I noticed that in the threads about reading and TV that my tastes are pretty much at odds with the vast majority of the users here.

We've got a huge spectrum of roleplayers here, from me to the Pindot. To what extent do your tastes in books, films etc reflect your taste in RPGs?

I'm mostly a Sci-fi / Fantasy and Action guy for entertainment genres, but my RPG and Movie/TV tastes are reversed. Most of my games involve a fantasy element of some sort. Even the future games almost always have magic orpsionics in them. But on TV I don't watch anything with magic in it apart from Avatar and The Dresden Files.

For books I'm as likely to be reading (listening too really) some sort of self-help book as I am something fictional.

Not particularly, but then I think we have more in common in reading tastes than many others here.  I have Granta on my shelves too for a start.

As I've said elsewhere, I think some stories work better in some media than others, and the kind of stories I particularly like in literature, tv and movies adapt poorly by and large to the rpg form.

Quote from: BalbinusAs I've said elsewhere, I think some stories work better in some media than others, and the kind of stories I particularly like in literature, tv and movies adapt poorly by and large to the rpg form.

There's a massive side-track opening up here, but I think it goes better in your thread.

Granta's got some good shit, hasn't it?

As fiction goes, I prefer reading Sci-Fi over Fantasy but prefer the latter for gaming.  When I was into comic books, superhero gaming was by far the number one game for me.

I'm not a big movie guy but I generally go for "big" movies such as Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, that sort of thing.  I realize they aren't a genre in and of themselves but they do translate easily to an RPG medium.  The only genre of movies I'll generally follow are crime movies ranging from The Godfather to Sin City -- I haven't had much luck gaming with those ideas.

Mine are not the same to some point.  I really like super hero type shows (Heroes, the Spider-Man movies, etc) but have never really been a fan of any super hero game out there.

Cyberpunk type stuff is the crossover point.  I've read a ton of cyberpunk stuff, track down movies and even do a little writing.  It remains as one of my favorite RPG genre's also.

Horror used to be a crossover also.  But here over the last four years or so I've drifted away from most horror movies and television.

My taste in tv, movies, and comic books. Generally coralates with me roleplaying. My favorites are sci-fi, action, and crime drama. My last couple games I've run have been a zombie actioner, and a crime drama.

Quote from: droogGranta's got some good shit, hasn't it?

It sure does.

QuoteOriginally Posted by droog
To what extent do your tastes in books, films etc reflect your taste in RPGs?

Difficult to say. In my case there is a continuos interchange of ideas between books, films etc and rpgs. But I wouldn't really say that my taste in other media correlate with my taste in RPGs.

Regards,
David R

Pretty much lockstep. Napoleonic Naval? Check. SF? Check. Planes? Check. Military action? Check. Espionacge throllers? Check.

-clash

I really like the movie Office Space, and the TV show The Office.

While the premise is funny, I wouldn't actually enjoy an RPG based on working in an office -- even a quirky one.

I certainly wouldn't say that my tastes are anti-geek, but they certainly reject most of the stuff that is popular in geek circles by virtue of sheer geek appeal; in particular I abhor pretty well all fantasy/scifi novel series (ie. Star wars, star trek, forgotten realms novels etc), as most of them are junk.  There's also a ton of sci-fi tv shows that I have zero interest in (battlestar galactica, firefly, farscape, andromeda, etc etc; I never gave a shit about any of these; and I always thought  B5 was unbelievably over-rated; and I gave up on Star Trek after DS9).

But I do like comics (DC comics in particular, these days).

RPGPundit

In fantasy, I am very exacting - these days, I downright refuse to read anything that isn't sword&sorcery, weird fantasy or mystical adventure (as in Talbot Mundy, a recent discovery of mine - very highly recommended!). I wasted too much time on trash as a teenager, and no longer want to do it.

With a sole exception (Conan I.), I have never enjoyed a fantasy movie. All of them go for the cheesy high fantasy story with moronic comic relief sidekicks and the eye-rollingly badly conceived and acted bad guy. No thanks.

TV series are right out, esp. since I don't even own a TV. Anime, not really my thing. The sole exception is Revolutionary Girl Utena, which I was very surprised to actually like a lot - for its surreal and elegant art, the excellent music, and because a lot of it was about people who fail because of their huge character flaws (that's a theme I really appreciate in novels, too).

All in all: my tastes in geek media paralell my tastes in gaming in that with a few exceptions, I only read/watch stuff compatible with my sword&sorcery - traditional D&D interests. Of course, I also read things completely outside the geekosphere, but that has very little to do with this thread.

I don´t dig Fantasy novels or movies, but I like D&D as a game. I read fantasy only for archeological reasons, Howard, Leiber, Vance, Moorcock etc. I´m not willing to read any fat fantasy, so mostly short stories or excerpts.

In the same vein, I read a lot of SciFi for my traveller research: Aasimov etc. or for a Cthulhu game I read some Lovecraft.

I tried to a battletech novel, but couldn´t force me to finish it, although I´m a big sucker for battletech/ mechwarrior

For my own pleasure reading I prefer German literature, or history books; Nearly next to no contemporary popular literature.

I watch barely any TV nowadays.

Comics have never interested me,though  I´ve read Watchmen.

I like to research my games so at any given time I'm likely to be playing and reading the same subject. I like real world history and always look forward to a game in an unfamiliar territory.

For whatever reason, I'm missing the 'collector gene' so I'm out of the loop when it comes to following the backstory of periodicals like comics, Warhammer and tv series. I'll happily read a digest or lurk on a forum but actualy watching that much TV is a turn off. I've enjoyed reading borrowed comics but I don't care to go to the work and expense of procuring my own.

I enjoyed reading up on early medeval numerology, astrology and especialy Alchemy over the past year although I'm not sure how much of it applies since Ars Magica only has a superficial relationship to historical magic.

I like the original Star Wars movies and enjoyed WEG back in the day. I can't stand the new stuff though.

I tivo Doctor Who weekly (my public TV station is on the 4th Doctor right now), but that's mostly out of nostalgia. When Justice League Unlimited was playing I would never miss an episode, but it's over now, sadly.

Mostly I just have my Nintendo Wii playing. When I do "watch TV", it's usually something on Turner Classics. I managed to Tivo all of the (Harryhausen) Sinbad movies recently, but I have a regular Tivo search of Montgomery Clift, Edward G. Robinson, and a couple of other favorites running that alerts me of anything I might want to watch. (At this point I've seen every Monte Clift movie except some of the ones that he did later in his career).

My favorite movie is George Pal's 'Seven Faces of Dr. Lao' with Tony Randall, which is fantastic but not swords and sorcery fantasy.

I also like some black and white horror and sci-fi classics.