The Vicarious Adventurer is dedicated to bringing the spirit of the adventure, through the stories and journals of role players, to fellow gamers. These stories are all written by gamers and for gamers. Included here are links to adventure journals, as well as reviews of these stories, for the more discriminating reader. I welcome new links to your stories, and if you don't have your own page, I'd be delighted to publish your work here. All literature remains the copyrighted property of the original author. I promise that no profits will be made from the use of any literature, or The Vicarious Adventurer webpage. The following reviews include the Title, author(s), date each story was reviewed, along with the reviews. Other reviews are always welcome.-Todd E. Schreiber, Webmaster of "The Vicarious Adventurer"
"The Journal of Drashak Khea Milari" by Steve Patten Dec. 28, 1998
Overview: The "Journal of Drashak" is written from the first person point of view of a dwarf in a DragonQuest (DQ) based game system. The DragonQuest magic system may confuse those unfamiliar with DQ. the campaign takes place in a player created world, and currently consists of 19 chapters. The story and campaign are still operating."The Trials of Trimus" by Alan Jones, Rob Vance, Philip Keable & Rupert Tower Dec. 28, 1998Review: The story starts with a mid-level party already in progress. Character development and background is done fairly well, and you get to know the main character "Drashak". The party is pretty large, and some of the players' personalities get lost in the shuffle. At times the gameplay, or missing players shows through the story. The continuity between chapters is mediocre at first, but improves in later chapters. There are occasional gaps in time between chapters, but the story is very well written both in grammar and prose. This story is serious throughout, with little levity, it is also quite lengthy, something I appreciate in Vicarious Adventuring.
Overall: I feel that the "Journal of Drashak" is currently the best written adventure narrative that I'm aware of, however small a sample that might be. It is suggested reading for other Vicarious Adventurers, unless you are too confused by the DQ magic and skill system.
Overview: The "Trials of Trimus" is written from the third person, though centering mostly around Trimus, a mage. There are many chapters to this story, and it offers a large amount of quantity, with the beginning of the story starting with the beginning of the characters adventuring days. Its based upon AD&D and is located in an unknown world. The story appears to be still in progress."Tales Not Worth the Telling" by Tim Schreiber, Todd Schreiber, Joe Wojcik & Scott Seeber Dec. 28, 1998Review: The quality of this story changes dramatically from beginning to end. At first, this story feels like you're playing the game. You can almost hear the dice rolling during most of the encounters, and the times when the DM intervenes on characters' behalf are obvious. An attempt at maintaining continuity between adventures is made, and there are few blank spots where you are unsure as to what has occurred. Character introduction was very shoddy, and after 9 chapters of reading, I'm still not sure what the classes of the main characters are, or who in fact is a character and who is an NPC. In a work of fiction, these might be strengths, but in Vicarious Adventuring, it leaves the reader a little confused. The story is delivered rather casually, feeling more comical than deep. The grammar is atrocious throughout, though, nothing a little editing couldn't fix. The actual campaigns that the characters take part in are somewhat immature, but over time, they will become more serious and full fleshed. The quality of the writing in the later chapters is quite good, and the story line develops as well.
Overall: I found the stories to be enjoyable, I look forward to reading further chapters. The stories start off as poorly written, but become very well written about halfway through. My initial reaction was "this is pretty lame", but by the end, I've become very impressed with the skill of the writer. You have to bear through the beginning, but its well worth it in the end.
Overview: "Tales Not Worth the Telling" is a compilation of comic short stories by different authors. It contains foul language and situations throughout, and should be avoided at all cost if the reader is offended by such material. These are not serious gaming stories. The characters are based upon AD&D 1st edition rules."Our Heroes" by Todd E. Schreiber Dec. 28, 1998Review: The first page of these stories contains a rather apt review that states "Dense with packed &%#, horrid language, and no plots or excitement in any way." That one review rather sums up the whole, if not for the fact that there are a few comical diamonds among the rough. There are multiple stories, from different points of view, many stories seem to contradict others. Story backgrounds are either nonexistent or overblown. The writing is very immature for many of the stories, and its obvious the authors didn't take the gaming seriously.
Overall: "Tales Not Worth the Telling" may not be worth the reading. I personally find them to be quite humurous, though my point of view is rather biased. If you're looking for serious campaign stories, this will not wet your appetite. However, with such a potpourri of writing styles, there is bound to be something for everyone.
Your reviews (read unbiased) are requested, send to schreib@webspan.net
Overview: "Our Heroes" is primarily a narrative from the point of view of one of three adventurers. The party is semi established at the beginning of the story. There are currently seven chapters to this story. Its based upon the DragonQuest Role-playing system, and takes place in a player created world. The campaign and story remains in progress."Our Gaming Group" by Thomas Forlenza & Scott Seeber Dec. 28, 1998Review: Being as objective as possible, the story is at times comical, at other times slow and boring. There is no overriding mission throughout the campaign, other than the parties general greed and self motivation. A good overview of each character is given, along with stats, to familiarize you with the characters, before reading the stories. The dice rolling is imperceptible for the most part. The grammar is good throughout the story, and the author will correct grammar in past chapters from time to time.
Overall: I believe "Our Heroes" to be a relatively high quality story, it may not fit the bill if you are looking for more of a "play-by-play" adventure story, but otherwise its entertainment value is relatively high.
Your reviews (read unbiased) are requested, send to schreib@webspan.net
Overview: "Our Gaming Group" contains three different timelines of three parties, in different campaigns. These campaigns are all AD&D based. Little effort is made to maintain a story, it is primarily a brief game session log of what happened on each adventure over a long period of time.Review: If you're interested in literature, don't even bother with this site. The timelines contains links to paragraphs describing the important events surounding each adventure, and the events which play a role in the overall campaign. Some of the characters of each party are described, while others are not. The newest timeline promises to give more detail regarding each game session, in minutes of a meeting like fashion. There are also a few "Poems by the Unamed Bard" which contain graphic and disgusting sexual perversions. These alone may turn your stomach for a week, so I suggest you avoid these links, and focus your attention on the Timelines.
Overall: Avoid this page unless you are bored beyond belief. I haven't even read all this drivel.