At Edinburgh’s sci-fi and horror fiction festival, Cymera, Adrian Tchaikovsky told the crowd that he has a fantasy novel idea and that he’d rather like a TTRPG for it, and agreed on. The game must come first.
Update: 9th June – An earlier version of this post used stronger language for Adrian’s position. He’s since got in touch with clarification; the RPG-first approach is a preference, not a demand.
The popular author was on stage with Peter F. Hamilton and participated in a panel hosted by Elian J. Morgan to discuss Exodus, Hamilton’s book, and Bee Speaker, the third instalment in the Dogs of War series by Tchaikovsky.
At the end of the panel, an audience member asked both authors if they engaged in creativity with at-home Dungeons & Dragons sessions. Peter F Hamilton had not, but Adrian leant forward in his chair with evident enthusiasm for the hobby as he explained his passion for tabletop RPGs. His first book was based on an RPG campaign.
He didn’t elaborate, nor was there time, on what the fantasy series is about, although the running theme of the night had been about spiders, of course, but also monks.
Geek Native clocked Adrian scouting for RPG contact back in 2023. At the time, on Mastodon, he was seeking a contact in the industry, with a Children of Time TTRPG in mind. He even suggested possible systems, such as Powered by the Apocalypse or Forged in the Dark. He received responses from the community as well, with mentions of Lumpley Games and John Harper, alongside Handiwork Games and Evil Hat.
Adrian Tchaikovsky has given us and publishing companies loads of books. I’m all for a hardcore move to get a TTRPG.
