What Game Has The Best Fiction

[Ibrandul]

No one has mentioned the biggest (by quantity) RPG-based novel line—namely, Forgotten Realms. Probably because of its reputation for iffy quality. But I think it depends on whether “the best” in this case means the mean average quality of all books published in the line, or just the quality of the, say, top 10 percent of the books in the line.

If it’s a mean average situation, Forgotten Realms will not get high marks, because there are so very many poor FR novels. But the thirty or so best FR novels, in my opinion—that is, the top 10 percent—range from pretty good to really great.

 

[payn]

On a more serious note, has anybody read the Battletech Legacy anthology? The one about 300 years in the life of a Grasshopper battlemech and all its pilots?

 

[trappedslider]

To go along with the none sense: GURPS waves hand at every piece of fiction

 

[Reynard]

If anything, I know people who would argue those are games and not sports.

But, more importantly, no one is arguing that those have the best fiction. It doesn't matter how high or low the fruit was hanging; it's only edible when it's in your hand.

You may be taking this more seriously than was intended.

 

[Reynard]

On a more serious note, has anybody read the Battletech Legacy anthology? The one about 300 years in the life of a Grasshopper battlemech and all its pilots?

Having only recently decided to dip into BT and having a shiny new Audible credit, I am all ears for a good stand alone BT audiobook recommendation.

 

[Parmandur]

Nope, thats yesterday. If you want to do an old timey feel good pic, sure baseball is great. Football has dwarfed it on the modern landscape.

Still not many football stories compared to baseball. And Baseball is still comparable to Football in fandoms.

The real rising star us soccer, though, generation by generation.

 

[payn]

Having only recently decided to dip into BT and having a shiny new Audible credit, I am all ears for a good stand alone BT audiobook recommendation.

So far, Ive only hit the Warrior trilogy by Michael Stackpole and found it to be pretty good BT fiction. I would recommend!

Non-spoiler stuff;
The good: Mech combat is briefly descriptive, but fun to read. More Jack Higgins less Tom Clancy. Plenty of political intrigue both on a small scale character to character levewl, but also on a nation state level.
The bad: Characters in general are pretty inconsistent. The mechwarriors are puffed out to caricature level.
The ugly: Women characters are... just bad.

 

[Reynard]

So far, Ive only hit the Warrior trilogy by Michael Stackpole and found it to be pretty good BT fiction. I would recommend!

I really prefer stand alone novels, as a rule (for gaming fiction or otherwise).

 

[Deset Gled]

I can never understand that mentality. They're competitive and involve physical activity and skill. What else do they need to be sports to those people?

Generally speaking (as the devil's advocate): risk.

Ernest Hemingway famously said "There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games." Most people would have a slightly lower bar than him. But in any case, there is a very real risk of physical injury involved in football (either type), baseball, hockey, boxing, etc. That separates those activities from comparatively safe tabletop games like tiddlywinks, Jenga, and Throw Throw Burrito that are also competitive and involve physical activity and skill.

Following that philosophy, saying golf is not a sport is throwing shade at people who play golf at a pristine country club, riding a cart between holes, being served drinks on demand, with a caddy carrying their clubs. They have basically removed all the risk/sport and turned it into a game.

You may be taking this more seriously than was intended.

 

[MGibster]

Sure, pick the low hanging fruit. But what about golf? Curling?

Both sports. Darts is also a sport. I would argue that every sport is a game but not every game is a sport. Chess is not a sport. Darts, golf, curling, football, inferior football, baseball, wrestling, etc., etc. are all sports.

Body building (not to be confused with weight lifting) is not a sport. It is a beauty contest.