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Has anyone ever ran an adventure based pretty much exactly off of a novel?
Pretty much same story, but substitute the pc's for the novel's protagonist(s)? I know we all borrow snippets here and there, but I'm talking pretty much the entire novel.
Long time ago my friend ran us through Steven King's The Talisman, using Villains and Vigilantes rules.
Then, there was an Alan Dean Foster novel where I think it was the future, and earth was inhabited by humanoids evolved from racoons. Palladium system rules.
Has anyone ever ran an adventure based pretty much exactly off of a novel?
Scene for scene, I ran my d20 Modern crew through the Michael Crichton novel "Congo." It was a hoot. Took too long sessions.
I tried this, but the issue I had was that I had it in my head that the PC's couldn't deviate from the plot. They felt severely railroaded. That was how I destroyed the last "campaign" I ran.
Since then I have been running some of the published Eberron mods as "one-off" games (that happen to last 3 months), but I do have it in the back of my head to run the campaign arc I had planned, but keeping in mind that the character's actions shoudl impact the plot.
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If you want to be really technical then the dragonlance chronicals which have made their way through the different editions of D&D(Just saw the first book was getting a 3e adaptation in the last dragon magazine!) are essentially like playing through the novels, though if I remember correctly the novel and the original module were written at the same time.
I played a group of players through a ShadowRun game that was based pretty entirely on a SR novel I had read. I thought it was going to be great conspiricy story and all this, but the team ended up becoming a bit too paranoid and turned on each other and it fell apart before I got to the finally.
I know that one of my players DM's another game and he took a hunk out of Baldurs Gate II and put that in the center of his ongoing story and from what I've heard it worked out pretty well.
Actually, in the opposite direction, I have turned several of my own campaigns into novelizations as we played through them. I have a (admittedly first-draft quality) novel going up in my Campaign Journal called "Graven and the Battle Babes" - which even acknowledges that it's a dumb title, but it gets attention!
I've done this on several occasion, as my players like the sense of extra attention their characters get (even if I change how some things took place and skip others in the name of artistic license).
Anyone else do this sort of thing?
Syrinx
Anyone else do this sort of thing?Syrinx
I write up adventure logs for the players after each session, and they could almost be chapters in a novel...once I get going, I can't seem to stop...I'm running SCAP right now, so I can't really novelize that, but I'm starting up another group for my homebrew campaign, and I'm planning on trying to get a novel out of it. Should be interesting. I guess I just can't get away from the writer in me :D
--Fang
I've considered basing an adventure or an ongoing campaign on the manga Death Note. It's about a young man who finds a notebook such that anyone whose name he writes into it, dies. He begins using it, and finds himself playing a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a genius (and anonymous) detective. Using the Death Note and his genius wits, the young man must attempt to mislead the detective and discover his identity, without revealing his own identity to the detective. It's the best thing I've read all year and I'm sure Paizo stocks it.
I tried this, but the issue I had was that I had it in my head that the PC's couldn't deviate from the plot. They felt severely railroaded. That was how I destroyed the last "campaign" I ran.
Same except I just guided them along. The players derailed it after 10mins, i let them rather then railroad them. The problem is they have diffrent motivations and personalities than their protagonist counterparts. They also have to remain waistdeep in the action or the players will get bored (books don't have this problem). Plot ideas borrowed from books, however, make great ideas for campaigns! Unfortunately, the PCs need to feel that they are in control of their destiny more then just a character in a book.
I've considered basing an adventure or an ongoing campaign on the manga Death Note.
Sounds good :)
i use plotlines of movies and books all the time (and I've seen it happen in published modules more times than you'd think, but you have to be flexible. Unless you railroad them, which violates (to me) some of the spirit of the game, the players can easily come up with new plotlines, different endings, and many different developments. If you look in my campaign log, you will note that not too long ago, the players ran into an incident that kind of resembled the Dungeon Magazine module Tamerault's Fate (working on the title of that module from memory alone), but slightly different, as i altered the setting and situation, blending it with a similar preceding plot (night of the living dead).
If you look at the First edition module for the Battlesystem Rules, H1, Battle for Bloodstone Pass, and don't look at the other three modules for that series, you will recognize one of the most recurring movie plots in history. Seven Samurai, Magnificent Seven, Battle Beyond the Stars, Seven Magnificent Gladiators, the Three Amigos, and Bug's Life.
It's always fine to borrow a plotline from a book to make an adventure, or campaign plotline, but always try to alter enough that they either don't recognize it at all, or don't until they're committed to the game, and enjoying it as much as you are.
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I haven’t tried an entire novel before, but I have used scenes almost verbatim to describe a setting to the players. I recently (and this doesn’t quite fit this thread, but there’s a nominal relationship) played in a very well-done session DM’d by one of my players (first time DM, and he did a bang-up job!)-- Stephen King’s Gunslinger universe. It was really quite amazing, and three of us had never read any of the books. Strangely, playing D&D in the universe of Roland Deschaine fits the v3.5 rules to great effect. Unfortunately, we only played for three hours before we all devolved into a sleepy discussion of philosophy and all possible worlds…
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I've enjoyed the Gunslinger books for a while now. I'm on the last book, and I'm purposely lollygagging reading it, because that's it no more after that.
Suffice it to say the temptation to go statting up that universe has always been a powerful one. And with all those gateways, anything could go...
If you haven't read any of them, you're in for a real treat. I personally was never a big Steven King fan, but those books rocked.
I've enjoyed the Gunslinger books for a while now. I'm on the last book, and I'm purposely lollygagging reading it, because that's it no more after that.
Suffice it to say the temptation to go statting up that universe has always been a powerful one. And with all those gateways, anything could go...
If you haven't read any of them, you're in for a real treat. I personally was never a big Steven King fan, but those books rocked.
Yup, i've got Wolves on the Calla on my desk, it's a long read though. The idea of distant gateways is great fantasy stuff. I'm failing to remember how death was treated...something about dying then living again on a diffrent world, maybe parallel world even? I'd be fun to be a gunslinger in King's wastelands, as i recall guns were used but it was uncommon for anyone to possess one. I know this is pretty old but the Orb from Brisco County Junior (90s western tv show) has lots of fantasy potential too.
Not a book per se`, but I take historical happenings and insert a "what if magic entered the world right then."
I had a 1066 britain campaign, where autherian characters and landmarks just started appearing.
a battle of first mannasssas campaign, where all the dead at the battle became zombified, and magic started creeping into the world after that.
and before that an atlantean age campaign, where the "adventures" took place in the form of commerce, and the happenings on the way.
An excellent author, who's inspired countless adventures, and even sparked a few campaigns, is Steven Brust and the Jhereg Series. Amazing series by my personal favorite author (well, he and WIlliam Gibson that is).
Ver detailed settings and a great fantasy world that isn't wholey based on medieval times. Wonderful stuff.
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An excellent author, who's inspired countless adventures, and even sparked a few campaigns, is Steven Brust and the Jhereg Series. Amazing series by my personal favorite author (well, he and WIlliam Gibson that is).
Ver detailed settings and a great fantasy world that isn't wholey based on medieval times. Wonderful stuff.
That series is also based on (or perhaps "inspired by" would be better phrasing) a role-playing campaign.