Where do we go from here?

[ffutures]

Okay, I've pretty much finished Forgotten Futures IX, apart from scanning and OCR of some material that'll be on the CD I launch in a month or so. Which means that I have to start thinking about FF X...

All of the ideas I'd been considering have run into Euro copyright problems, lack of useful sources, etc. For example there's a book I've heard of that I'd REALLY like to adapt as a game but only one copy is known to exist, it last changed hands for £15,000, and I doubt very much that the owner would let me scan it. Plus if I ever get round to reading it, it might turn out to be crap....

More seriously, a lot of the more distinguished authors of the late Victorian and Edwardian era turn out to have died after 1934, which means that they are still in copyright in Britain and Europe. George Griffith and Conan Doyle are exceptions, but I've already written the Professor Challenger RPG, Sherlock Holmes simply won't work as an RPG, and I've already used the best Griffith stuff - his fantasy isn't nearly as good and none of his other books seem to be available.

So I'm thinking of various possibilities, most notably something based on William Hope Hodgson - I've already done Carnacki the Ghost Finder in FF IV, but there's also The Night Land, The House on the Borderland, The Ghost Pirates, and various short stories. The problem is that I'm not a great fan of The Night Land, which looks to be the most suitable as an RPG setting; I may find I like it more if I read it again, but it doesn't seem likely. Ghost Pirates could tie in with the time travel part of FF IX quite well (so could House on the Borderland), but the model of time in these stories doesn't quite fit with what I said in FF IX. Plus I'm not sure I want to write more time travel again right now.

Kipling's still a year or so in copyright - I published FF I when he was out of copyright before the law changed, and appear to be legally OK provided I don't change anything - so that rules out The Jungle Book or any of his military or engineering-driven fiction. I'd really prefer to do something with a stronger scientific romance / SF feel next time anyway. Wells is in copyright until 2016, and most of the good Verne translations are still in copyright by the translators.

So... any suggestions?

Comments

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

I assume you've already used Mary Shelley?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Let me put it this way - her work is a fairly important source for one of the game worlds in the current Forgotten Futures release. I've also included an 1826 dramatisation of Frankenstein (http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff6/frank.htm) in one of the previous releases. Not the novel itself, but it's readily available on line.

[armb.livejournal.com]

Do your own good Verne translation?
(Holmes I think I agree with you won't work, either it's merely an RPG set in London at the time Holmes is working, or players will turn to Holmes whenever things appear tricky. But maybe there were plenty of times when Lestrade (or whoever) was told "I'm sorry, he's busy on another case, you'll just have to continue with this yourself no matter how puzzled you are are now". Watson obviously wouldn't keep a record of those cases, or ones where the police managed to solve the crime with a pale imitation of Holmes' methods without asking for help.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I have no talent whatever for languages, I took French for 5 years at school and can't understand more than the occasional word if I hear it.

Re. Holmes, I've used the "sorry, he's busy" approach in several adventures.

[sirernest.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, but how doe the early Verne translations compare?

otherwise, maybe one piece from here? http://www.jasonbeale.com/SF19c.html

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The trouble with the early Verne translations is that they were usually heavily cut for the "sensibilities" of a British audience.

There are a couple of pieces that could be interesting on that page, but at least three were probably "borrowed" from my site, while another is a link to it, and some of the later stuff (and not just Wells) is still in European copyright.

However, I think I have the glimmerings of an idea. Need to check on availability of books, but I think there's a good possibility for an adult fantasy campaign based on an author who has just gone out of European copyright.

Bulwer-Lytton?

[badger.livejournal.com]

Have you already ruled out, possibly at some point in the past, Bulwer-Lytton's work such as _Zanoni_ or _The Coming Race_? Checking, I see he died in 1873.

I'm sure you're familiar with who he was, but a quick Google search turned up this page as a short bio/bibliography:

http://freepages.pavilion.net/users/tartarus/lytton.html

Re: Bulwer-Lytton?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The Coming Race is on the main Forgotten Futures CD-ROM. I used it as a secondary source for FF VII. Can't say I enjoyed it enough to want to use it as a primary source, unfortunately.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

Have you done anything with H. Rider Haggard? (King Solomon's Mines, etc.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

You're not the first to suggest it - She and its sequels and associated books would be favourite, the trouble is that there are so many continuing characters that knowing which books to include and exclude would be difficult. But I really would prefer to do something more related to SF first.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

May I ask what that ultra-rare book was?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The Struggle for Empire: A Story of the Year 2236 (1900) by Robert William Cole. Here's what the SF encyclopaedia entry says about it:

...took the future-WAR novel to its logical conclusion. In a UTOPIAN future the Anglo-Saxon Federation has expanded into other solar systems when interstellar warfare breaks out between Earth and a superior race from the Sirius system. The descriptions of space battles, and of an Earth surrounded by a barrage of space torpedoes and mines while scientists struggle to perfect the ultimate weapon, make it the equal of many of the SPACE-OPERA stories of the 1930s. RWC's later novels are anticlimactic. His Other Self (1906) is a mildly humorous tale of a physical alter ego; The Death Trap (1907) is a mundane though harsh account of an invasion of the UK; The Artificial Girl (1908) is not of genre interest. [JC]

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

Thanks - sounds interesting, and pretty early for proper space-opera. Curious that something like that should become so very scarce, especially when it appears catalogued in several places as if it were at least slightly available; but then, strange things do seem to happen in rare-book land. If it weren't *quite* so scarce I'd think it worth a hunt...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's possible that the 15K price was an aberration (or even a misprint), or that there's been a reprint - I've never heard of it but that doesn't prove much.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

I know a little about the rare-books world (I price expensive collectables for a charity bookshop, and know a few people through that; I've also done a bit of requests-hunting for people). When I have a bit more time I'll have a look. Just in case.

(If there's been a reprint, I can find no info on it on a cursory search.)

[sirernest.livejournal.com]

If all else fails Jack London maybe?

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Essays/scifi.html
looks a bit unwieldy to me but it may be possible to pull it off.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Not a huge fan - it's a possiblity, but it wouldn't be my first choice.