Dying Earth is a fantasy series by the American author Jack Vance, comprising four books originally published from 1950 to 1984. Some have been called picaresque. They vary from short story collections to a fix-up, perhaps all the way to novel.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray is a magazine devoted to the fantasy role-playing game Dying Earth and the author Jack Vance on whose works the game is based. The magazine is published intermittently by Pelgrane Press and is named for one of the spells used by various wizards in the Dying Earth stories.
John Holbrook Vance was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen.
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place. Usually a campaign setting is designed for a specific game or a specific genre of game. There are numerous campaign settings available both in print and online. In addition to published campaign settings available for purchase, many game masters create their own settings, often referred to as "homebrew" settings or worlds.
Rusalka is a fantasy novel by American science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It was first published in October 1989 in the United States in a hardcover edition by Ballantine Books under its Del Rey Books imprint. Rusalka is book one of Cherryh's three-book Russian Stories trilogy set in medieval Russia in forests along the Dnieper river near Kyiv in modern-day Ukraine. The novel draws on Slavic folklore and concerns the fate of a girl who has drowned and becomes a rusalka. It is also an exploration of magic and the development of a young wizard.
Robin D. Laws is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist.
Magic systems in games are the rules, limitations, abilities, and characteristics that define magic in a game.
The wizard is one of the standard character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A wizard uses arcane magic, and is considered less effective in melee combat than other classes.
The Eyes of the Overworld is a picaresque fantasy fix-up novel by American writer Jack Vance, published by Ace in 1966, the second book in the Dying Earth series that Vance inaugurated in 1950. Retitled Cugel the Clever in its Vance Integral Edition (2005), the story takes place in Vance's Dying Earth setting, where the Sun is dying and magic and technology coexist. It features the self-proclaimed Cugel the Clever in linked episodic stories. Cugel is an anti-hero character; while he is typically a crafty scoundrel who seeks to turn a profit from a situation, he retains some good values at times. In the novel, Cugel is caught stealing from a wizard, who forces Cugel to travel to a faraway realm to find a rare magical jewel.
The Spell of Seven is an anthology of fantasy short stories in the sword and sorcery subgenre, edited by L. Sprague de Camp and illustrated by Virgil Finlay. It was first published in paperback by Pyramid Books in June 1965, and reprinted in December 1969. It was the second such anthology assembled by de Camp, following his Swords and Sorcery (1963).
A magician, also known as an archmage, mage, magus, magic-user, spellcaster, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch, or wizard, is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural, occult, or arcane sources. Magicians enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction, and folklore, and are common figures in works of fantasy, such as fantasy literature and role-playing games.
Cugel's Saga is a picaresque fantasy novel by American writer Jack Vance, published by Timescape in 1983, the third book in the Dying Earth series, the first volume of which appeared in 1950. The narrative of Cugel's Saga continues from the point at which it left off at the end of The Eyes of the Overworld (1966).
"Mazirian the Magician" is a sword and sorcery short story by American writer Jack Vance. It was first published in 1950 as part of The Dying Earth, a collection of loosely linked tales. It has been reissued in numerous anthologies since 1965, including The Spell of Seven, edited by L. Sprague de Camp.
Rhialto the Marvellous is a collection of one essay and three fantasy stories by American writer Jack Vance, first published in 1984 by Brandywyne Books, a special edition three months before the regular (below). It is the fourth and concluding book in the Dying Earth series that Vance inaugurated in 1950. One of the stories was previously published.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fantasy:
The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game published by Pelgrane Press in 2001.
This is a complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author Jack Vance.
Giant of World's End is a fantasy novel written by Lin Carter set on a decadent far-future Earth in which all the world's land masses have supposedly drifted back together to form a last supercontinent called Gondwane. The book is chronologically the last in Carter's Gondwane Epic, five prequel novels set earlier in time being issued later. It was first published in paperback by Belmont Books in February 1969. The first British edition was issued in paperback by Five Star in 1972. The book has been translated into Polish.
Wizards is an anthology of themed fantasy and science fiction short stories on the subject of wizards edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh. The first volume in their Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy series, it was first published in paperback by Signet/New American Library in October 1983. It was later gathered together with Witches, the second book in the series, into the omnibus hardcover collection Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy: Witches & Wizards (1985).
