Fiction Elite Encounters: The Elite Dangerous RPG

Selezen

Selezen
Hi everyone.

Surprise! Another update!

Click here to read the post.

This update is a bit of an off-the-cuff one prompted by my listening to the LaveCon podcast the excellent Lave Radio guys released this weekend.

It's my first "speculative" update on the Elite phenomenon as opposed to something Kickstarter related.

Enjoy

Dave
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
I have to say I'm really not so hopeful for book sales and reaching beyond the core fanbase. I don't think even a sizeable number of Elite fans will buy them. It's a very niche thing to go for. Compare for instance with the official fiction tying in with Dragon Age and other games - very few of the main fanbase buy them and almost no one from outside the fanbase buys them.

Your wife is a bit of an outlier stats-wise, as she's been subjected to your fandom for years and was put in the very rare position of listening to an excellent reading from the book. Most people will simply never hear of the book, full stop. Books tied to video games just don't sell.

The RPG might fair a bit better at outreach than some of the other books, mind, since there is a more active and knowledgeable RPG community around.
 
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Susimetsa

Susimetsa
I must say that I have to agree with Darren. The books are a niche product at best. I enjoyed Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and never bought any official novels. I enjoyed the first Dragon Age game and never even knew that there were novels about it...⁽*

In the case of Elite, the situation might be a bit different, since Elite is not a game to be played by traditional RPG gamers (although it includes many of us, obviously). I think that the players who come to play it as a "shooter" will be even less likely to be interested in reading.

That should not stop us from writing the best tie-in books that the world has ever seen, however... ;)

*) The thing is that while the game worlds worked fine as game worlds, my interest in them was never really encompassing (I like low fantasy, if even that, and tend to ignore the play with big spells, while the novels usually (I assume) like to focus on the high fantasy aspects of the games).
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
Susimetsa said:
That should not stop us from writing the best tie-in books that the world has ever seen, however... ;)
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Indeed! The whole fiction thing for Dangerous has me personally excited. It's essentially premium fanfiction with an intense dedication to accuracy and detail, and hopefully some good self-policing to ensure the highest quality writing.
 

Selezen

Selezen
Interesting opinions there! I think Darren just made himself a few enemies with his "premium fanfiction" comment though.

The impression I get from the various conversations about the fiction and the marketing thereof is that Frontier are keep to make Elite a multimedia experience now, and the fact that Gollancz has bought three licenses coupled with other publishing interest could point to the fiction element being taken quite seriously, not just as glorified fan-fiction.

Obviously Gollancz are serious about it, and Drew's publishers are keen to follow it up. I would think that Kate, as a serious published writer, would be hoping that the novels will be taken a bit more seriously than is the thought here.

For my part in the "wider appeal", the RPG is a labour of love that I have always wanted to write, and if it takes off that will be more of a validation of Elite's appeal to a wider audience than it would be of my skill as a writer (self-deprecation is my middle name). However, that's not to say that I think the marketing machine will do all the work for the authors (or me). If the product is to have longevity then obviously the quality has to be up to scratch too. :)
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
Selezen said:
Interesting opinions there! I think Darren just made himself a few enemies with his "premium fanfiction" comment though.
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Hah, perhaps I should clarify... Fanfiction can be a great thing. It is written with a passion and dedication to accuracy and detail that many "official" works badly lack. Too often official novels steer away from the source and play loose with the details. The Dragon Age books have come under fire for this - they hired some professional authors who didn't know the universe and the stories ended up horribly unrepresentative of the games and filled with contradictions and inaccuracies.

Of course the problem with fanfiction is that the actual writing tends to be terrible. No structure, little awareness of grammar, too, many, commas, hideous dialogue and some outright painful uses of language. From what I've seen we have mostly a pretty good bunch doing the writing here. So combine the passion of fanfiction with the quality of some good writers and you have the ultimate combo! Well, hopefully :)

But yeah, I do understand the dislike for the term "fanfiction". It has all sorts of negative connotations, even disregarding the erotic stuff... I once had my in-game writings for Tales of Maj'Eyal described as "fanfiction" - I was not pleased! Was funny when the term got raised at LaveCon though - Allen's eyes lit up in death stares :D
 

Thargoid

Thargoid
All good points, but there is a lot of tie in fiction that sells well.

Karen Traviss is a good example. She almost exclusively does tie in stuff. But she made a name for herself with an original series then does star wars (novels of clone war computer games, then later original tie in star wars stuff) and Gears of War.

I dunno, i guess a big name combined with a popular franchise is a good combination. We just have to make sure we all pump each other up to everyone that can hear, so when people talk about the water cooler, the conversation is like this:

Person 1: "I'm reading that elite short story anthology."
Person 2: "Yeah? That Has Darren Grey in it, doesn't it?"
Person 1: "Yeah, his story kicks ****."
Person 2: "I am so borrowing that book when you are done."
Person 1: "umm, its an ebook."
Person 2: "Dude, its the 21st Century. You can loan ebooks."
Person 1: "radical."
Person 2: "and people don't say radical in the 21st century."
Person 1: "noted."
 

Selezen

Selezen
Darren Grey said:
Was funny when the term got raised at LaveCon though - Allen's eyes lit up in death stares :D
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Yes - Allen is a man of deep emotion. And a slightly sociopathic edge... ;)

<joking, Allen, put the axe down>

There is a term for what we're doing though, and that's Fanon: fan fiction that will become canon. I suppose that the majority of the writers started out as fans (and still are) and most aren't published authors.

So it's fan fiction to an extent, but we get promotion to fanon due to the involvement with Frontier, and that helps us be more proficient. And of course we're officially licensed. But we're still basically fans who have been lucky enough to have been given an almost unique opportunity.

@Thargoid: I like Karen Traviss as an example there - several popular authors actually made their names with Star Trek or Star Wars books then made it in the mainstream market as well.

I think that's the other side of the coin too - if these books do get recognised in a wider genre outside Elite then each of the authors will have the chance to branch out into other fields too. Drew, Kate, Allen and Michael already have additional audiences, but the fans who have come into this fresh might find that they have an opportunity to build on what Frontier have very generously Kickstarted...
 

Steph

Steph
Hi,

Many moons ago (almost a lifetime ago it seems!) I offered my limited services as a free proof-reader. If it is still something that you feel might help then please get in touch and we'll sort something out. :)
 

Styggron

S
Hi Selezen,

Just wondering how the progress is going, I had a look and we have had no update in 3 months so I just thought I'd humbly ask. :)
 

JeffRyan

JeffRyan
Styggron said:
Hi Selezen,

Just wondering how the progress is going, I had a look and we have had no update in 3 months so I just thought I'd humbly ask. :)
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Dave is having some RL stuff happening. Last I spoke to him a few weeks ago things were delayed but still proceeding.
 

Commander Mick

Commander Mick
I actually managed to back this one on it's official site as well, back in Mid-August and a couple more times late last month.

I still can't find my name on the Wall-Of-Fame.

:(
 

Cmdr Andy B

Cmdr Andy B
Commander Mick said:
I actually managed to back this one on it's official site as well, back in Mid-August and a couple more times late last month.

I still can't find my name on the Wall-Of-Fame.

:(
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if you check the last update (link in my post above) you'll see that dave has had some real life issues to deal with over the last few months and so may of fallen behind updating the site, I'm sure he'll have it all sorted out well before release ;)
 

Selezen

Selezen
Evening all.

Firstly, apologies for the long absence from the forum. The updates on the EliteRPG site should explain why.

@Commander Mick: I'll be updating the site with your name soon, sorry.

So you know, progress has been badly affected, but I'm trying to focus on the writing now and get the Alpha out. I'm in the middle of writing up the sample adventure for the alpha testers to try out at the moment and needed to access the forum for the first time in a few months to answer a few questions (hence here I am!).

Can I promise an April release? I really don't know. Will it be released? HELL YEAH!!! Even if all I can do for April is release a quick-start guide to the game there WILL be SOMETHING out there until I get the full multimedia glory of the rulebook finished. Can't STOP typing words in ALL CAPS!

:)
 
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Aewarin Jameson

Aewarin Jameson
Selezen said:
Re-opened?

Would this do?

:)
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It would .. just need to edit that page and change some of the closing dates.

For example: Playtester is still listed, not amongst the "no longer available" items but says available until 31st Oct.

Tempted my good man to drop you some funds .. I used to enjoy RPGs when I was younger and have some friends who are still heavily into the scene who might appreciate a new game.
 
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