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Milil
Acolyte
Canada
4 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Dec 2004 : 19:50:03
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Hi, I'm a university student conducting a research project and would like to ask all the authors some questions. I have already contacted some of you in personal e-mails and Elaine Cunningham was nice enough to point me in this direction. So, here goes ...
Do you play D&D?
If you do play how (if at all) does the gaming experience affect your writing?
Do you use the sourcebooks for ideas on characters/settings/abilities, etc?
Do you look at characters and have their abilities fit within the framework of the character classes and progression as outlined in the various sourcebooks?
Did the release of the 3rd edition affect your decisions as a writer or affect the material that you wanted to write about?
Also, a question for some of the authors that have been writing novels in the setting for longer than 5 years:
Did the release of 3rd edition affect your sales in any way? (Feel free to not answer that one if you don't want to, I'm just wondering if there was any correlation. I'm not looking for numbers, I'm just wondering if sales picked up or spiked.)
I will be going through the existing pages of questions to see if I can extrapolate som of the answers from what you have said in response to other similar questions.
If you have any questions regarding myself or this paper please feel free to contact me at milil@shaw.ca or dlemm@ualberta.ca
Thank you for your time.
(edit)
Another question specific to those authors who have worked on Game development: How did working on developing the game system affecct your writing or approach to writing?
(/edit)
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Edited by - Milil on 13 Dec 2004 19:26:43
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Richard Lee Byers
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
1814 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2004 : 13:31:22
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1. Do I play the game? Yes.
2. How does the experience of playing affect my writing? As far as I know, it doesn't. Of course, it's possible that it does in ways I'm not aware of.
3. Do I use the sourcebooks for ideas? Yes, in the same way I'd use books on the history of medieval England to help me write a story set in that environment. Whether a preexisting setting is real or imaginary, you have to do the research that enables you to come up with ideas that fit.
4. Do I take pains to make my characters precisely fit the character templates? No. I choose to view the game rules as a simplification of a far more complex and fluid "reality" (the world of the Forgotten Realms.) This simplification is necessary if we're to have a playable game system, but there's no need to represent it with slavish exactitude in the fiction. In fact, if you do, you risk writing a story that comes across as pretty dopey. I do use the rules for character creation and progression as broad guidelines as to what sort of people exist in the Realms and what sort of talents they're likely to demonstrate.
5. I didn't start wrting FR fiction until 3rd Edition, so obviously, the changeover had no effect on me. |
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Kameron M. Franklin
Forgotten Realms Author
USA
228 Posts |
Posted - 13 Dec 2004 : 17:08:22
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1. Yes
2. As a DM, I've always had a storytelling bent to my adventures, so for me, writing has had more of an effect on the gaming experience than the other way around. However, I do find that I tend to think of combat in terms of rounds when initially envisioning a fight scene.
3. Can't avoid it.
4. More or less. I don't fully stat my characters, but I do pick a level and look at what a character of that level could or could not do.
5. I didn't start writing for FR until after the release of 3.5. |
"You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." --Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride |
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arilyn742
Seeker
Ireland
54 Posts |
Posted - 14 Dec 2004 : 08:15:15
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Milil, hast thou tried putting these questions to RA Salvatore himself?
If thou tried posting them on the message board on www.rasalvatore.com, I'm sure he would be willing to answer them. |
Yonde iru, mune no doko ka oku de
Itsumo kokoro odoru yume wo mitai
Kanashimi wa kazoekirenai keredo
Sono mukou de kitto anata ni aeru |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 14 Dec 2004 : 15:49:57
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Bob isn't reading that board right now, but he answers mail to rasalvtore@aol.com .
Richard's answer to question 4 is the same attitude as Ed's and mine, in RPG play and prose fiction alike in the Realms. |
Edited by - Faraer on 14 Dec 2004 15:50:35 |
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Steven Schend
Forgotten Realms Designer & Author
USA
1727 Posts |
Posted - 14 Dec 2004 : 17:46:34
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Do you play D&D?
Used to, but not in a long time, I'm afraid (due to location and lack of players)
If you do play how (if at all) does the gaming experience affect your writing?
Having past gaming experience, I can say it does affect my fantasy writing only in the sense of knowing how to pace a story and keep it moving along. Unlike role-playing, you can't allow the story to stop wherever you're most interested--it has to appeal and move along for all readers (even if 2 of 4 players really want more character building tavern scenes and the other 2 want more battles).
Do you use the sourcebooks for ideas on characters/settings/abilities, etc?
Like other authors, I use them as resources and as technical manuals of "factoids." Just like you check an encyclopedia or other sources to get the history and details right on writing a novel about Charlemagne, I have to check Realmslore to get the "facts" right on whatever my topic/story is about. And having written a number of those sources, I know the amount of work taken to get the lore correct and as solid as one can make a fictional world. Now I find it's less about finding ideas as treating what's written in lore as true things and dealing with them like any other source.
Do you look at characters and have their abilities fit within the framework of the character classes and progression as outlined in the various sourcebooks?
Like other authors (and when I was a game designer), I view the game rules as a filter through which we view the far more complex reality of the Realms. I came on board right after the 2nd edition change-over and rode the rapids through to 3rd edition. The Realms hasn't changed its reality, but how we view it has--Psionics has existed and hasn't existed. Characters have been statted 3 different ways now without changing their personal histories. Thus, given the fact that the rules keep changing, it's better to get a gist and understanding of the character beyond the game rules and then mold the rules around that. Thus, while Khelben's always been the "bad-cop" archmage full of secrets, how he's statted keeps shifting, but he'll always be the same character.
As a game designer, characters had to fit the rules.
As a fiction author, characters take precedence over the rules.
As a Realms fan, as long as the character works, rules are secondary.
Did the release of the 3rd edition affect your decisions as a writer or affect the material that you wanted to write about?
Nope. Still hope to pitch and write some novels on all sorts of stories I left half-buried in a dozen supplements or adventures in 2E that haven't changed due to rules changes.
Steven Schend
Who has written FR fiction and hopes to do more
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For current projects and general natter, see www.steveneschend.com
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Research questions for the authors
