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Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)

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Particular fantasy trope reading recommendation?

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15 Oct 2014 08:45 - 15 Oct 2014 09:01 #188643 by drewcula
I've been thinking of a new art project to pursue, but I need to first ground myself in some literary references.
I'm hoping some FATties can be of assistance, because I don't know where else to ask.

Two prong recommendation attack:

(1) I'm looking for any piece of fiction that includes a character who paints miniatures. Literature is preferred, but I'll take whatever someone suggests.

(2) I'm also looking for any fiction that incorporates the trope "lost/stuck/trapped within the game." Particularly, PnP games (not Tron). Anything in the vein of;
a. Hobgoblin* - John Coyne
b. Mazes and Monsters* - Ronna Jaffe
c. Guardians of the Flames series - Joel Rosenberg

*These titles deal more with schizophrenic characters in the era of BADD, but they're still useful to me.

Thanks everyone!
Last edit: 15 Oct 2014 09:01 by drewcula.

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15 Oct 2014 09:54 #188647 by Joebot
1)The only thing I can think of is "40 Year Old Virgin" which depicts Steve Carrell's character painting miniatures (amongst his other nerdy hobbies).

2) Two immediately come to mind: Jumanji (either the book or the movie) and the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon from the 80's.
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15 Oct 2014 09:54 #188648 by jeb
LITTLE BROTHER by Cory Doctorow talks about a character who paints minis briefly, but just a few pages. The lead is a LARPer though, and that comes up a couple of times. He also plays an ARG.

READY PLAYER ONE is a crappy book in my opinion, but does have a players-in-a-game element. Not "trapped" like TRON, but actually playing it.

THE HUNGER GAMES, obv obv.

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.

Not a game, but definitely trapped is HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Danielewski. Also ergodic fiction and badass.

SNOW CRASH could be seen this way.
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15 Oct 2014 10:57 #188653 by Legomancer

jeb wrote: LITTLE BROTHER by Cory Doctorow talks about a character who paints minis briefly, but just a few pages. The lead is a LARPer though, and that comes up a couple of times. He also plays an ARG.


Also if you have been having problems with rolling your eyes and gagging this book should get you back up to speed in no time.
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15 Oct 2014 11:16 #188654 by drewcula
Has anyone read Quag Keep by Andre Norton? I haven't, and it's seems seminal. I'm most interested in having a description of the mcguffin / magic bracelet.

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15 Oct 2014 11:21 #188655 by Columbob

jeb wrote: SNOW CRASH could be seen this way.


Tad William's Otherland series is a 4 door-stopper volume take on the same idea. Haven't read it, but he's got a lot of fans.

Not sure if it's what you're looking for, but you might want to check Peadar O. Guilin's The Inferior or Matthew Woodring Stover's Heroes Die.

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15 Oct 2014 11:53 #188656 by jeb

Legomancer wrote:

jeb wrote: LITTLE BROTHER by Cory Doctorow talks about a character who paints minis briefly, but just a few pages. The lead is a LARPer though, and that comes up a couple of times. He also plays an ARG.


Also if you have been having problems with rolling your eyes and gagging this book should get you back up to speed in no time.

Hey, he's looking for themes, not classics of literature. LITTLE BROTHER is pretty obnoxious, in the same way READY PLAYER ONE is. Both seem to think nerdery is cool, but from an I'm-not-one-of-them-really perspective that grates. LITTLE BROTHER also reads like it's mansplaining every technical/crypto element of the book. But it's for kids, so how much can I complain?

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15 Oct 2014 13:39 #188662 by Joebot

Columbob wrote:

jeb wrote: SNOW CRASH could be seen this way.


Tad William's Otherland series is a 4 door-stopper volume take on the same idea. Haven't read it, but he's got a lot of fans.


I read that bad boy. I love me some Tad Williams, but man, can he get lost up his own ass. Anyway, Otherland is about virtual reality, and doesn't really have the idea of getting trapped in a game.

I thought of one more -- the Deep Space 9 season 1 episode "Move Along Home."

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15 Oct 2014 13:48 #188663 by jeb
HARRY POTTER THE ONE WITH THE CHESS GAME AT THE END.

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15 Oct 2014 14:20 #188672 by Shellhead

drewcula wrote: Has anyone read Quag Keep by Andre Norton? I haven't, and it's seems seminal. I'm most interested in having a description of the mcguffin / magic bracelet.


I read it way back in the day. At the time, I was somewhat disappointed, because it seemed like Norton had only a general idea of the experience of playing D&D. And one adventurer was this really tough-looking lizard man who was useless for most of the book because they were traveling in a desert. There was some funny business about all the adventurers having a wrist bracelet with a spinning d20 bauble attached, and their dice would spin during combat. Still, Norton is an okay writer in general, so I wouldn't say that Quag Keep should be avoided completely. At the time, I was looking for a Greyhawk novel, not this.

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15 Oct 2014 19:55 - 15 Oct 2014 20:13 #188690 by Brewmiester
In "Ronin" De Niro's friend/emergency medic is painting miniature Samurai for a 47 ronin diorama.

Oh and Max Von Sydow in "Three Days of the Condor"

A pretty good discussion of the subject at

www.fanaticus.org/discussion/archive/index.php?t-242.html
Last edit: 15 Oct 2014 20:13 by Brewmiester. Reason: add Three days and the link
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16 Oct 2014 12:21 #188733 by drewcula
These are fascinating recommendations. Keep 'em coming!

Question: Has anyone read House of Cards? I'm curious to know if Francis Urquhart is ever referenced as playing wargames. His American counterpart, Francis Underwood, has a civil war game / battle in his basement.

Many many thank yous.

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16 Oct 2014 14:16 #188745 by RobertB
Vernor Vinge's True Names is a characters-in-cyberspace book, and I remember it being pretty good. Unlike the four books of Otherland, it's a smallish novel/novella.

Neal Stephenson's Reamde has a "WoW x 10" MMO as a key plot element, with several characters having toons of various levels in the game.

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16 Oct 2014 15:24 - 16 Oct 2014 15:25 #188751 by Columbob
There's this old 80's cartoon, Flight of the Dragons , loved it as a kid, don't know if it holds up. This kid is sent into a fantasy board game.
Last edit: 16 Oct 2014 15:25 by Columbob.

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17 Oct 2014 15:53 #188829 by Rafael Silva
Grant Morrison's Joe the Barbarian is an 8-part comic series that tells the story of a boy with diabetes that enters a fantasy world when his blood sugar drops.

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