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<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7747828" data-attributes="member: 6873517"><p>Certainly, it was an influence. particularly on the inclusion of halflings and rangers (particularly the 1E ranger), as well as some iconic creatures like ents and balrogs, a few spells (e.g., Hold Portal) and the presentation of elves and dwarves. </p><p></p><p>But there are tons of aspects of the game that the Lake Geneva crowd wrote that bear little or no resemblance to LotR. The magic system is totally different, and clearly lifted from Jack Vance right down to a number of spell names. It bears essentially no resemblance to magic in LotR. There are no figures clearly identifiable as clerics in LotR. The Thieves' Guild is from Fritz Leiber. The troll and paladin are from Poul Anderson's <em>Three Hearts and Three Lions</em>, which was also influential on the presentation of elves and dwarves, too. Giants are by way of de Camp and Pratt's <em>Incompleat Enchanter</em>. The spell Rope Trick is pretty much straight out of <em>The Unbeheaded King</em>, although not quite as impressive. Gygax also read a lot of the same sources as Tolkien, most notably the <em>Kalevala</em> and Norse and Greek mythology. </p><p></p><p>All that said, I'm 100% in agreement that a lot of the popularity of D&D came about because LotR had had this surge of popularity in the late '60s. But I take Gygax at his word that <em>Lord of the Rings</em> wasn't his primary influence.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7747828, member: 6873517"] Certainly, it was an influence. particularly on the inclusion of halflings and rangers (particularly the 1E ranger), as well as some iconic creatures like ents and balrogs, a few spells (e.g., Hold Portal) and the presentation of elves and dwarves. But there are tons of aspects of the game that the Lake Geneva crowd wrote that bear little or no resemblance to LotR. The magic system is totally different, and clearly lifted from Jack Vance right down to a number of spell names. It bears essentially no resemblance to magic in LotR. There are no figures clearly identifiable as clerics in LotR. The Thieves' Guild is from Fritz Leiber. The troll and paladin are from Poul Anderson's [I]Three Hearts and Three Lions[/I], which was also influential on the presentation of elves and dwarves, too. Giants are by way of de Camp and Pratt's [I]Incompleat Enchanter[/I]. The spell Rope Trick is pretty much straight out of [I]The Unbeheaded King[/I], although not quite as impressive. Gygax also read a lot of the same sources as Tolkien, most notably the [I]Kalevala[/I] and Norse and Greek mythology. All that said, I'm 100% in agreement that a lot of the popularity of D&D came about because LotR had had this surge of popularity in the late '60s. But I take Gygax at his word that [I]Lord of the Rings[/I] wasn't his primary influence. [/QUOTE]
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