We previously discussed the negative influence of a doctor on
Dungeons & Dragons--
Dr. Thomas Radecki, who used court cases to advocate that D&D was dangerous to society. But there is another, fictional doctor who strongly influenced D&D spells and magic items and who is now experiencing a resurgence thanks to a Marvel movie:
Doctor Strange.
That's Strange!
The influence of comic books on
Dungeons & Dragons is a footnote in the game's history but had an outsized influence on its formation. The evidence is right on the cover of the original boxed set. Jon Peterson explains in
Playing at the World:
With his spells learned from books, his magic cloak and amulet and constant assumption of ethereal form, it may raise eyebrows that Doctor Strange receives no explicit mention from the authors of Dungeons & Dragons— however, the illustration on the very cover of the game’s box (as well as the first booklet inside), cribbed from a panel of Strange Tales #167, should count as testimony to the relevance of the comic.
Greg Bell's artwork of a warrior astride a rearing horse was
copied from a Dan Adkins' art in a Doctor Strange comic,
Strange Tales #167. The influence of Doctor Strange doesn't stop there.
Spelling it Out
The categorization of D&D spells is known to be drawn from Jack Vance's
Dying Earth series, but it seems likely there were other inspirations for D&D spells. Peterson elaborates:
Doctor Strange, whose adversaries tend to have a sorcerous bent, must continually discover counter-spells; in Strange Tales #116, he consults the Book of Vishanti for this purpose, given that “every counter-spell known to the mystic arts is inscribed within these time-worn pages.” Moreover, a wizard like Doctor Strange must often “detect” and “dispel” existing magical effects. In Doctor Strange #171, he can “detect no evil spell” on his house; in Strange Tales #150, an adversary is “ensnared by a spell which no man living can dispel!” This vocabulary made its way into the Dungeons & Dragons spell list with entries like “Detect Magic” and “Dispel Magic.” Throughout Doctor Strange’s conflicts, especially with Baron Mordo, he and his opponents forever wax and wane in degrees of power, with only one enjoying the advantage in any given encounter.
Doctor Strange also mentioned astral and ethereal travel frequently. But of all the magical inspiration that Strange imbued D&D, one is a form of pseudo-science: psionics. Timothy Kask
reiterated that Marvel Comics' Doctor Strange led to the psionics system presented in
Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry. This may account for the liberal use of science fiction terms for magical effects:
Doctor Strange magics himself around this world and others all the time, but only in Strange Tales #166 when he faces a mad scientist who accomplishes the same feat with technology do we hear of “teleportation tubes,” a “teleportation room” and so on. “Telekinesis” and the related word “psychokinesis” have similar grounding in paranormal investigations, though they date back closer to the turn of the twentieth century.
That Cloak of Levitation Needs Its Own Show
The Cloak of Levitation in the
Doctor Strange film provides some much-needed levity, but the NOUN of EFFECT may have been the template for a lot of D&D magic items:
The “Item of Effect” syntactical format employed for so many magic items may also owe something to Doctor Strange, most obviously to his Cloak of Levitation; that cloak may have directly inspired the Boots of Levitation in Monsters & Treasure.
The influence doesn't stop there. Peterson posits that Strange influenced everything from from scrolls...
In Strange Tales #155, Doctor Strange’s powerful mentor, the Ancient One, reads from a scroll the “Spell of Vanishment.” “So final— so irrevocable is the dreaded incantation, that it can be used but once”: the scroll disappears when “the chant is ended.”
...to spell books:
Doctor Strange consults his unique Book of Vishanti for all manner of mystical tutelage. Although it contains virtually every spell a wizard might require, “the symbols are faded— difficult to read,” and Doctor Strange worries in Strange Tales #116 that, “if I interpret them wrongly, anything can happen! Dare I utter the chant???”
...to wands and staves like the "Wand of Watoomb" and the "Staff of Polar Power."
Stranger Things
Kent David Kelly even posits that a popular monster from D&D was also inspired by Doctor Strange's adventures in
Hawk & Moor - Book 3 - Lands and Worlds Afar:
The clay golem was introduced to the game as well, having probably not been inspired by Gustav Meryink's classical novel, but rather by the 1974 Strange Tales issues of Marvel Comics.
When gamers venture forth to see Doctor Strange's latest cinema incarnation, we can take comfort in the fact that we knew the old school D&D grognard before he was cool.
