Which author's work would you most like to see turned into a CRPG?

[Benedict]

Oh it absolutely would. London Below is a brilliant setting and being able to explore that in a game would be tremendous.

I do suppose though that it could make a passable RPG if the protagonist is not an outsider, but one of many characters that inhabits London Below. That might fit the RPG framework a bit more than playing an outsider that stumbles into it all. For example, you could play someone like Hunter rather than Richard.

Hmmm, but then you'd lose all the benefits of having a believable protagonist who genuinely doesn't know anything about the world he's in and is free to discover it.

 

[Zaleukos]

What quote + button?

Under the posts there is a "quote+" button to the right of the ordinary quote button.

 

[Benedict]

Under the posts there is a "quote+" button to the right of the ordinary quote button.

I have a strange greyed out box with no activity button. Is there something wrong with me?

 

[Zaleukos]

If you for instance want to quote three posts then you use "quote+" to flag the first two, and "quote" for the last one. (not sure its the smartest way to do it, but that seemed to be the way when I experimented just now)

 

[magerette]

Correct--if it's greyed out you may have hit the regular quote button first. Use the quote + for everything except the very last post you want to refer to, for that one hit just plain quote. Or you can copy and paste which I do a lot since I'm not that organized

Talking about all these great books is very enlightening. I've been adding authors and titles to my list as the thread progresses. I've never read the London Below books, but it reminded me of Cordwainer Smith and his Underpeople--another great concept for a game.

AFA Valerie Leith and her very very obscure trilogy, I found it online through a big bookchain and you'll occasionally see one in the used bookstore. The books predate Jordan(and are a bit less rambling) but have things in common with WoT. She wrote them as an American university student in England in the seventies so they definitely partake of that experimental era. Then, apparently she never wrote anything else, so that also keeps them obscure. But if you can find them, well worth it.


I don't understand either why fantasy is such a rigidly marketed category--it's such an imaginative medium that it's difficult to see how it has become a category for mass marketing...

 

[Benedict]

Correct--if it's greyed out you may have hit the regular quote button first. Use the quote + for everything except the very last post you want to refer to, for that one hit just plain quote. Or you can copy and paste which I do a lot since I'm not that organized

Talking about all these great books is very enlightening. I've been adding authors and titles to my list as the thread progresses. I've never read the London Below books, but it reminded me of Cordwainer Smith and his Underpeople--another great concept for a game.

AFA Valerie Leith and her very very obscure trilogy, I found it online through a big bookchain and you'll occasionally see one in the used bookstore. The books predate Jordan(and are a bit less rambling) but have things in common with WoT. She wrote them as an American university student in England in the seventies so they definitely partake of that experimental era. Then, apparently she never wrote anything else, so that also keeps them obscure. But if you can find them, well worth it.

I don't understand either why fantasy is such a rigidly marketed category--it's such an imaginative medium that it's difficult to see how it has become a category for mass marketing...

Nope, not got the quote active but I still don't have it . . . I'll keep an eye out and see if it comes back.

The London Below is just Neverwhere I think, which is thoroughly worth a read. In a similar vein I'd recommend Unlondon by China Mieville, although that's more whimsical and more of a children's book. I think kids are getting increasingly spoiled with stuff like that and Philip Pullman, although I suppose we had the Borribles in my day. Shame they'll mostly just gorge themselves on harry bloody potter.

Unless I get time to go to Foyles or the huge Borders I never find anything I like in an actual bookshop, barring weird ones around town. Amazon is just the place to go these days, such a shame as I love browsing for books and have come across some great stuff through pure serendipity, but the vast majority of the stuff they offer is just soul destroyingly bland.

I think Fantasy / Science fiction is starting to get a slightly higher profile, back in the early days it was pioneering stuff but it did go through a seriously tedious phase. I saw a review of a Jeff Vandermeer book in the Guardian, being discussed just like a non-genre book, which was nice. There do seem to be slightly more grown up books where the fantasy setting isn't just used to give an excuse for lots of swordfights and cool spells but is used to hold a dark mirror up to real life, or simply forms a backdrop to a story that's fundamentally about something else, even if the driving dynamic is being chased by a big monster or something.

 

[titus]

Anyone read the books of Weiss & Heckman?
Try to make a game in the universe of the "gate/portal of death" series , well I am not sure if it is the title of the series but it is a literal translation from the dutch title.
You got human, dwarves, elves, and some other more interesting races.

Great books and a great universe for games.
Or of the dragonvald serie of Margaret Weiss. Only the main characters are dragons and humans.

 

[Jaz]

Nope, not got the quote active but I still don't have it . . . I'll keep an eye out and see if it comes back.

In fact, you don't need the 'Quote' button at all if you want to multi-quote. Just hit 'quote+' under each post you want to quote. As nothing will happen straight away, you may suspect that it's not working, but as soon as you hit either the "real" 'quote' button or even just 'reply', the posting window will open. Your quote collection will already be in there, waiting for your comments.

 

[JemyM]

H.P. Lovecraft.

There is a real RPG based on his works (Call of Cthulhu) but the computer games are not RPG's. I do not really know how you can make a combat light cRPG though, I have not seen it tried before.

 

[Dez]

Alexandre dumas' three musketeers.

More historcal view instead of usual fantasy setting. A plot against king and ongoing war with England in the backround ofcourse, save or doom France. Becoming a musketeer would be ofcourse a huge part of the early game. In the begining a player would be a normal young man from a countryside travelling to Paris to meet his uncle and only having a desire to become a musketeer or something like that. The books are full of intresting character Milady de winter, Monsieur de Treville, Cardinal Richeliu.. Heck why hasn't anyone tried translating the books into rpg game?

 

[Benedict]

In fact, you don't need the 'Quote' button at all if you want to multi-quote. Just hit 'quote+' under each post you want to quote. As nothing will happen straight away, you may suspect that it's not working, but as soon as you hit either the "real" 'quote' button or even just 'reply', the posting window will open. Your quote collection will already be in there, waiting for your comments.

Grrrr, what's going on, I had it showing when I first opened the thread but now it's greyed out again before I could use it!

 

[szokol]

Frank Herbert's Dune universe would be a perfect setting for an RPG, even for a MMO.

 

[Gallifrey]

H.P. Lovecraft.

There is a real RPG based on his works (Call of Cthulhu) but the computer games are not RPG's. I do not really know how you can make a combat light cRPG though, I have not seen it tried before.

Lovecraft's novels are really not RPG material, at least not cRPG material. The standard cRPG format is not really conducive to telling a Lovecraftian tale. You don't quest, level up, gather loot and kill baddies in a Lovecraft setting. No matter how strong the story may be, those elements are still core to a computer roleplaying game.
The Call Of Cthulhu RPG works because everyone willing to play it understands that they are not going to emerge victorious, they'll be lucky if their character lives (something largely unacceptable to the cRPG audience). That RPG is more like a table-top adventure game to be honest.
Boiled down, the Lovecraftian philosophy is that we are all doomed, that life is an excercise in futility because we are up against such impossible to comprehend powers and odds, that we're at best only prolonging the inevitable by struggling. Not really good heroic RPG stuff.

Now, the Delta Green campaign setting might make for an interesting Lovecraftian cRPG.

 

[dteowner]

Grrrr, what's going on, I had it showing when I first opened the thread but now it's greyed out again before I could use it!

The button is a little different from the other two (didn't bold the font perhaps?) and I've noticed that it occasionally gets lost and shows up in the middle of the post or even in the post above.

 

[Benedict]

The Call Of Cthulhu RPG works because everyone willing to play it understands that they are not going to emerge victorious, they'll be lucky if their character lives (something largely unacceptable to the cRPG audience). .

:lol

I think something like that would be quite fun to play, but I agree it has no commercial appeal.

 

[JemyM]

Lovecraft's novels are really not RPG material, at least not cRPG material. The standard cRPG format is not really conducive to telling a Lovecraftian tale. You don't quest, level up, gather loot and kill baddies in a Lovecraft setting. No matter how strong the story may be, those elements are still core to a computer roleplaying game.
The Call Of Cthulhu RPG works because everyone willing to play it understands that they are not going to emerge victorious, they'll be lucky if their character lives (something largely unacceptable to the cRPG audience). That RPG is more like a table-top adventure game to be honest.
Boiled down, the Lovecraftian philosophy is that we are all doomed, that life is an excercise in futility because we are up against such impossible to comprehend powers and odds, that we're at best only prolonging the inevitable by struggling. Not really good heroic RPG stuff.

Now, the Delta Green campaign setting might make for an interesting Lovecraftian cRPG.

I think that depends on how CRPG's must be built. Are all CRPG's about killing, looting and leveling? A CoC RPG that blends CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth with Vampire: Bloodlines would be quite interesting. Instead of using disciplines you improve in academic skills that can be used to unlock information, read new languages, deciphering clues, speaking with NPC's etc. Subquests are built like mini adventures and might have some fighting but solving the quest is more important than your killrate.

 

[Benedict]

I think that depends on how CRPG's must be built. Are all CRPG's about killing, looting and leveling? A CoC RPG that blends CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth with Vampire: Bloodlines would be quite interesting. Instead of using disciplines you improve in academic skills that can be used to unlock information, read new languages, deciphering clues, speaking with NPC's etc. Subquests are built like mini adventures and might have some fighting but solving the quest is more important than your killrate.

Hmmm, tricky to implement though, there'd be a lot of scope for people to get stuck because they haven't got the right mix of skills to unlock significant events.

I do think games could be a lot less combat orientated though. Or at the very least just dispense with the tedious drip, drip, drip of regular encounters and generic monsters. A few key opponents with a good backstory would work in most settings.

EDIT - is bloodlines good by the way, I think I gave up because I found it pretty buggy. I can't remember though.

 

[JemyM]

Hmmm, tricky to implement though, there'd be a lot of scope for people to get stuck because they haven't got the right mix of skills to unlock significant events.

That's the difference between good vs bad game design. Most CoC scenarios are made to take advantage of a vast amount of wierd skills such as Anthropology, Local History and Language: Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Usually you find where you have to go, but the more information you seek before you go there (reading old newspapers, visiting the library, speaking to the police etc) the greater are your chances to survive.

EDIT - is bloodlines good by the way, I think I gave up because I found it pretty buggy. I can't remember though.

It's really one of the best games out there IMO, but yes, it is quite buggy.

 

[Gallifrey]

I think that depends on how CRPG's must be built. Are all CRPG's about killing, looting and leveling? A CoC RPG that blends CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth with Vampire: Bloodlines would be quite interesting. Instead of using disciplines you improve in academic skills that can be used to unlock information, read new languages, deciphering clues, speaking with NPC's etc. Subquests are built like mini adventures and might have some fighting but solving the quest is more important than your killrate.

Even still, that's not really a Lovecraft story. At best you could have a Lovecraftian setting, one inspired and borrowing from his body of work. But playing it would not convey the essence, the feeling, of a Lovecraft tale.

What you're describing seems more like an adventure game too. Unlocking information, deciphering clues, speaking to characters, all are staples of adventure games.

 

[JDR13]

If they can make an RPG out of Super Mario Brothers, I'm sure someone could make one based on H.P. Lovecraft. :lol: