Have you converted your favorite novels into a campaign setting?

[Hjorimir]

I wouldn't call it a conversion, but my current homebrew has been inspired (and contains some elements) from Malazan, the Name of the Wind, and the Belgariad books.

 

[Orius]

As far as Fantasy novels, I really wanted to turn Goerge Lucas's Willow world and novels (Shadow_Moon, Shadow_Dawn, and Shadow_Star) into a campaign setting. And of course, I've always wanted to do Highlander.

Those would be interesting. The world of Willow isn't too different from a D&D setting, and you've got your dwarves and elves and stuff (with different names). I'd think it could make an good setting, especially with material from the Shadow War trilogy added in.

I've envisioned Highlander as some kind of Birthright variant for a while now.

I posted my ideas for Edding's Belgariad and Mallorean as a 3e setting here about a year ago. I thought there was a lot of stuff in the setting that the 3e rules could handle pretty well.

 

[Wombat]

It is an interesting setting and series of books.

Just...don't watch the movie. It makes all kinds of unnecessary (and often bad) changes.

If, for some reason, you must see the Sci-Fi Channel version, see it first.

Truth here -- the movie is beyond avoidable. Ursula LeGuin posted at her website a long list of grievances she had with the adaptation.

But the world has a lot of possibilities in it, albeit low treasure and probably more social than combat interactions. And a lot of sailing.

 

[Mallus]

The son of Japanesse animator Miyazaki released in 2006 a better version, "Tales from Earthsea" (Gendo Seki). It's a little slow for most people but is better showing the unique feeling of this setting.

Not much better, IMNSHO... and I'm a big fan of Studio Ghibli and original books. The film commits a cardinal sin for a fantasy story, it makes the magical pedestrian (and the pedestrian really pedestrian). I really wish Hayao Miyazaki would have directed it.

That said, I don't adapt my favorite books so much as I attack then like a cloud of dumb, hungry, yet kinda lazy nanomachines, tearing them apart, then reassembling them according into an odd new form still studded with recognizable bits of the building materials.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Novels! PSH! I converted a Garth Brooks song into an adventure.

 

[kitsune9]

Novels! PSH! I converted a Garth Brooks song into an adventure.

Really? What song was that? How'd that go for you?

 

[Grymar]

When I was young I always had planned to make a world based off of the Chronicals of Thomas Covenant the UnBeliever by Stephen Donaldson, but I never got past the very first stages.

Frankly, I've never been much of a world builder. I started many projects, never getting more than 10% done. Finally, I realized that it just isn't something that I can keep interested in and I am better suited to buying a campaign setting and focusing on the campaign itself, which is where my strengths lie.

 

[Mallus]

I converted a Garth Brooks song into an adventure.

I'm a little envious. I've based a recurring NPC --The Right Revered Don "Magic Wand"-- on a friend of Snoop Dogg --the Bishop Don Magic Juan-- but I've never gotten a whole adventure from, um... such an unlikely inspiration.

 

[Dedekind]

Really? What song was that? How'd that go for you?

Seriously, do share!

I steal characters all the time, but rarely settings. I penciled out a campaign based loosely on the Sharpe books (historical fiction) by Bernard Cornwell but it never went anywhere.

 

[kitsune9]

When I was young I always had planned to make a world based off of the Chronicals of Thomas Covenant the UnBeliever by Stephen Donaldson, but I never got past the very first stages.

Frankly, I've never been much of a world builder. I started many projects, never getting more than 10% done. Finally, I realized that it just isn't something that I can keep interested in and I am better suited to buying a campaign setting and focusing on the campaign itself, which is where my strengths lie.

Hey Grymar, nothing wrong with that. There are some great campaign settings out there that only need the DM's personal touch and you got a great campaign ready to go. I've always wanted to build my own world from scratch, but I get sidetracked to want to run a FR game, then Kingdoms of Kalamar, then Golarion, and then Iron Kingdoms, and then.....