| abstract | - The core foundations for the Malazan novels of Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont were born in the role-playing game sessions they began at Canada's University of Victoria in the 1980s. The two were flatmates while attending the college's creative writing program and shared similar interests in history, archaeology, and anthropology. They started with Dungeons & Dragons, but soon found the game system "too mechanical and on occasion nonsensical" so they moved on to GURPS (the Generic Universal Roleplaying System), which offered the spontaneous narrative flexibility they were looking for. Although role-playing games tend to be designed with the idea that a single referee guides the actions of multiple players through an adventure scenario, Erikson and Esslemont played one-on-one sessions with each alternating as referee and player. Erikson says he ran a "very narrative, dialogue-heavy, often action-less style of game" that forced characters into moral quandries. The early Malazan games ran for three to four years and largely covered the backstory of the foundation of the Malazan empire. Many members of the Malazan Old Guard were game characters created with characteristics and roles delineated by the gaming rules. Erikson says, "This all became the grounding of the fictional world we then created, and those who have gamed will see the basic gaming elements at work in our tales. To be specific: the Malazan Empire was founded in a tavern called Smiley’s in an island city: its core of players were a balanced party of sorcerers, fighters, assassins, thieves and priests." The pair integrated their intellectual interests by gaming the deeds of Malazan's 'great people' and examining the effects of their actions on both the conquered and the conquerers. Then they would replay or expand on these events by taking on the roles of the soldiers caught up in the wake of their leaders on both sides of the conflict. In this way they covered the Malazan invasions of Quon Tali, Seven Cities, and Genabackis that led up to the beginning of the first published Malazan novel, Gardens of the Moon, as well as gamed the general events of that book itself. Gaming went on to form a general timeline for both Erikson and Esslemont's books to be filled in with additional characters and storylines created by each author. Erikson estimates that perhaps as much as twenty percent of the novels come directly from their original gaming sessions. Esslemont states that almost all of the books in the series were gamed to at least some degree, although some such as Blood and Bone were derived from "talked-through sketches and events." But the gaming details used in the books "represent only a fraction of all that material". The authors' style of one-on-one gaming is one reason why character duos are so prevalent in the novels (Shadowthrone/Cotillion, Quick Ben/Kalam, et al.) However it was also not uncommon for Erikson or Esslemont to play multiple characters simultaneously. Erikson recalls playing the roles of Rake, Caladan Brood, and T'riss in one series of games. They were also not above departing from game rules when it served the overall story. Esslemont says "we drove the true gamers mad with our blatant disregard for the mechanics of the game. We neither of us cared for what the dice said and preferred instead the unfolding of poetic truth. Excellent, inspired, or entertaining role-playing always won out over the dictates of the rules." Although Erikson has revealed that some key story points were left to chance. "Believe it or not, the clash of two major characters in Toll the Hounds was decided on a single roll of the die. If it had gone the other … well, I shudder to think." Erikson and Esslemont mapped the world collaboratively with Erikson outlining most of the continents. Esslemont says there were times he was handed a "blank continent" which he "then filled out with peoples, cities, civilizations, and such. Usually who was ‘running’ that game determined who would fill in the map. For example, Steve ran me in north Genabackis and so filled all that out. Then, later, I ran Steve in south Genabackis and filled out all the south." Both men continued gaming even after they were no longer roommates, but career opportunities soon took them to different parts of the world. Erikson continued one-on-one sessions with his friend, Mark Paxton-Macrae, creating the story of Karsa Orlong. He also refereed a more traditional game with five players whose characters formed the basis of Fiddler's squad in the Bonehunters and who helped guide the events of the final books in this part of the series.
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