Gaming/RPG Fiction Should Make A Comeback

[Ruin Explorer]

Brandon, I've got it with the rockbuds. Really.

Right jesus christ the rockbuds, I'd managed to push them out of my mind lol.

Something something brevity something wit.

Yeah "I didn't have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one" is basically Stormlight all over* - full of repetition of basically everything (something Jordan went in for as well), wallowing (in really shallow and unconvincing emotions too - Sanderson can't write emotional pain convincingly so he just goes for wallowing instead), Cosmere bollocks, incredibly lengthy (and again often covering much of the same ground) lore lectures and so on. With more care and time from Sanderson a good editor every one of the Stormlight books could half the length or less and wildly more impactful (probably closer to 1/3rd the length even). The actual idea/story density of the books is very low, contrast them with say Gene Wolfe's New Sun books, where the idea/story density is incredibly high (of course the prose is incredible too in those).

But I feel like whilst I'm critiquing them I'm also listing why they're successful - because they're not really stories in the normal sense as much as lore bible for people to learn - albeit with some random decent fight scenes thrown in! The biggest fans of them don't want a dense, thoughtful, meaningful work that's a reflection on the human condition or the nature of existence, and they couldn't give two figs about prose, they want lore lore lore lore (and by lore I include the actual stories of the books), with characters like, loosely underpinning the lore/plot stuff (including all the Cosmere refs).

* = Also my posts so I can't talk lol

 

[el-remmen]

I think I prefer books that feel like they could be an RPG setting or are based on a homebrew game. For example, despite some weak writing and some uh problematic stuff, I do enjoy Lawrence Watt-Evans’s Ethshar novels, which has for example several different sources of magic and magic “classes.” They have been a great source of ideas for my own games and the original premise of my most successful D&D campaign (“Out of the Frying Pan” <—- read the story hour) was based on his With a Single Spell (though I think The Misenchanted Sword is the best of them).

Another example (which I haven’t read yet but I hear are actually good) are the Expanse novels, which were based on an RPG.

 

[Reynard]

It occurs to me that since the 5.1 SRD is in CC, anyone can write D&D fiction without having to shave off the serial numbers.

 

[User51]

Another example (which I haven’t read yet but I hear are actually good) are the Expanse novels, which were based on an RPG.

I read Leviathan Wakes. My understanding is that the authors were doing research for an rpg, but decided against making one and used their research to write a series of novels instead. I also understand that they became better writers over the series, though I haven’t continued yet.

 

[el-remmen]

I read Leviathan Wakes. My understanding is that the authors were doing research for an rpg, but decided against making one and used their research to write a series of novels instead. I also understand that they became better writers over the series, though I haven’t continued yet.

Huh. I read that before it was a novel it was a highly modified d20 Future game.

 

[User51]

Huh. I read that before it was a novel it was a highly modified d20 Future game.

I went to Wikipedia and looks like you’re right, the reference is titled “homebrew system.”

 

[payn]

I read Leviathan Wakes. My understanding is that the authors were doing research for an rpg, but decided against making one and used their research to write a series of novels instead. I also understand that they became better writers over the series, though I haven’t continued yet.

Huh. I read that before it was a novel it was a highly modified d20 Future game.

Right, I think there was talk of making The Expanse an MMO even.

I will say for the first three seasons the show is actually better than the novels. I credit that to the writers of the novels actually being the screen writers as well. It was sort of like the novels were the first draft and the screen treatment the final product. After Amazon took over though, they went to more direct adaptions with little adjustment and I think the show suffered for it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I read Leviathan Wakes. My understanding is that the authors were doing research for an rpg, but decided against making one and used their research to write a series of novels instead. I also understand that they became better writers over the series, though I haven’t continued yet.

I heard it was based on a Traveller campaign.