# Would this approach make a viable book or film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths, rpg-dnd-wargames\ **Created:** [August 11, 2022, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473 "2022-08-11T10:09:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/1 "2022-08-11T10:09:21Z")
Intro: I’m a keen roleplayer (AD+D) 🤓, but sadly have had no face-to-face games since the Pandemic. Fortunately I’ve kept up with one player from my long-running group using Skype. I’ve also started DMing a roleplaying game on a message board (not this one!) and that is both fun and a big help coping with Pandemic stress. 🕶 Now I have some talented players in my message board game, who are both responding to all my prepared plot points and doing some fine roleplaying of their own. 😍 It occurred to me that the message board thread is a bit like a book! So thank you for reading this far 😃 and your opinions are welcome on two topics: - how likely is it that such a thread would be provide a basis for a book? (obviously with some editing 😉) - if I do publish, would I have copyright - and would my players be untitled to a cut? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/2 "2022-08-11T10:31:19Z")
It seems you are talking about adapting a game transcript into a novel. That could, perhaps, provide a basis for a good book, but via a whole lot, rather than “some”, editing. Regardless of copyright, ISTM you may not simply plagiarize your players’ text without permission. Why not ask them for it? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/3 "2022-08-11T10:32:37Z")
Even though they rarely admit it, fantasy writers have been using their roleplaying campaigns as the basis for books since at least the 1980s. Raymond Feist comes to mind, but there are plenty of others. So I say go for it. But as noted, a LOT of editing will be needed. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/4 "2022-08-11T10:53:47Z")
Thanks for the replies. 😃 I should explain that I don’t see myself actually writing such a book, but it was fun to fantasise about it. I agree that there would be a lot of editing - and I would have cut my players in to any profits (regardless of their legal rights.) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/5 "2022-08-11T13:49:40Z")
I’ve thought about it a few times but I am a poor excuse for a writer. Doesn’t help that most of my best campaigns are in Middle Earth as far as copyrights go. I actually had a chapter or two of a story written back in the mid-80s. (Based on in person game of course.) But again, I am a poor excuse for a writer. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/6 "2022-08-11T13:54:11Z")
> [@glee](#): > > - how likely is it that such a thread would be provide a basis for a book? (obviously with some editing 😉) Mix in time travel to the 17th century, add extraterrestrials and you’ve got the makings of a dynamite screenplay. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/7 "2022-08-11T13:57:04Z")
Sounds to me like a variation of the epistolary novel: > **[What Is an Epistolary Novel?](https://www.liveabout.com/epistolary-novel-1277115)** > > An epistolary novel is one that is primarily made up of correspondence, such as letters. Learn the effect of this storytelling style, and how you can use it. There’s a pretty cool crime novel called _The Anderson Tapes_, written in the seventies, in which every character involved in planning an ambitious caper is under surveillance by one or more law enforcement agencies. The novel takes the form of a collection of transcripts of those tapes. They made a movie starring Sean Connery. So yeah, with some good editing to make sure it’s coherent and all polished up, why not? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/8 "2022-08-11T13:58:54Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I’ve thought about it a few times but I am a poor excuse for a writer. Doesn’t help that most of my best campaigns are in Middle Earth as far as copyrights go. There is always the “Fifty Shades of Grey” approach where you change up the characters’ names, etc., enough so that it is no longer a derivative work… ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/9 "2022-08-11T14:07:04Z")
Not quite the same, but Woody Allen once wrote an [epistolary short story](https://maxxwolf.tripod.com/woody.html) based on a fictional game of postal chess. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyEcks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnyecks/32/18197_2.png) [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/10 "2022-08-11T14:10:06Z")
Occasionally I’ll read a novel and think that it resembles a RPG campaign way too much. I don’t like the style at all, it’s trite. When you can actually pick out the character generation and DM worldbuilding monologue, it’s not a hopeful sign. When the plot turns into a series of set piece encounters, and you can practically hear the dice rolling as the characters make their checks, it’s a lost cause. Eventually, you get to a denouement regardless of the character’s choices, because there’s no way that the author/DM is going to let his players ruin the plot by failing to figure out the clues. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/11 "2022-08-11T14:20:19Z")
I guess that answers the “why not?” I posted earlier. What I’m reading is that even if it’s not inevitable, the chances that it would turn out that way are great enough that you might as well not bother if you’re concerned about producing something that’ll read like an actual novel. I would guess, though, that a sufficiently talented and motivated writer might be able to pull off something in that format by just fabricating the whole thing on his or her her own. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/12 "2022-08-11T14:20:30Z")
In Japan, they sell RPG “replays” along those lines. **Record of Lodoss War** is probably the most famous example. > **[Tabletop role-playing games in Japan | Replays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabletop_role-playing_games_in_Japan#Replays)** > > Replays are RPG session logs arranged for reading, similar in style to light novels. A typical format of a replay goes as following: ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/13 "2022-08-11T15:56:53Z")
The book series _The Expanse_ arose from a game, IIRC, it wasn’t a campaign, but the bones of a complete game. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-approach-make-a-viable-book-or-film/969473/14 "2022-08-11T17:26:35Z")
It’s not _my_ thing, but it is a thing: the **LitRPG** genre of fiction is apparently stories about characters in role-playing games, making explicit references to their stats, mechanics of gameplay, etc. > **[LitRPG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LitRPG)** > > LitRPG, short for literary role playing game, is a literary genre combining the conventions of computer RPGs with science-fiction and fantasy novels. The term was introduced in 2013. In LitRPG, games or game-like challenges form an essential part of the story, and visible RPG statistics (for example strength, intelligence, damage) are a significant part of the reading experience. This distinguishes the genre from novels that tie in with a game, like those set in the world of Dungeons and The l...