Werthead
Explorer
Been playing a lot of STALKER 2 this week and that feels ready-made for a TTRPG conversion. Given the immense success of the series (this is the fourth game in the series, despite the name) and of TTRPGs in eastern Europe, and the ongoing popularity of Stalker the movie and Roadside Picnic the novel (the OG inspiration/source material) it's surprising there already isn't one.
You could probably do a conversion using something like Mutant easily enough though.
Malazan originally stemmed from an AD&D 2E campaign that started in 1982, but they ended up hating the rules and switched to GURPS around 1987, so there's certainly scope for an adaptation back to TTRPGs. I believe they've come close 2-3 times to signing a deal, but each time they've backed out. I think Erikson in particular doesn't want to give up control of the setting or set things canonically in stone before they have to (also the reason why there's no canon world map or even a map of Stratem or western Seven Cities yet). I get the impression SE has odd views on what the property is worth and how to exploit it; a colleague of mine went to negotiate the CRPG licence for Malazan and outlined a campaign involving multiple characters, species etc with a roleplaying focus and SE instead asked them to make first-person shooter as he liked those, despite that not being the focus of the company and obviously a very poor fit for the setting (remember the Wheel of Time first-person shooter? It didn't set the world on fire).
Prince of Nothing / Second Apocalypse also started as an AD&D campaign setting for 2E in 1986, there's even maps of OG Earwa floating around mentioning gnome and elven kingdoms. But then it rapidly changed and got darker. I think the sheer darkness and philosophical nihilism of the setting and the extreme commercial failure of the last few novels makes any hope for TTRPG improbable in the extreme.
In a different timeline, we'd have gotten the movie version from the Golden Company team, it would have done well and we'd be having a very different conversation, but alas that did not come to pass.
You could probably do a conversion using something like Mutant easily enough though.
Arcane and the wider League of Legends universe are covered by the free Runarcana TTRPG.You are not alone. I also thought that RM would be quite gameable as a setting.
As for other properties...man, where to beginn?!
- Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
- Prince of Nothing - R. Scott Bakker
- Arcane - NF Series
Malazan originally stemmed from an AD&D 2E campaign that started in 1982, but they ended up hating the rules and switched to GURPS around 1987, so there's certainly scope for an adaptation back to TTRPGs. I believe they've come close 2-3 times to signing a deal, but each time they've backed out. I think Erikson in particular doesn't want to give up control of the setting or set things canonically in stone before they have to (also the reason why there's no canon world map or even a map of Stratem or western Seven Cities yet). I get the impression SE has odd views on what the property is worth and how to exploit it; a colleague of mine went to negotiate the CRPG licence for Malazan and outlined a campaign involving multiple characters, species etc with a roleplaying focus and SE instead asked them to make first-person shooter as he liked those, despite that not being the focus of the company and obviously a very poor fit for the setting (remember the Wheel of Time first-person shooter? It didn't set the world on fire).
Prince of Nothing / Second Apocalypse also started as an AD&D campaign setting for 2E in 1986, there's even maps of OG Earwa floating around mentioning gnome and elven kingdoms. But then it rapidly changed and got darker. I think the sheer darkness and philosophical nihilism of the setting and the extreme commercial failure of the last few novels makes any hope for TTRPG improbable in the extreme.
In a different timeline, we'd have gotten the movie version from the Golden Company team, it would have done well and we'd be having a very different conversation, but alas that did not come to pass.