Books You'd Love To See Adapted Into CRPG's

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove.

 

[octavius]

Serious answer:

Gormenghast trilogy (this would, by necessity, have to be more an adaptation of the setting than the plot)

Would make a nice Thief mission or campaign, I think.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Myth was inspired by this and I miss it dearly. But a true adaptation of Black Company would be great. Small squad-level tactics game, preferably turn-based.

 

[Tancred]

Redwall series by Brian Jacques.

EDIT: some covers

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Redwall series by Brian Jacques.

 

[taxalot]

Atlas Shrugged

Play as John Galt ; survive the forces of communism trying to capture you. As you battle against corrupt government officials and religious leaders, your goal is to contact the remain of the free-elite, organize their escape from this hellhole and build a society that can prosper thanks to the workforce and intelligence of those you convinced.

Only then can your revolution starts, but you first must take control of the media.

Combat is done through cash-only.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Anno Dracula could probably be made into a decent videogame.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

I agree with everyone who’s mentioned the Malazan books, which would presumably be easier to adapt since Erikson already has his own pen and paper ruleset.

For those who mentioned Moorcock, there is an Elric pen and paper RPG from Chaosium and back in the day there were Elric MUDs. Other than that I’m a little surprised that his stuff never gets adapted. Or really any sword & sorcery beyond Conan. There should be a dozen Fritz Leiber CRPGs. A shared universe like Thieves World could have a lot of potential, too.

Great Deceiver the setup and many of the characters in Tyranny were heavily inspired by The Black Company, although it loses the vibe as the game goes on.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

some covers:

Not to Redwall derail this thread, but posting Redwall covers without posting the original trilogy's is rather absurd. They are three of my absolute favorite genre fiction covers ever made (although I was admittedly the perfect age for the initial few books, and am likely being influenced by nostalgia).

Spoiler

 

[ScrotumBroth]

What an excellent topic!

Odissey, Iliad - Homer. The pinnacle of the epic genre.

Spot on. Odyssey in particular.

My thoughts:
The Road. Dealing with a purely human motif could set up a good writer well. Plus the setting is ripe for a cRPG.

Neuromancer/Burning chrome/Mirror shades. I wouldn't mind more Cyberpunk that's not FPS or strategy.

 

[Caconym]

Diaspora by Greg Egan

Do rpg books count? Cool, then Ars Magica, SLA Industries, Kult, Mutant Chronicles and Shadow of the Demon Lord.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

There are pretty famous fantasy novels like Wheel of Time and Malazan Book of the Fallen that would be so great as RPG settings that I can not understand why nobody bought the IP yet. Particularly in these times where fantasy is successful and people are looking for cheap ways to cash in on the GoT hype. WoT for example will be turned into a TV series. Malazan is probably to complicated but it would make for an excellent RPG and the wold building is so vast and detailed that many stories could be told in it.

 

[Invictus]

I would have loved a true RPG based on the Death Gate Cycle, their spin on traditional races in such bizzare settings as well as the Laberynth would have made an awesome setting

 

[wyes gull]

Animal Farm. Why aren't there more farm animal PCs in RPGs, again?

Also, haven't read the book(s) but if I get the gist right from the TV show, Altered Carbon. In its world, humans have their memories, personalities and intellect stored in chips at the base of their necks so that when their bodies die, they can be transferred to a new body (a sleeve) so that they can keep on living. What makes this interesting as a possible RPG is, that whereas you get to pick your skillset to start, you don't get to pick your stats. Those are dependent on the sleeve and sleeves are assigned at random. So for instance, say you pick a shooting related skillset and you're assigned a dude with myopia. You either have to raise money to get it medically fixed, have to train your skills to offset your stats, find a new sleeve or just suffer through it; all the while playing to your sleeve's strengths so you can get by. Or say you pumped speech and seduction and are assigned a fat pensioner. Same issues. Further along in the game (with more credits/better reputation) you could have your choice of sleeves, create copies of your better ones or even re-capture your original with stats to match the skills you started with so you could tackle quests that would otherwise be impossible. Would be a cool way to force players out of their comfort zones, to play the hand they're dealt rather than the one specific character they have all mapped out. Also, rife with amusing situations. Who wouldn't want to see a black ops grandma? Or the 12 year old arena champion with the cartoon backpack and pigtails?

 

[Fedora Master]

Metamorphosis

"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a..."
[] giant beetle (+5 AC, +1 Dex, - 4 Cha)
[] giant spider (+4 Dex, +2 Per, - 4 Cha)
[] giant fly (Flight, +4 Per, - 4 Cha, - 2 Int)

 

[Nortar]

The Black Company series by Glen Gook. I bet Tyranny draws a lot of inspirations from there.

Harry Harrison's Death World.

Almost anything from early R.Jelazny, like Lord of Light.

I could have mentioned Jordan's Wheel of Time, due to vast and detailed world, but for amount of "women in power" it would be certainly branded as SJW fiction nowdays.

 

[vazha]

The Road. Dealing with a purely human motif could set up a good writer well. Plus the setting is ripe for a cRPG.
.

Damn, how could I forget Cormack McCarthy? Blood Meridian would make an excellent RPG. Judge Holden is out there with the very best villains ever written.

"Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god."

 

[Life of the Party]

 

[CaffeineConquistador]

Mein Kampf

you, of all people, being a writer, had to settle for a cheap Hitler joke? As Stalin's countryman (not that I'm proud of it), I'm disappoint.

Never too late for you to adapt Solzhenitsyn’s Archipelago series as a Prison Architect mod.

 

[CaffeineConquistador]

The Road. Dealing with a purely human motif could set up a good writer well. Plus the setting is ripe for a cRPG.
.

Damn, how could I forget Cormack McCarthy? Blood Meridian would make an excellent RPG. Judge Holden is out there with the very best villains ever written.

"Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god."

Blood Meridian would be interesting, but The Road? Theres barely anything there.

 

[hivemind]

The Quran

play as a companion of the Prophet during the initial spread of Islam and be faced with various moral choice along the way

at the end of the game you get a score of how in line with the sunnah your decisions have been

 

[alkeides 2.0]

The Quran

play as a companion of the Prophet during the initial spread of Islam and be faced with various moral choice along the way

at the end of the game you get a score of how in line with the sunnah your decisions have been

Let it be Morrowind style sandbox where you can kill Mahound. XD

 

[hivemind]

That's the "Absolutely Haram" achievement.

Rewards include 100 achievement points, a foil steam card, and a mandatory beheading coupon.

 

[vazha]

The Road. Dealing with a purely human motif could set up a good writer well. Plus the setting is ripe for a cRPG.
.

Damn, how could I forget Cormack McCarthy? Blood Meridian would make an excellent RPG. Judge Holden is out there with the very best villains ever written.

"Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god."

Blood Meridian would be interesting, but The Road? Theres barely anything there.

Would make a good survival CYOA though.

 

[Jason Liang]

Silence. I've mentioned this idea many times but when you watch Scorsese's film adaptation you can totally see this as a Darklands style open world rpg set in the Indian Ocean/ South Pacific during the last years of the 30 Years War, with Jesuit missionaries, inquisitors, Dutch and Portugese merchants, pirates and samurai. What other setting gives you missionaries, pirates and samurai?

Likewise, an rpg based very loosely on Les Miserables, set in post-Napoleon Western Europe/ America in the early 19th century. Valjean has thief skills:D Not a book but the game could use Goya's Ghosts as an inspiration.

Obviously this is mostly an excuse to get an Egyptian rpg, but you can base an rpg off of Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings.

Speaking of Mailer, a Hell's Angels rpg based off Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels book. Additionally, you can add even more background from other books about the 60's and 70's like Timothy Leary's Confessions of a Hope Fiend (to add in the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground), or even Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus trilogy for even more weirdness.