Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat Books?

Until recently, I've been avoiding novels that revolve around RPGs, whether of the table-top or digital variety. Lately, though, I've been picking up random things that I thought I'd never read, and actually enjoying them. I figured maybe I'm missing out on some good D&D themed books - so, any recommendations for a D&D novel newb? Especially books with whodunnit or political intrigue themes?

Dragonlance and Discworld seem like the easiest options

If you want to stray a bit from that path for the sake of intrigue, I would recommend The Cruel Prince series by Holly Black. They were marketed as YA romance, but in fact they are chock-full of political intrigue, treason, murderous relatives and delicious Feywild.

Not going to lie, most of the Forgotten Realms novels are pretty poor in quality. There is a lot of great fantasy literature out there. I’d recommend reading that instead.

I don't know if this is what you are thinking of, but there's a whole genre called gamelit: either stories about people playing games (computer or RPG) or people in worlds that have game-like mechanics.

Try the site https://www.royalroad.com/ - it is a free-to-read webnovel site that hosts a lot of game-related stories. As usual for the internet, there is some junk, but one or more of the top-rated stories should catch your interest. No commitment, and a lot of their stories end up on Amazon books eventually anyway.

I really like He Who FIghts With Monsters - a guy gets summoned to a magic-based world and has to survive.

There are also plenty of stories that don't include game mechanics. Adventures of the Goldthirst Company is set in what is essentially a D&D world, but no game mechanics are used in the story.

[edit] Just read the latest chapter of He Who FIghts With Monsters and got reminded - chapters 1-113 are going away in a couple of days because of the terms of service for Amazon Kindle Unlimited. How fast can you read?

Discworld and Jack Vance are pretty good for D&D-esque narratives.

I'm also someone who's avoided 'licensed' books, the few I've read were pretty poor, don't get me started on the EU.

Yeah the branded books are not great -- I'm always struck by contrast between how much I (really, really) like Ed Greenwood's ideas and how badly he expresses them in writing.

But -- Salvatore is good at narrative battle sequences. Also has a talent for honing in the best parts of the rules and making them come to life.

Cunningham's Halruaa books -- The Magehound counselors and kings was fun. YA, story of sorcerer. Young, woman is born an urchin into a world where mages rule and scholarship is highly respected. She quickly finds she can do the same things the elites can but she has to hide her powers because Halruaas consider magic without knowledge dangerous. (can I resist saying I'm annoyed that 4th ed blew up Halruaa? Apparently not)

Another option would be to go to Choice of Games (think Choose Your Own Adventure but for grown-ups and in a digital format) and take a look at their fantasy options. They are really well-written, super fun, and you get to craft your own character. Some good ones:

Heroes of Myth: Very D&D, and very close to Baldur's Gate in spirit. - https://www.choiceofgames.com/heroes-of-myth/#utm_medium=web&utm_source=ourgames

Pon-Para and the Great Southern Labyrinth -- More Assassin's Creed- Oddysey, very intense. - https://www.choiceofgames.com/pon-p.../#utm_medium=web&utm_source=ourgames

The Demon Mark: A Russian Saga -- D&D RPG chock-full of Russian mythology. If you enjoyed Auntie Ethel's arc, you will love this one: https://www.choiceofgames.com/demon-mark/#utm_medium=web&utm_source=ourgames

Vampire: The Masquerade - Night Road -- based on a dark, contemporary TTRPG; excellent writing. https://www.choiceofgames.com/vampire-the-masquerade/night-road/

BladeDancer made a timeline of the books and games for d&d, I'd start their and pick where you want to start at. It's a long list and he made 3 separate threads.

FR Chronology (Novels and Games) Updated Part 1

I find some of the Vampire the Masquerade novels pretty good.

If it doesn't have to be based directly on a rpg, I can recommend everything from Tad Williams, especially the Dragonbone Chair saga, which is classical fantasy with great characters and an interesting plot.

Speak for yourself. Game of Thrones TV series is most overated Fantay series that I have seen. It was not shit, but for me it was 7/10.



Thank you! I have seen many Vampire Tv series that is better the Game of Thrones.

OLD DnD: Well the books of
10 Best D&D Books and Novels of All Time

I actually found the Drizzt books to be very easy to read and pretty engaging. There's some real depth to quite a few of them and Salvatore is pretty good at descriptive writing so the locations can often feel very real also. Drizzt is too goody goody for me though but I can forgive it I just finished the Moontide Quartet by David Hair. Loved them. Also enjoyed Mark Lawrence Red Sister series. Think Hogwarts but with lots of blood.

Not D&D really, but T Kingfisher is a D&D fan herself and her Clocktaur Wars duology (Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine) was partly inspired by Neverwinter Nights 2, albeit mainly by dissatisfaction with the way the paladin character was written. It has a reluctant party of a disgraced paladin, two rogues and a cleric setting out on a quest to infiltrate an enemy city and discover the source of some mysterious and nigh unstoppable war machines.

It’s also very good, as are many other of her books set in the same universe. And if you like audiobooks, the Clocktaur Wars ones are some of the best performed I’ve come across.

EDIT: Not novels, but I enjoyed the Minsc comics by Jim Zub (first one is Legends of Baldur’s Gate) recently. Most are fairly reasonably priced as ebooks. The tone certainly won’t be for everyone, but I found them great fun and the final adventure ties directly into BG3.

EDIT2: Melissa McShane’s Company of Strangers is again D&D inspired rather than actually D&D. I’ll admit I wasn’t hooked enough to continue reading the rest of the series, but the first book has some fun ideas about what it would actually be like as a low level party with few spells, joining together for their first adventure.

Might give the Minsc comics a look...... Not a huge fan of Minsc but BG3 related..

Yes, Mindbreaker is the final adventure that ties into BG3. And Infernal Tides is the one before that and relates to Descent Into Avernus, which also has ties into BG3, though I don’t know whether the events of either story will be considered canon for BG3.

You could dive straight in to one or both of those stories, if you’re not particularly fussed about getting to know the characters first. I don’t think it would be particularly hard to pick things up as you go.

Personally, I'd like to look at more Boo comic ... just not that much combat-heavy ...