What licenses are left?

[Gradine]

I don't think Piers Anthony can withstand the inevitable scrutiny that would bring in 2026.

Neither could Terry Goodkind, honestly...

Well, there's always the Belgariad, by David Eddings, who has never- What's that?

Okay, well how about the highly imaginative fantasy stylings of Neil Ga- oh, nope.

Fine, how about the Mists of Avalon?! There can't be anything wrong with--

...

<begins furiously Googling Terry Brooks>

 

[Laurefindel]

I've always thought that the XCOM series would make a good RPG. All three of the Firaxis reboot games give a totally different vibe and different setting opportunities.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown. International coalition of special ops fighting localized alien abductions, learning about an enemy humankind does not know, while keeping world panic under control.

XCOM 2: Small band of revolutionaries trying to wrest control of the planet from aliens 20 years after invasion*

XCOM chimera squad. Humans and aliens must work together to rebuild their future in mixed cities.

* XCOM 2 is the only sequel I know that takes for canon that the first campaign resulted in player loosing

 

[Mr. Lahey]

I’d like to see one of the earliest IPs used in F&D get a new treatment- Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne was first used in the Castle Amber module (heavily modified for weirdness) and I think it was also a region in the D&D Known World, iirc.

Not sure if it needs its own system, but I’d love to see it as a setting.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I’d like to see one of the earliest IPs used in F&D get a new treatment- Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne was first used in the Castle Amber module (heavily modified for weirdness) and I think it was also a region in the D&D Known World, iirc.

Averoigne is just an alternate world accessed through Castle Amber, as far as I know, but Castle Amber looms huge in Mystara play, and I wouldn't be surprised if more people had adventured there than in most nations in the game world.

 

[Tonguez]

Averoigne is just an alternate world accessed through Castle Amber, as far as I know, but Castle Amber looms huge in Mystara play, and I wouldn't be surprised if more people had adventured there than in most nations in the game world.

The Principality of Nouvelle Averoigne was later moved to the Nation of Glantri in the mystara setting where Étienne d'Ambreville became the Headmaster of the Great School of Magic and features in Wrath of Immortals.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don't think Piers Anthony can withstand the inevitable scrutiny that would bring in 2026.

When I was a kid in the 1990s, like 13/14, I started reading a Piers Anthony book one of my peers really recommended (he had terrible taste, that guy liked the Prism Pentad, so I shouldn't have listened), and like, I don't want to be humblebragging about my creep detection or whatever (but it has saved me a few times lol, including from JKR and MZB), I don't think it's 100% or anything, but jesus wept, the BAD VIBES I got off that caused me to just stop reading it and give it back like 20-30% of the way through. It just felt like reading the diary of a serial killer or similar to me (with hindsight, at the time I was just like "Wow this is weird and I don't like it and it sucks"). I don't even know which one it was, because my mind just slid off it like it was covered in an unidentifiable but clearly slippery and unsanitary substance!

Like, it was more immediate creep-factor than Terry Goodkind years later, which really, is saying something! At least I managed to finish Wizard's First Rule before literally attempting to throw it out the window (and missing, but I did bin it, which I had never done to a book before).

So what's my point? That I'm not sure he'd have stood any kind scrutiny at any time, he just largely avoided scrutiny because, ironically of the degree to which fantasy was sneered at by more serious critics in the time he was writing, and the way in the SF/F community of that era, authors having weird and perhaps objectively bad predilections was seen as something not appropriate to comment on (and if, like me, you did anyway, people acted like you were the weird one for noticing it, which I now consider a pretty big red flag).

 

[Parmandur]

When I was a kid in the 1990s, like 13/14, I started reading a Piers Anthony book one of my peers really recommended (he had terrible taste, that guy liked the Prism Pentad, so I shouldn't have listened), and like, I don't want to be humblebragging about my creep detection or whatever (but it has saved me a few times lol, including from JKR and MZB), I don't think it's 100% or anything, but jesus wept, the BAD VIBES I got off that caused me to just stop reading it and give it back like 20-30% of the way through. It just felt like reading the diary of a serial killer or similar to me (with hindsight, at the time I was just like "Wow this is weird and I don't like it and it sucks"). I don't even know which one it was, because my mind just slid off it like it was covered in an unidentifiable but clearly slippery and unsanitary substance!

Like, it was more immediate creep-factor than Terry Goodkind years later, which really, is saying something! At least I managed to finish Wizard's First Rule before literally attempting to throw it out the window (and missing, but I did bin it, which I had never done to a book before).

So what's my point? That I'm not sure he'd have stood any kind scrutiny at any time, he just largely avoided scrutiny because, ironically of the degree to which fantasy was sneered at by more serious critics in the time he was writing, and the way in the SF/F community of that era, authors having weird and perhaps objectively bad predilections was seen as something not appropriate to comment on (and if, like me, you did anyway, people acted like you were the weird one for noticing it, which I now consider a pretty big red flag).

Yeah, I was reading the Xanth books when I was like 10, so an awful lot went over my head, but now as a parent having gone through safe environment training...like, all the Red Flags.

 

[beta-ray]

Honestly, Mutants and Masterminds would work well as a structure for MHA, if Green Ronin wanted to do another licensed book based on those rules. Cortex Plus (Ultra) could work as well.

 

[beta-ray]

Oh!

Delicious in Dungeons!

Yup. They can use this for reference

 

[beta-ray]

I feel like one of the more early Gundam Series/Universes (more or less Universal Century) would do incredibly well. Mecha Combat lends itself really well to TRPG mechanics that are basically already inspired from warship games and I think people would enjoy piloting a bunch of known iconic mechs. Sure, Lancer already exists, but I think a first-party product using actual "historically accurate" mechs would sell really well to fans.

Players would be part of a small squad with a handful of mechs fighting through a bigger theater on either side. Lots of potential theaters of conflict to adapt, hell UC is based on "Real Earth" so there's lots to work with. Could even build maps using google maps.

View attachment 437030View attachment 437032

I'm a UC Gundam fan (less so of the alternative universes, but the most recent ones have been decent). I'm not sure how well a TTRPG would work with the franchise, but i'm sure a wargame type thing could work. In fact, they recently released a miniatures game.

https://global.bandai-hobby.net/en-us/site/gundam-assemble/