For this, and any other Wacky Writing Ideas, I happily release them into the wild for anyone to use. If you like the idea and want to write it up, do so with my blessing! If you want to change it or use it for something else, have at it! If you really want to do something nice for me, feel free to acknowledge me and let me know if you’ve used one of them (I’ll link to your creative work from my blog). If you don’t feel like it, no worries. If there’re a few comments with enthusiasm for an idea, I may write it up, so please comment if it sounds like something you’d like to read.
J. Zachary Pike’s Orkonomics book is a fantasy satire about a world where heroes are mercenary members of a guild of adventurers and the fantasy world’s economy is based on loot from quests. Investors will sponsor a quest, then get a share of the loot once it’s completed. It deconstructs a number of fantasy tropes and follows a group of down-and-out heroes on a quest that’s beyond their abilities.
HBO’s Crashing TV series is a fictionalized account of Pete Holmes’ entry into the world of stand-up comedy. With comedians, such as Bill Burr, Sarah Silverman, and John Mulaney, playing fictionalized versions of themselves, Pete’s character breaks every rule and gets into heated conflict in every episode.
In the combination of these two stories, the protagonist would be a recently arrived adventurer in the big city. Over the course of the narrative, he would have his misconceptions about adventurers tested and corrected (e.g. they’re mercenaries, not heroes), make friendships with other adventurers, develop his class skills, and establish himself as part of the guild.
The general world-building would be high-fantasy with a modern cynicism to it. There would be a number of RPG-style fantasy tropes inverted. For example, instead of a long-shot quest against impossible odds to save the world, adventurers would routinely undertake quests that they are unlikely to fail, or even be very challenging, for small stakes.
This would have hints of litRPG, but would probably be more of a progression fantasy. Each chapter would focus on an element of adventuring life that the protagonist makes an assumption about, ends up suffering due to that assumption, and learns a lesson that gets him closer to doing what he wants: being successful in the adventuring world.
Along the way, he would meet other adventurers, friends and rivals, and have conversations, arguments and quests with them.
Leave a Reply