Which fantasy worlds have you guys run or played games in that have their origins in fantasy novels or short stories (as opposed to being, for example, native to games?)

I was inspired to ask about this after being reminded that GURPS published world books for, among other things, Andre Norton's Witch World and Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun, both series I've enjoyed but had never really thought of gaming with.

In part, I'm looking for a "head count," but I'd be interested in hearing about what the experience was like for you, what system you used, etc. Have you generally found having "official" adaptations very helpful?

I think my list is something like

Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar : AD&D (Were I to revisit it, I think I'd use Runequest)
Michael Moorcock's Young Kingdoms : Stormbringer
JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth : MERP
Thieves' World : Runequest

EDIT: Oh, and Amber, using, unsurprisingly, Amber

Would Marvel and DC count?

Quote from: ggroy;420742Would Marvel and DC count?

I was thinking in terms of "Fantasy" as loosely opposed to "Science Fiction" or "Superheroes" but I'm not laying down any hard rules over what "counts" for people to chip in.

I've definitely played in the Marvel Universe too, though, oddly, never any DC that I can remember.

Back in the day, I played the TSR Marvel Superheroes FASERIP rpg.

The rules were simple enough and it felt like one was playing actual superheroes, and not "beefed up" 18/00 AD&D fighters.

In contrast, I thought d20 superhero variants like "Mutants & Masterminds" or "Silver Age Sentinels", felt like one was just playing "beefed up" fighters or wizards.  It sort of felt like a superhero version of "always fighting orcs".

A couple of D&D GM's I know set their games in fantasy worlds from their favourite fantasy books, so have been in:

*two separate Belgariad games using 2nd edition, back when that was popular. The first was just a one-off, the second the GM went overboard and had racial descriptions for each nationality. (I was playing a Drasnian rogue/bard, which was going quite well, I thought, until I got eaten by some sort of giant crab or some such - random monster, nothing particularly Belgariad-ish).

*one 3.5 game set in Raymond Feists' Midkemia. I thought the party had issues keeping to thematically appropriate characters since the world itself is pretty mundane - we had a Keshian ninja and a female Tsurani wizard who had run off through the gate to avoid being executed, among other things; I had a human ranger/rogue/outlaw which actually caused the most campaign problems since the GM wanted us to work for Arutha & co. Oops. The GM eventually gave up on using thematic creatures and just threw the monster manual at us.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;420820A couple of D&D GM's I know set their games in fantasy worlds from their favourite fantasy books, so have been in:

*two separate Belgariad games using 2nd edition, back when that was popular. The first was just a one-off, the second the GM went overboard and had racial descriptions for each nationality. (I was playing a Drasnian rogue/bard, which was going quite well, I thought, until I got eaten by some sort of giant crab or some such - random monster, nothing particularly Belgariad-ish).

How did adventuring/magic play out in this world? I have got to admit, I can scarcely remember these books; it's probably been at least 15 years since I read any of them.

Quote from: Cole;420740I was inspired to ask about this after being reminded that GURPS published world books for, among other things, Andre Norton's Witch World and Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun, both series I've enjoyed but had never really thought of gaming with.

Hrrrrmmm???... Ah yes! One of my favorites, actually, GURPS Witchworld. Picked it up some years ago as part of a GURPS lot that was purchased as a collection that was parted out. I always did like the Witch World novels, however have never have had the time or opportunity to run a campaign.

I always wanted to run some games or a campaign based on the novels of Tanith Lee as well.

I have had time to run a campaign set in The Land from the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever... There's already a thread around here somewhere about that.

Quote from: GameDaddy;420838*snip*
I have had time to run a campaign set in The Land from the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever... There's already a thread around here somewhere about that.

:cool:
Any clues to finding this thread! I would PAY to play in a game set in the land.
I remember a thread where it was mentioned but not much detail/actual play reports...what system did you use?

Zilch, except for some Cthulu pastiches. Had the Bas-Lag game ever come out, my buddy would've run a game in it.

Middle Earth, using MERP. Had a lot of fun back when I was a kid.

This is is one of my go to style sof play. By using a background from a series of books that everyone is familair you immediately set the tone and focus of the game.
The trick is to make sure the DM side of things is done in the same tone (so gian crabs in the Belgariad is obviously bollocks.

With that in mind I have played

i) Gor - wrote my first homebrewed game when I was 12 based on Gor but with the S&M turned down a few notches. The game system itself was pretty much D&D stats with a Runequestly combat system but tweaked to make the gladius style Gorean short sword a more favourable weapon (heavy on weapon speed and critical hits). The world is excellent to play in because Norman generates distinct cultural groups with their own excellent flavour (in fact he lifts nearly all of them from real world examples but I see how blantantly til I did my anthropology degree). The Gorean Caste system was of course directly ported to a class system in my game. Best of all no magic or elves Port Kar is still one of my favourite cities to Game in.

ii) Belgariad - one of our longest runnign high schools games was based here we all got to play one of the characters from the books, and Silk remains the PC I have played most, having gamed with him for another 20 years after the Belgariad game ended in 85. We played using 1EAD&D at the unearted arcana stage but later upgraded to 2e

iii) Discworld - using 2e D&D and a team of 7 dwarves sent of a ludicrous mission largely just to get them out of the way cos they were so annoying. We played a couple of long secnarios with those guys

iv) Dying Earth - one of my fellow players favourite settings and an adapted verison is the world he uses for all his games.

I also really want to run a barbarian only game set in Joe Ambercrombie's 'The Blade itself' setting as I think that woudl be excellent (again using 2e) and similarly a game based round Locke Lamora woudl be fantastic. I was trying to get hold of the original Game of thrones RPG but it is either ludicrously expensive or impossible to get (the two are the same).

Quote from: Cole;420821How did adventuring/magic play out in this world? I have got to admit, I can scarcely remember these books; it's probably been at least 15 years since I read any of them.

Yep awhile back now...as far as magic goes - the DM had also written up his own rules for sorcery, which were fairly lengthy, basically spending will points to do what you like from a list of effects (completely unrelated to the standard D&D system). Adventure wise my recollection is fairly vague - I think we created characters, met up at a fair and went travelling - I was only in the game for a couple of sessions. The other game session was also mostly just travelling.

I have more fiction-worlds i would like to play in, than worlds i actually have played in.

We played in Middle-Earth, using both MERP and later the Decipher version. I Gm-ed a campaign in Jordan's Wheel of Time (D20). And, even if it is not straight fantasy, Star Wars got some spotlight as well (I know, SW might be Sci Fi in your book...but i always feel like the fantasy elements are as strong as are the sci fi ones). We played SW in its d6 and D20 version.

Worlds that I would like to set a game in are (none of those have an official rpg for it) :

Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen
Bakker's Prince of Nothing
West's Sunsword
Bishop's Black Jewels
Feist's Midkemia
Miura's Berserk
Yagi's Claymore

...and some more novels and comics...but i'll stop now, as it is not really the topic of this thread

I've 'borrowed' from lots of literary fantasy settings but the only one's I've attempted to run 'as written' are Lovecraft's Dreamlands and Beatrix Potter's English Countryside... and both of those were eventually polluted with stuff from elsewhere, since neither is fleshed out expansive as something like Middle Earth).
We did play lots of Stormbringer but changed so much stuff around that it was pretty our own 'inspired by' setting.
I think one of our GMs in High School based his setting on the Thomas Covenant books but at the time I hadn't read them and he never overtly stated that was his intent.

The most recent fantasy setting that has me wanting to game in it or borrow from it is 'The Golden Compass'... I watched the movie the other day, expecting to hate it, and thought it had some intriguing ideas. Since there probably won't be any more movies I guess I'll have to read the books...