Do you read non-RPG fantasy novels?

[farscapesg1]

I actually read both RPG fantasy novels and non-RPG ones (along with many other books). Personally, I always expect the RPG-related ones to be pretty bad, so I am not that disappointed when I read them (like Elminster in Hell)

I will say that the best fantasy novels I have read in a long time is the Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Friedman. Granted, those have a touch of Sci-fi in them, but for all general purposes they are fantasy novels. If you haven't read them (Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, and Crown of Shadows), pick them up or check them out from a library

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

For the record, I count all Wizards and White Wolf productions as RPG related. The same way, authors that have RPG versions of their work, such as HP Lovecraft and Michael Moorcock are RPG related.

You are wanting to know if we read novels OTHER than those related to an RPG. Thus Lovecraft, Howard, Moorcock, Lieber, Tolkien, Stoker, Burroughs, Jordan, Cook are all banned. And if you include RPG's based on real world earth (Roman Age, Age of the Shogun, Civil War etc), you'll find very few (if any) books that are not, in some way (however faint) RPG related. (The Art of War by Sun Tzu is mentioned in at least 2 RPG supplements I have).

Perhaps the better question is what books do you read, not brung to your attention by an RPG.

For example, I began reading Lovecraft before I knew about Call of Cthulhu. However, many of the Lovecraft works I've read since (the stuff by Chaosium; I really recommend the Book of Dyzan). I also tracked down Lieber's work based off of D&D.

However, Moorcock & Robert Howard I read well before I knew there was any RPG connection. I just finished Salmon of Doubt (I've seen the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's influence in more than 1 book).

It's sort of like saying which artists do you like that aren't RPG related. You know people like RK. Post, DiTerlizzi, Brom. And those other guys, like Frazzetta & Davinci.

It's hard to claim an author (himself) is RPG related when he died 50 years before RPG's appeared (like Robert Howard, or 2,000 years for my buddy Sun Tzu). You might see RPG conventions is both Howard's Conan & Jordan's Wheel of Time; and Jordan might have been influenced by RPG's; Howard I think not.

As for me I still read the FR paperbacks as they come out. Much like Ho-HO's I keep telling myself I'll stop, but then I go buy Maiden of Pain & regret it in the morning.

I read all the Warhammer fantasy novels. But I don't play Warhammer (RPG or miniatures game). I have no desire to ever play either. Even if d20 rules came out, I wouldn't want to play it. I just enjoy reading the novels.

I think your question is flawed as it is too broad. RPG's are a genre that relies heavily on the works of the past. If you dig hard enough ANY author can probablly be connected to an RPG in some way.

 

[the Jester]

I read non-rpg novels, and only read rpg novels if I am otherwise without anything to read.

But I refuse to count Lovecraft, Moorcock, etc. as rpg related- the rpgs are novel-related.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm mostly just happy that so far nobody has voted that they only read RPG fantasy novels. That would be pretty sad.

 

[James Heard]

I pretty much loathe gaming novels. I've obviously read some of them all the way through, but I sat through the D&D movie too. Most novels I read have nothing to do with D&D other than in my own mental associations. My most recent fantasy novels include Bujold, Turtledove, and Flint (I think).

 

[Voadam]

I read both.

The best rpg one I read was Weasel's Luck from the Dragonlance Heroes series I think. It was more than a decade ago but I remember really enjoying it.

The last fantasy novels I listened to (audio books for my commute) were Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror, and the Fifth Harry Potter book. I guess Steven King's Four Seasons counts as well as its got the supernatural and I read that one later.

The last rpg one I read was the oathbound novel (forged?).

 

[jerichothebard]

WAAAY back int he day, I read the first three triologies of Dragonlance, and remember loving them a ton. But you know what? I went back recently and read the first one, and they just don't compare to my memories of them.

Kinda like Star Wars a New Hope.


jtb

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I read mostly non-RPG fantasy novels (in addition to novels not related at all to fantasy). Very rarely, I'll go back and read some of the old TSR-produced novels for nostalgia's sake.

I agree with the rest that considering fantasy novels that have been made into RPGs just doesn't work, since those are of a completely different order than RPGs that have been made into novels.

Currently reading the latest Harry Potter book and flipping through Bukowski's Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame.

 

[Tamlyn]

You don't have an option for me - I don't read any kind of novel.

The only book I'm reading right now is: Cost Management, a Strategic Emphasis; 3rd edition.

I love the plot development in the 17th chapter. Riveting.

Bah! I don't buy into all the 3rd Edition crap. I stick with my old 2nd edition book. Sometimes even Advanced Cost Management, ACM for us in the know. (All joking aside, I think I have a copy of one of the editions of that book. I'd need to check my shelves at home to know for sure.)

 

[The_Gneech]

The same way, authors that have RPG versions of their work, such as HP Lovecraft and Michael Moorcock are RPG related.

Wow, bad choice here. I read a ton of Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber, with smatterings of Lovecraft and Tolkien, but they were all around aeons before RPGs had anything to do with them.

When you say "RPG-related," that says to me "licensed books," which are a completely different creature. Those I don't read. (I tried to read the novelization of "Against the Giants" but couldn't get into it; that's as close as I've come.)

-The Gneech