Midkemia (split from: Tom Webster's The Atlantic Setting)

[Rafael]

Thanks! I myself use my holidays to read a few superbad Midkemia novels, but who gives.

Can't recommend those highly enoughto the educated D&D nerd, because they're oh so close to original potpurri that eventually begat the 74 game.

Split from viewtopic.php?f=83&t=7902
-Havard

[Rafael]

...Meaning, Feist really gets the tone of 70s fantasy perfectly right; sometimes, when a reference to his own home game, he's silly,but even so, he manages to show, well, a game we surely all would have loved to play in as characters.

For others, it's Martin, or Harry Potter. For me, Feist is my Twilight. I shall always read and deviously enjoy him, regardless of how stupid his stuff really gets.

[Havard]

I am not really familiar with Midkemia at all beyond then fact that it is the setting of Raymond E. Feist's novels. Perhaps you could give a brief summary of the origin the setting had within roleplaying before the novels?

Also, if you don't mind I will split this off as a separate topic as we are moving away from Tom Webster at this point.

-Havard

[Rafael]

Sure, do split.

Midkemia was one of the earlier "big" RPG groups, as represented by Medkemia Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midkemia

Midkemia is the world setting from Feist's college role-playing group, also known as the Thursday Nighters (until they became the Friday Nighters due to late games and early morning classes), which had begun as an outgrowth of the Triton Wargaming Society at UCSD. D&D, published by TSR, Inc., formed the root of the Midkemian game, but like many groups playing D&D at that time, the Thursday Nighters modified and evolved the rules wholesale, until they were barely recognizable as having any relationship to D&D. Feist came into this group after the original campaign had been developed by fellow students at UCSD, and played for three years before he began writing his stories, the first of which were humorous short stories set in the game realm. None of those stories were ever published. Later Feist decided to try his hand at serious fantasy, and asked if anyone objected to his using Midkemia, as it saved him the trouble of world-building from scratch. Feist has mentioned on many occasions that many of the constraints of that world created dramatic issues he would never have dreamed up on his own, and for which he was grateful. Several of the novels are dedicated to other members of that group from college. None of his books are based on campaigns, as the game takes place roughly 500 years after the novel Magician. Feist has likened himself more to historical novelists rather than fantasy writers, stating that he writes "historical novels about a place that doesn't exist." None of his characters are "player characters" from these Friday Nighter sessions, save two, Praji and Vaja, introduced in the novel The King's Buccaneer, characters created for Feist's campaign, by his college friend, Richard Spahl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_E. ... nd_Kelewan

The majority of Feist's works are part of The Riftwar Cycle, and feature the worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan.[4] Human magicians and other creatures on the two planets are able to create rifts through dimensionless space that can connect planets in different solar systems. The novels and short stories of The Riftwar Universe record the adventures of various people on these worlds.

Midkemia was originally created as an alternative to the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) role-playing game. When Feist studied at the University of California, San Diego, he and his friends created a new role-playing game based on their own original world of Midkemia. They called themselves the Thursday Nighters, because they played the Midkemia role-playing game every Thursday evening. After some time, when the group changed and began meeting on Fridays, they became known as the Friday Nighters. The original group have since formed a company called Midkemia Press, which has continued publishing campaigns set in Midkemia.[5]

Feist acknowledges that the Tekumel setting from M. A. R. Barker's Empire of the Petal Throne was the source for much of Kelewan. The original D&D campaign which he based his books on had an invasion of the Midkemia world by Tekumel. As a result, much of the background of Kelewan – the Tsurani Empire, the lack of metals and horses, the Cho'ja, the pantheons of 20 major and 20 minor gods – comes from Tekumel. Feist claims to have been unaware of this origin when he wrote Magician.[6][7]

The trademark of the Midkemia novels is REALLY bad writing, but at the same time, they are strangely charming, because the author is obviously in love with his characters. In Germany, some of the RPG material was released - with heavy rewrites - for the Midgard RPG, which I played extensively until just a few years ago. Hence, my personal connection. Also, the whole concept for AoT is very heavily based on Feist's "Prince of the Blood", as the whole aging process of my world of Blackmoor mirrors the aging process the world of Midkemia undergoes in Feist's novels, I think.

[Havard]

Thanks. I have always wondered why there was so little contact between the gamers in California and the ones in the Mid-West.

Given that Feist's campaign didnt start untill after the publication of D&D and that his first novel wasn't published until 1982 it seems unlikely that he would have had any influence on Arneson's early campaigns?

-Havard

[Rafael]

Question, or statement, there?

In gaming terms, I value the Midkemia series as first-hand, first-hour reception of the tropes established by D&D.

Feist and his group use similar sources to ourselves with our stuff, here, and for me personally, it's very interesting what they do about it.

Now, Feist is notorious for, ahem, "borrowing", and Blackmoor also gets a few quite substantial "nods".

As to the contact, well, Feist got a license by TSR to use their Tekumel stuff after the problems with the IP first surfaced, and Dragon Mag promoted Midkemia pretty heavily in the 80s. That points to some exchange, at least.

[Havard]

Now, Feist is notorious for, ahem, "borrowing", and Blackmoor also gets a few quite substantial "nods".

Interesting. Could you give some examples?

-Havard

[Rafael]

I'll make a list one of these days, I think.

Mainly, similarities in geography, and placenames. Also, the proto-Elves, and the Eastern-style barbarian invasion is there.

Nothing Feist could have got from the FFC, though. Likely, the tropes of the time, or due to the Tekumel connection.