Would I Turn the Witcham Chronicles Into an RPG?
I am currently writing a series of dark fantasy books set in a world that I’ve created. The Witcham Chronicles is the first set of books I have planned for that world, and I’ve been wondering if I should make it an RPG.
There are a lot of role-playing games out there, and it would be interesting to see if I could put one together.
I guess it really comes down to how much I plan on fleshing out the world of Denaris and whether I can market it well enough. That’s perhaps the most important element of creating any presence as a writer: marketing.
Nonetheless, I’ve been toying with the idea for some time, especially after interviewing a few authors who have developed their own games.
Why Build an RPG from My World?
I’ve been a fan of role-playing games since my teens. And trust me, that was a very long time ago. You know you’re old when you start thinking in terms of decades instead of years.
Anyway, as a writer, I can see all kinds of benefits of creating an RPG. Perhaps the biggest drawback is how much time it would take to hammer out all of the details, rules, progression, and storylines.
Marketing for the Books
As the RPG would center around Denaris, it would work great as a marketing device. After all, there are a lot of published books that support Dungeons & Dragons. Despite the fact that I’ll be working backwards, the RPG should still offer a bit of exposure to the books I write.
For example, I could reference situations, characters, and places throughout the RPG in regard to Kingmaker. You could still play the game, but you’ll get more out of it by reading the book.
Essentially, all of the different types of media would be written as a stand-alone element. This means that you can read or play the game without having all of the other components. However, references and progression may be enhanced by including all of them.
Allowing Others to Explore My Imagination
One of the biggest reasons why I love to write is to express my ideas and explore my imagination. I write the stories I want to tell, whether people read them or not. And according to some, they love the idea of playing in my world.
I’ve always had an extremely active imagination, much to the detriment of my grade school experience. In fact, making video games was one of the primary reasons why I went back to college in 2002. Unfortunately, that fell through in an epic fashion. But exploring my imagination has always been a fun pastime.
It would be 21 years later before I published my first fiction book. Yep, I’m still kicking myself in the ass for that one. I should have started much sooner.
Exploring one’s imagination is the reason why many become game developers and writers. The stories you can tell, both in text and visual effect, can be everything from entertaining to inspiring. And I love the idea of being inspirational for other authors to explore more of themselves outside of novels and short stories.
Building a Much Bigger Brand
I am foremost a writer. However, I also know that diversifying oneself is a great way to build a bigger brand. In this case, my writing career. Sure, we can write an endless number of books based on an imaginary world. But when you fold gamers into the mix, or even a live-action show or two, you greatly expand the opportunities.
This is one of the methods that helped me kick the lawyer and doctor off the front page of Google when searching for my name. I worked hard to get my name in as many places as possible, and it paid off well in that instance.
Now, I’m not saying that every author needs to expand into other media. It really depends on what you want out of your writing career. But there are so many things you can do today beyond just writing a book or two. Can you see a live-action scene from your book on YouTube? I can. And I would love to see fans buy the RPG and play in the world that I’ve created.
Might Make a Few Bucks on the Side
Let’s not forget that diversifying your writing could also lead to additional income. However, there is a lot that goes into making money from any RPG, book, or brand in general. Perhaps the most vital is that of proper marketing.
No one is going to buy it if they don’t know it exists.
Still, there is great potential to make a few bucks on the side from a game that is built from a world you’re creating for your books. And I’ve interviewed quite a few authors last year who have books that would make for interesting RPGs and video games.
Getting Inspired By World Anvil
Although I had a bit of an inkling to build an RPG after publishing Kingmaker, I really didn’t start considering it heavily until I came across World Anvil. It’s a world-building app that I’m currently using to flesh out the world of Denaris as I write the Witcham Chronicles. It has a lot of great tools, and I am looking forward to seeing what it can do overall.
At the moment, I am testing out the various aspects of World Anvil from the perspective of fantasy world-building for my writing channel and blog. But so far, I really enjoy using the platform. It has everything I need and want to flesh out my ideas to share with everyone, even if I am only intending to write books.
In reality, that’s why I started using World Anvil in the first place. I wanted an online platform that is public-facing to help me keep track of all the people, places, and things in the books I write.
At the time of this post, I still have quite a bit to build on the page. So, it’s nothing overly fancy. Yet, I have scheduled at least an hour per week to build it up with what I have in the books so far. The trick is to add elements that don’t give away the books. After all, I want people to be surprised when reading them.
In any case, World Anvil is built to build RPGs and modules. So, by fleshing it out even further with details, it might provide a great system to publish a game after the books have been written.
What About the Neverwinter Nights Idea?
A few months ago, I started toying around with using the Aurora Toolset in Neverwinter Nights. It’s the builder that comes with the game so that you can make your own adventures. The problem is that Neverwinter Nights is also a 24-year-old game. That means only niche players may download the module once it’s complete.
What I love about the Aurora Toolset is that it’s easy to use. Well, aside from a bit of custom coding, if you want something not represented in Neverwinter itself. But that’s true no matter what game-making platform you use.
Perhaps I’ll continue working on the module, as it would give me good practice for creating dialogue for future platforms. Not to mention that I think it would be fun to play in my world using the Neverwinter Nights engine. I’m a huge fan of the game and love how it was developed.
In any case, if you’d like to see a Neverwinter Nights module set in the world I’m creating for my books, feel free to comment. It might inspire me to create several.
Perhaps Denaris Modules for Dungeons & Dragons?
One idea I’ve had was to use the Denaris world set to write modules for Dungeons & Dragons. These are the adventures players run through using the D&D rules and guidelines. After all, the entire world is an offshoot of a story I wrote that started as a fanfiction of the RPG. The story of how and why I wrote Kingmaker is quite interesting, actually. Well, it is to a few other folks and me, anyway.
It’s crazy how things developed over time.
Anyway, it might be easier in the long run to build modules using the D&D rules and backbone. However, I usually only play Second or Third editions. I would have to learn all of the new things that are in the latest installment of D&D, and I’m not sure if I have the time for that.
It would be easier and faster, of course, to simply write the modules for a platform that already existed. But would it be as much fun as creating a whole new RPG from scratch? I guess that is something I’ll have to consider relatively soon. I don’t want to get halfway into a project and then change my mind.
It’ll Take a Lot of Work, Though…
Perhaps the biggest challenge I have in creating an RPG out of my books is that of time. Essentially, I have four part-time jobs and am a part-time undergrad student. I don’t have a lot of time to invest in building a game. Sure, there are automated systems nowadays and AI to “help” develop a game. But I’d rather do it myself as much as possible.
This is the driving force behind why I would want to use the Neverwinter Nights builder. I already know how the system works and how to set the game. I could work on it here and there when time was available. Learning an entirely new platform means the game wouldn’t be ready for months or even years.
This all depends greatly on how I utilize my time, though. I might get into a good groove and make some strong headway if I work on it during the weekends or maybe during the live writing sprints that I have on YouTube.
No matter how I slice it up, though, it’s going to take a lot of work and effort to produce an RPG that fits well with my books. I don’t want to half-ass it and want people to enjoy playing in my world.
It All Comes Down to Time
As I said, creating an RPG out of your ideas is going to take a lot of time, especially if you’re starting from nothing. Not only do you need a fair amount of backstory to engage your players, but you also need to set up the rules and the mechanics of how the game will work.
Maybe this would make for an interesting series on YouTube. I could publish a weekly video of making an RPG out of my books, like a documentary of sorts. No matter what, I need to get more time fleshing out Denaris on World Anvil. If nothing else, it helps me remember details about my world that I might forget while writing my books.
I’m nearing 50 years old, and I forget a lot.
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