literary campaign settings you'd like to see

[Tsyr]

I specificly stated I don't care if it was D20, though I'm not fussy.

Actualy, The Riddle of Steel would be my system-of-choice for doing A Song of Ice and Fire as an RPG. Best combat system I know of

And how is a mostly humanocentric setting bad for D20? My custom campaign setting is almost totaly humanocentric as well.


*edit*, and SPOILERS, if you havn't read all the currently out books!
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I said SPOILERS
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Yes, SPOILERS
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Though, magic is a TOUCH more prevelant than you are giving it credit for. There seems to be a lot of magic in the Free Cities areas... And a lot of the old orders in the Seven Kingdoms were actualy magic users, they just didn't HAVE any magic to use... once the three dragons were reborn, magic seems to be comming back... evidence the Alchemists Guild, which had some of their "warding rituals" start actualy doing something all of a sudden... Or Thalos of Myr, who suddenly can heal and resurect. And magic might not have been totaly gone even before that, you just had to resort to uglier ways of getting it... For example, remember why Varys(sp?) was a eunuch in the first place? And Valarian Steel might be magical, slightly. Or the freeky stuff that is happening with the Stark men... Jon and Bran anyhow, Rickon I'm not sure about...

Besides, I would hardly consider giving birth to a shadow-demon-thing a "few mutterings" by Melisandre...

Magic is, on the other hand, DARKER than any existing D20 system I know of, with the exception of maybe some of the Mongoose books... but those are dark in the wrong way, most of them... Chaos Magic and Necromancy are gritty, but in the wrong way... Demonology has the right "feel", but doesn't really suit the setting.

 

[Bob Aberton]

Hmm...

"Birth Shadow Demon"
Sor/Wiz 9
Casting time: However many rounds it takes to give birth...
Duration: permanent
Components: ?
Save: no
SR: no
Special: This spell is available only to female characters, 'cuz a MAN giving birth to a demon would be doubly freaky...

By using this spell, a female sorceror or wizard may impregnate herself with a shadow demon. Upon giving birth to the creature, it becomes her loyal servant and does whatever she tell it to do.



Need help perfecting it though...

 

[drothgery]

Hmm... going through my bookshelves...

Wheel of Time's already been done, and fairly well I think.

Discworld's already been mentioned, as has Brust's Dragaera (though the lower-magic Khaarven Romances era might be a better gaming setting than the teleportation-is-common world of Vlad Taltos). So has Keyes' Waterborn/Blackgod world, and his Age of Unreason might make for good steampunk with religious overtones.

The world of Kay's Tigana would make for an interesting setting, as would the near-Byzantium of the Sarantine Empire (in Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors). King's Dark Tower has already been mentioned, as has Hobb's Assassin/Liveship Traders' world and the Black Company books.

Fiest's Mikedemia/Kelewan has also been mentioned. McCafferey's Pern has been mentioned, but the world of the Talented might make for a good high-Psi SF setting. Tad Williams' Otherland might make an excellent cyberpunk game.

Rawn's Exiles world would make an interesting place to game, but for various reason she hasn't finished the trilogy yet. Niven and Pournelle's Empire of Man makes for an interesting SF game because you can put pretty much any human culture in it that you want. And the ancient Earth where magic is resource that can be used up of the Warlock's world is another interseting one.

 

[Raschesohn]

Sword of Truth

Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth novels are definitely among my favorites, and the various characters and organizations presented in the books just scream prestige classes (the Sisters of the Light and Dark, Raug Moss, Blood of the Fold, quads, and bone sorceress being among the more obscure of the character titles not yet mentioned on the board). I recall that there was a 2nd Edition AD&D write up of the Mord Sith on the Web that was really well done, but I would like to see it converted to 3E rules (without bastardizing it with any affiliations to Loviatar). A lot of Goodkind's monsters would also make good horrors to throw against any party, including screelings, mwriswith(sp), skriin, and gars plus the really strange creature encounters such as the sliph. It'd be interesting to see how Goodkind's intriguing if purposely vague take on magic -- which involves Additive and Subtractive polar opposites -- would be made for D&D, but that may prove difficult given the rather (imho anyway) inflexible and unimaginative system of magic currently being used.

 

[Hopping Vampire]

what about Redwall on d20?

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station

It should be required reading for all fantasy fans.

Agreed. The Scar is very good as well.

 

[yongi]

league of extraordinary gentlemen

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!

I mean, I know you could do it in Hero or Gurps, or that other non-d20 pulp-ish game (adventure? action?) or even Forbidden Kingdoms d20 (which may have a similar setting, if I remember from the one time I got to skim the book). But an official setting would be keen.

Judging by the first issue, it looks like each issue in the 2nd volume is going to have a lengthy and wonderful text portion in the back that would be a fantastic source of concepts and adventure hooks. Now we just need stats and such.

Oh, and count me in on Naked Lunch and Gravity's Rainbow, too!

 

[rackabello]

when this thread runs itself down a bit, i'll have one heck of a reading list to print out. thanks for all the wonderful suggestions! can't wait to hit the libraries and the used book stores....

in the interest of keeping the thread alive a little while longer, though, here's another random thought or two that popped into my head while walking the dog this evening:

• Roald Dahl! James & The Giant Peach and the Willie Wonka books are great sources for surreal and funny campaign ideas. anybody got stats for a Vermicious Knid?
  
• Eve Forward, Villains by Necessity: very enjoyable twist on the old unlikely-band-of-heroes-teams-up-to-save-the-world yarn and a great book for folks interested in running a campaign with evil or villainous PCs.
  
• Manly Wade Wellman, Silver John series: eerie books set in pre-Depression Appalachia. evil druids in dark hollows; haints, spooks and beasts drawn from Native American and rural folklore; and Silver John himself, sort of a bluegrass bard. Wellman's a bit like a backwoods Lovecraft--wonderful atmosphere for CoC.
  
• Fritz Leiber, Gather, Darkness!: sure, Lankhmar's the one we all remember (and rightly so!), but this book is a gem, and filled with wonderful ideas for SF campaigns with fantasy flavor. sly and sneaky witch/gadgeteers scheme to outwit a powerful but slightly bumbling technotheocracy.

 

[rackabello]

Re: A few more things...

William T. Vollman, huh? I've only read a bit of his short fiction {where I was hoping they weren't autobiographical tales drawn from his time as a "tourist" in SE Asia}. I've leafed through "You Bright and Risen Angels" more than once at the bookstore. Maybe I'll actually buy it.

hate to break it to you, Mallus, but there is a strong element of autobiography in much of Vollmann's writing, "tourism" not excepted. one of his books has the epigraph "the prettiest thing is the darkest darkness," and this fascination with humanity at it most desperate and cruel runs through all of work. it can get pretty creepy, but at his best he's brilliant.

personally I'd prefer DeLillo d20, if I had the choice...

i'll see your DeLillo d20 and raise you David Foster Wallace d20. though the Infinite Jest sourcebook would have waaay too many footnotes.

but if Salinger's been in hiding these long years developing the Glass family LARP, that takes the pot!

 

[dr jekyll]

1) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen R Donaldson

2) A Fire upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge - Hard space opera at its finest!

3) The Sandman by Neil Gaiman - oh wait, that's Nobilis

4) Bone by Jeff Smith - I wanna be in a cow race!

5) The Known Space books by Larry Niven

6) Beowulf - I always thought this would make a great setting. Epic and Gritty at the same time!

7) Silverlock by John Myers Myers, it's sort of an Uber-setting.

dr jeykll