- Warcraft. I fell in love with Warcraft 3, and World of Warcraft just completely hit all the pleasure centers of my brain. I love the races involved. I love the high fantasy with smidges of sci-fi thrown in. The threats and villains are varied and very intimidating. The factions are well developed enough to not portray either side as completely villainous or virtuous. I want to play 4e D&D in this universe.
- Marvel Comics. When I was a kid, the best part about reading Marvel comics was that they all worked together to create one big narrative tapestry. The stuff that happened in Amazing Spider-Man affected what happened in the X-Men. All of the characters existed in the same universe, and each character had a coherent role to play in that universe. The Avengers were a completely different team than the X-Men. Wolverine was a very different hero than Doctor Strange. But the threats shadowed all of them. The Marvel Universe is like our world except that nearly anything can happen. Fantasy, sci-fi, swashbuckling, crime noir…All of it just seems to work in the Marvel Universe.
- The Buffyverse. I was a latecomer to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I had seen the horrible movie version at some point, and that caused me to completely dismiss the TV series. A CGS podcast episode convinced me to give the series a shot, and I was hooked after the first episode. I love vampires and horror, and all of the characters in the Buffyverse seem to be able to deliver wry one-liners that even Spider-Man would be proud of.
- Star Trek. I won’t tell you how many paperback Star Trek novels I used to have in my house, but I will tell you that I filled an entire bookcase with them. Star Trek offered a science fiction universe that wasn’t distopian or constantly in a state of war. Star Trek offered us conflict but still had an earnest progressive hope in humanity. I would join Starfleet tomorrow if I could.
- Forgotten Realms. My fascination with the Forgotten Realms is almost completely the fault of Baldur’s Gate. That RPG melted my face completely off, and it led to me playing D&D as a direct result. The Forgotten Realms are high fantasy at its very peak. Every hero and every villain is so armed to the teeth with magic, skill, and divine power that nearly any conflict seems destined to threaten the entire world if left unchecked. That is the perfect environment for both novels and tabletop roleplaying.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 16:01:40 and is filed under Top 5.
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