I’ve just finished reading the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher.
After six books with a major theme based on the fact that innate magical
skill determines one’s place in society …
In one line of the epilogue, magical ability can now be “earned” through hard
work. Instantly, the world transforms from a complex society where birth (both
inheritance and genetics) play a major role, to one where everyone works their
way up.
Simultaneously, we have a chaotic landscape with various types of roaming
monsters (stray furies and Vord), banditry, a bounty system on wax spiders,
and particularly dangerous areas marked out by croach.
Instead of tieing off any loose ends in the series, the epilogue appears custom
made to set up a role-playing game universe.
I haven’t read any of the Codex Alera books but I’m not really surprised based on Butcher’s Dresden Files series. In the last Dresden book Harry describes the outfit he’s wearing as what a Games Workshop Jedi would wear. That’s some hardcore gaming geek stuff.
Butcher also got his start in writing by coming up with D&D plots. So between the topic and his personal experience, it’s really not a big surprise, nor is it much different from other epic fantasy series that engage in serious world-building.
I’ve always thought both series had balanced MMO potential. The Dresden series reads much like a defunct tabletop rpg called ‘Nightlife’ that I had a blast playing a dozen or so years ago. I mean, literally-Dresden wouldn’t even stand out in that world, and neither would anything else in the Dresden-verse. <Great game, wish it hadn’t gone bye-bye>
If a game comes out based on Dresden’s version, I will happily sink myself into it.
And the Codex series always seemed written up as a balance sheet of furycrafting; it would work well.
But I always figured that was just me trying to make MMOs out of everything.
It’s been received very well. The game is based on the FATE engine, which was used in an older and also very popular game called Spirit of the Century.