[Linux4christians] Narnia [OT] [and late]

[Ron Ostrander]

On Sunday 11 December 2005 02:51 pm, Brian Carpenter wrote:
> The Rings trilogy is fantasy and it is the foundation which ALL of the
> RPG genres is built upon. The LOR created Dungeons and Dragons.

Run for cover - it's another Narnia post!! (Actually I'm just really late 
in reading my e-mail - full time work, full time school, and full time 
family leaves me little time to read e-mail so I catch up with my lists 
about once a week :-)

Anyway, I wanted to jump in and correct this point about D&D, which is 
something I actually know a little (OK, a lot) about.  D&D was *not* a 
child of the Rings trilogy.  The original authors of the game have 
repeatedly cited the works of sci-fi/fantasy author Jack Vance and Conan 
creator Robert E. Howard as their main inspiration, with help from 
elements incorporated from European mythology.  "Tolkienian" elements like 
elves and dwarves exist only to the extent that they exist in the 
mythology that both Tolkien and D&D's original authors drew from.

As far as all other RPGs, as D&D was the first they all pay some level of 
debt to it as their foundation.  Later fantasy oriented games (and RPGs 
cover many different genres, not just fantasy) drew more heavily or 
lightly from Tolkien than D&D did, depending on the game.  Sometimes not 
at all, as in the "Pendragon" game (based entirely on the mythological 
cycle of King Arthur), or sometimes completely, as in the various games 
based directly on "Rings."

And who says expert knowledge about useless topics never comes in handy...?

Ron