D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

[Paul Farquhar]

This, except my players can only dream of attaining Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser levels of competence, let alone Conan.

This is a product of game mechanics - Conan only ever rolls natural 20s. But HAT clearly leant into this sense of blundering heroes, and as such has more in common with the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories.

 

[Distracted DM]

This is a product of game mechanics - Conan only ever rolls natural 20s. But HAT clearly leant into this sense of blundering heroes, and as such has more in common with the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories.

They're very skilled/best at what they do, but yeah they occasionally "roll badly" and that gets them into predicaments... but I'll say that I think Conan has failed some rolls as well (not nearly as many); he's definitely more "perfect" than Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, who both have their own failings. Though I think their plot armor/luck score is relied on a little heavier, since they're not as perfect as Conan :'D

 

[CreamCloud0]

They're not in a game. It's more like the rules of magic are game-like (for reasons explained in the books), and the main character has a unique interface which is interpreting the rules for the character in a way he can understand, because he's a nerd from Earth who played RPGs.

what would you say are the notable differences between LitRPG and RPG-mechanics verse? or is it just one's the genre and the other's the trope?

 

[RhaezDaevan]

They're not in a game. It's more like the rules of magic are game-like (for reasons explained in the books), and the main character has a unique interface which is interpreting the rules for the character in a way he can understand, because he's a nerd from Earth who played RPGs.

Sounds like the same thing to me, but you can enjoy what you like.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

Fafhrd and Grey Mouser must be really obscure characters, or perhaps locally popular only in the US or something? First time I ever saw their names mentioned was in some forum thread here about 5E and everyone seemed to treat them like their names were common knowledge.

If one wants to check out one of Leiber's books, which one should it be?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Did they stop writing them or did the publishers stop publishing them?

They stopped writing them. Which authors do you think I'm referring to lol?

 

[Mistwell]

what would you say are the notable differences between LitRPG and RPG-mechanics verse? or is it just one's the genre and the other's the trope?

I don't know enough to answer that question as well as someone else I suspect.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Fafhrd and Grey Mouser must be really obscure characters, or perhaps locally popular only in the US or something? First time I ever saw their names mentioned was in some forum thread here about 5E and everyone seemed to treat them like their names were common knowledge.

If one wants to check out one of Leiber's books, which one should it be?

They were extremely well-known, but like most fantasy authors who published largely before 1990, they've basically been forgotten by what I'd call the LotR-HP-GoT generation, i.e. Millennials, particularly younger ones. Through no fault of either said Millennials or the authors, note. But if books aren't printed and authors aren't being discussed, well, what are you going to do?

Moorcock is most shocking one that even fantasy literature-involved people under about 45 tend to have close to zero awareness of, or to have heard the name and know nothing else. Which is utterly wild given he was almost as he was hugely influential on fantasy as a whole, and even more influential on fantasy in tabletop games - wargames and fantasy TTRPGs - and in videogame fantasy. Indeed, I think a reasonable case could be mounted that for games in general, Moorcock's influence direct and indirect, is actually significantly more than Tolkien's.

With Leiber, book-wise, I'm not sure much is in print, annoyingly, but Swords and Deviltry is the first book, and any collection that includes that is probably a good bet. Personally the first one I read was The First Book of Lankhmar, which includes all of those and another, but I am very confident that is out-of-print and doesn't appear to have a digital edition.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

what would you say are the notable differences between LitRPG and RPG-mechanics verse? or is it just one's the genre and the other's the trope?

The bolded bit is exactly it.

The key issue with LitRPG is that most of it is kind of shockingly* badly written stuff (I mean in a literal "bad fan fiction-tier prose, pacing, plotting, characterisation" sense), really focused on the power fantasy of essentially knowing the secrets behind the universe, that everyone else doesn't. But obviously people can find that out for themselves when they read it.

"Transported into a game" or "Discovered that the world has mechanics and I can access them like a game" are pretty common sub-genres of Isekai too - and much of the worst Isekai is of those sub-genres (perhaps because of the power-fantasy elements and the "sense of superiority" deal, they particularly often tend to be... problematic). Generally the more self-serious it is, the worse it is, but that's not a universal rule. Certainly the sit-com-y stuff works better though.

* = People might think I mean this in a "90% of everything is crap" way, but no, let me assure you, we're talking about something more extreme. It's pretty wild, but you don't have to take my word for it, you can seek it out.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

They were extremely well-known, but like most fantasy authors who published largely before 1990, they've basically been forgotten by what I'd call the LotR-GoT generation, i.e. Millennials, particularly younger ones. Through no fault of either said Millennials or the authors, note. But if books aren't printed and authors aren't being discussed, well, what are you going to do?

Moorcock is most shocking one that even fantasy literature-involved people under about 45 tend to have close to zero awareness of, or to have heard the name and know nothing else. Which is utterly wild given he was almost as he was hugely influential on fantasy as a whole, and even more influential on fantasy in tabletop games - wargames and fantasy TTRPGs - and in videogame fantasy. Indeed, I think a reasonable case could be mounted that for games in general, Moorcock's influence direct and indirect, is actually significantly more than Tolkien's.

With Leiber, book-wise, I'm not sure much is in print, annoyingly, but Swords and Deviltry is the first book, and any collection that includes that is probably a good bet. Personally the first one I read was The First Book of Lankhmar, which includes all of those and another, but I am very confident that is out-of-print and doesn't appear to have a digital edition.

Thanks! The local library seems well stocked. They have several, including the first book of Lankhmar.