Forum: Author Hangout

Erotica? Leisure Suit Larry.

Oh, please set it in the original Al Lowe settings. I, II, III, and V. Maybe even explain how Polyester Patti became Passionate Patti.

*laugh*

I should have been clear that "clean" stories are not what I am looking for.

I have libraries of clean stories. I want dirty, nasty stories.

That's why I am here.

I should have been clear that "clean" stories are not what I am looking for.

I have libraries of clean stories. I want dirty, nasty stories.

That's why I am here.

But the thing is, most of us do not really care much for using the works of others. We would rather create our own settings and characters.

We may take some inspiration from other works. I admit I lifted bits of DC and Marvel when I created the setting for Bohica, but it is entirely my own universe. I think you will find few authors really have much interest in copying the work of others.

The only writer I can think of that even did much in this area is Anne Douglas. She has a large library of stories, and while she did write a few in the slash genre, the vast majority of her works are completely original works.

If you want stories like that, the best I guess I could suggest is that you write them. However, your audience will likely be limited, as only fans would be likely to ever read them.

Thank you.

I hoped someone would recognize it.

Oh, I even played "Soft Porn Adventure" on the Apple II before graphics were added to it to make LSL. And had the "Laffer Utilities" back in the day.

Video game scriptwriters were the poor relation of novelists, authors who couldn't write well enough to get their own work published in novel format.

Hmmm, not always.

The "world" Fallout resides in was actually created by 2 well known Sci-Fi Authors. Ken St. Andre and Michael Stackpole (well known for Star Wars books). Most games early on were largely written by programmers, and had almost no story really (beat the dungeon, kill the bad guy). Those two at Interplay really ushered in the first wave of games that took a more "modern" approach to how games would be addressed in the future.

If anything, modern games come more from the world of tabletop RPGs than literature. Where a game is a series of adventures strung together to create a campaign.

I could totally see a fallout erotic fanfiction. There are some sidekicks that are definitely sexy/interesting.

I could totally see a fallout erotic fanfiction. There are some sidekicks that are definitely sexy/interesting.

We already have a long one that just finished, as told from a POV female sole survivor.

But if you like such, feel free to write some.

long one that just finished

Wonder who wrote that? LOL

Wonder who wrote that? LOL

I have no idea, it was so silly I did not bother to remember.

Just another of the many hack writers in here more than likely.

*grin*

Ken St. Andre and Michael Stackpole (well known for Star Wars books).

Books based on a screenplay that was changed several times on the whim of the director. That's not something to enhance an author's CV!

We've discussed here films being better or worse than the books they were based on. What about the other way around? Are there are books better than the film screenplay they are based on?

AJ

Nevertheless, one way to further monetise popular films is to spawn books based on the universe, even though they're not re-telling the original film. Star Wars sppears to be one example. There are many Dr Who books, although IIRC they're more based on the TV script version of the universe than any of the films.

AJ

And many Dr Who scripts are written by decent authors.

'were', not 'are'.

Nowadays they're just a BBC checklist of woke cliches, hence the nickname Dr Woke.

AJ

Dr Who ended in the 80s, IIRC.

That's the best way to remember it. No memory of Jodie Whittaker, the current incumbent.

AJ

Nowadays they're just a BBC checklist of woke cliches, hence the nickname Dr Woke.

and bk69:

Dr Who ended in the 80s, IIRC.

Can't agree with you either of you. There have been some outstanding episodes in the last ten - fifteen years of Dr Who. Check out "Blink", or "The Girl in the Fire-Place" or "The Empty Child"or "Listen". There are a whole bunch of others as well.
I admit that between there gems, there has been some dross as well but some episodes that I don't enjoy, other people find highly entertaining so I'd encourage you not to dismiss the recent Dr Who so readily.

In the last couple of seasons, Jodie Whitaker has been doing a fine job of carrying the torch. I haven't caught up with the latest offering yet, but my friends tell me the episode about the Judoon this year was excellent.

Despite the tokenism of making Dr Who a woman, I was hoping for good things since Jodie Whittaker is supposed to be a proper actress. But she can't do fear! The whole point of the series is to get the audience cowering behind the sofa thinking the good guys are doomed, but her character is like: "Okay, we're all going to die. Time for me to spout a long, political correctness monologue while displaying my bog-standard surprised/excited expression".

Sorry, I can't get into the new series at all, never could.

Part of the charm of the original Doctors was how you could tell they were "alien", and never quite knew what they would do next.

The best by far was to me the 4th Incarnation. Tom Baker could look and act absolutely silly. But then he could also be brooding, depressed, even outright homicidal and maniacal. That to me was what made it great, you never quite knew what he would do next. When faced with a crisis would he laugh it off and try to make a joke out of it (after offering people a jelly baby), or decide to hell with losses - take it out.

I tried to get into the newer versions, but all the improvements on special effects seems to have left the actual story behind. And I saw the new Doctors as so bland, I really did not care anymore.

Books based on a screenplay that was changed several times on the whim of the director. That's not something to enhance an author's CV!

Most books do not make good movies as written. It is just the nature of the beast.

An average 2 hour movie generally has a script that is only around 100 pages. And that is single sided, widely spaced and indented. Unless the original story is the size of a short story, massive editing simply has to be done. There is just no way to avoid it.

Even when turned into a 4 part 6 hour miniseries, when The Stand was adapted huge segments and a lot of characters had to be cut or combined.

And other times, the original story was never intended to be used. Starship Troopers is a perfect example. Based on an original work, the rights were simply bought because they were afraid of getting sued. Once bought they applied the well known name, but used almost none of the actual book itself.

This is actually common in Hollywood. In the 1970's, Warner Brothers bought the movie rights to a disaster movie from a book called "The Tower". And at about the same time, Fox bought the rights to a book called "The Glass Inferno".

The studios realized they would be competing with each other, and decided to combine their efforts. So they combined the two stories, and made "The Towering Inferno". Not really based on either story, but lifting bits and pieces from both into a largely original story.

books are seldom about choice.

A video game with choices is what makes it interesting.

Imagine a Mass Effect story, where the Commander has to decide which of his crew he wants to fuck. If he fucks them both they get jealous.

A book only shows you one path, the game lets you make those choices.

I want a story that asks "What if" and uses familiar settings and characters.

Imagine a Mass Effect story, where the Commander has to decide which of his crew he wants to fuck. If he fucks them both they get jealous.

It doesn't matter who Shepherd ends up getting in bed. In the end, he (or she) destroys all of the life they were supposed to save, condemning Garrus and Tali to die, since they can't process the food on the 'garden' planet.

That's the other reason why I played a modded version of Skyrim when I wrote that that story, and why I modified the storyline in FO4, because I didn't like the three endings that Bethesda gave us.

In case you haven't figured it out from what Mushroom and I have been saying, there are two books like what you're talking about already ON this site. I know - I wrote them.

I modified the storyline in FO4, because I didn't like the three endings that Bethesda gave us.

Oh, and there are more than "3 endings". In fact, they programmed in 5 endings, and I have created a sixth and seventh endingsimply through game play and not using mods.

Institute, BoS, Railroad, Minutemen, those are the "core 4" everybody knows. Then there is the hard to get "Kill Institute and keep all other factions friendly" ending, which takes a lot of work to do right. And I created at least 2 others.

When you understand game mechanics and game theory, you can really mess with a game. I still regularly play FO4, and have become a master at "playing the system". For example, I never meet Preston until after I am finished taking over every unpopulated settlement over with Nuka-World Raiders. Only at that point (and have all perks from the Raiders) do I bother to meet him, then drag him with me as I "liberate" each one.

Want to see how much Bethesda considered player options? Try going around and finishing a game quest before it is given to you. In most cases, you actually can. And when you go to the quest giver with it already done they even have unique dialog.

There are very few you can not do before they are given to you. If you think you have to follow their story, you do not understand how games work.

Oh, and there are more than "3 endings". In fact, they programmed in 5 endings, and I have created a sixth and seventh endingsimply through game play and not using mods.

You are in a maze of twisted passages, all alike.

I remember those days.

It's amusing if you completely ignore Danse until you've already had the Prydwen show up.

My main complaint (and where I meant three endings) was that you had to kill one faction, sometimes two. If you choose the Institute lives, you have to kill Railroad and Brotherhood. Even if you go Minuteman, and can keep Railroad and Brotherhood alive, you have to kill Institute.

Even with the DLC, I wasn't that thrilled with choices. Great, you take over Nuka-World, then take over the Commonwealth ... but you STILL have to take out one of the gangs to get the power back, and once you start taking out the gangs with the biggest asshole in the Commonwealth (yes, I'm talking about Preston Garvey), you HAVE to kill all of them.

Not that I've got an issue killing Raiders. The Pack almost have redeeming qualities, so sometimes I regret killing Mason. Nisha and the Disciples? Never have had any issues killing those psychopaths. I think that's why I kept the Operators alive in my book. They're really no worse than Skinny Malone.

They're really no worse than Skinny Malone.

Have you run into him and his girl in the Commonwealth?

If not, keep your eye out for them. If you talk her into going home, she can be a random encounter. The same with Skinny, after she leaves if you run into him he will tell you how things went to hell and the gang kicked him out of the vault.

Once I even found the body of Darla near a deathclaw.

books are seldom about choice.

Not anywhere near always.

In the 1980's, a huge thing was the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. There were a great many released, in which there was not one ending, but potentially dozens. Some even advanced into outright "games", like the Lone Wolf series.

Now a dead genre, in short after reading a page or two you were given a choice. Choice A you go to this page, Choice B you go to that page. Not unlike if such a book was made for Fallout IV.

Choose Institute, go to Page 13. Choose Railroad, go to Page 32. Choose Brotherhood of Steel, go to Page 35. Choose The Minutemen, go to page 42.

Such "Branching stories" date back to the 1970's. IF (Interactive Fiction) is a close modern replica. First through text adventures, now from mobile games like Episode.

This genre was actually a foretelling of what computer games would develop into. In fact, the "Original Fallout" was very much like that. Wasteland (1988) was so limited in the space available for computers of the time, that the text was actually in a booklet. Instead of reading on the screen, you would be instructed to open the book to a specific paragraph to read what happens.

As I already said, almost everything new is actually old. I am old enough to remember the most advanced computer game had such words as XYZZY and PLUGH, and to have seen this evolution. And actually laugh when kids the age of my sons all think their generation invented all of it.

And then it was fleshed out with touches from various genre fiction (there was a long-running series of books revolving around a traveling group of (mercs?) wandering a post nuclear-war 'muricam occasionally stumbling upon really advance military tech. Pretty sure some of that found a way in...

There was actually many early post-apocalyptic computer games based on that very concept. I spent many hours playing Roadwar 2000 (1986), in which you create a group and set out across the country trying to cure a plague that is ravaging a post-apocalyptic America.

But pop-culture nods and winks were common even back then. In Roadwar one of the best places to get to was Mountainview, California. That was the home of SSI Games, and visiting them there got you some awesome things. And I am sure there are others, but it has been over 30 years since I played that game.

But in the 1980's, post-apocalyptic was everywhere. From movies and music to games.

But the game designers behind Fallout actually named Wasteland as the primary inspiration.

It really was Wasteland, just with enough changes to keep from being sued.

They created the game, and released it through EA. At that time EA was not a creator, only a game publisher. But they liked to keep the rights, and would farm out sequels to other companies (like Wasteland II), or just sit on the IP forever. So when they decided to revisit it, they made some tweaks but enough of the original remained so we knew what it was.

Desert Rangers and Guardians of the Old Order were kind of mashed around into NCR - Desert Rangers and Brotherhood of Steel. Changed around just enough so EA could not sue them for basically stealing their own idea back.

Both Wasteland and Fallout were Interplay games, but in the 9 years between games much of the original team had left, and the game moved from Tunnels & Trolls gameplay system to that of a modified GURPS system.