Where's the American Fantasy RPG?

L. Frank Baum's Oz series established American Fantasy as a genre, and yet it hasn't had much influence on popular tabletop role-playing games despite several American fantasy authors providing the inspiration for co-creator Gary Gygax's Dungeons & Dragons. Why not?

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

American Fantasy Defined

As described in The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, the tenets of American Fantasy include a contrast between real world struggles and a fantasy land (Kansas vs. Oz), the Garden of the World set in the midst of the Great American Desert (Oz), and pastoral qualities that encompass the heartland like corn fields, crows, wildcats, and field mice. Baum's Oz is different in character but similar in texture to American agrarianism.

There is technology too, always at the cusp of becoming ubiquitous, with objects taking on a life of their own. Baum was uneasy about the impact of technology on society: concerned about the impact of "flying machines", worried about what would happen to premature children in "incubators", and wary of slick-talking characters using gimmicks and puppetry (the titular Wizard of Oz). Judging by the abuse Baum heaps on an animated phonograph, he wasn't a fan of recorded music either.

As Brian Attebery puts it in The Fantasy Tradition:

"Oz is America made more fertile, more equitable, more companionable, and, because it is magic, more wonderful. What Dorothy finds beyond the Deadly Desert is another America with its potential fulfilled: its beasts speaking, its deserts blooming, and its people living in harmony."

Gygax and Dave Arneson were following a European tradition, itself descended from historical battles of interest in Chainmail, infused with their own American influences, such that little of Oz appears in D&D. At least not overtly.

Ozian Elements in Plain Sight

Jack Vance's influence on D&D is significant. From the "Vancian" spellcasting system to the Eye and Hand of Vecna, Vance's work permeates the game. Vance was a big fan of Baum's work and cited him as a major influence. One character recreates the Land of Oz in The Madman Theory (written by Vance under the pen name Ellery Queen), but Baum's influence goes beyond that work and appears in the Dying Earth series, as explained in Extant #13:

"...I speculated that the Phanfasms inspired the village of Somlod, as seen through the lost lenses of the demon Underheard (Cugel the Clever), and that Sirenese society, in The Moon Moth, was inspired by the Whimsies. Among the scarce commentators on Vance there seems little interest in the Baum influence, while influences which are minor or even nonexistent are often emphasized, such as Clark Ashton Smith."

Cugel, whose adventures take place in The Dying Earth setting, has more in common with the Wizard of Oz than Dorothy of course, and his adventures would go on to form the thief archetype in D&D, as per Gygax:

Of the other portions of the A/D&D game stemming from the writing of Jack Vance, the next most important one is the thief-class character. Using a blend of “Cugel the Clever” and Roger Zelazny’s “Shadowjack” for a benchmark, this archetype character class became what it was in original AD&D.

The Dying Earth wasn't a fantasy world, but a post-apocalyptic one set long after technology had fallen into decay. And that's a hint of where we can find Oz's influence.

Talking Animals, Weird Technology, and Untold Wonders

D&D has strayed from its cross-dimensional sci-fi roots, but one game has never wavered from its focus on a post-apocalyptic world filled with strange beasts, ancient technology, and hidden secrets: Gamma World.

The parallels between Gamma World and Oz (where animals can talk, characters can play robots, and humans are relics of another world), as filtered through Vance, finally gives Baum his due. If Baum was so influential on Vance, why hasn't there been more discussion of the parallels? The editor of Extant #13 explains:

"Given Vance’s own repeated and enthusiastic declarations regarding Baum, as well as the obvious parallels between Vance’s favorite Oz book (The Emerald City of Oz) and several of his own stories, I cannot rid myself of the suspicion that this lack of interest suggests an enthusiasm about certain subject matters and styles rather than an interest in Vance as such. I also suspect the Baum influence lacks appeal because he seems old fashioned, quaint and childish. The fashionable taint of the weird is absent."

This may be why Gamma World has struggled to find its audience like D&D has. Where D&D's tropes are so embedded in pop culture to be ubiquitous these days, Gamma World—like Oz—has alternately been treated as ludicrous, deadly serious, or just plain wacky ... the same criticisms leveled at Baum.

It seems we already have our American Fantasy RPG, it’s just a little “weirder” than we expected.

 

[Ace]

I feel the 5e design space for tiers 13-16 and 17-20 can focus on superhero genre compatibility.

Also, a "simple mage" with only three or so magic powers, feels like a superhero.

Tulok the Barbarian on YouTube does 20 Level 5e builds of a of supers using only WOTC and UA material and the standard array. His only concession is occasional use of custom backgrounds which are PHB legal anyway Its a cool channel

There is also a 3rd part supplement called Marvelous Archetypes on Drivethru which is pretty much what it sounds like.

 

[Minigiant]

...But why aren't superhero games more popular then?

lack of advancement.
Difficulty in creating a game system with all the power and balancing time.

Designing a RPG that replicate all he popular heroes for the players to replicate is HARD. And if you succeed it's like GURPS or super complex.

Magic doesnt have to balance power sets to each other.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Surprised no one's managed to make a Pokémon RPG a thing then

...But why aren't superhero games more popular then?

Zero to hero's not usually part of the superhero flow. Or rather, it's non-super powered to super powered - it's a binary. There's no sense of progression typically.

 

[TiwazTyrsfist]

The biggest reason in my mind is that the 1939 Film softened, shortened, and in general watered down the Story of the Wizard of Oz.
It made it more acceptable and accessible for a larger audience.

And since almost EVERYONE is exposed to OZ first via that movie, all the other adaptations of other books in the series that are more true to the original works, and the original works themselves, seem very odd, off-tone, and even disturbing.

It's like picking up a cup of what you think is Cola, taking a big swig, and discovering it's Sarsaparilla.

It's also why SO MANY people hate the Jonny Depp "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and claim it's "Not true to the original" when in fact it is MUCH MORE true to the original BOOK than the Gene Wilder "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". First exposure was Gene Wilder so that's what people see as the "True" work.

It seems like a circular problem, in that not enough people are exposed to the original material to generate the interest necessary to create or support derived material, and not enough modern derived material exists to draw people past the Judy Garland movie to the Original works.

Editted: because I got Julie Andrews and Judy Garland mixed up. Thank you Eyes of Nine.

 

[TiwazTyrsfist]

...But why aren't superhero games more popular then?

I dunno, Mutant's & Masterminds keeps reviving, and I liked it pretty well.

TC: Aberrant did $125K on kickstarter which isn't HUGE but it's no small potatoes.

 

[Marandahir]

1) That picture up top is crazy nightmare fuel.

2) American mythology doesn't need to follow Oz, any more than British fantasy has to follow Narnia.

3) There are almost certainly dozens, maybe hundreds of ENWorld posters with just as copious notes as Tolkein had on Middle Earth, but are lacking 1) a background in linguistics and ancient literature, 2) Christopher Tolkien digging all of this stuff up and publishing it and 3) professional publicists. (Sorry, but anyone who randomly lobs Tom Bombadil into his saga and then seems to forget about him shouldn't be held up as the final word in worldbuilding.)

4) If I were making an Americana fantasy setting or game, I'd start with Atlas Games' Northern Crown, which was a fantasy world version of Colonial America and probably advance it forward a few decades. There's lots of folkloric and tall tale critters to mine in American history, some obvious mythic narratives to create campaigns around, some counter narratives reflecting more contemporary views of things like Manifest Destiny and the like, and, of course, plenty of interesting history like the real-life golden age of pirate (Blackbeard = killed off the coast of North Carolina), the Salem Witch Trials, various wars both forgotten and remembered, and so on.

There's so much good material, IMO, that once someone comes along with a serious head of steam and professional level of quality, it's going to seem like an inevitable success in retrospect.

FYI, Tolkien didn't forget about Tom. All the adaptors of the saga seem to think he's extraneous and miss the extremely important thematic point of him, that detour episode, the trees and barrow-wights, and the power of the Ring.

That said, I agree with the rest of your point here, including everything else in 3). Much of Tolkien's world details would never have seen the light of day if not for his son's dedication to publishing the various drafts. But also much of it wouldn't if Tolkien had been using Microsoft Word and saving over his drafts without track changes turned on.

Tolkien was special, and a monolith of the genre, but he's not all encompassing. And even he stood on the shoulders of MacDonald and others who came before him. Each generation of creators can build upon the last and reach new heights, if we strive for them.

 

[TrueAlphaGamer]

Perhaps it is the familiarity with the general setting that stifles the ability of escapism. American students are, for the most part, inundated with lecture regarding the history of the country. I believe there was more time dedicated to the history of the American continent in all my years of schooling than to any other historical subject. Likewise, in many parts of the States, you constantly see the history around you - you are grounded to it, able to touch it; thus, it becomes mundane. Indeed, you are also not far from it, chronologically speaking, as there has been much less time for such history and legend to 'ferment' when compared to the civilizations of Europe and Asia. By the time of adolescence and adulthood, there is little to romanticize about a setting inexorably linked to the notes you took (or might not have taken) during the last decade or so of your education.

Compare that to the history and legend of ancient and medieval Eurasia, as well as the literature it engendered, which a young 'nerd' has learned little about in school, yet are naturally fascinated by (if not as a result of the content, then as a result of the relative 'mystery' and 'foreignness' of the subject matter). IDK about most people, but I would much rather explore the woods of Wallachia than the hills of Appalachia, similarly to how I would prefer to recreate the Three Kingdoms conflict than the American Civil War.

Another idea, similar to the point made about swords, is that there is just a lot less big stuff. America has no great pyramids which may hold labyrinths of unknown secrets (the Bass Pro Shop one doesn't count). America's 'spellcasters' live in wooden huts, not huge stone towers guarded by mystical woods. We have no great castles in which the king lives (unless you count state government buildings, but those are perhaps more suited to the post-apocalypse than to fantasy). We simply don't have the big places and set-pieces in which to put the stuff required for fantasy to function, unlike Eurasia, which has all of those things and more. Of course, nothing is stopping us from putting those set-pieces into the relevant work, but that, in turn, distances it from the identity of America as it is and has been.

 

[Gradine]

Not sure what counts as "American Fantasy RPG" if stuff like Dresden Files, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun, or The Deadlands don't make the cut.

I mean, I suppose there's Ehdrigohr, if we want to get really nitpicky about what qualifies as American fantasy.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

...But why aren't superhero games more popular then?

It's a really tough balance to get right.

There are a lot of superpowers out there and you have to make it feel satisfying to be Hawkeye standing next to Doctor Strange.

So either you abstract the crap out of things, which is the way lots of modern games have tried it, which doesn't feel great to people who want being the Human Torch to feel a lot different than, say, Starfire, or you make it hyper-granular, like Champions did, which means that fast-paced superheroics can take hours to adjudicate.

The design studio that cracks this one will likely make a ton of money. But it's worth noting that even in the videogaming space, where a lot of the stuff that slows down Champions is automated, there's been relatively few big hits (Insomniac's Spider-Man being the big obvious mega-hit).

 

[Retreater]

I was working on a D&D campaign very much based on American fantasy, heavily influenced on growing up near "cave country" in the Karstlands. Alas, 3.5 ended, then my ex-wife deleted all my notes before I could convert to Pathfinder, so it's been a back burner project for a decade.
I might get back to it after my current project for 5e wraps up.