RPG Novel recommendations

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Ulairi

Ulairi

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With the wife and kids safely in a China until September 2nd I have lots of free time in the evenings. I never really read a lot of gaming based fiction. I read the first Drizzit books back in the 90’s and never really cared for the Realms.

With Warhammer coming back and Ignoring the lame Age of Sigmar stuff are there any good Warhammer novels? I got a novel with the online game from like 10 years ago but didn’t read it.

I did read the Rifts novel trilogy from the early 2000’s.
 
I'm just gonna watch this thread and see if anybody says they've actually ever read a "good" RPG-based novel.
 
The Buck Rogers XXVc novels weren't bad, but they're long out of print and very difficult to find now. Plus, only the first four novels actually had Buck Rogers in them. Hey, much like the game itself!
 
Some of the early Warhammer stories were pretty good... my non-gamer girlfriend borrowed some of them and liked them a lot. Drachenfels, Plague Demon, the Orfeo/Konrad stuff. The books for GW's Car Wars game were fun as well.

I once tried reading a collection of short stories based on Wraith The Oblivion, hoping to better grok that setting... but I didn't get far before deciding they were dire trash, really awful.
 
I'm getting deja vu that this thread topic has come up before.

The only Rpg fiction I've read in the past 30 years has been a few of the Delta Green novellas/short-story collections. And they were alright. I read The Crystal Shard, and one of the Dragonlance novels when I was 13 or 14, but that's the extent of it. Wouldn't say that they were particularly "good".
 
Dumarest said:
...and I still can't imagine why I'd seek out a novel based on an RPG when there are still an incredible number of classics in every genre that I haven't read yet. :trigger:
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That makes sense, but I can see the attraction if you really like the setting of the game and are already familiar with a lot of it... so reading a book set there is going to be familiar and comfortable? Like, I liked World of Warcraft's original setting (less so the expansions) and even though I no longer play that game I wouldn't mind reading some good fiction set in old Azeroth... not that I know of any such 'good' WOW fiction.
I read the novels that were published for Confrontation, which weren't great but I enjoyed them on that level... kinda like fan fiction.

Also, for myself, I've read some RPG fiction in an attempt to better understand the setting... internalize its atmosphere. The World of Darkness for example.
 
Dumarest said:
I seem to recall the same...

...and I still can't imagine why I'd seek out a novel based on an RPG when there are still an incredible number of classics in every genre that I haven't read yet. :trigger:
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For me, it was because the Buck Rogers XXVc setting rocks and I wanted to get more of it.
 
The Skaven End Times book was really excellent. It basically covered a single large final battle between the Dwarves, goblins, and Skaven for control of a single mountain range. It switched viewpoints between the leaders of these races, and did an amazing job of making each of them fascinating characters. The skaven were Clan Mors led by Queen Headtaker, not only one of the Ratmen's greatest warriors, but also completely insane, harried by voices from the skulls of enemies he kept as trophies. The surprise ending to the story is one of Warhammer Fantasy lore's all-time moments of Awesome.
 
Simlasa said:
Some of the early Warhammer stories were pretty good... my non-gamer girlfriend borrowed some of them and liked them a lot. Drachenfels, Plague Demon, the Orfeo/Konrad stuff. The books for GW's Car Wars game were fun as well.
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Agreed. Basically anything by Jack Yeovil (Kim Newman). I am particularly fond of the Dark Future set of novels (the above mentioned GW Car Wars), a crazy alt-history pastiche mixing Mad Max and cyberpunk with Cthulhu. They are so much better than a game spin-off novel has any right to be.
 
Not straight up RPG novels, but Dennis L. McKKiernan has a long running Rolemaster 2e campaign set in Mithgar that has influenced his novels set there and vice-versa.
 
Actually good - Godwalker by Greg Stolze

So bad it's brilliant - Eternal Hearts
 
M.A.R. Barker's The Man of Gold and Flamesong, which are sort of cheats since they are novels set on the world of Tékumel, also the setting for TSR's Empire of the Petal Throne and other games, rather than being specifically based on the RPGs. TMoG is available as an ebook, while I think Flamesong (and three less interesting sequels) is currently out of print.
 
Black Leaf said:
Actually good - Godwalker by Greg Stolze
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I just came in to mention this one. Stolze is just a good writer who also happens to design good RPGs. When I read his RPG books, I actually read the fiction snippets sprinkled throughout before I read anything else. I can't say that about any other game designer.
 
Warhammer: The Old Ways
The Vampire Genevieve (collects all the Jack Yeovil/Kim Newman stuff)
Konrad Omnibus (all three Konrad novels)
The Orfeo Trilogy: Zaragoz, Plague Daemon, Storm Warriors
Ignorant Armies, Wolf Riders, Red Thirst (anthologies which will duplicate some Johann, Genevieve and Gotrek/Felix stuff)
Gotrek and Felix: The First Omnibus (as the series went on, it succumbed to a lot of the same things that happen to all serialized heroes. However, if you can get at least the first book, Trollslayer, that will give you enough to decide. If you prefer, you can just look at the Gotrek and Felix in the anthologies, those are some of the best short stories anyway that serve as some examples of WFRP scenarios.
All of these novels are firmly in what I would call the "Enemy Within" camp as opposed to the "Spiky Bitz" style of Warhammer (yes, even with Gotrek).

Warhammer: It's the New Style!
To be honest, I haven't read whole lot of these, and specifically avoided End Times stuff like Papa Nurgle's Special Crotch Rot. There is one I enjoyed, it being essentially a cop novel in Marienburg.
A Murder in Marienburg
More on other games later...
 
I haven't read any Warhammer novels/short stories since high school, but I do remember those being pretty great. It's always risky making a recommendation on something I read that long ago, but my fantasy palate was fairly refined by the time I read them.
 
Baulderstone said:
I haven't read any Warhammer novels/short stories since high school, but I do remember those being pretty great. It's always risky making a recommendation on something I read that long ago, but my fantasy palate was fairly refined by the time I read them.
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Also, I will have to admit, I always give gaming fiction the benefit of the doubt, because even if it's a novel that I would consider substandard if it were some other form of genre fiction, because it's gaming fiction (usually for a game I'm interested in or running), even bad novels are full of interesting tidbits I can use for gaming. (For example a version of Zaragoz exists in my Hyborian Zingara campaign.)

All of the books I listed above though, I thoroughly enjoyed, and have read many times (the weakest being Storm Warriors I think).
 
I recall enjoying the Cloakmaster Cycle series of Spelljammer novels but that was a quarter century ago and the tastes of college-me are a bit suspect. I think the Castle Falkenstein novels were entertaining too.

I think I read a fair number of RPG novels in the early to mid90s. I think I stopped after a chain of decidedly execrable examples of the genre left me reeling. Am I wrong in the impression that there was something of an explosion of RPG novels on the market around 96 or 97?
 
Teyrnon said:
I recall enjoying the Cloakmaster Cycle series of Spelljammer novels but that was a quarter century ago and the tastes of college-me are a bit suspect. I think the Castle Falkenstein novels were entertaining too.

I think I read a fair number of RPG novels in the early to mid90s. I think I stopped after a chain of decidedly execrable examples of the genre left me reeling. Am I wrong in the impression that there was something of an explosion of RPG novels on the market around 96 or 97?
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I vaguely recall walking into several Barnes and Noble stores around that time and seeing mountains of TSR published dreck choking their shelves in the sci-fi/fantasy section; Dragonlance novels and Forgotten Realms dog-shit if memory serves.
 
Dumarest said:
I seem to recall the same...

...and I still can't imagine why I'd seek out a novel based on an RPG when there are still an incredible number of classics in every genre that I haven't read yet. :trigger:
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Because I want popcorn fiction to read at lunch and before bed. I read good books all the time sometimes I want junk food.

I picked up a Warhammer book with Solomon Kane on the cover
 
Besides some Skaven books, I haven't read any gaming fiction since my early teens. I remember really liking the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy when I was 8, and then tried to reread them in my late teens and found them...well, unreadable. I read two Ravenloft books, I,Strahd and the one where Lord Soth moves to Ravenloft, and they were pretty forgettable. Read a few White Wolf books -the changeling Immortal Eyes trilogy, Pomegranetes Full and Fine (a Changeling/Vampire crossover), an "erotic" vampire the masquerade Sabbat novel illustrated by John Bolton (that was anything but) and at least one short story collection. They were all bad to forgettable. I think I read a Shadowrun novel at some point, but the fact I can't remember anything about it probably speaks volumes. And there was at least one Forgotten Realms novel I tried to read but got bored. Since my early 20s I've avoided game fiction with prejudice, excepting the aforementioned Warhammer.
 
TristramEvans said:
Besides some Skaven books, I haven't read any gaming fiction since my early teens. I remember really liking the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy when I was 8, and then tried to reread them in my late teens and found them...well, unreadable.
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I just barely got the original trilogy in while I could appreciate them. I went off the series as Legends came out.

Read a few White Wolf books -the changeling Immortal Eyes trilogy, Pomegranetes Full and Fine (a Changeling/Vampire crossover), an "erotic" vampire the masquerade Sabbat novel illustrated by John Bolton (that was anything but) and at least one short story collection. They were all bad to forgettable.
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I made a few attempts at reading World of Darkness novels/anthologies, and I failed at all of them. I could rarely finish the fiction in the game books, so I don't know what ever possessed me to buy books that were nothing but WoD fiction.

I think I read a Shadowrun novel at some point, but the fact I can't remember anything about it probably speaks volumes.
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A friend of mine was always pushing me to read a Shadowrun novel that he loved, but I could never get into it. I probably sound hipstery, but I'd been reading Gibson, Sterling and Shirley before RPGs discovered cyberpunk, so reading a genre I already knew filtered through an RPG and back into novel form just didn't sound appealing.

I say I was probably being hipstery, but I was definitely being hipstery. I could be pretty insufferable in that regard when I was in my late teens and early 20s.
 
Ive never gotten the hipster concept (I don't know what it means to like something "ironically"), but I don't think having developed higher standards in regards to literature is anything to be ashamed of.
 
TristramEvans said:
Ive never gotten the hipster concept (I don't know what it means to like something "ironically"), but I don't think having developed higher standards in regards to literature is anything to be ashamed of.
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In my case, it wasn't my high standards that was the issue. There was an insecurity about being seen as liking something that didn't fit my definition of coolness. I dismissed the book out of hand.
 
Agent of the Imperium is interesting if you're a Traveller fan. I'm too close to it to say if it's good or not. I can read UWPs without checking a chart.
 
Some of the early Shadowrun novels were great. 2XS being one of my favourite books at the time... The Longing Ring for Earthdawn was also a good tie in novel... Im not really into Warhammer 40K but the Gaunt's Ghosts series are exelent. Ive read each of the several times.
 
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