Oh, fellow Doper-nerds, I call upon you for help!
When I was a teenager, I was part of the Science-Fiction Book Club. I remember having a series of books about a group of teens who played a AD&D-like RPG, and got sucked into the fantasy world. If they died in the fantasy-world, they were dead back in the “real” world as well. I know it was at least three books, but I got sick of it at that point.
I’ve been wondering what the hell I was reading for a couple of years now, as my memory has failed me (probably for the best!). Does this sound familiar to anyone?
“Doper-nerds?”
Sounds vaguely like the Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg. 1st book: The Sleeping Dragon.
That’s it! And I meant “Doper-nerds” in an nice way. After all, I self-identified as one!
(C’mon, everyone is a little nerdy!)
Happy to help. I was never actually popular enough to hang with nerds.
I have read “The Sleeping Dragon” an unhealthy number of times though. For me the escapist fantasy element wasn’t the part about magic and wizards and alternate dimensions, it was the idea of being accepted as a member of a gaming group.
Even I lost interest in the series after the fifth book or so. Rosenberg was ahead of his time in the “open-ended crap fantasy series that meanders aimlessly toward no particular goal” genre.