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Maybe it's just me, but if it wasn't for Stackpole's Fiddleback Trilogy I don't think DC would resonate the same. Recently I updated the entries for these books in the Game Index section of the site, and I ran into a quote by Lester around the diverging nature of Michael's and his presentation of the setting/world.

While I agree one of the best aspects of DC is its ability to run any sort of game any time, I feel the Fiddleback Trilogy grounds in a way that a rulebook could never do.

What about you? Have you read the Trilogy? Prefer it or the more generalist background of the rulebook?

Marcus

Even though I know that the novels were under way before the rulebook was even finished, the trilogy feels a lot like reading another GM's campaign. It's not necessarily the direction I would go in my games but it's still pretty cool!

I very much agree with you that "one of the best aspects of DC is its ability to run any sort of game any time" as well

Being a full on GDW fanboy at the time I was obsessed with getting all the material for Twilight: 2000 and Dark Conspiracy so yes I got the Fiddleback trilogy and read them twice (and I now have an urge to pull them out of storage and read them again!)
I fall into the same camp as Lee, I enjoyed the books a great deal and found them to be like reading another GM's campaign. There were many aspects I liked and I decided to use Stackpole's vision of Phoenix, Arizona in the campaign I was running at the time I read the books, (although the PCs never ended up getting there) however I wouldn't necessarily choose Stackpole's vision as the vision for my own campaign.

Well I found my Fiddleback trilogy books and started reading A Gathering Evil and I am pleasantly surprised at just how much Stackpole grounded the novel in the DC world from the gamebook. I can't actually remember when I last read these books, I thought it was only a few years ago but when I thought about it, I realized it would easily be a decade or more since I last read them.
Stackpole does have a few irritations for me although they don't detract from the story (e.g. the word "clip" instead of the word "magazine" in regards to firearms, it's a pet hate of mine).

Whether it was nostalgia or simply because Stackpole can weave a good tale, I found that within two days I had read half the novel - midnight of last night and I reluctanly put the book down because I had to get up before seven this morning. Yeah they are probably in the realm of pulp fiction but they're still an entertaining read... tonight's going to be another late night