From: hall@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert J. Hall)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: RPG Fiction
Keywords: RPG fiction, drivel
Date: 14 Sep 92 19:06:09 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Boeing Computer Services, Seattle

<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.

<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.

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
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.

<barnejd@wkuvx1.bitnet> Writes:
 > Also, a few of TSR's books are good as well.  My personal favorites:
 >  1) The Icewind Dale Trilogy          R.A. Salvatore
 >  2) The Dark Elf Trilogy               "       "
 >  3) Spellfire                         Ed Greenwood
 >
 > And, to a lesser extent, the Finder's Stone Trilogy by Kate Novak and
 > Jeff Grubb, and the Cleric Quintet (only Canticle and Night Masks;
 > In Sylvan Shadows is trash!).  I only consider one of the Harpers
 > series (Elfshadow) even worth the time to read, and the Avatar Trilogy
 > is absolute garbage IMHO.

You are pretty close to my opinion about the TSR books. I thought the first
book of the Dark Elf Trilogy was enjoyable for the descriptions of the Dark
Elf city with it's internecine struggles and generally brutish life style.
R.A.S. certainly had a let down with Sylvan Shadows. The book played too
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.

-- 
 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