The Witcher Books & Games

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss The Books & Games Here!

[Morrigan2575]

Hopefully this is the correct place. I've never played the games but, this entire thead is hilarious if you've ever played an RPG.

 

 

[Tyro49]

Do the books contain some sort of map of "the continent" that shows where these various places are and their relationships with each other?

[Kasienka]

23 hours ago, Tyro49 said:

Do the books contain some sort of map of "the continent" that shows where these various places are and their relationships with each other?

Nope. IIRC Sapkowski once said he wasn't interested in geography of his world, he didn't even name it, so we left with the generic Continent. What mattered to him was the characters and relationships between them, less so than the world surrounding them. I can't find the direct quote though, so take it with a grain of salt.

I think it could also be because he never planned to write some big fantasy saga, The Witcher's first story was a one shot written for a competition he didn't even win. It became very popular though and at some point grew into eight books total.

I believe the first map appeared in the game.

[Lathund]

On 1/19/2020 at 6:38 PM, Tyro49 said:

Do the books contain some sort of map of "the continent" that shows where these various places are and their relationships with each other?

As Kasienka said, the books aren't big on geography or maps. I don't know if it was CD Projekt Red (Who made the games) who created the maps, or if they already existed by then, but the games have maps. How much of it is canon, and how much of it is patching together the various geographical details that are mentioned is something I don't know. 

But this is rather official-looking from Netflix. ANd while the dimensions are rather different and the style entirely different, the location of nations, cities and such matches this map from, I think, the Witcher 2 collectors edition. 

Edited January 24, 2020 by Lathund

[Sakura12]

On 12/29/2019 at 1:26 PM, Morrigan2575 said:

Hopefully this is the correct place. I've never played the games but, this entire thead is hilarious if you've ever played an RPG.

 

 

I haven't played the Witcher. But have played other RPG's so this was hilarious. Now I want to see Roach spontaneously fly or have Geralt look for him and find him on the roof. 

Henry Cavill also said that he knows they want Season 2 to be the Wild Hunt but he thinks Geralt should stop his quest to play the card game the games make you play. 

[Danny Franks]

I played The Witcher 2 and 3. The second game was very good, but rather unfocused in its narrative, and the in media res start really leaves you struggling to figure out what's going on.  Coming into the series from that point meant that I considered Triss to be the primary love interest and integral ally to Geralt.

She also quickly became my favourite character, so I really wasn't keen on Yennefer suddenly being thrust to the fore in The Witcher 3. It helped that Yennefer is generally unlikeable and cold for about ninety percent of the time, and that you get to make a choice regarding the djinn subplot as to whether Geralt's feelings for her are real or not.

Suffice to say, I made sure that I ticked all the boxes that allowed me to choose Triss as the 'winning' love interest. 

Regarding the infamous 'Roach on the roof' meme, I don't think I ever saw it when I was playing. It was a pretty polished game, with few of the glitches some other big titles can have, which was very impressive given the sheer size of it.

[Jack Shaftoe]

I have been meaning to play Witcher 2 since forever but am currently playing Witcher 3 for the umpteenth time instead. And from the perspective of someone who started with Witcher 3, Triss is far more boring than Yennefer. Yennefer and Geralt have great banter (here is a compilation of some of their best lines, if anyone is interested) and she has an important role in the main plot. Unlike TV show Yennefer, she knows what she wants and stops at nothing to get it, doesn't whine endlessly about how unfair things are and generally comes across as a grown woman rather than an emotional teenager. Not that Triss is bad but in a game full of great characters she really doesn't stand out much.

As for glitches, Geralt and Roach's movements can be kind of clumsy compared to other games but overall there are very few noticeable bugs.

[Sakura12]

As someone that never played the games. If I didn't watch some gameplay I wouldn't even know that Triss was a possible love interest for Geralt. She was just kind of there. So right now I'm Team Yennefer. 

[Danny Franks]

On ‎1‎/‎28‎/‎2020 at 7:09 PM, Sakura12 said:

As someone that never played the games. If I didn't watch some gameplay I wouldn't even know that Triss was a possible love interest for Geralt. She was just kind of there. So right now I'm Team Yennefer. 

From what I know, I think her role in the games was increased from the books too. I'm given to understand that Geralt/Yennefer is some grand, semi-tragic but fated romance, which never really interests me.

[Sakura12]

From what I've seen the show, books and games are based all around destiny and fate. So I don't mind it. For me I don't care what the shows say, but if I like both characters separately, I can like them together if the show goes there. I think Anya and Henry have good chemistry too so that helps. Triss is just around now and hasn't had any development.

Since the show is based on the books more than the games, I wonder what role Triss will have. I have no doubt that Geralt will sleep with her at some point because that's how shows work. But I wonder if she'll be a viable love interest or part of the triangle. 

[Zuleikha]

I've been inspired by the TV show to read the books, and it's really making me wonder how the upcoming seasons are going to work. The source material for s1 had some dark stuff in it, but it was mainly to one-off characters. So I was very surprised by how much brutal content the books had for our mains. It was an unexpected tonal shift.

I'm also wondering how the show is going to get Vilgefortz and Cahir from their s1 characterizations to their book plots.

[Kasienka]

12 hours ago, Zuleikha said:

I'm also wondering how the show is going to get Vilgefortz and Cahir from their s1 characterizations to their book plots.

You and me both. Same goes for Fringilla. I wonder if they will stay true to the books with the most important plots or are we going to get surprised.

[Scarlett55x]

Honestly i never played the games yet but i am soon because i love the show

 

[Morrigan2575]

i keep meaning to buy the books, looked at the bookstore in my mall but, they didn't have them.  Have to to check the B&N out this weekend but, i'm lazy and will probably end up ordering from Amazon.

[Sakura12]

I just finished the Last Wish. They did keep the timelines being all over the place from the books. It was even more confusing in the books since I didn't have any visual clues.

However sorry to the book fans but I thought the show handled the plots much better. This was a bunch of short stories but they felt like they dragged on forever. Mostly because Geralt is so chatty. You wouldn't need Jaskier if we had book Geralt. I did like the fairytale aspect that they show didn't really have. They did a take on Snow White and Beauty and Beast.

I heard the books are better than the short stories. I was trying to read them in order. I might skip Sword of Destiny and go to The Blood of Elves. Since most of the short stories were Season 1. I am little worried since I heard the show is handling Yennefer's story better than the books. They cut out the dragon hunt part completely which I'm glad for. The Reaver guy was enough of an ass that we didn't need to see him sexually assault her for her to want to kill him. 

[Kasienka]

3 hours ago, Sakura12 said:

I might skip Sword of Destiny and go to The Blood of Elves

I wouldn't do that, since Geralt and Ciri's first meeting is in Sword of Destiny and it's quite different than the show.

But don't expect anything when it comes to Yen's backstory , it's merely hinted at, showrunner build all of what we've seen on screen form (almost) a scratch.

The thing with Sapkowski's books is that they were not meant to be an epic fantasy saga from the beginning. All the short stories were published separately in Polish magazine and were only connected by Geralt's character. Much later came the idea of writing 5-book saga.

Personally I enjoyed short stories collections more than the saga, I felt Sapkowski dragged a little in his later volumes and wasn't sure on what to focus on. Still those are one of my favourite books and Sword of Destiny is the favourite. But I also like Geralt's talkative nature, so... 😉

Edited February 25, 2020 by Kasienka

[namelessmonster]

I haven't read the books yet, just from the video game and the show. It was a bad ass show tbh. Book sounds interesting. Will look into that.

[Lathund]

On 1/28/2020 at 8:09 PM, Sakura12 said:

As someone that never played the games. If I didn't watch some gameplay I wouldn't even know that Triss was a possible love interest for Geralt. She was just kind of there. So right now I'm Team Yennefer. 

It's been some time since I read the books, but I don't think Triss had even appeared yet at this point in the story. IIRC the first we hear (not see) of her is after the battle at the end of season 1. The games take place after all the events in the books too,