http://www.fictorians.com/2013/08/20/six-reasons-not-to-turn-your-role-playing-game-into-a-novel/ I truly hope you guys don't agree with this heap of shit. My RP idea will be an awesome novel
I kind of do agree. Lol he made logical points and even said what you should do if you try anyhow. What part was a heap of poo?
I'm, for the most part, in agreement with this article. He made some solid points on issues with characters, cohesive world building, narrative contrivances, and more. Yet he still gives some advice for people wanting to try it. Which part of this article rubbed you the wrong way?
It is fairly obvious why you are shooting yourself in the foot if you just rip a story straight from a game and turn it into a novel; the article just lists some of the obvious reasons. However, there is no reason why you could not use roleplaying as basically a collaborative brainstorming session for plot points and setting hooks. As a GM, you just do what you are supposed to do (present an interesting setting that the players will populate with their characters, present interesting challenges that the players will solve with their characters, and referee the collaborative effort of storytelling) and you watch for interesting developments that could translate into interesting developments in a novel.
I actually agree with it. and the author doesnt say, flat out, that you should, under no circumstances, base a story on an rp. There's helpful advice at the bottom of the article on how to do it right m. I'm actually turning an rp session into a novel right now, but it's changed so much that the resemblances between the original game and what I have now are superficial at best.
The author's blurb says: Kevin Pettway is a web-comic creator and writer who used his campaign setting as the basis for his books.
This man's choice of static background image is near criminal. I need to put this in office in order to even read it.
After reason #1, you don't need to go any further. The author doesn't own the IP and outside of simple fanfic writing exercises, it'll never see the shelf. Holders of IP rights to MMOs or RPs have a tight control on canon.
*cringes* Reminds me of the time I used to play Guild Wars 2. I met someone who was really anxious about turning it into a novel. I told him/her that I was an aspiring writer and he/she wanted me to make the game into a book (even was willing to help make the character charts, etc.) Someone else commented in the chat box something like, “Bitch, no one wants to make a book based on a video game.” The comment in reply said, “I don't think it'd be that good anyhow...” I agree with that guy, it's OK to take core concepts of what you love as long as you really tweak it to make your own story with your own setting and characters. No one wants to read a half-assed version of something that already exists as a game.
I didn't read it but skimmed through the list some. and I find it funny because this is basically what I got from it 1: It's not your world 2: It's your world 3: Your friends are stupid 4: you are too 5: No D&D 6: Screw you!
He's basically saying: don't turn your fanfiction into an original novel (which is what an online RPG is, essentially. A glorified fanfiction on the screen.) If you want the game to inspire you to write, fine. Take what you liked, tweak it to make it yours with your characters, setting, plot, etc. I'll be honest, my sci-fi character (Captain Helen Chert) is based off of the avatar I made for Mass Effect, Commander Helen Shepard. I liked her so much that I took her and tweaked her character and completely stripped away and built a new setting (still am) so it felt like my story, rather than a half-assed Mass Effect fanfiction. See what I'm saying? It's not so much ‘ER MEH GERD DONT WRITE ANYTHING BASED OFF OF WHAT YOU LIKE!!! STUPID NERD!!!’ He's saying ‘It can be your inspiration for your novel, but make sure that novel is your own, not a half-assed version of what already exists.’
Well obviously if you're writing fanfiction in someone else's universe (especially a well known one), you're going to have publication problems. If you use a loose story skeleton based on a game, smooth out the rough edges as you write, and make sure the world of the story looks different from the world of the RP, then you might have something. But obviously story comes first. Personally, I don't to roleplaying in the traditional sense, but I did spend a lot of time on a text-based alternate history wiki-game where the players slowly built an alternate history starting from the year 1420. I actually put a story idea in that world (granted the plot was totally independent of the game), and my writing group loved it - mostly because the fact that the worldbuidling was crowdsourced made the setting weird in a lot of unexpected ways.
It has been done successfully. Take Cassandra Clare. She started out as a fanfiction writer in the Harry Potter fandom. She was published even though her stories are actually highly controversial, because it has been proven that she took material from other "fanfictions" and inserted them into her works. It is somewhat accepted that anything put online is fair game. Even if you do not have the right to the roleplay ideas, you will probably not get into trouble. And you can get away with transforming the original setting into something sort of unique. Take Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games. There was a huge debate over the game as well, because its location resembled another book's setting, and the killing methods were smilar, too. I am not taking a stance in this debate, because I have not read the other book. Therefore I am not fit to judge whether it is true. But it's a good example of how copyrighting ideas just does not work. Would I recommend turning a roleplay into a novel? Probably not. Would I frown upon such an attempt? Probably not, either. In the end, if you are good at what you do, then it will be original in its own right. A good novel develops characters.
