You are invited to GM a game where the players will be:

user didn't say sci-fi as a whole, just specific subgenres of it that didn't take off until after their deaths. C.S. Lewis died in 1963, the first proto-cyberpunk stories weren't really published until the late 60s and early 70s.

I put 'em in 5e and run 'em through Tales of the Yawning Portal and do my best to stay out of their way. There's enough creativity at that table that all I have to do is provide the excuse and it'll be off to the races.

And the great part is if Jack Chick steps out of line with his wackadoo theology screeds the Real Jack will scorch him for me.

More or less. Plus I find the idea of him playing D&D funny.

5e seems like the fastest solution. I'm tempted to use Barbarians of Lemuria, SW D6/Saga, or GURPS, but playing D&D seems like it would produce the most amusing results.
>C.S. Lewis
Paladin, martial, or cleric. Seems like he would make a good team with Tolkien with some back and forth banter. He'd probably be obsessed with keeping the others in line.
>J.R.R. Tolkien
Definitely wizard or cleric. He'd probably be the person besides Gary who gives Jack the most shit. Biggest weakness would be roleplaying way too much.
>Robert E. Howard
Barbarian, fighter, or thief, probably multiclassed. He'd be the 'I attack the king' sort of player and constantly brag about his kills. Probably conflicts with Lewis a lot.
>H.P. Lovecraft
Warlock, wizard, or thief. He's friends with Howard but definitely clashes with Lewis and almost certainly argues with Jack.
>E. Gary Gygax
Wizard. Is this even a question? Closest thing to a straight man in the group besides maybe Tolkien. He wants to get on with the game and easily gets tired of everyone else's shit.
>Jack Chick
Barbarian, so he can destroy magic items for XP. But seriously, paladin or fighter or cleric if the oaths seem too ambiguous to him.

>Gygax
>Wizard
Man what? Gary had a huge hardon for fighting men to the point that he literally didn't understand why someone would rather be a wizard than a badass fighter.

Jack Chick would only play a cleric or paladin if his character was explicitly an evangelical who believes the exact same thing he does. Any other option would be considered satanism.

People SAY that, but the only named characters I've ever heard associated with him in play were wizards.

Except his personal character in D&D games he played in when making the game was Mordenkainen, a magic user.

I imagine that the 40krpgs would have an... interesting effect on some of the players at that table.
Between the psychotic religious excesses of the Imperium, the Cosmic Horror of Chaos, and the body horror of some of the nastier Xenos races, I reckon at least Lewis, Tolkien, and Chick would get pissed off.
If I ran Black Crusade Chick would actually have an aneurysm.

Although I imagine Lovecraft could do a fun turn as a Chaos Cultist

He'd probably be a bit bored by the implication that Chaos is born from mortal emotions, though.

Whatever happens I cook and make sure to give Lovecraft big portions, need to get his weight up for when pneumonia takes another swing at him.

Isn't there a comic with this premise?

desu I'd be looking most forward to Jack Chick getting spit roasted by Tolkien and Lewis.

existential comic goes into stuff like this sometimes

...

Christ, gygax looks like such an unkempt piece of shit there. He's completely out of class with the others.

i'm looking forward to your overdose death in your mid-20s

W-what?

I run a copy of ASoIaF and tell them to prepare their taxes.

Yeah, Lovecraft strikes me as being way more into Tyranids, Necrons, or Dark Eldar (especially with the subtext of Genestealer Cults about miscenegation, the DE's fleshcrafting and degenerated nature, and everything about the Oldcrons; Newcrons probably would make him sad.)

>Lewis
Power Gamer, no roleplaying; no mercy. non-disruptive at least.
>Tolkien
Murder-hobo Prime, if it moves it's probably worth exp
>Howard
Checks out when it's not his turn, 'how far away are they? is this a standard action?'
>Lovecraft
Is just glad to be there, will probably multiclass and turn out poorly
>Gygax
Will try to play a Mary Sue Half Vampire, Half Shade Kitsune, expect fetish insertion
>Chick
Best roleplayer of the group but rolls for everything. Just put down the damn dice.

He's the quintessential nerd.

Chick and Gygax get locked in a closet.

Any justifications for this, or are you just fishing for (you)'s? I'm honestly interested in your opinions there.

Tomb of horrors.

I think you mean
>Gygax
>Howard
>Chick
>Lewis
>Lovecraft
>Tolkien

Then it sounds like he's in for a treat!

>a weekly 5-hour session that you magically have time for without otherwise interrupting your weekly routines, and which they always show up on time for and play,

I reckon I'll sooner run a game with all 6 of them than find an adult group who can stick to this.

Dude, Gygax made it. Himself. With these very hands.

I decline the invitation.

He said repeatedly that his favorite character to play was the wizard Mordenkainen.

D&D 5e, Eberron as the setting.
It would be a very story heavy campaign with lots of fun characters and pulp mystery. I'd throw in stuff for everybody, even Jack Chick would probably have fun as a paladin of the Silver Flame.

>Ayn Rand
>Chaotic Good

Only funny thing in there.

throw out jack chick, put in grrm

Exactly. Make him suffer.

"Gentlemen, we're going to play a game called Gamma World.

It's like Vance's Dying Earth, but with more Guns."

I ask Howard to go for a beer, he takes Lovecraft with himself and we have an enjoyable evening, while the rest of the group has That Guy Night and shit on each other for few hours straight without even finishing char-gen in whatever the fuck those losers wanted to play.

Now that's funny.

You can't fool me OP, that's notorious gangster Al Capone up there!

>Jack Chick
Who is this guy? I know all the others, but I never heard of this dude.

>Lovecraft in his twenties
>going out for drinks
have fun with that

Fundamentalist Christian asshole known for Chick Tracts, hilariously over the top comic tirades against the evils of not-Christianity and for the wonders of yes-Christianity. Most notable for railing against D&D, but it wasn't a particular obsession as far as I can tell.

Crazed christian extremist famous for his propaganda comics

Would Lovecraft and Chick bond over their hatred of minorities or fight over their religious differences?

Quick roll 2 d20!

One thing for sure i think Lovecraft and Howard would shoot the shit together and beer it up.

I just gm regularly 3 types game, Sword & Sorcery, Post-apocalyptic similar to Mad Max and wacky episodic Luchadores pulp adventure

I doubt I can satisfy everyone with any of those themes, I guess I will run a Barbarians of Lemuria Campaign and see how it goes, Howard,Tolkien,Gygax and Lewis should roll with it but I doubt Lovecraft will appreciate it.
don't know about the last guy though

Lovecraft and Howard were good friends IRL. Howard's suicide hit Lovecraft pretty hard. The two of them put references to each others' works into their own writings from time to time. Howard has his character Friedrich Von Junzt reading Lovecraft's Necronomicon in "The Children of the Night" (1931), and Lovecraft in turn mentions Howard's Unaussprechlichen Kulten in both "Out of the Aeons" (1935) and "The Shadow Out of Time (1936).

As long as you have the occasional nameless horror show up, Lovecraft will be all over it.

>Christ the photo taken in a relaxed setting presents a more casual image than the professionally-taken portrait photos

Ya dun seh

>the other players' characters are drawn exactly the same
>Rand's is an idealized Mary Sue

It's the little things.

>R.E. Howard without his depression fueling him
>Only has his schizophrenia and extreme paranoia
Um, can I get his depression back and ask him to spend 5 hours of each session writing more Conan? Before he realizes one of them has a snake tattoo and kills all of us except his buddy lovecraft?

We are going to have one hell of a session 0.

I don't get it