A new tabletop role-playing game based on Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and created by Modiphius Entertainment, has launched a campaign on Kickstarter. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld RPG: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork had an ?initial goal of $130,000, which it eclipsed in just 27 minutes.

The Kickstarter project has now reached $1 million in pledges, unlocking all but the last two stretch goals. With three weeks left on the campaign, it's likely that thos??e will also ?be unlocked. Fulfillment is expected in August 2025.

The Discworld series of fantasy books was written by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, starting with The Colour of Magic in 1983 and culminating with The Shepherd’s Crown in 2015. The disc-shaped world sits on top of the back of four elephants who, in turn, are standing on the back of a giant turtle called Great?? A’Tuin.

There are more than a th?ousand characters named throughout the 41 books in the series. Sir Terry was known for cr??eating deep characterization and a satirical, hilarious take on life �a combination fans will hope to see in the final product of this campaign.

Fans of the series, and RPG fans looking for something a little different from the usual fare (think more Dungeon Crawl Classics than Dungeons & Dragons), can back the Discworld Kickstarter now.

The game is being created by Modiphius Entertainment, which has considerable experience making tabletop RPGs. They are the team behind Dishonored, Dragonbane, and Lord of the Rings role-playing games as well as Fallout: Factions and The Elder Scrolls: Call To Arms wargames. It says it has aimed to translate Pratchett’s humor into an immersive and playable role-playing game. Pledge levels range from a PDF versio??n of the rulebooks and companion goals to the full collector’s version that includes physical books signed by legendary artist and longtime Sir Terry collaborator Paul Kidby.

Stretch goals, most of which have a?lready been met, include dice sets, replica watch badges, and charac?ter sheet postcards.

The first series of Discworld RPG adventures will be set in Ankh Morpork?, Discworld’s most celebrated (if you can call it that) city. Players can create unique characters, choosing whether to play as members of the watch, a student of the assassin’s guild, one of the wizards of Unseen University, or any of the other groups of th?e city. Modiphius has said that if the first launch goes well, they will return to create adventures set in other areas, including Lancre.

This isn’t the first Discworld RPG: Sir Terry Pratchett partnered with game designer Phil Masters in 1998 to create GURPS Discworld. It was the first to use the GURPS Lite rules, which were included in the GURPS Discworld book, which meant playe??rs didn’t have to buy the core rulebook itself. A sequel, GURPS Discworld Also, was published in 2001 by Steve Jackson Games, again in partnership with Sir Terry.

Other games have also been published set in the mythical world. Discworld and Discworld II were point-and-click adventures for the PC, featuring the voice of Eric Idle as Rincewind the “wizzard� However, even these games, published in 1995 and 1996 respectively, were predated by the 1986 text-based adventure game The Colour of Magic on the ZX Spectrum, Amst?rad CPC, and Commo?dore 64.

Board games Ankh Morpork, Guards! Guards!, The Witches, Clacks, and Thud are also available, although some can be difficult t??o find because they are out of print and popular with collectors.

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Comedy movies ruled in every past decade that you can remember, but we've since seen most of the industry moving away from them. That sucks, but it doesn't mean that comedy is gone. Let's look at this abs?ence as an opportunity.

Most?? great comedy is born from written text, so why not use your newfound time to read some of the best c?omedy novels ever written?

A Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces is the holy grail of modern comedy novels if there is one. It tells the story of Ignatius J. Reilly, a man smart man who's also plagued by enormous laziness and personality quirks that make him a fun character to read about, maybe not one you'd like to deal with. To ?make matters better, Reilly has the propensity to make equally wacky characters gravitate towards him in his supposed quest to get a job.

The story behind this novel is nearly as interesting as the work itself, as it was only published 11 years after the death of author John Kennedy Toole, and over 15 years after being written. Dunces spent a few years getting more popular via word of moth, and only then became a huge hit t?hat all c?omedy writers must read.

Ignatius J. Reilly's physical description and smartass wit might remi?nd you of pretty much every main character in every successful animated sitcom in existence. It's likely we have to thank Ignatius for having inspired all following generations of popular comedy.

If you're wondering why the supposed all-time great comedy book never became a major movie, well, the answer might be a curse. Now, while I don't believe in curses, it's true many directors have tried adapting A Confederacy Of Dunces to the b??ig screen ever since its releas??e, but big or small accidents always ended up derailing the production.

Catch 22

Joseph Heller's Catch 22 soared high enough to have its name become?? s??ynonymous with any dilemma too powerful to get out of.

The specific dilemma posed by the novel states that If you're clinically insane, you are unfit to serve in the war. If you ask to have a psychological evaluation, however, you're already demonstrating enoug??h sanity to serve in the war.

Catch 22 tells the story of John Yossarian, a WWII bombardier captain who tries to be discharged to no avail as the atrocities that he witnesses on a daily basis push him towards the limit. It doesn't seem very funny when put like that, but Catch 22 does a marvelous job of pic??king apart all the bureaucracy that make war even mo?re of a nightmare than it's supposed to be.

Catch 22's greatest achievement, in my opinion, is not just being hilarious. It's managing to make you laugh while not trying to turn the entirely vile affair of war into a joke. There are a lot of great jokes here, but Catch 22 never fails to deliver a relev?a??ntly humane message.

American Psycho

Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho gained immense notoriety as its movie adaptation starring Christ??ian Bale immediately became a cult classic, but the novel remains a poignant read.

Whereas the movie portrayed Patrick Bat??eman's shell of a person as a creepy sociopath, the book does, well, the same thing, albeit in a much funnier way.

Bale gets a lot of deserved praise for his portrayal of Patrick Bateman. Still, over 20 years later??, too many Internet memes portraying that character as a total chad show not everyone got the message. You're much less likely to misinterpret the movie, as the satire elements greatly outweigh the scary parts, or the ones some can misunderstand as "badass".

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Critique of Bureaucracy seems to be a good foundation for a hit comedy book. Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy tells the sto??ry of one man who loses his planet (Earth), because it was somehow located in a part of space someone designated for the construction of a new galactic highway.

Fortunately, right before getting crushed to death by space construction workers, he's gets saved and taken on a journey through the galaxy even though he doesn't own a ship. Many hail The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as the greatest piece of sci-fi comedy every writt??en, while some have a hard time enjoying Adams' peculiar humor. Either way, it has undoubtedly inspired a lot of other great sci-fi comedy material, and is thus something completely worth checking out.

Night Watch

If you believe even most great artists will lose their mojo with age, then you should really read Terry Pratchett's Night Watch, the 29th book in the Discworld series.

It follows Samuel Vimes, the leader of Ankh-Morpork's city watch, as he's sent back in time before capturing a notorious criminal responsible for the murder of various watchmen. Time travel is a complicated subject, one that can either make or completely break your story, but this is one of the greatest in the overall very good list of Discworld novels.

Please just be reminded that while you can read it if you've never read any other Discworld tale, Night Watch is the sixth book in the inner "City Watch" series, so you ??might want to ch??eck those out beforehand.

Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas??: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

If you're into stoner comedies, Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas is likely both the originator, and still one of th??e best outings in ??the genre.

Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas follows Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo on a road trip to Las Vegas in an attempt to "find the American Dream. When you know a story will involve Las Vegas at some point, your mind immediately pictures the wackiest moments taking place there. You'd be wrong. Fear And Loathing is equally hilarious and weird at all times, as well as way more ??though-provoking than you'd originally think.

Funniest of all, a lot of it isn't made up,? but merely an "enhanced" version of real-life events late author Hunter S. Thompson actually went through.

Going Postal

Going Postal tells the tale of Moist Von Lipwig, a con artist who's saved from execution to endure a possibly even worse fate: managing Ankh-Morpork's postal service. Naturally, he has to contend with the bonkers bureaucracies you'd expect from this job - even if it didn't take place in an already magical wacky city - but also with a mystery pointing ??to a bigger conspiracy.

Remember when I made a big fuss about Terry Pratchett still being on a role when he delivered his 29th Discworld novel? Welp, Going Postal is his 33rd.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

In My Year of Rest and Relaxation Author Ottessa Moshfegh talks about one of the most interesting proposition of all time: being able to sleep all the time, literally. The main character begins to try out a few interesting drugs and arrives at one that allows her to sleep the entire t?ime. There's only one caveat though, which is sleepwalking. That twist immediately turns the entire premise upside down, and the story is all the better for it.

If?? you're tired, stressed out, or have arrived at a time of your life when you're nonplussed about everyday's busy activities, work or otherwise, then this one might be for you.

Cat’s Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut is one of the best when it comes to getting laughs out of serious scenarios. In Cat's Cradle, he tells the story of John (or Jonah), a man who once set out to write a book about the bombing of Hiroshima and got interrupted by a very similar scenario taking place on his doorstep. That's not a very promising synopsis for a funny book, especially one that also satirizes religion and the global arms race. Still, Cat's Cradle more than delivers in the laughter department as we follow John in a relatively short sci-fi adven??ture wh?ere he finds faith in the form of a silly made-up religion.

The Princess Bride

If I try to make you see the greatness of The Princess Bride by only telling you the plot, you'll just think I'm some idiot who's never seen a Disney film. Though it seemingly tells the regular story of the hero who goes on an adventure to rescue a princess from an evil captor, Princess Bride does a ??great job of subverting all genre tropes in hilarious ways.

The immense popularity of the film made many forget The Princess Bride is actually the adaptation of a novel by author Willia?m Goldman. In all honesty, I do think the movie version to be superior, but that's one of my favorite films of all time. Still, if you're looking for one of the funniest works of fantasy ever written, you should totally give this one a try.

The post 10 Funniest Books For Adults To Laugh Th?rough This Year appeared first on Destructoid.

Epic Fantasy is a genre that encompasses all the other literary traditions inside itsel?f, so when talking about the most p?opular books shaping its long history, it’s not surprising to be confronted with a plethora of widely disparate stories, characters, and worlds.

Whether it be the rolling hills of Middle-earth, where the? Free Peoples fight against the Shadow emerging from the eastern sky, or the high storms of Roshar sweeping across the continent and reminding the world of what it has forgotten, or even the petty feuds of the lords and ladies of the Seven Kingdoms and the commoners ever embroiled in their conflicts, the Fantasy genre has something to offer to anyone.

But though the number of acclaimed Fantasy books is already beyond count �despite the relatively short time since it rose to popularity in the �0s �there are some names t?hat, ??through popularity or influence or standing the test of time, have managed to become timeless.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Having sold over 500 million copies worldwide, Harry Potter is undoubtedly the most popular and recognizable name in fantasy. The story of The Boy Who Lived finds new fans in every generation of young readers, and the acclaimed movie adaptations have assured J.K. Rowling’s immortality in the speculative fiction landscape??. Harry Potter might be derivative and, at times, underwhelming, especially for seasoned fantasy readers, but there’s a sense of sincerity and warmth within Rowling’s pages that you can’t quite find anywhere else.

The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings was the much-awaited sequel to The Hobbit and took the world by storm when it came out in 1954. In one of the initial reviews, The Sunday Times praised Tolkien’s achievement by writing: “The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to re?ad them.�Many years later, these words sound almost prophetic. We don’t have Eru Ilúvatar’s omniscience to claim there would be no High Fantasy toda?y without Tolkien, but we do know the entertainment world would not be the same.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was once many a child’s most memorable fantasy read before taking on serious stories. I remember going through the pages and being absolutely enamored by the world C.S. Lewis was spinning into existence. I also remember asking my parents to buy me the sequel before the first book was even finished. In a lot of ways, The Chronicles of Narnia is like the compromise between Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which built an imaginative world from the ground up, and Rowling’s Harry Potter, which combined the fantastical with the real.

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

While there’s no denying that Tolkien’s legacy was mountainous, what followed after The Lord of the Rings was a string of unoriginal, generic rip-offs that all wanted to jump on the bandwagon and imitate the professor’s success. In fact, it wasn’t until writers like Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin came along to breathe fresh air into the lungs of this tenuous new beast that Epic Fantasy truly began to soar as a genre. The Wheel of Time by the former is one such work that built on Tolkien’s legacy and, having sold close to 100 million copies since its conception, remains one of the most ambitious feats?? of imaginative worldbuilding ever attempted.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

George R.R. Martin may not have become as successful and prominent as he is today without HBO’s Game of Thrones, but the fact that Westeros is here to stay �whether it be true popular spinoffs like House of the Dragon or the books�own lingering hype despite the decade-long drought �can only be a testament to his power as an author. Martin has changed the game forever, but more importantly, this is exactly what Epic Fantasy needed to stay relevant after Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early 2000s.

Discworld by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is a voice to be celebrated, and his Discworld series remains one of the best-selling, most popular fantasy books of all time. Now, it doesn’t matter how many (or how few) publications decide to write asinine articles about how his literary achievement is overstated (if you know, you know) because th?ere’s always a place in Pratchett’s books for people who are looking for a bit of humorous escapist fantasy to lay down some of their burdens.

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

This might be a rather odd inclusion, but considering the fact that The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice has sold tens of millions of copies since its release, it should, by definition, have a place in the list of the most popular fantasy books in history. What’s more, there’s no doubt that Anne Rice hugely influenced the gothic and urban fantasy movement with The Vampire Chronicles. The story was pr?ogressive for its time, a??nd its motifs still play a part in informing many other gothic fantasy books.

The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

Say what you will about Twilight and its literary value �or lack thereof �but at the very least, the case of Stephenie Meyer and her huge success should be studied. Now, I’ll admit that I dropped the first book a mere 100 pages in, but the story has certainly left a mark in the fantasy space. Several popular and even acclaimed book series, like A Court of Thorns and Roses or the new BookTok sensation Fourth Wing, tr?ace their popularity and standing back to Meyer’s work.

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

While you can always expect to find the fantastical in Stephen King’s works, it wasn’t until The Dark Tower that the author forgot about dipping ??his toes into the genre and dived headfirst into it with a grimdark tale combining tropes from several genres like fantasy, sci-fi, and Spaghetti Western. The seven-book series has sold 30 million cop?ies and is among the finer works in the Epic Fantasy space.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan

At first glance, Percy Jackson might come off as a Harry Potter clone due to everything it derives from Rowling’s themes and motifs, but the story has much more to offer thanks to Riordan’s brilliant prose and amazing characterization. Percy Jackson and the Olympians books are now among the best-selling fantasy stories in the world, and the new Amazon adaptation is sure to increase that populari?ty tenfold.

This was our list of some of the most popular fantasy book series out there, but as they say, popularity a great piece of art doth not make. So, to read our picks for the ten best fantasy book series of all time, head to this article.

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