Interview with Kim Ryan, author of The Realm of No!
January 11, 2008
Drowden: There has been a lot of controversy regarding the Dungeons and Dragons module by Kim Ryan: The Realm of No!. There have been those who have dismissed this module as a homebrew or fan fiction of little significance, but others who view The Realm of No! as a relivent and significant part of the Dungeons and Dragons canon. Here is am typing with Kim Ryan on MSN Messenger. Thanks for typing with me today.
Kim Ryan: No problem. I’m glad to be here.
Drowden: May I call you Kim?
Kim Ryan: Yes, but the name is simply a ghostname I used when I ghostwrote The Realm of No!.
Drowden: So what’s the story behind the module?
Kim Ryan: Well, back in the 1980’s, I was a teenager heavily into AD&D. I started off as player character and then moved up to writing and DMing my own and TSR adventures. During the summer of 1984, we played AD&D almost non-stop the entire summer, during breaks in playing I wrote The Realm of No!. This module was a parody of people I knew at the time and people and things in popular culture.
Drowden: So how did you come to submit The Realm of No! to TSR?
Kim Ryan: I Dmed The Realm of No! for a group of friends, and they seemed to enjoy the module and had fun figuring out the plots, subplots, and character angles. It was really a strange module to put players through. So about a year later, I decided to edit and add to the module as I converted the handwritten manuscript to a finished data document on floppy disk. I then hired a local printing company to print 10 copies to submit to TSR.
Drowden: Why 10 copies?
Kim Ryan: Why not? I figured there would be more than one person on the submissions panel at TSR, so 10 sounded like a good number.
Drowden: Why did you decide to use the ghostname Kim Ryan?
Kim Ryan: Kim Ryan is actually a real person and was a good friend of mine at the time. I was going to use some kind of fictional name but I figured since the module contains people and elements based on people I know, why not put the author as one of these people as well.
Drowden: How did he react?
Kim Ryan: He didn’t. I submitted the 10 modules and figured if anything came of them, it’d be something we could all get a laugh out of.
Drowden: Does he know now?
Kim Ryan: I have no idea. I haven’t seen Kim in over 10 years. I doubt it though.
Drowden: What did TSR do with The Realm of No! modules you sent them?
Kim Ryan: I really don’t know. Once I had mailed them to TSR, that was all I knew. TSR didn’t send back the modules with a rejection letter. They didn’t send anything back at all! I just didn’t hear anything.
Drowden: This didn’t concern you?
Kim Ryan: Not really. I still had the handwritten module and this revised module on floppy disk. Besides, my friends and I got new interests as time went by, so the whole world of D&D dissappeared into the Forgotten Realms.
Drowden: So when was the next time you heard about The Realm of No! ?
Kim Ryan: In 2006, I decided to do a search for the missing modules on Google. I ended up finding the Acadaeum.com postings by lordan inquiring about The Realm of No!. That’s when I knew, the modules somehow got leaked out the back door of TSR.
Drowden: Were you upset?
Kim Ryan: No, not at all. I was shocked and found it funny how after all these years, my module from 20 someodd years that evaporated into the Mists of Ravenloft ago has resurfaced.
Drowden: There has been new posts on Acadaeum.com as well as Wikipedia entries in 2008. People are theorizing that the module was submitted and rejected by TSR and you do seem to have your detractors.
Kim Ryan: People need to understand that this is a module I wrote as an adventure parody to people and things around me at the time, which I later submitted to TSR. I am glad that some or all of the 10 modules are out there in people’s collections or elsewhere. I am still wondering why TSR just didn’t mail me The Realm of No! modules back, and how the modules snuck out the backdoor at TSR and into private collections. Obviously, I can’t control what people decide to do with The Realm of No! itself, what they do with the modules in their possession like selling them and posting scans, or if people decide this adventure is the greatest thing since Queen of th Demonweb Pits or worse than a Three Burrito Shit at Jose’s Taco Stand. Regardless it seems the module has taken on a life of its own. Let the 30 Sided Die roll where it may. Hopefully I don’t lose an arm 😉 .
Drowden: So what are you involved with currently?
Kim Ryan: Well, I never got my dream job at TSR, but I did continue my writing career after finishing University. I write fiction, but it is not at all D&D based and not affiliated with TSR or Wizards of the Coast in any way, shapeshifter, or formless entity.
Drowden: Do you have any other D&D material you have written?
Kim Ryan: I do have a Monster Manual type book called The Crypt of Creatures, as well as a concept world, and a few other smaller works I all wrote in the mid-eighties. I still have them packed away with the store bought D&D books and modules I decided to keep.
Drowden: Will you ever take credit for The Realm of No! ?
Kim Ryan: Honestly, I don’t think so. There has already been enough controversy over this, coupled with my parodying of real people I knew at the time, I think it’d be more hassle than it’s worth. Besides my past and current works under my real name are more than enough recognition.
Drowden: What about your other Dungeons and Dragons material?
Kim Ryan: I really can’t see it. All of it was written for the AD&D system of 1984 and although I am happy with what I have written, I don’t know if I want to revisit that segment of my life and go through the work of converting everything to the current set of D&D rules in place now.
Drowden: Thank you for allowing me to interview you and your insight into The Realm of No!.
Kim Ryan: Thanks for contacting me.
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