I was in the local mega bookstore the other day Xmas shopping, and of course I had to make the trek over to the RPG/Fantasy section. I started thinking about how tied together fantasy books and D&D have been in my gaming life these past 25 years. After my first RPG experience as a freshman in high school, the guys who played with me recommended Tolkien. From there I went to Feist, Eddings, Brooks, the Conan books, Fritz Leiber, Moorcock, Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends, Piers Anthony, Donaldson, Anne McCaffrey, Thieves World, and others, even Gygax’ Gord books. All of those books inspired my group and my style of gaming, as well as my expectations from my D&D system.
As 2e came out, I started reading some of the Drizzt stuff, but that's about it. I couldn't get into the other TSR/WOTC novels. I pretty much stopped reading fantasy novels after the first half of Jordan's Wheel of Time never-ending saga, and George R.R. Martin's Fire and Ice series. (I hear he finally got off his ass and published the 4th book after what, almost a decade?)
The point is, for my 1st and 2nd edition games, fantasy novels have always been very much interwoven with my game. Sometimes we would steal whole plotlines. NPC's were named after and modeled after characters from those novels. We tried to fashion our characters off of the ones from the books. Interruptions to the game sessions would often be due to conversations about parts of books the rest of us read, that one player was reading for the first time. To the extent that the 1e and 2e systems allowed us to recreate cool parts of those books for our characters, we were happy.
I write this because I sort of feel disconnected now to the future of D&D. Not being a player of 4e, I feel sort of disappointed that I won’t be able to look forward to the reading what is coming out for D&D. Playing 3.0, the 3pp’s have pretty much put out anything and everything they could on every conceivable topic multiple times. Not much to look forward to there either. I’ll probably buy the Pathfinder book when it comes out, but solely as a resource to see if there are any ideas in there we might be able to use for our own houserules. We may our own modules, so nothing to buy there either.
I remember as a kid standing in the corner of Waldenbooks, looking around to make sure no store workers were around, as I sliced open the newest TSR module’s plastic wrap to see what was inside. I remember riding my bike down to the mall and standing in the store for hours with my brother reading the new hardcover books, memorizing as much as we could, because we couldn’t afford to buy the books. Even up until a year ago, I still had some of that excitement when I stopped into a bookstore and paged through the latest releases. The level of excitement I had over looking forward to the newest, latest and greatest is over, not to be had again. It’s kinda sad. Basically, my days as a player of D&D continue, but my days as a consumer of D&D products are basically over.
I never got into the Magic card game. I never understood its appeal. I played Everquest for a while, but that was my last MMORPG experience. I don’t read comics or that Manga stuff, which seems to inspire the art, if not the style of RPG’s today. All of these three things seem to be the predominant current cultural influences to the current state of D&D, as well as the future of the game. At least, they see to be more of an influence than fantasy novels. I think that younger generations read less novels than older ones. There are more media options out there which for many are more fun and immersive than reading. Not judging r criticizing, it just seems to be the way it is.
Anyhow in the bookstore the other day, I noticed all the fantasy books in there were written by pretty much the same authors I used to read. There didn’t seem to be any new series. There didn’t seem to be any new hot authors. There were a lot of new releases of old books.
I feel a disconnect from the future of the game I love to play, and from the current fantasy influences to that game, and I can’t find any new fantasy novels to read to help inspire my current game.
There’s not much I can do about my no longer being a consumer of D&D stuff. There’s not much I can do about my disconnect from the current D&D fantasy cultural influences. I simply don’t enjoy most of them. But I figure, as to the fantasy novels, there might be something I can do.
Tell me—who do you guys read? Who is the next Feist or Jordan? What authors are writing the new Riftwar, Belgariad, Wheel of Times or Dragonlance series which will define an era of fantasy novels? Who are the new Eddings, Feists and Jordans? What authors’ fantasy novels so define your RPG experiences these days, as these guys did mine in the old days?
Thx
As 2e came out, I started reading some of the Drizzt stuff, but that's about it. I couldn't get into the other TSR/WOTC novels. I pretty much stopped reading fantasy novels after the first half of Jordan's Wheel of Time never-ending saga, and George R.R. Martin's Fire and Ice series. (I hear he finally got off his ass and published the 4th book after what, almost a decade?)
The point is, for my 1st and 2nd edition games, fantasy novels have always been very much interwoven with my game. Sometimes we would steal whole plotlines. NPC's were named after and modeled after characters from those novels. We tried to fashion our characters off of the ones from the books. Interruptions to the game sessions would often be due to conversations about parts of books the rest of us read, that one player was reading for the first time. To the extent that the 1e and 2e systems allowed us to recreate cool parts of those books for our characters, we were happy.
I write this because I sort of feel disconnected now to the future of D&D. Not being a player of 4e, I feel sort of disappointed that I won’t be able to look forward to the reading what is coming out for D&D. Playing 3.0, the 3pp’s have pretty much put out anything and everything they could on every conceivable topic multiple times. Not much to look forward to there either. I’ll probably buy the Pathfinder book when it comes out, but solely as a resource to see if there are any ideas in there we might be able to use for our own houserules. We may our own modules, so nothing to buy there either.
I remember as a kid standing in the corner of Waldenbooks, looking around to make sure no store workers were around, as I sliced open the newest TSR module’s plastic wrap to see what was inside. I remember riding my bike down to the mall and standing in the store for hours with my brother reading the new hardcover books, memorizing as much as we could, because we couldn’t afford to buy the books. Even up until a year ago, I still had some of that excitement when I stopped into a bookstore and paged through the latest releases. The level of excitement I had over looking forward to the newest, latest and greatest is over, not to be had again. It’s kinda sad. Basically, my days as a player of D&D continue, but my days as a consumer of D&D products are basically over.
I never got into the Magic card game. I never understood its appeal. I played Everquest for a while, but that was my last MMORPG experience. I don’t read comics or that Manga stuff, which seems to inspire the art, if not the style of RPG’s today. All of these three things seem to be the predominant current cultural influences to the current state of D&D, as well as the future of the game. At least, they see to be more of an influence than fantasy novels. I think that younger generations read less novels than older ones. There are more media options out there which for many are more fun and immersive than reading. Not judging r criticizing, it just seems to be the way it is.
Anyhow in the bookstore the other day, I noticed all the fantasy books in there were written by pretty much the same authors I used to read. There didn’t seem to be any new series. There didn’t seem to be any new hot authors. There were a lot of new releases of old books.
I feel a disconnect from the future of the game I love to play, and from the current fantasy influences to that game, and I can’t find any new fantasy novels to read to help inspire my current game.
There’s not much I can do about my no longer being a consumer of D&D stuff. There’s not much I can do about my disconnect from the current D&D fantasy cultural influences. I simply don’t enjoy most of them. But I figure, as to the fantasy novels, there might be something I can do.
Tell me—who do you guys read? Who is the next Feist or Jordan? What authors are writing the new Riftwar, Belgariad, Wheel of Times or Dragonlance series which will define an era of fantasy novels? Who are the new Eddings, Feists and Jordans? What authors’ fantasy novels so define your RPG experiences these days, as these guys did mine in the old days?
Thx
Last edited:
