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Mom told me to put down that drat video game and pick up a book so I started reading a literal description of playing a video game
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Mar 29, 2022 16:53
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Mad Hamish posted:The first Dragonlance trilogy is explicitly a novelization of the D&D campaign that inspired it, so yes, it reads like that on purpose. I think there are parts where it's like "so the characters are just kind of milling around POINTEDLY NOT GOING WHERE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO GO in the woods so suddenly AN ELF APPEARS and tells the characters to go down the drat road they have been avoiding for 20 minutes"
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Mar 29, 2022 16:55
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They're fun to write and run when they're audience-participation in design. 
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Mar 29, 2022 19:09
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Runcible Cat posted:LitRPG. It's as soul-destroying as it sounds. I've heard the whispers of this for many moons, but have not yet tasted its foul miasma
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Mar 29, 2022 20:05
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There's a genre in Japan called "Replays" which are transcripts of game sessions. They include out of character discussion, table talk, mechanical discussion, as well as the actual in-character stuff and GM narration. I've never read one but I can imagine those being interesting, sort of like the online streaming "Actual Play" genre but at a lower tech level. LitRPG seems utterly pointless because at best it's a Replay/Actual Play with most of the actually interesting and entertaining stuff stripped, and isn't even based on an actual game that people have played.
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Mar 29, 2022 20:16
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Runcible Cat posted:I remember years ago on goon safari to the TVTropes forum we found someone who must've been close to Patient Zero for this trend. He was agonising in one of their writer advice threads about how he was having trouble with his character's first boss fight because he only had 3 healing potions and that wasn't enough and he had to win that fight because he got his girlfriend as a rare drop at the end of it and god how we mocked that. Had we but known... This one always stuck out as being completely moronic. It's a story, write it so he had four healing potions. Either that or write it so he loses the fight and doesn't get the girl and has to live with his failure.
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Mar 29, 2022 20:18
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super sweet best pal posted:This one always stuck out as being completely moronic. It's a story, write it so he had four healing potions. Either that or write it so he loses the fight and doesn't get the girl and has to live with his failure. Or write it in a way where he wins the fight in a more interesting way than face tanking the blows and chugging potions
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Mar 29, 2022 20:20
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That would be intellectually dishonest. You have to follow the rules of the made up video game combat options or else the whole thing will just be a big joke
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Mar 29, 2022 20:49
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So what is the Bad Fantasy of today? Is it all those formulaic YA trilogies? I feel like the bad fantasy of my childhood (I am 35) was more for a male audience and now it's more for a female audience. Do I have any facts to back this up? Absolutely not.
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Mar 29, 2022 23:56
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I started reading Imajica. I’m two chapters in and there’s a shitload of footnotes that are utterly loving bizarre, so I have a feeling it’s going to go loving nuts asap.
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Mar 30, 2022 00:02
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I just caught up on this thread and I just wanted to say that Wheel of Time is actually cool & good
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Mar 30, 2022 00:16
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SirSamVimes posted:I just caught up on this thread and I just wanted to say that Wheel of Time is actually cool & good Is wheel of time the one where casting spells requires a woman to receive a bare-bottom spanking?
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Mar 30, 2022 00:19
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HelloIAmYourHeart posted:So what is the Bad Fantasy of today? Is it all those formulaic YA trilogies? I feel like the bad fantasy of my childhood (I am 35) was more for a male audience and now it's more for a female audience. Do I have any facts to back this up? Absolutely not. i think there's still a ton of the same kind of stuff being written, only with slightly updated references or more "subversion" it's a genre that's so deeply entrenched and codified.. it's basically the religion of a lot of people
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Mar 30, 2022 00:43
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precision posted:i think there's still a ton of the same kind of stuff being written, only with slightly updated references or more "subversion" My husband's been reading a lot of Warhammer novels lately, I suppose that might fit. (sidenote: he gave me Piers Anthony's incarnation of death book, I don't remember the real title, when we were in 8th grade, and I married him anyway. He did, however, say that the rest of the series was poo poo, so at least there's that)
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Mar 30, 2022 01:45
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HelloIAmYourHeart posted:My husband's been reading a lot of Warhammer novels lately, I suppose that might fit. (sidenote: he gave me Piers Anthony's incarnation of death book, I don't remember the real title, when we were in 8th grade, and I married him anyway. He did, however, say that the rest of the series was poo poo, so at least there's that) I've only ever read some comics collections and they are hilariously Grimdark (tm). but self-aware, so it's still fun. can you get his take on the novels? the idea makes me sleepy, and I say this as someone who likes WH fluff over the actual games
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Mar 30, 2022 01:53
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Nigmaetcetera posted:Is wheel of time the one where casting spells requires a woman to receive a bare-bottom spanking? No it's just strongly encouraged. Also when not casting spells.
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Mar 30, 2022 01:55
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The Moon Monster posted:No it's just strongly encouraged. Also when not casting spells. Well, i guess it’s not my place to judge other cultures
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Mar 30, 2022 02:02
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Empty Sandwich posted:I've only ever read some comics collections and they are hilariously Grimdark (tm). but self-aware, so it's still fun. He said: They are morally ambiguous, violent, and devoid of deeper meaning, with a very rich world. Perfect escapism for the Trump presidency.
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Mar 30, 2022 02:08
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I still like the premise of the first red dragon the dragonlance crew runs into is a blind senile old matron who goes ballistic when her “children” are threatened.
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Mar 30, 2022 02:33
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Empty Sandwich posted:I've only ever read some comics collections and they are hilariously Grimdark (tm). but self-aware, so it's still fun. Dan Abnett’s 40K books were pretty readable - Horus Rising and the rest of that series are decent… I think he also wrote some non-40K WH stuff but I have no idea about that.
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Mar 30, 2022 03:02
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poisonpill posted:Mom told me to put down that drat video game and pick up a book so I started reading a literal description of playing a video game I hope you've seen this thread https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3991936
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Mar 30, 2022 04:01
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Woah. Drizzt canonically dies? I missed this. I wanna mention the Elminster Series of books here, too. Its about a fighter, thief, mage mary sue named Elminster, chosen of Mystra, who was a girl in a book or two Mary-sueing his way through books. They're not good. They're also Forgotten Realms sooooooo. Jack-Off Lantern fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Mar 30, 2022 |
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Mar 30, 2022 05:15
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Best fantasy series is the magic shop books by Bruce Coville
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Mar 30, 2022 05:29
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Second best fantasy series is Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
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Mar 30, 2022 05:31
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Nigmaetcetera posted:I started reading Imajica. I’m two chapters in and there’s a shitload of footnotes that are utterly loving bizarre, so I have a feeling it’s going to go loving nuts asap. It's Japanese portal fantasy OP
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Mar 30, 2022 05:56
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Nigmaetcetera posted:I started reading Imajica. I’m two chapters in and there’s a shitload of footnotes that are utterly loving bizarre, so I have a feeling it’s going to go loving nuts asap. Imajica is... quite a thing. I read it, was entertained, but plenty of wtf and questionable content. Still, if you want something different, there it is.
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Mar 30, 2022 07:17
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rotinaj posted:Oh, don't worry, goodkind also made sure to do a scene like that for the book's villain If i remember correctly, he was just dumping gruel down the pipe that he enchanted to taste like blueberry pie. Also Draken Rahl just wanted to tell the future by using the childs guts after he dumped the molten metal into his face. Its like wtf still. Also if you want some good, older but not that old fantasy, there are new Elric collections coming out soon. Those are really good, and D&D heavily borrowed for them, as did the Witcher and Berserk and therefor Dark Souls. Elric is a good guy but because he's an sickly albino he needs the power of Stormbringer to do the good he needs to do, but that involves killing a lot of people he cares about. The end of the series is pretty funny the world gets remade into ours and the spirit inside of Stormbringer turns out to be Satan .random posted:Dan Abnett’s 40K books were pretty readable - Horus Rising and the rest of that series are decent… I think he also wrote some non-40K WH stuff but I have no idea about that. Abnett was mostly a comic writer. The Guardians of the Galaxy the movie is based on takes a lot from his run on it. BUt yea he and a few other writers for Warhammer books elevate the Material so they're pretty good for mass market paperbacks that are based on a game with plastic toy soldiers. I've read a lot of them and i'd say they have a higher quality rating than the old Star Wars EU, and way better than D&D novels. I always say to anyone interested in 40k that doesn't really want to spend the time and money to actually play the games to just read the books. There are some real clunkers though, probably at least 25% of the Horus Hersey novels are pointless at best, barely readable at worse, but for every Damnation of Pythos or Soul Drinkers Trilogy there is a Fulgrim and Eisenhorn trilogy. I'd say the other names ot trust are Graham McNeill, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, and Chris Wraight. Say far away from Nick Kyme and David Annandale. Though Horus Hersey is a daunting series, you're probably best just reading Gaunts Ghost, Eisenhorn and Ravenor series. They function more as sci-fil, with gaunts ghosts being basically Sharpe's in space. Like its clearly Abnett borrows from it but its not a straight 1:1. Gaunt is nothing like Sharpe, who came up through the ranks, while Gaunt was a close confidant of one of the highest ranking military officers in the galaxy. But the format is the same, an small, elite unit that isn't fully trusted by the superiors keeps getting thrown into impossible situations and coming out on top.
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Mar 30, 2022 07:46
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twistedmentat posted:Also if you want some good, older but not that old fantasy, there are new Elric collections coming out soon. Those are really good, and D&D heavily borrowed for them, as did the Witcher and Berserk and therefor Dark Souls. Elric is a good guy but because he's an sickly albino he needs the power of Stormbringer to do the good he needs to do, but that involves killing a lot of people he cares about. The end of the series is pretty funny the world gets remade into ours and the spirit inside of Stormbringer turns out to be Satan So how many books are there and when are the collections coming out?
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Mar 30, 2022 08:23
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Atopian posted:Dude had some rough edges of his time, but for his time he was impressively not hosed up. Zelazny was just a great writer - even his lower-tier books were eminently readable. I've read just about everything he ever wrote, and I've read almost all of it multiple times.
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Mar 30, 2022 08:43
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Empty Sandwich posted:I've only ever read some comics collections and they are hilariously Grimdark (tm). but self-aware, so it's still fun. Warhammer: Crime is legit good. GrimNoir works surprisingly well, and the setting is basically Blade Runner cyberpunk in a W40K hive city.
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Mar 30, 2022 09:24
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Holy poo poo this thread is back
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Mar 30, 2022 09:50
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Jack-Off Lantern posted:So how many books are there and when are the collections coming out? There's 7 or 8 novels and a few anthologies, but each book is pretty short and a quick read - the whole thing was written in a Robert E. Howard serial style, so more smaller self-contained adventures, rather than one big continuous epic. There is an over-arching arc if you read them in order, but you won't get lost if you grab one at random (well, except for the last one) and start reading. The real trick to understanding Elric is that he's an intentional 'opposite day' parody of Conan. - He's not a barbarian, he's an aristocrat. - He's not trying to become a king to build a new vital nation, he already IS a king and he's trying to destroy his old decadent nation. - He's not a strong warrior who survives on his wits and intuition, he's a sickly wizard that relies on magic to do everything for him. - He doesn't slay dragons, he owns them and rides them into battle. - He's not avenging his dead family, they're still alive - and he's trying to gently caress or kill them. (His sister, his brother.) Yeah, about that last one. The reason the Elric series belongs in this thread, even though it's otherwise good, is one running plot point in the early books is, well, [edit] the threat of incest rape. His culture is into royal inbreeding - he's in love with his [edit] cousin, and her jealous incel brother kidnaps her to take her all for himself, and it's the main plot for two books. I don't remember anything overtly gross in the writing, [edit] it was treated like 'dastardly dan stealing away fair princess', like a trope. thoughts and prayers fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Mar 30, 2022 |
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Mar 30, 2022 11:11
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Crab Dad posted:I still like the premise of the first red dragon the dragonlance crew runs into is a blind senile old matron who goes ballistic when her “children” are threatened. NGL that bit made little 12 year old me cry. Wanted to cuddle that evil dragon.
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Mar 30, 2022 11:16
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Jack-Off Lantern posted:I wanna mention the Elminster Series of books here, too. Its about a fighter, thief, mage mary sue named Elminster, chosen of Mystra, who was a girl in a book or two Mary-sueing his way through books. They're not good. Yuuuup. Any book with Elminster as a character in it is terrible. I read one or two, and a couple of short stories in some anthologies and just... no, he sucks. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, the description of (young) Elminster waking up as a girl after some magical experimentation rattles around in my head. Mainly the phrase "swaying sensation" Elminster-the-girl looks down at herself and is suprised to find her breasts The other stand-out scene involves a really, really stupid setpiece of mages measuring their dicks with a fireball contest. Elminster - in disguise, naturally - wins by launching the magical equivalant of a nuke. And everybody stood up and clapped! of course. EDIT: Dragon Magazine (I had a subscription for a few years, from about age 16 to 20 or 21) ran a series of essays by major names in D&D (incluing Gygax and Arneson, I think), a kind of "this is how I got into D&D/RPGs/Fantasy". Ed Greenwood's (creator of Forgotten Realms) essay included a comely young woman knocking him down with a real sword and ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 11:26 on Mar 30, 2022 |
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Mar 30, 2022 11:21
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Kim Newman's Warhammer stuff (written as Jack Yeovil) is decent.
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Mar 30, 2022 11:35
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thoughts and prayers posted:
Wait, aren't they cousins to Elric, not siblings? Edit: Also there was a really good graphic novel adaptation of the first Elric book called "The Ruby Throne" which came out a few years ago. Worth picking up for anyone into those. Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 12:03 on Mar 30, 2022 |
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Mar 30, 2022 11:54
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Deptfordx posted:Wait, aren't they cousins to Elric, not siblings? Oh poo poo, you're right. (I did say it's been a loooooong time.) I edited it to fix it. thoughts and prayers fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Mar 30, 2022 |
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Mar 30, 2022 12:02
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Jack-Off Lantern posted:I wanna mention the Elminster Series of books here, too. Its about a fighter, thief, mage mary sue named Elminster, chosen of Mystra, who was a girl in a book or two Mary-sueing his way through books. They're not good. Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms and Elminster is sort of his pet creation. Greenwood used to have a series in Dragon magazine where Elminster would show up to talk to him about stuff happening in the FR. that's all fine. but his novels are terrible and even though TSR didn't allow any descriptive sex stuff it's clear that Elminster bones down a lot.
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Mar 30, 2022 12:38
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Second best fantasy series is Mrs. Piggle Wiggle I can get behind this sentiment
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Mar 30, 2022 12:39
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Empty Sandwich posted:Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms and Elminster is sort of his pet creation. Greenwood used to have a series in Dragon magazine where Elminster would show up to talk to him about stuff happening in the FR. that's all fine. Right. I have the impression that Elminster started as "just a guy" that could be used to narrate scenes or give an infodump, an NPC that showed up to drive the plot along. But powercreep ended up making him absurdly awesome until one of the D&D revamps knocked him down to being an enfeebled and deluded geriatric.
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Mar 30, 2022 13:04
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