Appendix R: Ranger's Apprentice

Medieval history, low fantasy and a hidden fantasy gem

Welcome to Appendix R, a series where I explore media that impacted my approach to design and gaming. In this first installment, I want to travel back to a formative time in my life; 6th grade. I was not a particularly avid reader at the time. I had a handful of series that I enjoyed, namely A Series of Unfortunate Events and Alex Rider, but I wasn’t the kind of kid who would pick up just anything and read it. My parents might have been a little concerned that I was becoming yet another kid drifting away from books towards video games and TV and, as such, took it upon themselves to find me something to read. I was a harsh critic, though not one with terribly high standards. I, like most 11-year-old boys, wanted action, violence and adventure but I also enjoyed humor, especially clever humor. I enjoyed C.S. Lewis but, due to my education in a Christian school, I had labeled his output “school books” and I’d be damned if I read a school book for fun. I was not ready for Tolkein as my first attempt to read Lord of the Rings left me impatient with the Hobbit portion of Fellowship and yearning for some kind of grand battle. Had my parents directed me towards Howard, Leiber, or even P.G. Woodhouse, I probably would have found what I was looking for. Still, my parents did eventually help me find something I was interested in. My father shared his Tom Clancy collection with me, I began reading Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance series, and my mom brought home three books belonging to an unfamiliar series called Ranger’s Apprentice by an Australian author named John Flanagan, which I quickly became hooked on.

Ranger’s Apprentice is an extremely unusual series in the grand scheme of young adult fiction. It’s approach to fantasy is surprisingly grounded, bordering on historical fiction. It centers around an orphaned boy named Will who grew up in the castle ward at Castle Redmont, a fief of the Kingdom of Araluen, under the care of Baron Arald. Unlike most orphaned YA protagonists, Will’s late parents were not anything special and, honestly, neither is Will. His father was a man-at-arms who died in a major battle and his mother died giving birth to him. Will is a misfit with no stand-out abilities except for a penchant for climbing, stealing from the castle kitchen, and playing practical jokes. He wants to be a knight, erroneously believing that his father had been one, but his small stature and slight frame make him a poor fit for the role. At the age of 15, he and the other orphans raised with him as wards of the Baron are presented before the craftmasters of Redmont fief. Each of his wardmates find a place where they belong with Horace and Alyss, the only two who continue on as major characters, even finding acceptance within the Battle School and the Diplomatic Service respectively. Will, meanwhile, goes unselected and seems destined to life as a farmhand until he is taken in as an apprentice to Halt of the Royal Ranger Corps. From here, the story centers on Will’s apprenticeship and early career as a Ranger under the guidance of Halt and the adventures the two of them go on in service of the Kingdom.

One of my biggest hangups with young adult fiction was that I didn’t care for teen drama. I never had any desire to read Harry Potter because of this. I was relieved to find that, although there is some teen drama centering on the antagonism between Horace and Will and Will’s budding romance with Alyss, the bulk of the story is centered on Halt training Will in the ways of the Ranger Corps and exploring medieval warfare and cultures through a fictionalized lens. This is where the series becomes a great resource for roleplaying as it does more than almost any other series to explain what exactly a Ranger is, what they do and how they organize. The author of this series, John Flanagan, presents Rangers as an insular organization of foresters, scouts, and strategists who are masters of stealth, archery, and survival. They serve the Kingdom directly, even standing up to Barons and Lords to keep their goals aligned with their liege as needed, and work as a kind of law enforcement organ in peacetime and as scouts and strategists in wartime. They are the best archers in the kingdom and are also skilled knife-fighters favoring the heavy seax knife over the sword or axe. To cap it all off, their uniform consists of a mottled proto-camouflage cloak made up of gray, green and brown fabric to help them blend in with the forest. The Rangers are an organized corps of 50 active Rangers, one for every fief in the Kingdom. In addition to them, there are retired Rangers who serve in administrative and support roles and the Apprentices who come into the Corps to replace retired or deceased members. They are secretive and insulated with many believing that their skills at unseen movement are a result of black magic. There’s nothing magical about it though. Rangers are not sorcerers, just highly trained and exceptionally skilled at what they do.

The applications to RPGs are apparent at first blush. A lot of people have trouble wrapping their heads around what exactly a Ranger should be. After all, the most famous literary Ranger, Aragorn, functions more as a Fighter than a Ranger. This is because Tolkein uses the word “Ranger” to mean wanderer, not to refer to a specific martial discipline. John Flanagan, however, is using the term in its militaristic sense. The Araluen King’s Ranger Corps are a combination of the medieval Forester and the 18th century Colonial Rangers found within the British Army in the Seven Years War and the American Revolution. The result is a survivalist skirmisher who can be used as a wilderness guide and bandit hunter in peacetime and a guerrilla or scout in wartime. They form loose conclaves and have assigned territories to cover outside of extenuating circumstances. The books do a great job exploring these roles as Halt and Will frequently find themselves having to overcome long odds with limited resources, relying heavily on their archery and survival skills. They lead both regular and irregular armies, even teaching fictionalized Scandinavians to field archers in a battle with fictionalized Mongols. Everyone who craps on Rangers for being boring should take notes. This is the kind of thing you can and should be doing, mechanical shortcomings of the 5e Ranger notwithstanding. What this series does well is illustrate that while Rangers aren’t warriors, they can hold their own in combat and have other exceptional and useful skills that any adventuring party would need. How do you play a Ranger? Read these books.

Even if you never plan to roll up a Ranger, Ranger’s Apprentice is a great resource on how expeditionary warfare and campaigning goes socially. There aren’t many fantasy series out there that focus on camp life during adventures. Usually, time sitting around the campfire in fantasy books is for heavy-handed exposition or setup for an ambush on the main party. Flanagan certainly uses these tropes, but many of his camp scenes are used to humanize his characters and establish that, as you might expect, being on campaign sucks. Characters are constantly saddle sore, sleeping rough, and complaining about hard rations. Coffee is the biggest luxury they indulge in and the way that Flanagan describes it is probably why I picked up a bean habit myself. The wear and tear of the road, especially in rough conditions, directly impacts the well-being of the characters and even influences their decisions. Horace is the character who is most impacted by life on campaign. As a Knight of the Realm, Horace becomes accustomed to a certain amount of luxury and all of that is stripped away when Halt and Will spirit him away on another daring adventure. Why track rations and enforce overland travel rules? Because it fundamentally changes the approach your party will take. It has immediate and direct consequences that so many stories tend to overlook. Ranger’s Apprentice doesn’t though and, as such, it’s essential reading for a campaign.

For whatever reason, Ranger’s Apprentice did not get any love from studios for adaptations and has remained a somewhat contained phenomenon. It’s a hidden gem in the purest sense but it has had a profound influence on me as a writer and GM. In turn, I wholeheartedly recommend this series to everyone, especially those grappling with how Rangers should function in-world. It’s also good for older kids, so those of you who have 10 year-olds who seem checked out of the normal kids fare, pick up the series for them and read it yourself.