weed growing around it that looked like hair.”
The book winds up reflecting Nix’s personal D&D fandom, with the youngsters geeking out over the publication of The World of Greyhawk and getting granular about their character builds. Nix even publishes just a few pages of maps and notes at the back of the book from his personal highschool sport, all created when he was 15. The place different authors might need changed D&D on this story with a generic equal, Nix says that for him, it needed to be the actual factor.
“I never even considered making up a game,” he says. “I guess my basic philosophy with fantasy in general is to try and use as much real stuff as you can. If your foundation is as real as possible, then the fantastic elements you put on top will work better. So I didn’t even think about it, to be honest. It’s 1975 — what else would they be playing? I guess in a few years, it could have been Empire of the Petal Throne, or Tunnels & Trolls, or even Traveller, a few years later. But it just seemed to me that those kids at that time — even a slightly alternate time — that’s what they would have been playing.”
Nix nonetheless often runs RPGs, when he can discover time. “I’ve been running a game set in the world of my book Angel Mage, which is kind of The Three Musketeers with angelic magic, using the Flashing Blades rules, which is another very old game,” he says. “I’ve been running for two players in the U.K., two in Adelaide, one in Melbourne, so necessarily online, and just much more difficult. The scheduling is just an absolute nightmare.”
A lot as when he was an adolescent, he’s more likely to be the GM of any given sport than a participant. He says that as an adolescent, he simply couldn’t discover anybody else keen to run a sport — however that dynamic most likely helped his profession in the long run.
“I do think I love being a storyteller,” he says. “I love the whole process of creating a cooperative story in role-playing, and it was undeniably a great apprenticeship for being a writer. So I should be grateful to them, perhaps, that they kind of forced me to be the GM.”
Under, learn a chapter from We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-12 months-Outdated Overlord. At this level within the story, Eila is spending an increasing number of time with the alien sphere, Aster, and her brother Kim and his greatest pal Bennie are nervous. The opposite members of their D&D group, Theo and Tamara, haven’t been let in on the key but.
Picture: Maeve Norton/Scholastic Press
The remainder of the week handed in a blur for Kim. He hardly spoke to Bennie, one thing that had by no means occurred earlier than. He did his schoolwork, did his chores at house, did all his homework himself. He didn’t sleep properly, and several other instances woke as much as hear Eila going out in the midst of the night time. However he didn’t comply with her.
All of the adults talked concerning the cloud an increasing number of. His dad and mom, the lecturers, the scientists who got here to the farm, everybody. However they all nonetheless accepted it as a weird pure phenomenon and anticipated it to ultimately dissipate or blow away.
Kim anticipated it to get thicker and extra widespread. So he was astonished when he went out on Friday morning to go to high school and noticed the solar shining in an nearly totally blue sky. There was solely a small remnant of the cloud, lurking immediately above the mountain. It was about one-tenth the dimensions it had been the night time earlier than, and it was coming aside, wisps trailing off and blowing away.
Eila was already exterior, along with her bike. She was wanting up on the sky.
“Something go wrong?” requested Kim. Eila turned her head to have a look at him.
“With the cloud,” Kim continued. “Aster was doing that, wasn’t she?”
Eila nodded slowly. “An experiment I wanted her to try. But it was getting too much attention. And we learned what we need to know. Nothing for you to worry about, Kim.”
Kim felt cursed to have a youthful sister who handled him like he was 5 years outdated. It was infuriating.
“I am worried!” he shouted. “Why does Aster need it to be cloudy? Why can’t she come out in the sun? She’s like a vampire or something.”
“Aster is nothing like a vampire,” mentioned Eila, her voice working as chilly as Kim’s ran sizzling. “There are no such things as vampires.”
“So what’s her problem with sunshine?”
Eila regarded again up on the sky. “Aster has no problem with sunshine.”
“Why don’t you go get her, then?” requested Kim. “Bring her out. I’ve never seen her in the sun. You two always sneak around at night.”
Eila sighed and returned her gaze to her brother. He didn’t discover it comfy. Eila checked out him the identical method she regarded on the weeds she needed to pull out of the carrot beds. “We have to go to school. Forget about Aster. You really don’t have to worry about her, Kim.”
“I wish I could forget her,” grumbled Kim. “Can’t you please, please get rid of her?”
“She’s my friend,” mentioned Eila. “I’m helping her learn. When she’s learned enough, I’m going to get her to help us.”
“Eila! Why not just check with some grown-ups about what you want to do? Talk to the scientists, tell them about Aster. How about Professor Lowton? You like her—”
“No,” mentioned Eila. “Aster doesn’t want anyone to know about her, particularly adults. You really need to stop worrying, Kim. Aster is studying our world, that’s all. We’ve learned all we need to know about the weather. The cloud won’t come back.”
“And the ants, and the kangaroo, and the guinea pigs—”
“We’ll be late. You need to get going.”
“I’ll go after you. I don’t care if I’m late.”
“Don’t try and do anything to Aster,” warned Eila. “She is perfectly harmless, unless you do something that makes her defend herself.”
“I’m not going to try anything. I really am going to school!” protested Kim. “I’m just letting you leave first.”
Kim at all times left first. Eila adopted a bit later. That’s the way it had at all times been.
“Bennie will be waiting for you,” Eila identified.
“She can wait,” Kim replied bitterly. “Go!”
Eila shrugged, received on her bike, and rode away.
Kim stood by his personal bike, simply holding the handlebars, wanting up on the sky once more. Possibly the truth that it had cleared was a great signal. He wished there was one thing he might do. He wished that Bennie would assist him, or that he might make issues be regular once more.
His father got here into the shed from the opposite facet, carrying a tray of seedlings that may be picked up and brought by automotive to the college or the federal government laboratories.
“Kim! Why are you still here? You’ll be late!”
“I know! I know!” Kim didn’t know why he felt so offended. Offended and helpless. He received on his bike and rode off, with Darwin Basalt staring after him.
Bennie was nonetheless ready for him, exterior her home. Eila and Madir had been already nearly out of sight.
“Hey! You’re late,” mentioned Bennie. “We’ll have to race.”
Kim grunted however didn’t pace up. Bennie rode round him in a circle.
“Come on!” she mentioned. “It’s assembly morning. You know you’ll have to see the Skull if we get there after nine.”
The Cranium was their identify for the deputy principal, who had a really skinny face and by no means smiled. All the youngsters had been afraid of him, totally primarily based on how he regarded. So far as Kim knew, he by no means truly did something besides loom up unexpectedly.
“You go,” he mentioned miserably. “I don’t care if I have to see the Skull.”
“Come on, Kim. Look up! The sky’s blue, it’s a beautiful day. Also I’ve got a surprise for you. A present.”
Curiosity flickered by Kim’s gloom. “A present? It isn’t my birthday.”
“Yeah, well, it’s kind of a present for me too.” Bennie circled once more and matched pace with Kim, however instantly began to hurry up once more. Instinctively, he did too. “And for Theo and Tamara.”
“The D and D group?” requested Kim, now actually . “What is it?”
“You’ll see,” mentioned Bennie, rushing up once more. “Lunchtime.”
“Wait! What is it?” yelled Kim, standing as much as pedal more durable. It was at all times tough for him to maintain up on his heavy outdated bike when Bennie actually went for it on her ten-speed.
They received to high school at two minutes earlier than 9, speeding in simply in time for morning meeting, below the watchful gaze of the Cranium.
All by the morning, Bennie refused to speak about no matter it was she’d received for Kim. Kim saved asking her about it, and earlier than lengthy they had been speaking collectively identical to they at all times did, even stepping into bother from Mrs. Thompson, who made them transfer seats. Even at recess, Bennie wouldn’t reveal what was coming, laughing at Kim’s guesses of latest cube, a follow sword, a wizard’s hat, or the steel collectible figurines they knew existed however had by no means seen.
Lastly, at lunchtime, Bennie gathered Theo and Tamara, who from their smiles already knew what was coming. The 4 of them clustered below one of many massive oak bushes on the far finish of the oval, the place solely the sixth graders had been allowed to go.
Bennie produced a giant manilla envelope and handed it to Kim.
“This is for all of us,” she mentioned. “But you’ll look after it, Kim.”
Kim knew immediately that it was D&D associated. He might really feel the form of a book inside, the identical measurement as the unique rule books. However it was thicker. The flap of the envelope wasn’t caught down, so he flicked it again, reached in, and pulled out probably the most stunning factor he had ever seen.
Greyhawk. A complement to Dungeons & Dragons!
Picture by way of Mcfearless/Ebay
“I got it yesterday afternoon,” mentioned Bennie. “I went to the games shop after my dentist appointment and it was just there.”
Kim flicked by the pages.
“There’s a new kind of fighter called a paladin,” he mentioned, marveling. “And a thief class!”
“I read through it last night,” mentioned Bennie. “There are a ton of new monsters. And magic items. And spells.”
“What’s this thing on the cover?” requested Kim. “The floating globe with the tentacles?”
“They’re not tentacles,” Bennie defined. “They’re eyes on stalks. Each eye can cast a different spell. It’s called a Beholder.”
Kim flicked by the book to search out the entry.
“‘Also called a Sphere of Many Eyes,’” he learn. “‘Or Eye Tyrant.’ Like Aster, but with eyes…”
“Oh, nothing,” mentioned Kim hurriedly, with a swift look at Bennie. “Something in a story. This is amazing! Magic users have new spells, up to ninth level!”
“Let me see that!” exclaimed Theo, craning in nearer.
“You don’t get any ninth-level spells until you’re level eighteen,” cautioned Bennie.
“Wow, at the rate we’ve advanced so far, that’s going to take, let’s see…” Theo began to calculate however Tamara was faster.
“Six years, playing forty out of fifty-two Sundays every year,” she mentioned. “We’ll be in the last year of high school by then!”
“If we’re still playing,” mentioned Kim. What he actually meant was, If Aster doesn’t destroy us first.
