By the Grace of the Fire / The Sleeping Dragon (opens in new tab)

1983’s The Sleeping Dragon is the first volume of Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame decalogy. To university students Karl Cullinane, Andrea ​“Andy-Andy” Andropolous, James Michael Finnegan, Doria Perlstein, Walter Slovotsky, Jason Parker, and Louis Riccetti, Professor Arthur Simpson Deighton, Ph. D is simply their gamemaster in a tabletop game that is sufficiently distinct from Dungeons and Dragons to avoid a lawsuit from that notoriously litigious company. In fact, Arthur is something ...