Favourite Fictional Universes

[freeney]

Hey, so I figure the title is pretty self explanatory, what are your favourite fictional worlds? The media the universe is in doesn't necessarily have to be great, such as a terrible game in a fascinating world.

My first contribution would be the world of Fallen London and Sunless Sea. Pseudo-victorian London was stolen by bats and is now considerably closer to hell. I suppose my favourite thing here is the sheer number of layers of intrigue; there's always one more plot or secret to uncover, each of which lead to more questions about the nature of the world.

Other examples include pretty much anything by Trudi Canavan, since I love a world which goes into detail on its magic system

[Brave Sir Robin]

I am super addicted to Brandon Sanderson's cosmere universe. I love absolutely everything he's written in it, and I even lurk on the 17th shard forums sometimes to try and keep up to date on the latest additional tidbits and spoilers.

[freeney]

I've been told so many times to check out his work, I intend to as soon as I can

[Alex Newall]

I always loved how coherent Trudi Caravan's universe was and I have wanted to work on the Fallen London IP for a long time now. I enjoyed "His Dark Materials" and "The Dreamsinger Trilogy" when I was younger for the way they balanced their symbolism with an actually well moving plot and set of characters. I am currently working my way through the "Wheel of Time" series, a fascinating mash up of Authurian Legend, Western European Fantasy tropes and Daoism. Its not perfect but its pretty solid.

Also I have always had a real soft spot for "used-future" narratives. Cowboy Bebop, Firefly etc.

[Brave Sir Robin]

I know what you mean about used future, they can be interesting, but on a different note I really enjoy Iain M Banks Culture novels as well. Super futuristic in a very cool way.

[freeney]

Firefly is particularly close to my heart, even though the back story was somewhat stretch by Serenity. It makes up for it with one of the greatest spaceship battles of all time. I can't believe I didn't mention it earlier but Frank Herbert's Dune series will always be one of the absolute best sci-fi worlds I've ever read

[Brave Sir Robin]

I am an absolute Joss Whedon addict, I love everything he is involved in. So yes, +1 to Firefly, I thought Serenity was brilliant as well, but I can't claim to be unbiased.

For a long time Dune was my absolute favourite as well. Including all the sequels. The prequels written by his son and my least favourite Star Wars write Kevin J Anderson really soured me on them. And I guess I found other stuff I ended up liking more too.

Discworld will always be a world I love as well.

[Oneiros]

Dune is pretty much my top sci-fi novel :-) I love the worldbuilding, politics and history, even if some of the newer novels are rather shaky. The fall of Ix and House Vernius from the Prelude novels struck me hard emotionally.

An under-rated/not very well known setting, I feel, is the jewel-magic and matriarchal society presented in Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series. It's a little on the risque side (in the same vein as The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanick - another good, dystopic kind of world) but presents an interesting world view and magic system.

[Jonny]

I lovelovelove the Deadlands RPG universe - it's literally everything I love boiled down into a single setting. It's got spaghetti western, southern gothic, horror, steampunk, (nasty) magic and some damn fine monsters. And I do love me a good monster.

[Alex Newall]

I do hope to run a Deadlands campaign on the gaming podcast one day.

Here's hoping.

[freeney]

Whilst I remember, has anyone here ever run a Paranoia game? If the rest of your group has never played it it's one of the most fun RPG experiences you can have

[Oneiros]

No, but it does sound interesting. Some of us here know one of the guys involved with writing the new version and he seems very excited, so will try and take a look when that comes out.

[theoverlord]

I must admit that one of my favourite fictional universes is the Warhammer universe. The nature of every race having a long standing and interesting history, that players can always refer to, always interests me, combined with the fact that so many things have spawned from it, makes me love Warhammer.

[Jonny]

Paranoia is the most fun you can have while still staying absolutely loyal to Friend Computer! I've only ever played it for hilarious one-shots, but would someday like to try a long-term campaign dealing with it as a really sinister dystopia where plots and treasons are slow burn and significant.

I do enjoy the Warhammer universe, although I've always been much more of a fan of the old Warhammer Fantasy universe than the 40K one, just because once you reach that sort of scale I find it harder to be connected with the really good bits of a setting. I just like that they've successfully managed to make a setting where the weird metaphysical rules have led to a situation where the oppressive fascist witch-burners are the closest there is to genuine good guys and He Who Fights Monsters categorically will eventually become corrupted and need to be put down. And then they successfully marketed that setting to children!

[Oneiros]

Maybe once the new version is released (and I'm back in the UK), I can try running a Paranoia game for folks. I'm kinda itching to get back to writing/running games and, as much as I love my fantasy settings, I'd think I'd prefer a more modern setting for my next game.

Likewise was much more sold on Warhammer FRPG than 40K, I really enjoyed the one game I have played under the system.