Imaro
Legend
Though admittedly it has been a while since I've read his books. I remember enjoying Brian Lumley when I was younger.
D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?
- Thread starter GobHag
- Start date
Yeah I read it also (cause work in bookstore). The Young Adults and Women raving about it were surprised when I said "Its kinda mid, and predictable from like page five. Decent, but not as good as popularity is making it seem".
I am curious about those enemies that appeared near the end though.
Mannahnin
Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
I liked Legend. It is a bit rough in spots but a good tale.
I read a couple of others, dipped my toe in the Rigante series, but didn't care for them much. I did like his final trilogy, the Trojan War historical novels, which as I recall his wife finished up from his notes after he passed away mid-series. Those are good.
To me, first-person present tense always comes across as teen wish fulfilment. Like they're narrating their daydream or fantasy.
Aren't we all, in a way?
Clint_L
Legend
It's really, really not, if you've read a lot of fiction from pulp magazines. It's perhaps distinctive now because no one writes like that anymore, but those magazines are full of similarly overwrought prose. Lovecraft's content has stood the test of time, not the pulpy writing style.
Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
People can just see for themselves and make up their own minds I think. Howard was a pulp writer too in many of the same magazine, but had a completely different style. I am sure there were people who resembled Lovecraft (I would expect that). But I do think he has a style his own. Here is the issue Call of Cthulhu appeared in. Folks should look and decide for themselves whether his style was distinct (and most of the weird tales are similarly available if anyone wants to read them in their original context)
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
I read Lumley's Necroscope series when I was younger, but I didn't discover his Titus Crowe series until much later, when I went deep into Appendix N research. It's a decent take, though I think the second book in the series is a bit of a wobble.
Shardstone
Hero
One of the weirdest oversights in contemporary RPGs is the weird reluctance to turn to Animanga for inspiration.
One Piece is currently the one of best selling "book series" of all time, behind Harry Potter, and is the best selling comic of all time.
Dragon Ball is so popular that during the finale of the new anime a few years ago (Super), there were people gathering in huge numbers across the world to watch Goku use Ultra Instinct (his new form).
Naruto, Bleach, Attack On Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, Jujutsu Kaisen, Frieran, Hunter X Hunter and so on are some of the biggest sources of Fantasy entertainment for Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha. It is no longer niche. I have high school students in every demographic talking to me about One Piece or Bleach. You can hardly find a PoC in America below 40 who does not love the naughty word out of Naruto.
These are demographics ripe to be reached out to via game content. But so many RPGs these days are so afraid of giving their players "superpowers" or feeling too "anime," as if these feelings are bad things.
Having read multiple versions of Beowulf, he is in many ways an Animanga character. Super strong, super hot, does incredible things, fights monsters, has his ups and downs. The Knights of the Round all have various anime powers. Hell, Aragorn himself could easily be the star of a Rangers anime with NO CHANGES to lore or presentation and it'd fit just well.
Not only that, but Animanga was super influenced by 1E and 2E D&D. Frieran, one of the biggest new series, pulls so many tropes from D&D that it's insane. The entire Isekai genre is all about what happens if a random Earth person fell into a D&D-style Fantasy world. Even the creator of world famous series Bleach has made a spin-off about witches in "Reverse London" fighting dragons, which are basically just any magical creature you could possibly imagine.
The fantasies that Anime provides are largely looked down upon. That is, playing characters who are powerful, unique with regards to their world, grow stronger, and do big and epic things. Everyone loves to talk about how 5E characters are superheroes, but why is that a problem when some of the biggest IPs of our times are Western (MCU) or Eastern superheroes? And what's wrong with wanting to be someone powerful who can effect change in their world via force of will?
PF2E is a game that appeals to the Anime fantasy pretty well. We have other games like Icon and Lancer (for mecha stuff). But in a lot of communities, and to a lot of people who are mainstream designers, this kind of stuff seems needlessly anathema. I love Free League games, I love Shadowdark, I love OSE, I love the *World Games and Forged in the Dark games, but I think its a shame we don't have just as many big developers creating the opposite. And I think it's a shame these aforementioned designers all have such a negative opinion of people who want an element of power fantasy or heroism or flamboyant magic in their RPGs.
One Piece is currently the one of best selling "book series" of all time, behind Harry Potter, and is the best selling comic of all time.
Dragon Ball is so popular that during the finale of the new anime a few years ago (Super), there were people gathering in huge numbers across the world to watch Goku use Ultra Instinct (his new form).
Naruto, Bleach, Attack On Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, Jujutsu Kaisen, Frieran, Hunter X Hunter and so on are some of the biggest sources of Fantasy entertainment for Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha. It is no longer niche. I have high school students in every demographic talking to me about One Piece or Bleach. You can hardly find a PoC in America below 40 who does not love the naughty word out of Naruto.
These are demographics ripe to be reached out to via game content. But so many RPGs these days are so afraid of giving their players "superpowers" or feeling too "anime," as if these feelings are bad things.
Having read multiple versions of Beowulf, he is in many ways an Animanga character. Super strong, super hot, does incredible things, fights monsters, has his ups and downs. The Knights of the Round all have various anime powers. Hell, Aragorn himself could easily be the star of a Rangers anime with NO CHANGES to lore or presentation and it'd fit just well.
Not only that, but Animanga was super influenced by 1E and 2E D&D. Frieran, one of the biggest new series, pulls so many tropes from D&D that it's insane. The entire Isekai genre is all about what happens if a random Earth person fell into a D&D-style Fantasy world. Even the creator of world famous series Bleach has made a spin-off about witches in "Reverse London" fighting dragons, which are basically just any magical creature you could possibly imagine.
The fantasies that Anime provides are largely looked down upon. That is, playing characters who are powerful, unique with regards to their world, grow stronger, and do big and epic things. Everyone loves to talk about how 5E characters are superheroes, but why is that a problem when some of the biggest IPs of our times are Western (MCU) or Eastern superheroes? And what's wrong with wanting to be someone powerful who can effect change in their world via force of will?
PF2E is a game that appeals to the Anime fantasy pretty well. We have other games like Icon and Lancer (for mecha stuff). But in a lot of communities, and to a lot of people who are mainstream designers, this kind of stuff seems needlessly anathema. I love Free League games, I love Shadowdark, I love OSE, I love the *World Games and Forged in the Dark games, but I think its a shame we don't have just as many big developers creating the opposite. And I think it's a shame these aforementioned designers all have such a negative opinion of people who want an element of power fantasy or heroism or flamboyant magic in their RPGs.
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