Vlad the Mad Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 I'd like to ask the people from Wyrd what are your favorite books/stories that inspired Malifaux, and what would you recommend to players who like the setting and the fluff. Assume you are talking to a complete literature noob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotokultaxe Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 Well, I'm no literature noob, but I second this idea wholeheartedly ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambrius Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 I'm not a Malifaux contributor, though I hope to be at some point. For myself, I would list as inspirations for my interest and ideas would be classic writings from H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I also loved the take on Victorian heroes and hints of steampunk-ness in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Probably fairly obvious examples, but all very strong influences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keltheos Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 Wow, that's a hard question to answer inasmuch as it seems to well up from the scary place inside my head. Cambris has a few of mine covered, as well as authors/directors like Joe Abercrombie, Cherie Priest, Tim Powers, Dante, Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Joel Rosenberg (without the C. in there), Tim Burton, Ridley Scott, David Lynch, Lous L'amour, Larry McMurtry, Ian Fleming, Cormac McCarthy, Jim Butcher, and dozens of other folks I don't have the time to come up with at the moment. Not to mention 25 years of gaming and thinking 'wouldn't it be cool if...' and finally getting a chance to let the imagination run wild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosLenny Posted September 13, 2011 Report Share Posted September 13, 2011 When I get my assignments for Keltheos. I'm inspired by a bunch of genres. Mostly Lovecraft style horror and spaghetti westerns. I love Howard, Lovecraft, Poe, L'amour, King, (I could list authors all day long). It's not just books. Television, old movies, and music from Kung Fu to the Murderdolls. It all gets mixed up in the jumble of thoughts I call my imagination:) It is a lot about years of gaming and the wouldn't it be cool factor..or hey that's creepy, that'll keep them up at night. Thus you get stories about trains with the passengers that disappear, or aethervoxs that drive men to murder, last entries of constables fated to die all that kind of goodness:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad the Mad Posted September 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2011 Thanks for all the names guys, I've spend the last hour on Wikipedia checking all the authors I wasn't familiar with. Now, let's say you were to recommend one novel/story/series from each of the following authors, which one would it be? Louis L'Amour: Cormac McCarthy: Tim Powers: Jim Butcher: Cherie Priest: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambrius Posted September 14, 2011 Report Share Posted September 14, 2011 I'm not too familiar with those names, either. I have some reading to do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinncent Posted September 14, 2011 Report Share Posted September 14, 2011 Robert Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came (An epic poem published in 1855) http://www.stephenking.com/darktower/childe_roland.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elril Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 Jim Butcher must be the "Dresden Files" He is on book eleven so far though. The title of the first one is "Storm Front", though my favorites are "Summer Knight" and particularly for a Malifaux feel "Dead Beat". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolomyte Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 Thanks for all the names guys, I've spend the last hour on Wikipedia checking all the authors I wasn't familiar with. Now, let's say you were to recommend one novel/story/series from each of the following authors, which one would it be? Louis L'Amour: Cormac McCarthy: Tim Powers: Jim Butcher: Cherie Priest: for Cormac the go to novel for me is "Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West" . The road is very good, but not very malifauxy. I've not read a ton of Tim Powers, but I have read The Anubis Gates and liked it alot. I've seen pirates of the carribean, which I think is based on his book "On Stranger Tides" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talos Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 In twisting fates I see quite alot of influence form China Mieville . The Guild air towers seem to be taken from the Milita towers. The widow weaver shares her name as well as her thought style with that of China's weaver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sholto Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 It has been a while since I read Perdido Street Station, but I think the towers in that city had cable cars on them, whereas the aircars are essentially tethered dirigibles. The influence there was general steampunk rather than that book specifically. Not sure about the Widow Weaver's thought patterns. They seem fairly normal to me. Oddly enough, the Widow Weaver had another name originally. If you notice, she doesn't actually do any weaving in the story... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdelemental Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 Too many to name. When I'm channeling creepy, though, I tend to think of House of Leaves. I don't want overt slasher "He's the bad guy" kind of stuff, but more "What's out there" kind of stuff. The chapter of Pandora trapped in her nightmare had me carefully plotting to be sure there was nothing really coming to get her but still had some tension and anxiety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twenty4seven Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 for Cormac the go to novel for me is "Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West". +1 for Blood Meridian. It's a very powerful book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WUWU Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 Cormac McCarthy is hands down the best author named in this thread, -he's the greatest living writer alive, and probably of the last 100-150 years- I'd highly recommend ANY of his books, but can't exactly say they are very Malifaux-y. Actually they aren't similar at all, except for general Western themes. Still, read them all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cambrius Posted October 3, 2011 Report Share Posted October 3, 2011 I imagine a lot of influence from His Dark Materials, particularly with the aircars. And the short story introducing the Arcanists in Twisting Fates, with English Ivan, was one of the best fluff bits written so far. Just saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.