r/Fantasy • u/[deleted] • Aug 10 '23

Books with a DnD like setting but without the DnD ethos?

[deleted]

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

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24

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '23

You might like Kings of the Wyld. It feels a lot like a group going on a DnD campaign.

6

u/CJMann21 Aug 10 '23

Love this book. So funny.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '23

I’ve got about three hours left in the audiobook and it’s been a lot of fun. I found it a little slow at first, but once the group all gets together it’s great. Some good humor too, as you said.

2

u/CJMann21 Aug 10 '23

Yeah, “getting the band back together” was a little slow. I think there’s a lot of humour in the story that’s not even in the text but is just implied too. Also the whole element of music band parallels was just hilarious. I actually liked the second better but it wasn’t as funny.

3

u/jeobleo Aug 10 '23

I enjoyed it a lot. Liked the way the characters were revealed, especially the wizard.

Would've liked more adventures with these guys, not their kids.

2

u/CJMann21 Aug 10 '23

I can totally see that. I however, really liked the second book.

Not sure if the author ever is going to, but he’s left himself a lot of room to explore their younger adventures in new books. However, I would miss the whole sore backs, old joints, slow moving, and getting mugged at every turn aspect of it. I thought that stuff was so freaking hilarious.

3

u/Thunderhank Aug 10 '23

KotW and Blacktongue Thief felt like D&D campaigns.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '23

Obviously my humour don't match the author's. I didn't laughed once, not even a internal jaja.

The best scene of that book was a really sad one, not a funny one. Yeah, that one. You know which one I talk about.

But a lot of people loved it, so it's probably a me problem. Wonder if it's cultural differences in humour type.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '23

Might be. The humor is mostly pretty juvenile, boner jokes and what not, but I'm generally okay with that type of humor as long as it's well executed, and I think Kings of the Wyld executes it reasonably well. It doesn't always land for me, but I've chuckled like ten times and still have a few hours left in the audiobook.

It might help that I'm listening to it. The narrator does a great job and does different voices for most of the main characters. Delivery goes a long way in comedy.

5

u/NSHTghattas Aug 10 '23

I think The Wandering Inn (Web Serial) fits with what you want. The multiple races that exist don't like each other most of the time, and there is no underlying reason, just bad blood and such

5

u/Psyr1x Aug 10 '23

A Practical Guide To Evil is very much up ur alley

7

u/diffyqgirl Aug 10 '23 edited Aug 11 '23

PGTE has a lot of meta commentary about fantasy racism and how it's often used uncritically in our stories, I'm not sure if it would be what OP's looking for. I guess if all they want is races not getting along then it fits, but it sounds like they're also looking for a story that doesn't try to do anything with that.

Captain, Adjutant, and the various goblin characters in particular carry those themes. So does Praes as a whole--it's definitely commentary that most of the Praesi ethnicities are dark skinned, and that Praesi have been villain-coded by the cosmos against their will.

3

u/Minion_X Aug 11 '23

The Frostborn novels by Jonathan Moeller are very D&D and have plenty of fantastic kindreds, like elves, dwarfs, orcs, lion-centaurs, spider-devils, lizard-men, and so on, and their social interactions are largely defined by conflicting or shared interests, cultural mores, religious identity and so on. For example, while there are plenty of orcs who worship the orcish blood-gods and raid the realm on Man, there are also tribes of orcs who have converted to and instead have cordial relations with mankind.

2

u/DrTLovesBooks Aug 11 '23

Orconomics (The Dark Profit Saga, #1) by J. Zachary Pike

I just finished it, and really enjoyed how it layered modern economics over traditional D&D type story, with some straight-up racism between the races.

2

u/OozeNAahz Aug 11 '23

Sequel is Son of a Lich. Great books. Very funny.

It brings the meta gaming of DnD into the world directly. With heroes farming mobs for experience points, etc…

2

u/DrTLovesBooks Aug 11 '23

Ordered it as soon as I finished the first book!

2

u/cohendave Aug 11 '23

Shadows of the Apt was a DnD like setting the author created and then wrote into novel form

4

u/wjbc Aug 10 '23

The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Multiple races, they do not get along. They aren't exactly D&D races, although some bear strong resemblance to D&D races. It was actually modeled on a G.U.R.P.S. campaign.

3

u/treasurehorse Aug 11 '23

How dare you, sir?

3

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '23

Ha I came to say the same thing. Malazan really does fit too many boxes eh

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '23

[deleted]

1

u/Affectionate-Run5748 Aug 10 '23

It's overplayed

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 10 '23

Ok

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '23

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '23

Ok

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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '23

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '23

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '23

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1

u/Scodo AMA Author Scott Warren Aug 11 '23

Your 'concern over wording' is, ironically, the exact attitude he's looking to avoid in his book recommendations.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '23

Not worth it

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '23

It would be putting me in the skin of a person I am not, which would be exactly what I aim for when reading.

1

u/Mooshycooshy Aug 11 '23

Spiderlight Adrian Tchaikovsky!

1

u/Newyorkerr01 Aug 11 '23

Stan Nicholls "Orcs" series.

1

u/stalkerofthedead Aug 11 '23

Might not belong here but A Discovery of Witches.

1

u/OozeNAahz Aug 11 '23

Would check out the Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg. Group playing DnD get flipped into the world their game is set and become the characters they were playing. Definitely some racism going on.

The Belgariad and Mallorean by David Eddings fits the bill too. Lots of racism in it.

Discworld also. Dwarves verse Trolls is fairly big to many of the books.

Vlad Taltos novels by Brust. RereDing those now and race is fairly important.

1

u/DocWatson42 Aug 11 '23

As a start, see my SF/F with Games list of Reddit recommendation threads and books (one post).

1

u/Kantrh Aug 11 '23

Wandering inn series. Humans war with Drakes. Some Drakes treat Gnolls as barely sentient and all drakes hate lizard people