What flavor does your campaign have?

[mmadsen]

D&D presents a hodge-podge of unrelated ideas from many different sources. The character races -- and the staple cannon fodder, orcs -- come from Tolkien's Middle Earth. The magic system (prepared spells), some of the spells (Color Spray), and the spell naming conventions (e.g. Tenser's Floating Disk) come from Jack Vance's Dying Earth. Monsters come from all sorts of sources, as do individual spells. The basic adventure, the dungeon crawl, is a mix of Tolkien's Mines of Moria and the ruins that litter Vance's Dying Earth and Robert E. Howard's Hyboria.

D&D clearly inherits ideas from many sources. Does your campaign embrace this "unique blend of flavors", or does your campaign aim for a Tolkien-esque flavor, a Conan-esque flavor, or even First-Edition flavor?

 

[Grazzt]

My campaign has a Moorcock, Norton flavor to it. The forces of Law and Chaos (and the Balance) are stronger than good or evil. There is also a kingdom (Thuul) that brought about the Eve of Abominations (which eventually led to the War of the Magic-born). The resulting war divided the mages of Thuul and many left to form their own kingdom (similar to the witches doing so in WitchWorld).

But- overall, my campaign is dark, low-magic, and probably does "reek" heavily of Moorcock and Norton (or so those that have adventured there or those on the internet that have read the exploits of the party seem to say).

 

[hong]

My campaign tastes of chicken.

 

[UniversalMonster]

Hong beat me to it.

I was going to say "chocolate"

But anyhow, it has a lot of Star Wars influence, along with a helping of big historical fantasy (Lord of the Rings), Dr. Fate comic books (the central conflict is that the players are trying to avert a new Shadow Age, the last one wrought by the Lords of Chaos, and the impending one is being forged by the Dark Lords of Order)

and finally superhero comics like the JLA, JSA, Defenders, Young Heroes in Love, and Doom Patrol. There's a lot of emphasis on the inner-circle soap opera of the team.

 

[Information]

Very high fantasy, medieval, with a powerful Nordic influence to the nonhuman races. Knight errantry is a popular vocation of young warriors and high magic-ridden adventure awaits those who take up that mantle. I was also strongly influenced by a reading of Ywain: The Knight of the Lion and the movie Excaliber.

 

[hong]

Very high fantasy, medieval, with a powerful Nordic influence to the nonhuman races. Knight errantry is a popular vocation of young warriors and high magic-ridden adventure awaits those who take up that mantle. I was also strongly influenced by a reading of Ywain: The Knight of the Lion and the movie Excaliber.

Now come on, I would expect a Barry Manilow soundtrack at least.

 

[Aaron L]

I wish I could be consistent enough to maintain a distinct flavor. It kind of comes out like Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

 

[Jack Haggerty]

For Fantasy... I season heavily with Robert E. Howard, adding in a dash of Tolkien, and a pinch of LeGuin and Lloyd Alexander.

For Sci-fi... I start with an Asimov broth, chop in some Andre Norton, stir in a bit of Heinlein, and maybe add some Harry Harrison for color.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Mine models itself after the A Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin (A cast of thousands and lot's of political infighting), but D&D is too high magic to do justice to a non-superheroic game, so I have tons of other bits tossed in as well.

The Conan books certainly certainly figure largely in it's tone, as do Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories.

 

[hong]

I wish I could be consistent enough to maintain a distinct flavor. It kind of comes out like Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Actually, that would be kinda cool.

"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony!"
-- from http://www.montypython.net/grailmm.php


PS. What's with the ever-changing sig? Mang, and I thought I went through sig quotes like Imelda Marcos went through shoes.