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

Benedict

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Ideally with the author actually writing something for it.

For me it'd have to be China Mieville, I'd love to play something set in New Crobuzon. Dark, twisted, all kinds of potential for wonderfully diverse character generation and strange feats & perks (people weirdly modified in the punishment factories, dozens of different kinds of hedge magics, a hugely ethnically diverse city with different races all living together squashed into various slums, strange steam technologies etc), lots of political intrigue and repression, drugs, violence,

For those unfamiliar with his work I'd recommend Perdido Street Station as a starting read, my favourite of his works. The slake moths are a fantastic monster too, it may be a novel that's essentially a group of heroes saving a city threatened by a big monster but it's so cleverly and originally done that it never feels cliched even for a minute.

Hopefully the witcher will be a big success and they'll start looking around for decent intellectual property to import into computer games.
 
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It seems like that usually turns out disappointing when they try to "port" a literary world. For that matter, have there been any that really succeeded? The Krondor games are probably the closest to getting the job done, but even they were slammed for being extremely linear.

If I had to vote for something, I'd probably go with Glen Cook's Black Company world.
 
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I would love to see Fred Saberhagen's Berserker universe turned into a CRPG. There are so many types of berserkers... and so many types of planets (high-tech, low-tech, etc) that it would be easy to create a great sci-fi CRPG with a unique setting.

I've dreamt of that for years... but I'm afraid that it won't happen now that he's passed away... and so few people read his great works these days...
 
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It seems like that usually turns out disappointing when they try to "port" a literary world. For that matter, have there been any that really succeeded? The Krondor games are probably the closest to getting the job done, but even they were slammed for being extremely linear.

If I had to vote for something, I'd probably go with Glen Cook's Black Company world.

Hmm, I suppose I should clarify to suggest not trying to turn an actual written storyline into a game but setting a game in a created universe with the appropriate atmosphere and background world.

The Krondor games worked pretty well I thought, especially given the limitations of the time. I'd much rather have a linear game with a good story than a bland sandbox myself though.
 
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I would love to see Fred Saberhagen's Berserker universe turned into a CRPG. There are so many types of berserkers... and so many types of planets (high-tech, low-tech, etc) that it would be easy to create a great sci-fi CRPG with a unique setting.

I've dreamt of that for years... but I'm afraid that it won't happen now that he's passed away... and so few people read his great works these days...

Not read any of his stuff myself, I'm more of a fantasy than sci-fi person, what sort of style?
 
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I've not actually read any of Mieville's books, but I've heard a great deal about them and from what I've been told, it sounds like a brilliant cRPG campaign setting. Very steampunk/fantasy-ish from the impressions I have.

I'd love a single-player RPG set in R.E. Howard's Conan universe. The MMO looks amazing, they've really captured Howard's work in the screenshots and concept art that I've seen. But it's an MMO, which isn't really conducive to getting into, exploring and feeling part of the literary setting.

Most of the authors I read and books I like aren't really suited to translating into the cRPG format. They all work best as books, or would be excellent source material for strategy games.

It veers away from books, but Joss Whedon writing a plot and character dialogue for a Firefly cRPG would be very cool. That's a setting that'd be brilliant fun to play in.
 
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I agree, gallifrey--I've always wanted to play a game with Conan and Red Sonja and what would be more quintessentially RPG than Howard's world? Maybe we can hope for a decent SP spinoff, though it would be easier to make it badly than well.

I've always thought that the alternate world that C.S. Lewis created in his Space Trilogy(Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength ) would make a very coherent setting for an RPG. I know he's best known for the Narnia books, but the world in the trilogy is much grimmer and more adult. His friend Tolkien's influence in these books is pretty heavy, and they really do a similar hackle-raising job of presenting evil in all it's formidable pettiness. It's told from his pronounced Christian viewpoint, however, and that would need to be treated with some delicacy to translate well.

More traditional fantasy that would make an excellent game is the obscure Company of Glass trilogy by Valerie Leith. The hero, Tarquin the Free, is just the perfect embittered and caustic veteran of desparate monster fighting that makes a great rpg protagonist. The world of Everien is richly detailed, with a supporting cast made to be NPCs and a vivid animistic vision of tribal allegiances in the animal Clans. The great evil consists of the singing, mindless beings of otherworldly beauty known as the Sekk --who are very much not what they seem. There are some pretty gritty moral issues as well, of the "which is better, the world of the noble savage or the power-hungry scientist?" variety. If you've never read this trilogy and can stand a lot of Jordanesque character proliferation as well as some disturbing psychedelic landscapes of unreason, this little series is well worth the time spent finding it. (The Company of Glass, The Riddled Night, The Way of the Rose.)
 
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Not read any of his stuff myself, I'm more of a fantasy than sci-fi person, what sort of style?

If you're more into fantasy I would recommend his Swords series of books. Start with "The First Book of Swords" and work your way through the series. They are a gritty, non-Tolkien type of fantasy... some of the greatest books I've read.

His Berserker series is basically fantasy sci-fi... not necessarily based on cold-hard science. What's great though is that there is an entire universe where his stories take place. So one Berserker story may take place in a galaxy with highly advanced species of humans battling the ever-present berserkers... while another story may take place on a planet where the people are very primitive with no forms of weapons greater than swords and bows.

Without spoiling any story... Berserkers are basically self-aware machines. They can be as simple as a man-like robot, or as complex as an entire "starship" sized craft. They were created by a "human" like race thousands of years ago as a tool for eliminating that race's enemies. However an error in their programming resulted in a prime directive to destroy all life. So from that point on they have replicated and spread throughout the universe with the sole purpose of getting rid of life.

If this kinda sounds like The Terminator or The Matrix... that's because many ideas for that and other movies and books have taken some of Saberhagen's ideas (not that he's the first to write about sentient machines). I think the first Berserker story was written in around 1967.

Great, great stuff... Saberhagen should be required reading for any fantasy/sci-fi fan...

I would recommend the book "Berserker Wars" as a start... it has several of Saberhagen's original short berserker stories, and it really gives you a good basis for understanding the berserker universe.

Also, check out:

Fred's Website
 
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I agree, gallifrey--I've always wanted to play a game with Conan and Red Sonja and what would be more quintessentially RPG than Howard's world? Maybe we can hope for a decent SP spinoff, though it would be easier to make it badly than well.

When I look at the art created for the Conan MMO and am incredibly jealous, because they've nailed the look and atmosphere perfectly and I want to explore in all of that. But the gameplay and whole MMO aspect just brings it down. Nothing against MMOs, but I'd steer clear of a Conan MMO just as I would the LOTR MMO. A Conan RPG with multiplayer in the style of a NWN persistent world however, would be fantastic.

I've always thought that the alternate world that C.S. Lewis created in his Space Trilogy(Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength ) would make a very coherent setting for an RPG. I know he's best known for the Narnia books, but the world in the trilogy is much grimmer and more adult. His friend Tolkien's influence in these books is pretty heavy, and they really do a similar hackle-raising job of presenting evil in all it's formidable pettiness. It's unfortunately told from his pronounced Christian viewpoint, however, and that would need to be treated with some delicacy to translate well.

I had completely forgotten about those books, and in fact, have never read them. Seeing as I forgot about them, they were never on my radar for picking up and reading. I must remedy that.

I keep trying to think of authors or books that I've liked that'd suit an RPG and very little matches up. Adventure games sure, but in that case I'd rather just read the books.
 
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The (german) Maddrax Paperpack-Series (right now at Number 203) - a post-apocalyptic Earth a few hundred years after an Asteroid-Impact with Mutants, Aliens, Barbarians, Psionics and subterran Vaults where the high-society had survived and thrived - and Americans that created Mutants especially to destroy the european Vaults :)
 
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I'd say my top choice would be Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles.

I also agree with those who mention a single player or NWN-style Conan game, that'd be great as well.
 
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Zelazny is a great choice--another very vivid world.

Gallifrey wrote:
I had completely forgotten about those books, and in fact, have never read them. Seeing as I forgot about them, they were never on my radar for picking up and reading. I must remedy that.

It's been over twenty years since I read them, but there are still passages and points of rhetoric I can remember. (For me, pretty amazing!)
 
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For me: Clive Barker's Imagica and offcourse the famous discworld series of Terry Pratchett.
Imo Imagica would lend itself perfectly for a game: the hero has a memoryloss but gradualy learns that he was a great sorcerer. The beings that venture in these worlds would be a magnificent view. And that last reason is why I think the discworld setting could be used too.
 
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Obviously I'd support anything set in Zelazny's Amber universe, but I also think an RPG set in Jordan's WoT universe could be brilliant if done correctly!!
 
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An RPG that somehow connects Jules Verne's books would be interesting, as would Les Tuniques Bleus - the RPG (there should be enough characters and locations to set up an RPG:p).
 
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I'd like to see a game based on the world of Pat Cadigan's 'Mindplayers'. Playing the role of a pathosfinder (a therapist able to enter a client's mind via cyberlink) might make for some interesting gaming, though the game wouldn't *have* to be a CRPG to please me - I'd rather have an atmospheric adventure with 10 DVDs of dialogue options and a mean, twisting plot than a combat-heavy stats orgy.
 
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N. Gaiman "American Gods" - interesting characters and the good story can be think out for this.
 
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Raymond E Fiest. He has worked on games and turned them into books so why not around the other way. Magician would make an awesome RPG I think, structured similar to BaK, branching storyline featuring Tomas and Pug. 100+ hours gameplay....
 
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