D&D-influenced Fantasy Novels

[Tinker Gnome]

Back then, there was no GURPS. D&D was one of the few games around, period at that point. It had quite a following amongst SF writers when it first came out (I've heard tales of Larry Niven playing regularly back then), but more of a fad than a continuing hobby.

Hmmm, interesting. Thanks for the info.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I would actually think that some books NOT like D&D may be so BECAUSE of D&D.

As in the author has said to themselves: "Naaaaah, can't do that. Too much like an RPG. NEXT."

--fje

 

[WayneLigon]

In all honesty, the point is not which fantasy novels have been influenced by D&D, but rather: which ones have not?

Virtually none of them, from what I can see.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

Jim Butcher, author of the of The Dresden Files when asked in an interview with Crescent Blues stated that he has done alot of "gaming with every gaming system that you can think of." In fact he says that gaming has influenced his writing.

Mr. Butcher even included references to RPGs in his books. At the end of one of his books (can't remember off the top of my head) the main character Harry sits down to play a table top RPG game with some friends.

 

[diaglo]

i read a rumor about J Rowling's attempts at D&D in her youth. so my guess is Harry Potter was influenced by D&D. but that is purely speculation.

 

[Glyfair]

I'm sure I read somewhere (possibly in the notes at the end of the 1st or 2nd book!) that the original Thieves World series was described to the initial authors as being like D&D.

I vaguely remember comments that the core authors got the idea while playing in an RPG. I might be confusing it with the Wild Cards series (also edited by George R.R. Martin), which did come from a Superworld RPG campaign.

 

[jdrakeh]

Virtually none of them, from what I can see.

Not very many of them, I agree. Look at this thread - there are a lot of 'I think...' and 'I've heard...' replies, but precious few novels that can be linked to D&D for certain. The Midkemia novels are an exception and, in point of fact, even those are based on an extensively house-ruled version of D&D planned for later released as The Tome of Midkemia roleplaying game (I have no idea if this game was ever released as planned).

I can think of one series of novels based on Rolemaster (Dennis L. McKiernan's Mithgar series), and I know it's Rolemaster because Mr. McKiernan sent me a large packet of house rules for his Mithgar campaign in the mail a few years back (well, more than a few years now... 1999/2000, IIRC).

I can think of many novels and/or short stories often cited as being influenced by D&D (Vance's The Dying Earth, Leiber's Nehwon, etc), but in point of fact, all of those works did the influencing, and were not influenced by D&D (and, ironically, only one Dying Earth story specifically features the brand of memorization-based magic prevalent in D&D).

This is one of the reasons that D&D isn't my fantasy system of choice - because, with only a tiny handful of exceptions, it can't emulate a lot of fantasy that I'm fond of out of the box. Honestly, I feel that in borrowing so many tropes from so many pre-existing works, D&D became it's own brand of fantasy - and to that end, I've only ever seen this particular brand of fantasy in D&D novels.

 

[msoya]

Mr. Butcher even included references to RPGs in his books. At the end of one of his books (can't remember off the top of my head) the main character Harry sits down to play a table top RPG game with some friends.

Good series. The 'friends' are a pack of geeky werewolves, basically like the Scooby Gang from Buffy. They've been bugging him to join for a while, and he just mocked them for not having lives. Eventually, though, he insists on playing a barbarian with a huge axe (I think), because being a wizard would be too much like his day-job. His day-job does involve a lot of weird stuff (plant-monsters, the undead, faerie queens, flaming-poop-throwing monkey-demons...)

From Summer Knight:

"Playing Arcanos, man. The campaign is getting really fun." Role-playing games. I made a monosyllabic sound. [...] "Seriously, it's great. We're storming the fortress of Lord Malocchio, except we have to do it in disguise in the dead of night, so that the Council of Truth won't know who the vigilantes who brought him down were. There's spells and demons and dragons and everything. Interested?" "Sounds too much like work."

At the end of the book:

"Okay, then. Someone get me a pizza and a Coke and some dice, but I want it understood that I'm going to need thews." "What?" "Thews. I want big, bulging thews and I don't want to have to think too much." [...] I got myself some dice and some paper and some pencils and settled down with friends to pretend to be Thorg the Barbarian, to eat, drink, and be merry.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Paksenarrion is such a quintessential D&D character that you can even tell what her 1st level weapon proficiencies are. And you can tell when she makes 3rd level because she learns Long Sword. Mind you, she was a fighter at that point.

Vlad Taltos (Steven Brust) is based on the author's D&D game - but heavily modified, of course.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, I am amazed that no one has mentioned Terry Pratchett's Discworld series - the early books in particular were very heavily D&D influenced, right down to the spell mechanics!

The Auld Grump