Reddit reviews Mogworld

> Imagine if the Ai in video games is somewhat sentient.

Yahtzee Crowshaw wrote a book with a sort of similar concept. Basically the AI in an MMO was so advanced the NPCs were self-aware (though not aware they were in a video game, of course). It's a very fun read.

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw wrote a book about an NPC in an MMO. I still have to read it. It's in my to-read list. But here's the link if you want to take a gander. It's great per the reviews.

But as a player of MMOs? You could write from a different angle. How about a "Requiem for a Dream" but instead of drugs, it's MMOs (from as far as I can tell, I was addicted to WoW at one point).

Mogworld by Yahtzee Crosshaw
I will never stop recommending this. From the bitingly sarcastic game critic of "Zero Punctuation", this story is equal parts funny, and dramatic. It focuses more on MMORPGs than traditional tabletop games, but even as a non-WOW player I understood and loved every minute of it.


NPCs by Drew Hayes This story focuses more on the aspect of traditional tabletop roleplaying, such as Dungeons and Dragons. It's about a group of NPCs - such as a bartender, a reluctant damsel in distress, and a former minion - who have to take up the roles as fake heroes in order to save their town. It starts off a little bit slow, and at first I was rolling my eyes thinking "okay, I know where this is going" but then it went off in a completely different direction. Highly recommended.


Critical Failures by Robert Bevan
I didn't like this one personally as much as the others - it was a bit too vulgar for my tastes. However, it got some really good critical feedback (heh) and it definitely is an interesting concept. It's basically about a group of players who get trapped in a tabletop game by a sadistic GM. If you play a lot of tabletop games, you can probably see a lot of your group members in the characters. It's part of a series too, (I think there's at least 3) so this one should keep you occupied for a while.

Game Night

The Merchant Adventurer


I haven't read either of these two myself, but they are both on my list, and seem somewhat similar to the kind of thing you're looking for.

Mogworld, by Yahtzee Croshaw

The protagonist is Jim, a former wizard in training who was killed and then raised from the dead by a necromancer. Every time Jim dies, he's raised again by the necromancer. Now all Jim wants to do is die, once and for all. The book plays on conventions from the fantasy genre, as well as Dungeons & Dragons and videogames. Funny and well written.

The Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher

It's not really focused on humor, and it's not so much about genre bending. But it is off-kilter in the sense that it's about a wizard/private investigator, and it's set in the modern world and has vampires, faeries, werewolves, etc. I thought the first book was just interesting enough to get me to read the 2nd. I thought it got more interesting as it went on. I've since heard a rumor that Butcher wrote the first few books without a publisher, and only got an editor later on in the series. That might make sense, because I enjoyed the later books much more. (As an experienced reader, you might have already heard of the Dresden Files. It's on reddit's top 100 fantasy books.)

... There's another off-kilter fantasy book out there tickling the edges of my brain, but I can't remember it right now. I'll come back if I can think of it.

John Dies at the End, by David Wong

It's more of an off-kilter action/horror book. There's supernatural stuff, but no wizards of orcs in this one. Still, if you're looking for something sort of genre bending, then this might fit.

Yahtzee's book Mogworld is kind of about it. The inspiration was WOW and not D&D, though.

The only thing I've heard of that's even remotely like that would be Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw. Probably not it, though o_o

You could also try over in /r/whatsthatbook, they might know :)

Read MogWorld by none other than Yahtzee Croshaw.

He wrote Mogworld which involved NPCs becoming aware they were in an MMO, but there weren't any mods as far as I recall.