Name a single writer whose work you hope most influences the story/tone of P:E

[LadyCrimson]

I mean, how one-dimensional can you get?

I'm not a very sophisticated reader, so I wouldn't really know. I often can like one-dimensional/archetype/cliched characters, if the story they're within captures my imagination for some reason. My criteria for reading fiction generally goes like this: "Is the story/characters capturing my attention, do I care about what's happening, am I able to get lost in the story so I "see images" instead of words on a page?" If the answer is no, I get bored and stop reading. That's it.

 

At any rate, this isn't supposed to be only a fave author thread and I'm getting a little off-topic.

 

I think we can have authors that may have aspects in their works that we'd like to see in P.E., without having to have those authors be our favorites, or even having to like the author overmuch - mood, setting, overall story arc. For me it largely means memorable characters.

[Kronos]

Okay, George Martin is the obvious...

 

But seriously where is the love for Robert Jordan; Wheel of time anyone, remember that? I remember reading the first few books as a teenager. READING, that was a very new experience for me as a was never interested before then with teachers shoving Shakespear down my throat. However that was me hooked on fantasy and my english grades took a significant turn for the better as well:)

[Malekith]

Robert Jordan and mature in the same sentence doesn't fit. I don't say he is a terrible author but worldbulding aside his work is nothing special if you read it as adult instead of as a teen

[Kronos]

Awww, don't be like that... Although there is a point there. I do think his world-building should be taken into consideration though.

[obsidiansquid]

The author for Beowulf

[JFSOCC]

I guess I shouldn't be so dismissive about Shakespeare. I guess I was wrong.

[jezz555]

I guess I shouldn't be so dismissive about Shakespeare. I guess I was wrong.

 

Hey, I was the same way at some point. Racist and one-dimensional or not Shakespeare isn't for everyone and you may just not like the way the guy writes, no shame in that.

Edited December 3, 2012 by jezz555

[Shadenuat]

Ursula K. Le Guin.

[Daulmakan]

Jorge Luis Borges.

[Metabot]

Philip K. ****

[Metabot]

 

You can be influenced by the tone and style of a writer without literally utilizing his settings...

 

Okay, still explain. I am pretty familiar with Kurt Vonnegut and I can't honestly fathom how his tone, style, or otherwise could possibly have anything to do with PE. Unless he is referring to the "so it goes" stuff, but even that I find a hard fit.

 

It's fairly simple, you deal with themes, topics, or characters that he dealt with.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Metabot

[jezz555]

You can be influenced by the tone and style of a writer without literally utilizing his settings...

 

Okay, still explain. I am pretty familiar with Kurt Vonnegut and I can't honestly fathom how his tone, style, or otherwise could possibly have anything to do with PE. Unless he is referring to the "so it goes" stuff, but even that I find a hard fit.

 

It's fairly simple, you deal with themes, topics, or characters that he dealt with.

So...you deal with the bombing of dresden and time-travelling aliens? The guy wrote more stuff than just Slaughterhouse-5, I know (just an example), but KV seems a weird choice is all. It's one thing to like someone's work and another to think they would be a good inspiration for a fantasy crpg, I'm just wondering how he thinks the two would fit together is all, and you haven't really made that any clearer.

Edited December 3, 2012 by jezz555

[Metabot]

You can be influenced by the tone and style of a writer without literally utilizing his settings...

 

Okay, still explain. I am pretty familiar with Kurt Vonnegut and I can't honestly fathom how his tone, style, or otherwise could possibly have anything to do with PE. Unless he is referring to the "so it goes" stuff, but even that I find a hard fit.

 

It's fairly simple, you deal with themes, topics, or characters that he dealt with.

So...you deal with the bombing of dresden and time-travelling aliens? The guy wrote more stuff than just Slaughterhouse-5, I know (just an example), but KV seems a weird choice is all. It's one thing to like someone's work and another to think they would be a good inspiration for a fantasy crpg, I'm just wondering how he thinks the two would fit together is all, and you haven't really made that any clearer.

 

You're thinking too particularly, instead of more broadly. Also, I'm not sure you know what a theme is.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Metabot

[jezz555]

You can be influenced by the tone and style of a writer without literally utilizing his settings...

 

Okay, still explain. I am pretty familiar with Kurt Vonnegut and I can't honestly fathom how his tone, style, or otherwise could possibly have anything to do with PE. Unless he is referring to the "so it goes" stuff, but even that I find a hard fit.

 

It's fairly simple, you deal with themes, topics, or characters that he dealt with.

So...you deal with the bombing of dresden and time-travelling aliens? The guy wrote more stuff than just Slaughterhouse-5, I know (just an example), but KV seems a weird choice is all. It's one thing to like someone's work and another to think they would be a good inspiration for a fantasy crpg, I'm just wondering how he thinks the two would fit together is all, and you haven't really made that any clearer.

 

You're thinking too particularly, instead of more broadly. Also, I'm not sure you know what a theme is.

 

I do, you said "topics and characters" as well, but I was mostly joking when I said that anyway. I'm not sure why you're trying to make it your mission to justify his choice to me, I'm only wondering what that guys thought's were, not looking for a definition of what "inspiration" means.

Edited December 3, 2012 by jezz555

[Zoma]

Kinoko Nasu just for his unique world creation and concepts of souls, Akasha (Origin), Counter Force, Magic, Magecraft and "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception". However, he's not a professional author and his work can be simply described as 'raw' than refined.

 

His first work "Kara No Kyoukai" (The Boundary of Emptiness) explored many of such concepts that it pretty much blew my mind when I was first exposed to it. Its not perfect due to some poor pacing and characterizations, but boy, the concepts he created were definitely unique.

[Corvus Metus]

Alexey Pehov, author of the Chronicles of Siala.

 

Yes, the books are rather traditional heroic fantasy. Yes, the concepts he has are relatively common cliques. Yes, the entire plot is more or less the sort of thing you ran in your high school D&D campaign after re-reading Lord of the Rings on summer

 

But I'll be damned if it isn't entertaining. He takes over-done tropes, give them a little twist (though not enough they're considered a subversion) and makes a story that you find yourself engrossed by. If you care too much about "depth and maturity" you might find yourself a little ashamed but at the end of the day, at least in my case, I couldn't help but recall that C.S. Lewis quote about childish things after reading it.

[PrimeJunta]

Franz Kafka. We need an adventure where you wake up to discover you've been polymorphed into a giant cluckroach. And another one where you need to find your way out of a giant labyrinthine bureaucracy where everybody keeps calling you 'K' and makes you fill out forms in triplicate.

 

Also,

 

Edit: I hereby formally submit the giant labyrinthine bureaucracy adventure as a proposal for a level in The Endless Paths.

Edited December 3, 2012 by PrimeJunta

[Kai]

Neil Gaiman. Love the style his books are written in, and his sense of humour would probably work pretty well in P:E.

 

Also wouldn't mind a little bit of Terry Pratchett insanity as well.

[AGX-17]

First of all, HP Lovecraft - nobody can write like that man could (and I don't just mean the ability to use squamous in a sentence correctly). I don't mean the story needs to a bleak cosmic horror story, but the feeling that the universe just doesn't care about you. I think the Mass Effect series showed that that can be done very well in an RPG.

... Really?

 

The ME games repeatedly went out of their way to show you just how freaking awesome the PC is and by extention just how freaking awesome humans are. I could see their Lovecraftian influences when they first introduced the Reapers in ME1 but after that they went in the most unLovecraft direction possible.

 

Yeah, they went to extreme, ham-fisted lengths in ME2 to say "out of all the species of the galaxy, humans are the most special! Every human is a special snowflake, even their DNA is prized treasure and they are super diverse despite having lived on one planet until the last 35 years. And now they dominate the galactic stage! Because they ARE. SO. SPECIAL. The Reapers see it, too! Special snowflakes." Cue "I believe I can fly" and a montage of butt-ugly human NPCs from ME games. They even control the largest single territory on the Galaxy Map despite all the other Council species having been present and exploring and colonizing for centuries or millennia before humans made first contact with the Turians (who should control the most space given their military power.)

Edited December 3, 2012 by AGX-17

[Rostere]

Jorge Luis Borges. (Close second: Umberto Eco)

[Tagaziel]

Kurt Vonnegut is a close second, for reasons that should be obvious.

 

I am interested to know how you think Kurt Vonnegut is an obvious choice for a fantasy game...

You can be influenced by the tone and style of a writer without literally utilizing his settings...

 

Okay, still explain. I am pretty familiar with Kurt Vonnegut and I can't honestly fathom how his tone, style, or otherwise could possibly have anything to do with PE. Unless he is referring to the "so it goes" stuff, but even that I find a hard fit.

 

Creativity. Asking questions. Some concepts and themes can be explored in fantasy more thoroughly ("unstuck" in time as a godlike entity touched by the ability to see his entire life, paralyzed by this talent and inability to take action; Ice-9 of magic). Hell, magical Player Piano?

[NoxNoctum]

If there is humor in this game I hope it models itself on PG Wodehouse. No one makes me laugh like his writing, and I never read "humor". He nails that "comedy of manners" type of humor perfectly, which is usually the kind of thing you see in humor between companions.

 

Anyone who reads a lot needs to check his stuff out. He's probably overall my favorite writer period.

 

Just a few random quotes from wiki (from his stories) and elsewhere, even out of context and without knowing the characters I think you can get the "vibe":

• Honoria, you see, is one of those robust, dynamic girls with the muscles of a welterweight and a laugh like a squadron of cavalry charging over a tin bridge. A beastly thing to face over the breakfast table. Brainy, moreover.
  
• 'I hate you, I hate you!' cried Madeline, a thing I didn't know anyone ever said except in the second act of a musical comedy.
  
• Gussie, a glutton for punishment, stared at himself in the mirror.
  
• Like so many substantial citizens of America, he had married young and kept on marrying, springing from blonde to blonde like the chamois of the Alps leaping from crag to crag.
  
• There are girls, few perhaps but to be found if one searches carefully, who when their advice is ignored and disaster ensues, do not say "I told you so". Mavis was not of their number.
  
• I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
  
• It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.
  
• It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't.
  

Edited December 3, 2012 by NoxNoctum