From: bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce Koike)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RPG Fiction
Keywords: RPG fiction, drivel
Date: 15 Sep 92 04:13:57 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <3607@bcstec.ca.boeing.com> hall@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert J. Hall) writes:
><mkkuhner@phylo.genetics.washington.edu> writes:
>
> > Speaking as someone who's tried it, the difficulty is that the qualities
> ...
> > frequently it's an FRP story....
>
>Good post, and I agree with much of what you wrote. The primary reason I enjoy
>some of the RPG Pulp out there is that it sometimes helps to fill out the
>game world in a manner that many of the RPG supplements fail to do. 
>Unfortunately, many of the pulp RPG novels fail even at this modest task.
>
	I've read a handful of RPG novels (mostly Dragonlance) and
while perhaps they do fill out a game world, I question how useful
they may be.  The only thing which really saved the books (need I
say IMO?) was the fact was that there was a lot of information about
the world.  If it wasn't for that, I would have stopped reading the
books a long time ago.  They had a few memorable moments, though,
but sadly far too many bad ones (oh, the Generic Kender Syndrome,
the Tanis Half-Elven the Noble Whiner from Hell...Gnomes...Gully
Dwarves...)
	In the last three AD&D games I played in, every gnome was a
Dragonlance gnome and every halfling was effectively a Kender.  Not
good.  In fact, I stopped playing in that campaign simply because I
was ready to start casting fireballs on the party just to kill the
offending characters.  (Had this been a SILLY AD&D game, hell, that
would have been fine.  But I was under the impression that it was
going to be a serious one, at least in part.)
	But seriously.  How about the Darksword Trilogy?  Not only
had I read the plotline before, but I guessed it as well (which I
rarely do since I'm into reading for pleasure and not to see if I
can exercise my meager intelligence).  Not precisely "gaming
fiction," but it was written by gaming authors who, sadly, really
aren't that good in my opinion.

><jfzeigl@afterlife.ncsc.mil> Writes:
> > Not to put too fine a point on it, but I have always considered this stuff to
> > be a sterling example of Sturgeon's Dictum: Ninety percent of *everything*
> > is crud.  I have *yet* to pick up a piece of RPG-inspired fiction and enjoy it.
> > Often, I find I can't even finish the book -- and I've got a cast-iron stomach
> > when it comes to finishing a book the first time through.

	I did enjoy parts here and there of Dragonlance.  Some of
the later books were tolerable, but it went downhill once the DL
craze went out of control.  I was ready to kill anyone who said
Raistlin to me or made Yet Another Chaotic-Neutral Raistlin-Like
Character.
>
>Unfortunately, this does not seem to be unique to RPG-inspired novels. Almost
>all the Fantasy fiction I've weeded my way through is mediocre, stereotyped,
>and pure pulp. There's nothing particularily unique about RPG pulp in this

	Needless to say, this isn't true.  I can't even count on my
hands the number of books I've read in the past and am reading now
that aren't what you say.  Sadly, far too many fantasy novels fall
into the Tolkien Rut From Hell.  Why does every damned author need
to write the Adventuring Party Out To Save The World novel/series?
And if they're going to write one, can't they at least write
something original?
	But like I said, there are still numerous excellent examples
of good fantasy out there and I'm glad to have read them.  (I'd die
to read a good dark fantasy book that thoroughly depresses me...I'm
in that kind of mood.)

>respect. In fact, since the stuff actually seems to be selling and it is
>taking over a growing amount of shelf space in the book stores, I sometimes
>wonder if it isn't the writing level that is being flamed, but rather the
>concept that someone could actually write a novel about this stuff. RPG fiction
>seems to bring out strong negative opinions from certain people, yet the
>damn stuff is being snapped up. Something doesn't jive here.

	I happen to know some of those people who snap up that RPG
fiction and I still can't explain WHY they do it, they just do.
Maybe it's just an urge to read something...anything.  I mean, I
read programming manuals when I'm REALLY desperate.  (grin!)  But at
least we're not talking about Gor...
>
><barnejd@wkuvx1.bitnet> Writes:
>much like a module re-write.
>
>Heck, I'm not looking for a sterling works of fiction from this stuff. Prime
>works of literature are few and far between. Once you've read those, you are
>stuck with picking and choosing from the pulp. Despite the anal opinions of
>some, I don't think all the T$R fiction is a complete loss and nearly a third
>is enjoyable as a light read.

	Agreed, but I'd never BUY any!  (Like I said, I've got
friends who do that for me...and I can get their opinion on all the
books so I never borrow one that I won't be able to finish...)
>
>-- 
> Bob Hall,                 | "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
> Workstation Peripheral    | Then give up. No use being a damn fool about it."
> Boeing Computer Services  |                                     -Groucho Marx
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc