As soon as a RPG setting gets its own novels the novelists will wreck it. Instead of working within the system they - often unimaginative hacks - will create "exceptional characters", breaking rules and flavor, and often the setting itself because they could not create an interesting character and make do with some "special" character.
Instead of a compelling novel written about a young knight's struggle against a bandit lord, later revealed to be his half-brother, with the knight growing up and maturing, and facing the choices between honor, love, and family loyality, we're getting the young knight that's revealed to be the last scion of the royal line of the lost empire, facing off against the devil-spanwed bandit warlord leading the northern hordes against the southern kingdom before he can marry the celestial elven princess. And all characters have less depth than a cardboard cutout too many "authors" can't write characters and instead write collections of powers and "special background", and too many authors can't create tension and instead put in a "world is in danger" clichee in a failed attempt to compensate.
Instead of a novel adding color to the setting we've got a big parts of the setting wiped off the map, and the rest changed into something we'd not recognize anymore from the setting's sourcebook, like the restoration of the old empire that was just background in the setting until they let a hack at the novels. In the process much of the setting's sourcebooks are rendered useless - or the setting could even be ruined.
Instead of seeing characters molded after the classes or templates from the setting, and then filled with color and depth, showing what can be done with the "Fighter", "Knight" or "Rogue", we get some "not in the rules, but he's special" gestalt-fabrications, usually combining magic and martial arts into some overwhelming force, and either stealing all the thunder from actual PCs, or causing players to consider - quite rightfully, since the PCs are supposed to be the heroes, the special ones - such exceptions the norm, making most of the rules pointless NPC-only stuff.
It's like we've got rules for a batman setting, for creating batman-like characters, and the novels write about batman who discovers he is actually superman! And has superpowers! and goes to town on all the batman-villains. What use are the rules and the setting if it's changed into something else by the novel? The novel should be true to the setting. If there are no rules about superman in the batman game, superman shouldn't be in the batman novel. Especially not as main character. Some exceptions for monsters and NPCs are ok, but the characters readers identify with, and who are acting as the main protagonists, should be molded as PCs, and following PC rules.
In short, novels often harm rather than enhance a RPG since they are usually written by uncreative idiots.
Even if, by chance, there's an author that's actually good at writing, often the author simply doesn't grasp the RPG's peculiar flavor. Like Elaine Cunningham, a very good writer, who creates compelling characters but not D&D characters. If a character of her is a powerful priestess, then she'd at least attempt to raise dead her fallen lover. Same for a scion of the richest family in Waterdeep who discovers an unknown sister having been murdered - raise dead is just a donation away. Elaine could have found ways to explain why raise dead did not work. She simply ignored it though, which felt wrong.
If the story needs to ignore the setting to work, then it's the wrong story for the setting.
Instead of a compelling novel written about a young knight's struggle against a bandit lord, later revealed to be his half-brother, with the knight growing up and maturing, and facing the choices between honor, love, and family loyality, we're getting the young knight that's revealed to be the last scion of the royal line of the lost empire, facing off against the devil-spanwed bandit warlord leading the northern hordes against the southern kingdom before he can marry the celestial elven princess. And all characters have less depth than a cardboard cutout too many "authors" can't write characters and instead write collections of powers and "special background", and too many authors can't create tension and instead put in a "world is in danger" clichee in a failed attempt to compensate.
Instead of a novel adding color to the setting we've got a big parts of the setting wiped off the map, and the rest changed into something we'd not recognize anymore from the setting's sourcebook, like the restoration of the old empire that was just background in the setting until they let a hack at the novels. In the process much of the setting's sourcebooks are rendered useless - or the setting could even be ruined.
Instead of seeing characters molded after the classes or templates from the setting, and then filled with color and depth, showing what can be done with the "Fighter", "Knight" or "Rogue", we get some "not in the rules, but he's special" gestalt-fabrications, usually combining magic and martial arts into some overwhelming force, and either stealing all the thunder from actual PCs, or causing players to consider - quite rightfully, since the PCs are supposed to be the heroes, the special ones - such exceptions the norm, making most of the rules pointless NPC-only stuff.
It's like we've got rules for a batman setting, for creating batman-like characters, and the novels write about batman who discovers he is actually superman! And has superpowers! and goes to town on all the batman-villains. What use are the rules and the setting if it's changed into something else by the novel? The novel should be true to the setting. If there are no rules about superman in the batman game, superman shouldn't be in the batman novel. Especially not as main character. Some exceptions for monsters and NPCs are ok, but the characters readers identify with, and who are acting as the main protagonists, should be molded as PCs, and following PC rules.
In short, novels often harm rather than enhance a RPG since they are usually written by uncreative idiots.
Even if, by chance, there's an author that's actually good at writing, often the author simply doesn't grasp the RPG's peculiar flavor. Like Elaine Cunningham, a very good writer, who creates compelling characters but not D&D characters. If a character of her is a powerful priestess, then she'd at least attempt to raise dead her fallen lover. Same for a scion of the richest family in Waterdeep who discovers an unknown sister having been murdered - raise dead is just a donation away. Elaine could have found ways to explain why raise dead did not work. She simply ignored it though, which felt wrong.
If the story needs to ignore the setting to work, then it's the wrong story for the setting.
