Pulp Sword & Sorcery?

[Wicht]

For some reason, low magic desert world with lots of religion and psionics makes me think first of DUNE.

 

[joela]

The genre has a lot more to do with questionable morality than with the "magic level" of the setting. While Sword & Sorcery tales often have a protagonist, this doesn't necessarily make them heroes. Removing that level of predictability is what makes Sword & Sorcery so fun - has the protagonist rescued the kidnapped princess from the High Priest of Set because its the noble thing to do? Or is it because he wants the ransom (or just the woman) for himself? That's Sword & Sorcery.

I'm beginning to note that similarity.

 

[joela]

For some reason, low magic desert world with lots of religion and psionics makes me think first of DUNE.

Oh! One of my favorite books but even think about it. Must be one of those subconscious sources of information.

 

[TikkchikFenTikktikk]

Gary Gygax in his introduction to Dungeons & Dragons Vol. 1 Men & Magic said

Those wargamers who lack imagination, those who don't care for Burroughs' Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits, who feel no thrill upon reading Howard's Conan saga, who do not enjoy the de Camp & Pratt fantasies or Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pitting their swords against evil sorceries will not be likely to find DUNGEONS and DRAGONS to their taste. But those whose imaginations know no bounds will find that these rules are the answer to their prayers.

I highly recommend every RPGer read these stories.

Let me help you:
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in Lankhmar:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lankhmar-Book-1-Swords-Deviltry/dp/1595820795/]Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 1: Swords And Deviltry (9781595820792): Fritz Leiber: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lankhmar-Book-Swords-Against-Adventures/dp/1595820760/]Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 2: Swords Against Death (The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser) (Bk. 2) (9781595820761): Fritz Leiber: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lankhmar-Book-Swords-Mist-Bk/dp/1595820817/]Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 3: Swords in the Mist (Bk. 3) (9781595820815): Fritz Leiber: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lankhmar-4-Swords-Against-Wizardry/dp/1595820787/]Amazon.com: Lankhmar Volume 4: Swords Against Wizardry (9781595820785): Fritz Leiber: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lankhmar-Book-5-Swords/dp/1595820825/]Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 5: The Swords of Lankhmar (9781595820822): Fritz Leiber: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lankhmar-Book-Swords-Ice-Magic/dp/1595820809/]Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 6: Swords and Ice Magic (Bk. 6) (9781595820808): Fritz Leiber: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lankhmar-Book-Knight-Swords-Fafhrd/dp/1595820752/]Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 7: The Knight and Knave of Swords (The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Saga of Fritz Leiber) (9781595820754): Fritz Leiber: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lankhmar-Book-Swords-Against-Shadowland/dp/1595820779/]Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 8: Swords Against the Shadowland…[/ame]


Robert E. Howard's Conan saga:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/]Amazon.com: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian: The Original Adventures of the Greatest Sword and Sorcery Hero of All Time! (9780345461513): Robert E. Howard: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Crown-Conan-Cimmeria-Book/dp/0345461525/]Amazon.com: The Bloody Crown of Conan (Conan of Cimmeria, Book 2) (9780345461520): Robert E. Howard: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Sword-Conan-Cimmeria-Book/dp/0345461533/]Amazon.com: The Conquering Sword of Conan (Conan of Cimmeria, Book 3) (9780345461537): Robert E. Howard: Books[/ame]


Edgar Rice Burroughs's Martian adventures of John Carter:
All are available in the public domain someplace on Earth except for the final novel _John Carter of Mars_:

Barsoom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

However, I recommend tracking down the Ballantine paperbacks for Michael Whelan's delicious cover art:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Mars-Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/dp/0345331389/]Amazon.com: A Princess of Mars (9780345331380): Edgar Rice Burroughs: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Mars-Martian-Tales/dp/0345324390/]Amazon.com: The Gods of Mars - Martian Tales #2 (9780345324399):…[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Warlord-Mars-Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/dp/0345324536/]Amazon.com: Warlord of Mars (9780345324535): Edgar Rice Burroughs: Books[/ame]

etc.


The L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt fantasies:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Magic-L-Sprague-Camp/dp/1886778655/]Amazon.com: The Mathematics of Magic (L. Sprague De Camp) (9781886778658): L. Sprague de Camp; Fletcher Pratt, Mark L. Olson, Marc Fishman: Books[/ame]


That's quite a reading list, but it is close enough to being **the** pre-Tolkien fantasy canon that is should be required reading for D&D DMs and setting creators.

The Conan collection I linked is especially mandatory. They, along with H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos stories, influenced pulp S&S and pulp horror than anything else.

So I'd start there, move on to the ERB John Carter of Mars series, and head back to Leiber's Lankhmar.

 

[Nifft]

Your s-block wouldn't expand for me, so I'm reproducing the block's contents here (mostly so I can see them, but perhaps others will benefit if the s-block fails for them too).

Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in Lankhmar:
Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 1: Swords And Deviltry (9781595820792): Fritz Leiber: Books
Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 2: Swords Against Death (The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser) (Bk. 2) (9781595820761): Fritz Leiber: Books
Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 3: Swords in the Mist (Bk. 3) (9781595820815): Fritz Leiber: Books
Amazon.com: Lankhmar Volume 4: Swords Against Wizardry (9781595820785): Fritz Leiber: Books
Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 5: The Swords of Lankhmar (9781595820822): Fritz Leiber: Books
Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 6: Swords and Ice Magic (Bk. 6) (9781595820808): Fritz Leiber: Books
Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 7: The Knight and Knave of Swords (The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Saga of Fritz Leiber) (9781595820754): Fritz Leiber: Books
Amazon.com: Lankhmar Book 8: Swords Against the Shadowland…

Robert E. Howard's Conan saga:
Amazon.com: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian: The Original Adventures of the Greatest Sword and Sorcery Hero of All Time! (9780345461513): Robert E. Howard: Books
Amazon.com: The Bloody Crown of Conan (Conan of Cimmeria, Book 2) (9780345461520): Robert E. Howard: Books
Amazon.com: The Conquering Sword of Conan (Conan of Cimmeria, Book 3) (9780345461537): Robert E. Howard: Books

Edgar Rice Burroughs's Martian adventures of John Carter:
All are available in the public domain someplace on Earth except for the final novel _John Carter of Mars_:
Barsoom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
However, I recommend tracking down the Ballantine paperbacks for Michael Whelan's delicious cover art:
Amazon.com: A Princess of Mars (9780345331380): Edgar Rice Burroughs: Books
Amazon.com: The Gods of Mars - Martian Tales #2 (9780345324399):…
Amazon.com: Warlord of Mars (9780345324535): Edgar Rice Burroughs: Books
etc.

The L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt fantasies:
Amazon.com: The Mathematics of Magic (L. Sprague De Camp) (9781886778658): L. Sprague de Camp; Fletcher Pratt, Mark L. Olson, Marc Fishman: Books

 

[Grimstaff]

Don't forget Dying Earth, by Jack Vance. I was maybe 20 pages into it when I said to myself "Oh, so this is where D&D came from!"

 

[joela]

Don't forget Dying Earth, by Jack Vance. I was maybe 20 pages into it when I said to myself "Oh, so this is where D&D came from!"

Read it. Distinctly different from the "low magic" many of today's generation think "pulp" means. (Course, most of us forget it's referring to a publishing style, not a subgenre. Still.... )

 

[Ariosto]

The "desert world where the inhabitants battle the environment with psionics" puts me a bit in mind of ~D~U~N~E~.

Lin Carter in particular included lots of heaving milky flesh between sprays of gore.

He wrote at least one novel about milky sprays in and on heaving flesh lots more lurid than John Norman's Gor.

The best of all his work, I think, is probably the Callisto series.

Transit to Scorpio and successors -- more than 50, including some published only in German -- in the Dray Prescot series by "Alan Burt Akers" (actually Kenneth Bulmer) are of similar ilk.

Karl Edward Wagner's Kane and Charles R. Saunders' Imaro are my personal picks for heirs to Conan in the sword-and-sorcery field.

The Swords Against Darkness anthology series, edited by Andrew J. Offutt, is packed with top-drawer stories.

 

[Ariosto]

Almuric is Robert E. Howard's own pastiche of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

However, the planet on which Esau Cairn finds himself is not a global sandy desert. He fights across such terrain as grassy plains and forest.

 

[Spinachcat]

The Overgod and its priesthood pretty much have arcane magic under control.

That's what I mean. If its a low magic world, then the divine magic and arcane magic would be quite weak by definition. If the magic is weak, what does that say about the Overgod?

And if your setting is Fantasy Dune...that would be kewl.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db9eJzsmsQY&feature=related]YouTube - Harkonnen Beans[/ame]