Game fiction

[dreamthief]

Reading Games-Workshop's Into The Maelstrom and having a ball which includes shorts written by Green Ronin founder Chris Pramas.
Wonder what EnWorlders perception of Gaming Fiction is.

 

[Clint]

I used to read gaming fiction a lot. In fact, it's what I read the most when I was ten to fourteen years old. That was a long time ago.

When in the hobby store a month or two ago, I picked up "The Temple of Elemental Evil", a Greyhawk game fiction book, written by Thomas M. Reid and published by WotC. When I finished it, a four hour read, I was really happy with myself. Happy that I stuck it out and finished it, and didn't throw it. It was so bad that my brain felt like what sniffing glue must feel like. I slept lousy that night.

I probably won't try to walk down nostalgia lane again. Don't get me wrong, I'm know that there's good game fiction. But non-game fiction is better, a few exceptions aside. And those exceptions undoubtedly go on to write non-game fiction books, so why bother reading it at all?

 

[Churchill]

Read? What's that?

I recently read the "Return to the Tomb of Horrors" Greyhawk novel. I didn't much care for the book as a book, but I did get a handful (a small handful at that) of ideas to use in my campaign.

I've tried reading other game-based novels in the past (FR, Dragonlance, etc.), but have never been able to get into them. The only reason I picked up and read RttToH was out of nostalgia (I loved the Tomb of Horrors module to death).

Generally speaking, though, I think the things that make up a good rpg session and the things that make a good novel are pretty much mutually exclusive (which doesn't mean it CAN'T be done, just that it's very, very difficult to pull off).

If there's fiction in a rulebook, module, or something similar I just skip it.

The only game-based fiction I read regularly are Piratecat's and Sagiro's storyhours.

 

[Chromnos]

Right now, my take is game fiction mostly sucks. However, the writing quality of the actual games is improving. Eventually, the quality of the writing should also improve. What I'm hoping is that people start working out the kinks within major settings to give them a more epic feel that lends itself to good fantasy writing.

-C

 

[Corinth]

Game fiction is infamous for its lack of quality. It's often not much better than fanfiction (especially slash fiction), so it's better read as the subject of an MST3K sort of satire than anything else.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Only about 10% of the Gaming based Fiction I have read has been any good, so I'm really wary now, needing a reccomendation from someone who's opinion I trust. Recently I violated this rule of mine and I read Elminster in Hell - and it was really bad.

I have never read any Dragonlance stuff however: How do they get to be NY Times Bestsellers? Groupies?

Personally, I do NOT like the fact that BAD fiction dictates the flow of events in core settings. How can we reverse this trend?

J

 

[Sulimo]

I buy a fair amount of game fiction, although the number of authors has diminished quite a bit (in the last few years I've only bought Paul Kidd & Elaine Cunningham stuff - although I also have bought all the Scarred lands fiction so far).

Non game fiction I dont buy alot of, mainly due to the fact that I can get heaps of that at my local library whilst game fiction is almost never carried. there are a few authors I always buy though - Terry Pratchett and Raymond E Feist being the authors I've bought for many an age.

 

[beta-ray]

I buy it once in a while... I used to buy it more... Some Dragonlance, some Forgotten Realms... A little Battletech, some Shadowrun, even some Renegade Legion and Dark Awakenings from that GDW game... Nowadays a *little* more conservative in buying... though I still do buy stuff like the Legend of the Five Rings, the Dragonlance by Weis&Hickman, Paul Kidd stuff...

 

[Buttercup]

Three times I've tried to read a Forgotten Realms novel and all of them stunk. But I don't presume to say, or think, that anyone who likes them is childish. They just have different taste than I do.

 

[Christian Walker]

Autoduel Quarterly

The best gaming fiction I've ever come across was found in Steve Jackson Games' Autoduel Quarterly. Three things made the fiction valuable to me.

1) Short. I could read the stories between commercials
2) Illustrated. I like perty pictures.
3) Relevant. The articles had stats for the characters and equipment in the story. The stry could then come alive in a game.

I'm working on something similar for Scrollworks. I tried it once back in issue 19 or so, and will make a better attempt in issue 26 and on.