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Dying Earth

Dying Earth is a series of fantasy books by Jack Vance.

The Dying Earth (collection of linked stories, 1950)
The Eyes of the Overworld (collection of linked stories, 1966)
Cugel's Saga (novel, 1983)
Rhialto the Marvellous (collection of linked stories, 1984)
Author Michael Shea has also written a book set in the same fictional world: A Quest of Simbilis (novel, 1974). Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is set in a somewhat similar world and has been written under Vance's influence. (Wolfe suggested in The Castle of the Otter, a collection of essays, that he inserted "The Dying Earth" into his fictional world under the title The Book of Gold.)

Three of the Dying Earth books had their titles changed by editors or publishers. In the Vance Integral Edition of Vance's complete oeuvre, three of the Dying Earth books have been retitled using Vance's preferred titles. They are as follows:

The Dying Earth is retitled as Mazirian the Magician.
The Eyes of the Overworld is retitled as Cugel the Clever.
Cugel's Saga is retitled as Cugel: the Skybreak Spatterlight.
The Dying Earth became the origin of the Dying Earth subgenre.

Influence on role playing games
The magic system of Dungeons & Dragons (in which a spellcaster memorizes spells out of a spellbook, and forgets them upon casting them) was based on the magic of Dying Earth. Some of the spells from D&D are based on Dying Earth spells, notably The Excellent Prismatic Spray. "IOUN stones" are another element borrowed from Vance (Rhialto the Marvelous, specifically), though with slightly different properties than those described in the stories.

There is also an official Dying Earth role-playing game, published by Pelgrane Press which throws players into Vance's ancient world populated by desperately extravagant people.

The Eyes of the Overworld is (are?) a quest artifact in NetHack.