2) A Song of Ice and Fire: On the surface (and mostly in the first couple books) this series comes across as a fairly mundane medieval fantasy novel. Brilliantly written, but mostly just swords, castles, intrigue and politics, a general absence of sorcery. There were dragons upon a time, but they’ve all since been killed off. Yet as the series progresses there is revealed to be a bit more than meets the eye to the world. Nothing quite so flashy as old bearded men hurling lightning bolts, but shadow assassins and corpses turning their cold dead fingers upon their own comrades are nothing to be sneezed at in terms of the mystical. George R.R. Martin is weaving a complex tale in the series that could be easily adapted to games, with a particular emphasis on a party-style RPG system. Many facets of the game could incorporate a more army-focused combat system similar to Last Remnant. Conceivably it could be an RTS or other tactical game, though to ignore the incredible twists and turns of the major plotline would do the series a great injustice. Much of the story is still unwritten (or at least unpublished) so it’s impossible to know exactly where it’s going, but the title and some underlying plot points hint at an eventual confrontation between two different factions with some supernatural abilities, one representing ice and one representing fire. One of the greatest virtues of the series that could be carried over into the game is the morality is much more of a gray area. Few characters are truly good or evil; all have failings or redeeming qualities. Incorporating a more realistic, consequence-engendering morality system in the game would challenge players to truly consider their actions.
1) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Undoubtedly one of the most adult fantasy series ever written, the adventures or occasionally mis-adventures (though without much comedy) of Thomas Covenant take place in a magical land that’s rife with interesting characters, thousands of years of history and its own various magic. It’d also present gamers with one of the harshest, bleakest storylines in existence should the developers choose to stick with the main plot. Thomas Covenant begins in our world as a leper who falls and strikes his head on a table, only to wake up in a magical land where not only is his disease healed, he is hailed as the prophesied savior of the Land. He spends the first three books in the company of some stalwart heroes as he frequently insists that he can’t help anyone. After some mis-steps and errors Covenant does bring salvation to the Land, but it’s a long and painful journey for the reader as well as his friends. There are tons of interesting characters and events in the series, more than enough to make a game of some type. What I can best imagine is a sort of constant escort situation. Instead of playing as the relatively powerless ex-leper you’d get to swap between his various protectors who often include magic users of some kind or the Bloodguard, essentially super powered shaolin monks who pummel their foes into submission. Guiding Covenant through various battles and chases could be extremely exciting and the potential for co-op with friends makes the tedium of escort scenarios much more appealing. This all being said, trying to cram the incredibly elaborate and gloomy tale of Thomas Covenant into video games would require some extensive cut scenes or lore screens and even for those who weren’t turned off by the relatively dim outlook of the whole series it might be a little too much to go through.
