Ep.30: How Fiction and RPGS feed one another
What changes when a novel becomes a roleplaying game, or a campaign becomes a novel? In Episode 30 of Modern Mythology, we explore the relationship between published fiction and tabletop RPGs: how shared worlds move between formats, and what happens when a story with a fixed course becomes something players can change.We trace that exchange through Tolkien, Dragonlance and The Expanse, among many others, asking how closely a game should follow its source material. Does knowing the canon give players more to work with, or make them reluctant to change anything? And how much does a system need to capture the experience of a particular world? Call of Cthulhu, Vancian magic and Amber’s diceless play offer different answers.James also discusses adapting his campaign into BLACKOUT: Terminal Ghosts, including the unexpected discovery that the party itself had become the novel’s point of view. We consider what happens to NPC interiority, exposition and character relationships in that transition, and how writing fiction can change the way we run games. Along the way, we revisit character death and discuss mechanics that give players reasons to talk about something beyond their next objective.Stay through the end for a preview of the BLACKOUT prologue.Topics Discussed:00:00:03 Back from hiatusWe've returned after a quiet stretch, noting a slower release schedule and major life changes before introducing the episode.00:03:52 Fiction versus RPGs: fixed and openHow does a fixed format like a novel or comic relate to the ostensibly open format of a roleplaying game?00:04:56 Tolkien, folklore and TolkienizationWorld-building is the shared craft, but Scott objects that games inherit Tolkien’s elves and goblins rather than the folklore he reworked.00:06:39 NPC flatness and the party as POVPlayer-facing design can leave NPCs and villains without interiority, something a draft of Blackout exposed when its point-of-view character turned out to be the whole party.00:10:23 Early connections between fiction and RPGsA historical look at Empire of the Petal Throne, Tékumel’s troubled legacy, Glorantha and RuneQuest, and the success of Call of Cthulhu.00:18:26 Dragonlance as a feedback loopHow campaign play informed Weis and Hickman’s novels, Terry Phillips shaped Raistlin, and the modules and books fed each other.00:23:25 Canon, extended eras and variantsExpanding novel timelines changed the campaign setting, raising the question of how closely a group should follow published canon.00:29:18 Why D&D novelizations fall flatThe friction in tie-in novels that name levels, classes and spells, or have characters do things a D&D game would rarely support.00:31:21 Why Blackout was worth novelizingBlackout was the rare campaign where almost every NPC and clue came back, thanks to a 2020 group that carried details forward between sessions. Discussion of how it came to be.00:35:38 Why play in an established settingReading and writing reshaped how the hosts run games, and GNS provides a framework for discussing whether players come for world, character or mechanics.00:41:01 Grounding exposition in the charactersBlackout’s AI Caliban and the infected girl Rosa became shared characters, helping ground research and exposition within the fiction.00:48:42 The Expanse began as a campaignThe discussion turns to The Expanse’s origins in an MMO pitch and campaign play, and how its escalating scale inspired Blackout’s Hong Kong-to-space arc.00:51:56 Licensing and stewardship as a death knellFrom TSR’s early troubles to WotC’s acquisition of Last Unicorn Games and the fate of its Dune RPG, the hosts discuss how licensing and acquisitions can end a game’s run.00:54:36 Does the system capture the IP?Star Trek technobabble charts, Call of Cthulhu’s sanity, Vancian magic from Dying Earth and Amber’s diceless negotiation show how mechanics can reflect their source fiction.01:05:23 Adapt the setting, not the eventsArtesia shows the potential of adapting a world rather than a plot; changing a campaign’s events can pull dependent threads loose.01:13:51 Connection scenes as mechanicsDelta Green’s bonds and a scene economy give players mechanical reasons to have the interpersonal conversations RPG dialogue often skips.01:15:30 Death, and remembering it is fictionRevisiting the death episode: letting players shape a character’s death produced a memorable sacrifice in Blackout, reinforcing the value of treating play as shared fiction.01:20:32 Absent players, first drafts, editingA missing player becomes plot, we discuss ghostwriting, and a novel’s repeated revision passes meet an RPG’s natural momentum.01:25:25 BLACKOUT: Terminal Ghosts prologueA sneak peek for those who listened to the end: a spirit crosses over, and we meet Nemo McBride beneath Hong Kong.
