ITT: Books that are basically campaigns

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Several of the characters in this series feel a lot like PCs.

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Top tier corncobbing. Here's my pick

the Dark Tower. IT. Salem's Lot.

I've only just started to read this, though.

on stranger tides

all earthsea's saga

the dortmunder series by donald westlake are the perfect example of heist campaigns

This story in particular feels like a campaign, although it is a short story.

DMPC hires PCs to kill their enemies.

Reading this is what made me give up on ASoIaF books.

So fucking much happens in this story and all of it was interesting. Then I go back to trying to read the Fantasy Series of Our Time™ and get treated to characters milling about, talking about things that happened offscreen in between getting mutilated and disfigured for the author's amusement.

Beyond Thunder River would've also made a great convention game.

Nice to hear. Similarly enough, I think this was the actual story that made me stop reading modern authors. I had just finished The Wheel of Time, Way of Kings, and started reading Malazan. About 56 pages into Malazan I thought it was too derivative and started diving into the books that Mr. Martin uses to create his own books.

I'm reading the entire Appendix N selection, and although not all of them are great, I can't get enough of Robert E Howard (even though I'm pretty sure I've read most of the stuff he wrote while alive.)

The Road and The Crossing seem like they'd be the highest-tier solo campaigns of all time.

It would be a long campaign for sure, but one of those campaigns with time skips where the PCs start out as early teens and end up as grizzled old vets that have seen the world turn to war

>Appendix N

My bretheren of african descent. I'm reading through it too.

So far Poul Anderson and Leigh Brackett's stuff is solid gold and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Have you read The High Crusade yet? I was really blown out of the water with that one. Did not expect Anderson to go there after I read his other 2 works.

Well M&M as well as GURPS have settings for it. But the author G.R.R. Martin got his inspiration from a Superworld Campaign.

Complete with THAT DM dipping into Magical Realm territory to try and get the Paladin to fall.

>Beyond Thunder River would've also made a great convention game.
well you arent wrong cause the 2d20 conan RPG starter pack adventure is based of beyond the thunder river.

This could be a Japanese set campaign for L5R, Sengoku or Oriental Aventures.

High Crusade was the one I read first, actually. I was surprised to find a book that didn't treat Christianity like a plague and was a rip-roaring adventure to boot.

Then I read PALADIN: THE BOOK, and decided that modern authors weren't for me after all.

What I wouldn't give to have McCarthy write the final battle between Horus and the Emperor.

Honor Harrington:

>the party wanted to play a space military campaign, but couldn't decide who would be captain
>come DMPC captain
>everyone is chill, because "treat her just like a quest giver"
>halfway in the first campaign half the party is split across the whole star system
>it's still ok, in part to Alistair's player godlike roleplaying of butthurt XO
>players get happy because of prize money for catching smuggler ships
>the final battle battle is ok, since most of the party has something to do in a hopeless battle
>players want continuation

The next campaing starts with GM passing the DMPC captain to his girlfriend.