What Obscure Work of Fantasy or SF Should be Licensed and Designed for Gaming

remial · August 24, 2017, 01:41:20 AM

Quote from: JeremyR;985595I'd also like to see Timothy Zahn's stand alone (AFAIK) novel Triplet. It's set in a science fiction setting that has a fantasy world "inside" a world that has alien ruins. Basically you walk inside a gateway and you end up inside a fantasy world. Except it's not real fantasy, but fantasy in the Clarke's law sense (super high technology) But then there is yet another fantasy world inside that one, that actually is a fantasy world with nor real notable technology, but spirits that can be summoned. It's a surprisingly well developed idea for what I guess was a throw away novel for Baen Books. Curiously, the cover was re-used by Steve Jackson Games for one of their GURPs supplements. Magic, maybe? It's a purple blue-ish cover of a guy summoning something.

ZOMG! someone else who remembers Triplet! that was a great book and set up for a game world IMO, and I for one would love to see more in that setting, be it an RPG or a sequel.

I'd add the Liaden series (maybe not THAT obscure, but still), or maybe the Mageworlds series.

hell, combine the 2.

Voros · August 24, 2017, 02:10:20 AM

Zahn's non-SW sf tends to be underrated.

Jason D · August 24, 2017, 09:42:01 AM

Quote from: DavetheLost;985490E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros chronically the war between the King of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland cries out to be made into an RPG. Better yet, it is now in the public domain.

I'd love to do this with Pendragon mechanics.

Quote from: Simlasa;985522I think all the Clark Ashton Smith stuff is in public domain now as well... despite what Arkham House might like to think. So I'd say Zothique, Hyperborea, Averoigne... and his scifi stories.

This was covered in series of articles for Worlds of Cthulhu, but would make a nice standalone setting or a sourcebook.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;985563Heavy Metal?

Not super-obscure, but I've even pitched this to two publishers. I've been told the rights would be extremely complicated.

Quote from: Zevious Zoquis;985883William Hope Hodgson's Nightland

Absolutely. I have an open invite to write it for Chaosium, and Sandy Petersen himself is a huge fan of the IP.

I'd also add the Guardians of the Flame series by the late Joel Rosenberg to the list, though it's quite meta. Playing an RPG where the PCs are a bunch of gamers who're transported magically to a fantasy universe and inhabiting their player character bodies, based on an IP about the same conceit, would be almost too on the nose. But then, why the hell not?

tenbones · August 24, 2017, 11:19:44 AM

Raymond Feist's "Midkemia" and "Tsurannuanni" (which will cause drama with the Tekumel purists). Would be good system-neutral settings.

cavegirl · August 24, 2017, 06:59:46 PM

Harrow County, a 1920s-set horror comic. Witchcraft, rural american folklore, ghosts, demons, and all sorts of nastiness lurking in the woods. The setting is just crying out to be roleplayed in.

Armchair Gamer · August 24, 2017, 07:09:40 PM

I could really go for a game set in the 'mythic/folkloric' environs of Time/Life's old The Enchanted World series.

darthfozzywig · August 24, 2017, 07:21:57 PM

The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson.

WillInNewHaven · August 24, 2017, 10:33:06 PM

Quote from: darthfozzywig;986458The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson.

Really dark and brutal. I was thinking _Three Hearts & Three Lions_ but neither seems really obscure to me.

WillInNewHaven · August 24, 2017, 10:42:24 PM

Quote from: Jason D;986368I'd also add the Guardians of the Flame series by the late Joel Rosenberg to the list, though it's quite meta. Playing an RPG where the PCs are a bunch of gamers who're transported magically to a fantasy universe and inhabiting their player character bodies, based on an IP about the same conceit, would be almost too on the nose. But then, why the hell not?

I had thought the PCs would be in-world characters with the option to play Earth crossovers when I considered it. His less well-known series _D'Shai_ and _Hour of the Octopus_ has no crossover characters and a unique central conceit which would make it interesting to turn into an RPG and would give the game a unique quality.

RPGPundit · August 29, 2017, 05:09:15 AM

The Invisibles.

Baron Opal · August 29, 2017, 11:44:54 AM

The Dark Border series by Paul Edwin Zimmer.

Quote from: darthfozzywig;985531Plus, I still have my Eagle Lander ship from when I was little. The three-foot-long spaceship.

Damn, I always wanted one of those when I was a kid. I built my own with an erector set, and later got the 8-12 inch model from... Revel?

I loved that show.

Schwartzwald · August 29, 2017, 11:51:25 AM

Perry Rhodan.

grodog · August 30, 2017, 12:31:13 AM

Quote from: WillInNewHaven;985481You have a new game system and you want to give it a boost by getting the license to design a version of your game set in a fictional series or book. However you have very little money. [snip] So one option you have is to look for older properties that may have been popular at one time but now they are largely forgotten, even Out of Print. [snip] And what books come to mind?

For a SF game, James H. Schmitz's Federation of the Hub and Agent of Vega universes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Schmitz

Allan.

Shawn Merrow · August 30, 2017, 10:55:54 PM

I would like to see the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs brought out as an RPG. I like her take on the Fae, Werewolf, Vampire genre.

Schwartzwald · August 30, 2017, 11:20:09 PM

The setting created in A.E. Van Voght's 'voyage of the space beagle' cos make a gold SFRPG.

also A RPG based in H.G. Wells' original 'war of the worlds' dealing with a second martian invasion has potential.