"Why no LotR novels?" Topic

I was looking at the Black Library site the other day and noticed that although the other 2 core games have TONS of novels and even specialist games and long-dead games like Dark Future have novels one of GWs top-selling games has nothing, not even a short story anthology.

At the local book store they have the old movie novelizations (which are hard to find since they're grouped by the author's name and not with the other movie books like Star Trek and Star Wars) and what looks like a prequel book or two but next to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Battletech they have nothing.

Maybe the guy they hired to do the movie novelizations is too slow or something but I bet Dan Abnet or Bill King could crank out some pretty fast.

What do you guys say, should we write BL and tell them to get on it?

I'm trying to decide if this is a joke …

Don't forget – we need crossover titles, too!

hmm perhaps he doesn't realise that GW does not hold the primary rights or even the secondary rights to LotR.

"hmm perhaps he doesn't realise that GW does not hold the primary rights or even the secondary rights to LotR."

No? Then New Line should get them to write the novels cause putting out one or two every few years is really too little. I bet LotR novels would sell almost as well as Worlds of Warcraft books.

A crossover with Warhammer or Dragonlance would be great! But it might call too much attention to how much they stole from the original Dragonlance books.

Yeah, but think about it. You have Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (a novel by Dick). They make the movie Blade Runner from the novel. Then come out with a novel Blade Runner based on the movie, based on the original novel. And reissue DADOES with a photo from Blade Runner on the cover. So I can understand his confusion.

I already thought there was this book out called Lord of the Rings? The Hobbit? Silmarilion? That new one eve though he has been dead for a while…

;-p

GW should issue a "scenario" book in paperback format. Just stick a scenario at the end of each chapter …. ooops, at the end of each bit of fluff.

Maybe even a cartoon series with a scenario at the end of each episode.

Finally a movie, classified as fluff for a campaign game maybe.

I would like that, a movie of a book from a game from a movie of a book. The possibilities are endless.

Even without novels I'm impressed with the level of support GW had for this game during it's initial release. No other gaming company has managed to get a director like Peter Jackson to direct such a quality film in conjunction with a game system. I mean, there were those crappy D&D movies but I think the films they made about the LotR game blew those movies out of the water.

O.o
Ouch…this makes my head hurt!

LotR stole nothing from Dragonlance since they were written YEARS before. If anything Dragonlance stole from LotR.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by the English academic J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier fantasy book, The Hobbit, and soon developed into a much larger story. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, with much of it being created during World War II.[
Well they did release the trilogy with Newline photos on the cover.
From the official J.R.R. Tolkien website tolkien.hcp-uk.co.uk/faq2.aspx

I am writing a sequel to the Lord of the Rings. How can I get it published?
Copyright protection of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien preclude any sequel. His characters and locations are also protected by copyright.

Is wikipedia accurate? I mean they have stuff about this guy shooting JFK who didn't shoot JFK and how could the movie novelizations have pictures from the movie that was made in 2000? Maybe they started on the script in 1941 or whenever but the movies came out WAY after Dragonlance cause I read those when I was a kid.

well I read the LotR trilogy LONG before Drangonlance was written so I think wikipedia is a safe bet

o.O

Ouch…..my head again!!

Just what books are kids reading in school nowadays???

I REALLY hope this is a joke!

Guys, this is obviously a prank. Well played Kid Kyoto, but stop leading poor Jim53221 (unless you are also taking part, in which case well played as well) and TankerJake along. ;)

-Will

I read the dragonlance trilogy in 5th grade. I don't think I even saw the LotR books until after that.

I think Kid Kyoto might be right about this. There are a lot of things in the LotR books that seem to come straight out of Dragonlance.

Is it possible that Tolkien just wrote down a D&D adventure that he had and presented that to games workshop as something to produce a game for?

It would make sense. They make the game, finance the movie to promote it and then novelize the movies like everything else.

Besides, if the LotR books came out before the movies how come the actors from the movie are on the covers of the books?

Come on Pictors now you are making my head hurt.

CHECK THE COPYRIGHT DATES AND THE NUMBER OF PRINTINGS.

OMG I need another 6 pack after this.

It does make sense when you think about it, doesn't it.

I mean anybody can stick a few dates and claim any number of printings on the front of a novel. Probably done to add some gravitas to a badly written novel and get it to sell better.

And if Tolkien wrote LOTR 60 years ago how come he's still around writing new books like the hurin something or other that just came out.

I mean, like, it just makes sense doesn't it.

I understand that Tolkien invented hobbits because he only had a bunch of 15mm Minifigs (they were out in the 1940s, right?) and all his gaming buddies that used to meet at the Eagle and Child in oxford had 25mms – mostly Ral Parthas I think. Tom Meier could tell us about the figures he sculpted during WWII. Anyway, C.S. Lewis had elves – this was even before Warhammer 1st Edition, as you'll recall – and they really picked on Tolkien about his tiny figures. Napoleonic French, I think they were.

Incidentally, Bill King started writing 'Hobbit-Slayer', but after 400 words they were all dead. That was like a page and a quarter. Even GW didn't think they could get $8.95 USD a copy for that.

Wasn't April 1st like two weeks ago?

"…all his gaming buddies that used to meet at the Eagle and Child in oxford had 25mms – mostly Ral Parthas I think."

This was revolutionary at the time, because the club that met at the pub down the road--the Bird and Baby--were all historical fuddy-duddies who played with 30mm Staddens. Thus began the trend towards ever smaller and smaller figures known as "scale creep", or "bhadur-gaz" in the Black Speech.

Whenever anyone came into the Eagle and Child, the Inklings, who had the habit of all wearing red shirts, would ask, "What games do you play?" before the newcomer had a chance to order a pint. This made them very unpopular in the Oxford gaming community.

Allen

Gosh, everybody stole from D&D. You think JRR played Advanced D&D or Basic?

………………Doug

Tolkien had to be old skool 'Blue Book' D&D (though not Chainmail or the white books -- JRR isn't that original).

Now…please…STOP IT! Thanks. ;)

Jim53221 is kidding, of course.

Everyone knows that Wikipedia article is just advertising put there by Tolkein to sell books.

THANK YOU!!!

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.

Doesn't matter if this is real or not. If this is real, it's a sad commentary on the world we live in. Future leader of the free world here. Scary, isn't it.

BG

Kid Kyoto, if you don't believe Wikipedia, maybe you'll believe the book publishers Barnes and Noble:
link

I first read "The Lord of the Rings" when I was a student – about 35 years ago. The trilogy was first published as three separate volumes in 1954, 1955 and 1956. I think you'll find that predates D&D, Dragonlance and any other fantasy game.

It WAS first a D&D adventure. In fact the original DM of the Rings currently has a webpage where he is writing up the adventure.

link

You'll notice from these archives they changed the movie somewhat, to make it seem less like a D&D adventure.

Dan 055, please read what it says at that site:

"Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness."

D&D rose from LOTR. LOTR the novel came first (about 25 years first).

I don't know WHY im getting invovled in this but….
I found list a few days ago, and its not TOO bad from what i've read….
link

its "Just as Lord of the Rings told the story of the war that ended the Third Age, Isildur tells of the even greater conflict that brought to an end the Second Age."
or so he claims.
check it out….

LOL! I don't know who is worse, the original 'poster' – as in poster child for the terminally <fill in the blank'> – (spoof or not) or those responding to try and 'enlighten' the original 'poster' of his/her error. Just laugh (at the joke or the ignorance and let it go…)

Gracias,

Glenn

who actually read this thread which means I am no better then the rest of you…

Hee hee hee…

I can't remember from where, but I swear I just read, like 5 mins ago, that GW was spamming people with excerpts from their LOTR novels in some kind of marketing campaign.

Maybe the novels aren't selling well, which would, like, also explain why they aren't publishing so many new ones.

It's a shame really, the movies being so great and all, that the novels are just so obviously badly written. It's full of long winded descriptions and there is just too little action.

I read a couple of novels that kind of included the LotR universe in them.
But, they had, like, totally different characters in them, like this Tom Bombadil dude, and his chick Goldbottom, or something like that.

They were also full of fruity poetry and stuff.

So, the stories were kinda similar, but they also had different stuff and things.

You guys scare me.

Everyone knows that the whole genre (D&D, LOTR, Dragonlance, etc.) was based on a book called, "The Sword of Shannara", by Terry Brooks.

Class dismissed.

Yeah, they retro-actively changed the publication dates around the same time they removed the word gullible from the dictionary.

Just to prove a point: I can't find the word gullable in the dictionary anywhere! You think that people would have fixed that by now.

"Yeah, but think about it. You have Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (a novel by Dick). They make the movie Blade Runner from the novel. Then come out with a novel Blade Runner based on the movie, based on the original novel. And reissue DADOES with a photo from Blade Runner on the cover. So I can understand his confusion."

The real beauty of this tale is that there was a book called "Blade Runner", it was a pirate story. The film makers bought the rights, threw away the story and nailed the title onto DADOES to improve the audience figures.

"I can't find the word gullable in the dictionary anywhere! "

"GULLABLE" – I'm not surprised … :-)

As every man wise in the ways of science, Lord of the Rings was originally authored by Monty Python:

link

However, they found it too unrealisic and sold the rights to Tolkien (who ended up adding in all sorts of sillyness, mainly in Elven language), while themselves moving to make true historical documents like The Quest for the Holy Grail and Life of Brian.

Griefbringer

Look, the movies were actually based on the D&D adventure. The fact that they finally wrote some books for them is pretty good. I wonder if they were based on an actual game, since it is all so cliche?

The proof shows how the actual adventure fits so well with the movie:
link

(The guys in that original adventure don't seem to be having that much fun, so it is amazing that it has all become so popular.)

andy

I don't see the problem with retro-actively changing the dates.

After all, we know that the WORLD WAS BLACK AND WHITE before about 1948 (the exact date is disputed). Apparently they went back and colorized a few war films, some film shot at the World Expo, and half of the Wizard of Oz (which proves it was a sort of half hearted effort).

hmm perhaps he doesn't realise that GW does not hold the primary rights or even the secondary rights to LotR.

No? Then New Line should get them to write the novels cause putting out one or two every few years is really too little. I bet LotR novels would sell almost as well as Worlds of Warcraft books.

A crossover with Warhammer or Dragonlance would be great! But it might call too much attention to how much they stole from the original Dragonlance books.

Wikipedia was earlier mentioned.
And speaking of Wikipedia… SOMEONE should edit the articles to include the fact that The LotR movies are clearly heavily inspired by Dragonlance, D&D and Warhammer!!1

And speaking of Warhammer as an inspiration, how come the LotR movies didn't have orcs be the original green! I could see how Tolkien didn't mention it because it is so familiar, but the movies are visual. What were they thinking?

andy

I heard that Christine Feehan (a very popular author of "Carpathian"--vampire--romance novels) has just been green-lighted to begin an extensive range of Middle Earth-based romance fiction. This will now provide an authorized outlet for all the man-hobbit, man-elf, hobbit-orc, elf-orc love stories so beloved of Tolkien fans.

First in the series: "Steward's Desire", in which Legolas, having dumped Gimli in the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, travels to Gondor to pursue an extended seduction of Faramir amidst the rebuilding of the city under the rule of King Elessar.

Allen

Aurestetes is almost right. The title for the movie "Blade Runner" came from the Andre Norton science fiction novel, which is not about pirates but about smugglers of underground medical supplies. The movie producers got permission or paid Ms. Norton a licensing fee (or some such) to use the title for the movie version of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

And I'm not making this up.

Hey it's ok guys I just convinced Alan Dean Foster to do the the novelisation of the films.

Jeremey
minigerm.com

Well, Arthur C. Clarke wrote the short story "The Sentinel", which got made into the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey", which got turned into a novelization by Arthur C. Clarke, which prompted him to write a sequel, which got turned into a movie which featured a bit part by an old gent named Arthur C…

Christine Feehan, bah.

If I want hobbit-orc love stories I'll read Mary Gentle.

Funny you should bring up Andre Norton, as I'd heard that this whole D&D thing was based on a book she wrote 30-odd years ago. "Quag Keep" or something…