Fantasy Roleplaying

[ralphmelton]

In this article, Ken Hite talks about the differences between fantasy RPGs and the stories they're nominally based on.

Comments

[eub.livejournal.com]

Interesting. And here are some of my favorite posts from a thread of writers talking about why gaming-derived fiction is hard:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=20000921112747.29034.00000034%40nso-de.aol.com
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=8qdjkt%24n7t%241%40eskinews.eskimo.com
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=20000921172726.29034.00000039%40nso-de.aol.com
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=969569983snz%40bluejo.demon.co.uk
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=8qop2b%24334%241%40eskinews.eskimo.com

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Thank you for those links. (And thank you for sifting the weheat from the chaff of the rest of the thread.)

Interestingly enough, I've seen Peter Knutsen (to whom they are replying) post on the Pyramid newsgroups--he has some rather odd ideas sometimes.

The comment in one of those messages about how fiction and games are not good in the same ways, just as a good book may make a bad movie, reminded me of a statement I read in the Pyramid groups once to the effect of "the best game settings come from bad books." The contention there was that good fiction knit things into a coherent story, and had little dross; not-so-good fiction, with more inconsistencies and extraneous details, provided more room for PCs to play.

It was because of that statement that I decided that my aspiration for my campaign was for it to resemble a mediocre work of fantasy fiction. I think it's a much more reasonable goal than to resemble a good story.