Literary (and other) settings wishlist

[Simon Collins]

1. Katharine Kerr's Deverry series. Katharine Kerr used to be editor of Dragon a long time ago. 4e as it stands would not model the world well (too 'high magic') but would love to see a well-done RPG of Deverry. Unfortunately, the author has made it clear she has little or no interest in allowing a Deverry RPG.

2. Any of David Gemmell's worlds would make great RPGs. Drenai series, of course, as stated by previous posters, but I'd love to see one of the Rigante series. Again, 4e magic would need to be severely curtailed. Note that 0one Games' early adventures were heavily influenced by Gemmell.

3. Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian series (Sharpe might make an interesting RPG too, though 'not my cup of tea'). Magic would be totally out here but great historical period that even games like Pendragon and Excalibur don't really capture that well, as they're more orientated towards Malory's vision of medieval knights. I should add books like Marion Bradley's 'The Mists of Avalon' and Mary Stewart's 'The Crystal Cave' series would also fall into this category.

4. Love to see a setting based on Tanith Lee's 'The Blood Rose', but probably too obscure to be financially viable. But definitely in my top three books of all time.

5. Might be a bit strange (and definitely not 4e!), but an RPG based on Robert Holdstock's 'Mythago Wood' series could be interesting.

6. Again, not 4e, but Charles de Lint's Newford series would make a great RPG. There are probably a few RPGs out there that could be tweaked to match this fairly easily (e.g. Changeling, Nevermore). I should note the great book by Emma Bull 'War for the Oaks' would fit in this category too.

I'll also add my vote for 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' and 'The Chronicles of Prydain'.

 

[Deadstop]

I honestly don't know how you could make literary settings jibe with the 4E daily/encounter/at-will powers. The characters are now so power-heavy, they really only fit in one setting: D&D.

Is this really a greater problem for 4e than for D&D in general, though?

"D&Disms" have always made adaptation of literary or folkloric fantasy to D&D a tricky prospect.

Even in the OGL era, when some companies felt free to pull and replace the "Vancian" magic system entirely, you had characters from Rand Al'Thor to King David of Israel using spell slots or a close variant thereof.

The abstractions of levels and hp have been around in every edition, and are even more deeply ingrained than Vancian magic.

The 4e powers system would fit most easily in a setting or genre that focuses on the characters' special tricks and techniques, that's true. I can't wait to see a wuxia adaptation, which I think would work great. But given that "powers" can already be anything from skill boosts to weapon techniques to magical spells, I'd think one could fill the power roster with appropriate choices for many a pre-existing world.

3e tweakers managed to give us classes and class abilities for nobles and merchants, and at least one "combat system" for medieval philosophical disputations, all working within the D&D framework; so I think 4e adapters could do the same (difficulties with the GSL being another topic).


Deadstop

 

[El Mahdi]

A lot of people have lampooned the stories and the author, but I would love to see Terry Goodkinds' Sword of Truth series developed into a D&D campaign. Of course, I'd like to see it in my preferred system 3.xE - however 4E would be good for the Seekers Dance of Death maneuvers (then again Bo9S would be good also). I would set it in the past, either way back in antiquity, when the Wizards keep was occupied and before the war with the Old World, or during the war with the Old World, or after the Barriers went up but while Richard is still a child (before the actual stories begin).

 

[wherwrthal]

I would like to see Freidman's Coldfire Trilogy as put into a 4e treatment. The magics match up as does the figthing. The races would have to be culled though, as there are only two on Erna.

They would have to create the rukh. Although, i don't know how well it would make as a PC race. They didn't care for humanity so much.

I think we'd have to wait for the druid suppliment to come out to do it right. Maybe?

 

[Canageek]

I'd have to go with Lin Carters Callisto series- Good mix of races (you'd have to give the different human groups different stats), Sky Pirates, Evil Mind wizards, beautify detailed world...

 

[Grimstaff]

Wow most of mine have been covered already.

I would add World of Tiers to the list, I think it would make for a dynamic game setting.

I think if I could choose to buy any of the aforementioned tomorrow though, it'd be ERB's Barsoom, a 4E setting with the full treamtment: maps, history, npcs, races, classes, weird technology, lost civilizations, all of it. What a fantastic setting it would be to game in!

 

[Falstaff]

Harry Potter.

 

[Voadam]

Seconds:

Skarpsey from Elizabeth Boyer, Pulp Norse is a great genre.

Prydain from Lloyd alexander. Arawn, the Hunters, The Black Cauldron, the Achren, the cantrevs, the fair folk, all could be fun.

Fred Saberhagen's Sword's series. Red and Blue Temple are great organizations.

Shanara, four kingdoms, demon realm, druid castles, evil gnomes, noble trolls, claustrophobic dwarves, great fun. I'll eventually track down the dragon article on them.

Bard's tale's Skara Brae could be a fun short city product.

Midkemia and the other side of the gate asianesque lands.

Others:

Zelazny's fantasy series with the warrior guy (I want to say Dilvish the Damned) who gets cursed to Hell but learns some potent hellish rituals and makes it back. The wizards and magic in the series were a lot of fun as were the demons.

Narnia could be fun, classical myth beasts and talking animals plus mean dwarves and a giant winter queen leading an evil empire.

 

[NanocTheCivilized]

You can find a pretty good adaption of Zothique for d20 here.

Back to lurking
Nanoc

 

[El Mahdi]

. . . Narnia could be fun, classical myth beasts and talking animals plus mean dwarves and a giant winter queen leading an evil empire.

I'll second this. I remember a regular article that Ed Greenwood did in the old Polyhedron called Deities in the Realms or somesuch (This was before the AD&D2E Forgotten Realms Deities supplements). He described Nobanion as an avatar of a much greater god, referring to Aslan without actually saying his name (pesky copyrights). He even described how Nobanion entered Toril from a pool in the "Wood Between the Worlds". I think a D&D version of Narnia would rock. I'd definately like the Narnian NPC's over the FR NPC's (Reepicheep could take Drizzt anyday).