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Where's the American Fantasy RPG?
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<blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 8077744" data-attributes="member: 6777454"><p>I think D&D has some <em>very</em> American aspects to it that are being quite overlooked here.</p><p></p><p>Many D&D worlds are about reclaiming a world that has some history to it, where treasure from previous inhabitants is hidden everywhere, and you are going from the ever-expanding bastions of civilization into the wild. Those who live out in the wild, for the most part, are "evil savages" and your enemies and if you go wandering out there in search of treasures then you are likely to be ambushed and perhaps killed.</p><p></p><p>You don't have people living in distinct regions with fairly well understood borders nor a powerful government that assigns individuals their roles in society from near birth like you would in a fantasy setting in proper medieval/fuedal Europe or Asia. You start off fully formed with often no ties to wherever you came from with very few rights and substantial freedom to go wherever you want and do whatever you want until you butt heads with any other individual-- just a few coins in your pockets and it is entirely up to you to make your fortune and place in the world.</p><p></p><p>All these assumptions of a character starting off in D&D are quite quintessentially American regardless of whether many aspects of the world were swiped from an English book series. The way it works is very much frontiersman, treasure hunter, Cowboy & Indians, American Dream....</p><p></p><p>An RPG that draws more from L. Frank Baum's works is fine-- but it is no more particularly American, it just reflects a different region and era of America once the world began to be neatly divided up and governance and civilization had pushed fantasy and adventure to the margins so you had to either delve into the few remaining regions of "wilderness" or get swept off to another land to find your adventure-- although that is, if anything, far more relatable to the way European and Asian tales work.</p><p></p><p>Honestly-- if I were to think of another book that is like the Wizard of Oz books where a character gets swept off to an imaginary fantasy land that contrasts his struggles in the real world, the next thing I would think of would not be other great American authors of the late 19th/early 20th century like Mark Twain or Ernest Hemmingway or John Steinbeck or Jack London... no, the next thing I would think of is Alice in Wonderland by U.K author Lewis Carol or the Chronicles of Narnia by U.K. author C.S. Lewis or The Neverending Story by German author Michael Ende.</p><p></p><p>So... calling this type of "real life person gets swept off into a fantasy world" more fundamentally "American" or contributing it primarily to American authors and contrasting that with the expectations and assumptions a game like D&D makes about characters just doesn't make sense to me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GreenTengu, post: 8077744, member: 6777454"] I think D&D has some [I]very[/I] American aspects to it that are being quite overlooked here. Many D&D worlds are about reclaiming a world that has some history to it, where treasure from previous inhabitants is hidden everywhere, and you are going from the ever-expanding bastions of civilization into the wild. Those who live out in the wild, for the most part, are "evil savages" and your enemies and if you go wandering out there in search of treasures then you are likely to be ambushed and perhaps killed. You don't have people living in distinct regions with fairly well understood borders nor a powerful government that assigns individuals their roles in society from near birth like you would in a fantasy setting in proper medieval/fuedal Europe or Asia. You start off fully formed with often no ties to wherever you came from with very few rights and substantial freedom to go wherever you want and do whatever you want until you butt heads with any other individual-- just a few coins in your pockets and it is entirely up to you to make your fortune and place in the world. All these assumptions of a character starting off in D&D are quite quintessentially American regardless of whether many aspects of the world were swiped from an English book series. The way it works is very much frontiersman, treasure hunter, Cowboy & Indians, American Dream.... An RPG that draws more from L. Frank Baum's works is fine-- but it is no more particularly American, it just reflects a different region and era of America once the world began to be neatly divided up and governance and civilization had pushed fantasy and adventure to the margins so you had to either delve into the few remaining regions of "wilderness" or get swept off to another land to find your adventure-- although that is, if anything, far more relatable to the way European and Asian tales work. Honestly-- if I were to think of another book that is like the Wizard of Oz books where a character gets swept off to an imaginary fantasy land that contrasts his struggles in the real world, the next thing I would think of would not be other great American authors of the late 19th/early 20th century like Mark Twain or Ernest Hemmingway or John Steinbeck or Jack London... no, the next thing I would think of is Alice in Wonderland by U.K author Lewis Carol or the Chronicles of Narnia by U.K. author C.S. Lewis or The Neverending Story by German author Michael Ende. So... calling this type of "real life person gets swept off into a fantasy world" more fundamentally "American" or contributing it primarily to American authors and contrasting that with the expectations and assumptions a game like D&D makes about characters just doesn't make sense to me. [/QUOTE]
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