Gamer fantasy
Last week’s Game WISH (yup, I am bloody late again—put it down to not being at work most of this week) asks about fantasy series that gamers ought to read. Let’s see if I can avoid the totally obvious, both in series and in reasons to read them.
Number three: Elizabeth Moon, Deed of Paksenarrion. Tactics, people, tactics. And a fair bit on what heroes are like before they’re heroes, something gamers ought perhaps to consider. The series ends as soon as Paks earns worldwide renown. I approve of that.
Number two: Lord Dunsany, the Pegana books. (My old friend Blackmask—oo, I bet I just made him twitch—has an e-text of The Gods of Pegana here.) Faith honestly gets shafted in far too many games. It’s admittedly a tough topic for monotheists, but there’s such scope for creativity in it that I find it a shame more GMs and gamers don’t try harder at mythmaking. Dunsany does a bang-up job; you won’t find a more original or engaging pantheon anywhere.
Number one: Ursula K. LeGuin, Earthsea. All of it. For the very simple reason that LeGuin retconned her entire world for purposes of greater gender equity and managed to get away with it. Sure, we aren’t all geniuses, but I see no reason a few more gamers (and especially game designers) can’t try to follow LeGuin’s example.
And I see a lot of reasons they should.
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