What novels have most influenced your game?

[Pielorinho]

Since reading "Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar", all my D&D-related thoughts keep swinging in their direction. In fact, I'm genuinely surprised that no one has a published a "d20 guide to Bas Lag."

That's what I was going to say! PSS is hugely influential on my brain these days -- in fact, I desperately tried to get those little flying goblin-birds (or whatever they were called) to be a major element in my last story-arc, and failed only because there were too many other things going on. China Mieville used to be a gamer, and in an interview somewhere he expressed an interest in seeing Bas-Lag turned into a gaming supplement; what a dream project that would be!

Other than him, I'm influenced by:
-The Earthsea books. I love how Le Guin's villains have such interesting motives, and I love how she draws pathos and beauty out of the ordinary events of ordinary people.
-A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin is just about unmatched, in my experience, for convoluted politics and sheer bloodymindedness, both of which are part and parcel of my games.

Daniel

 

[Maraxle]

Mine's a mix of a lot of things - books, movies, video games, urban legends, etc. From the book side, I'd have to say that there's a healthy portion of the Sword of Truth series (Terry Goodkind) mixed with a dash of Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King, sprinkled with the devious (insane?) plots of the bad guys from James Patterson's novels. Blend that with a cup of the Hobbit/LotR, the crazy amounts of choose-your-own-adventure books I read as a kid, House on Haunted Hill, and a pinch of Grimm's Fairy Tales, bake it all at 425 degrees, and you've got my campaign setting. Frost it with too many swashbuckler movies, Star Wars, lots of campfire stories, classic adventures/crpgs (King's Quest series, Quest for Glory series, Dungeons of Moria, Darklands, Daggerfall, Sentinel Worlds, etc), and an overactive imagination.

 

[Black Omega]

Funnily enough, the Pliocene Exile series from Julian May. Alot of cool characters, good depth of motivations. No real "Bwahaha, I'm a villain!" characters but plenty of conflict and opposing desires. My favorite series for vivid characters. In fact, I think I'll read it again.

 

[Justinian]

Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Woodring Stover influenced my game in a lot of ways.
If you haven't read them, you're missing out on the best assassin in fiction. And I say this despite loving the Jhereg books by Brust, which everyone should also read.

 

[Celtavian]

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Though it is not a novel, my current campaign is loosely based on The Seven Samurai. I thought that was one cool movie, and a campaign based on seven heroes from different backgrounds coming together would be fun.

 

[Umbran]

Hr. This one's hard to answer. The "campaign" I'm running now is really a series of mini-campaigns. I'll be changing players, characters,and even systems every 4 to 6 sessions, so I don't know if a single theme is going to make itself seen.

My most recent prior campaign was most influenced by... the Witchblade TV series and by Shea and Wilson's The Illuminatus Trilogy. But in neither case is the influence obvious in the feel of a given session.

There are a couple of fictionl worlds I'd like to have influence future fantasy games - Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrw and Thorn, Stephen Donaldson's Mordant's Need, and George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire (of which I've only read the first book, oddly enough), and Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son (not the whole series, just the first book or two).

 

[Amos_Sten]

Its difficult to pin one down as far as plots go but for the general feel of the world the Black Company books, especially the cities in them. The idea of good and evil (maybe not even in the big sense or the words), tyrants and emperors battling it out over thousands of years with each battle leaving a mark or scar on the land.

 

[Enforcer]

In a way, I'm emulating Pillars of the Earth.

By Ken Follet? I read that book a long time ago, and I remember loving it. Though, it's not fantasy, it's historical fiction (which I'm sure Berandor knows, I'm just letting everyone else know). It presents a great view of the 12th century from both common and noble standpoints. Lots of good characters.

I'm running an Exalted game, currently, and I'm getting a lot of ideas from fairy tales--Arabian Nights, Brothers Grimm, etc. Most of my ideas are spurred by the written setting, however, the details Mr. Grabowski and crew have put in the books are excellent springboards. I can't recommend that game enough.

 

[WayneLigon]

Most things by Martha Wells.
Anything so far by Holly Lisle (except for her Bard's Tale stuff; never read any of those).
Barbara Hambly's Darwath books, and the Antreg Windrose books.
Some Lovecraftian influences.
Reading Monte Cooks Ptolus updates.
Ready Andy Collin's campaign notes.

 

[Nighthawk]

Novels are a consistent source of flavor and inspiration for me. The most recent books I used were Anne Bishop's "The Black Jewels Trilogy," and I implemented the idea of the jewels into my campaign at the time.