Oozes in fantasy...where's the inspiration?

[Angel Tarragon]

Quite a bit of history here. Looks like I am going to have to bone up on some of my reading and finally watch The Blob, which I have never before seen.

 

[WmRAllen67]

I recall reading a Conan story that has a jelly/ooze type creature in it. Conan was chained (or tied) to a large stone (IIRC) cylinder. The ooze was in the cylinder, and, well, oozed its way over the top in an attempt to consume Conan, who of course dealt with the situation.

(My apologies, I cannot remember the specific name of the story, but as I only read the first few books, it has to be fairly early on.)

"The Curse of the Monolith"... IIRC, the blob in this story was one of those Lovecraftian "outer horrors"...

 

[Thotas]

I know that the AD&D DMG cites many sources of inspiration, though I've always been convinced that Leiber's short stories, Jack Vance's The Dying Earth, and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings had more to do with AD&D than any of the other sources did.

Read Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions? Paladin, Gnome (despite being called a "Forest Dwarf"), Nixie, Troll and Swanmay all come from there. Given the destinctiveness and commonality of the Paladin and Troll in the game, and the relative slimness of the volume containing the story, I'd say it's at the very least the equal of any of those sources for influencing the game. And not nearly credited enough for it, which is why I mention it here. Despite all lack, so far as I remember, of oozes.

 

[frankthedm]

Quite a bit of history here. Looks like I am going to have to bone up on some of my reading and finally watch The Blob, which I have never before seen.

I'd recommend the 80's remake unless the 50's monster movies are really your bag. I liked THEM!, though most of the rest are just 'allright' IMHO.

 

[Shade]

Thanks for all the sources, everyone. It looks like some inspiration does exist apart from the Blob and spilled gaming appetizers.

 

[T. Foster]

Where did you learn that? I'd love a quote & citation for my monster origins page.

The best cite I can offer comes from this story by Greg Svenson, one of Arneson's original Blackmoor players. The pertinent bit is in the sixth paragraph. He repeats essentially the same info in slightly different words here.

Hope this helps

 

[CRGreathouse]

The best cite I can offer comes from this story by Greg Svenson, one of Arneson's original Blackmoor players. The pertinent bit is in the sixth paragraph. He repeats essentially the same info in slightly different words here.

Hope this helps

Thank you very much!

 

[RFisher]

RPGs in general, and early DND in particular, were notoriously thievy, borrowing inspiriation from all sorts of mediums. After all, the machine of lum the mad, mighty servant leuk-o, and apparatus of the kwalish, all magical machines, probably don't have that much inspiration in fantasy until after cross-genre stuff hit the fan in the, what, late 80's? And early dragon magazine artilces mixed fantasy creatures and world war 2 games. The Blob and other SF movies probably were the inspiration for oozes.

() Most of the fiction I read these days tends to be pre-80s. In most if it, you can't draw clear lines between fantasy, sci-fi, & horror.

 

[Melan]

Although I am not sure it ever served as an inspiration to D&D, one of Catherine L. Moore's "Northwest Simth" short stories written in the 1930s featured slime creatures who could take a humanoid form, and who manufactured exquisitely beautiful slave girls, likewise from slime. It was creepy, creepy stuff.