D&D General Whom has had a greater impact on D&D? Gygax or Greenwood?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Gygax.
/thread

 

[Mistwell]

Other

You should ask this of different age groups. All us old farts here know all these names, some better than others, but you ask this of newer players in their teens or early 20's and they won't have a clue to most of the names and I would not be surprised if the name the majority give you is Matt Mercer, because of all his streamed games and his setting.

Is Ed Greenwood even credited prominently in any official 5e book?

 

[Guest User]

But hey, you can look at the results of this poll. You stand with one or two other people total. This is about as skewed a result as you will ever find on ENWorld for a poll.

Mistwell, respectfully, please keep your tone polite. You love Gary, I love Gary...so please don't make a thread that is asking a HARMLESS question, engendered from playing D&D with young kids, into an ad hominem attack.

Opinions, can vary...

No, it's not. FR isn't even the most influential of the settings across all the editions, Ed's contributions are not even a majority of the contributions to that setting these days

If Gary is the most influential figure in D&D for "creating" the game, despite the many differences between the editions over the years, and Gary's lack of input over the last 4 editions....shouldn't Ed, at least get the same consideration vis a vis the Forgotten Realms.

I haven't played a D&D game set in the Realms since 1992. I'm no fanboy....but It is
patently obvious that the Forgotten Realms is far and away the most influential and most played setting in D&D History.

 

[Volund]

Gygax because of his drive to write, publish, and promote the original game. Second place goes to Tom Moldvay.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Yes, the FR is "just a setting". Just the most popular, and widely used setting for several decades now. Kids whom have picked up the game independently of their parents, know what the Forgotten Realms is, from the 5e modules. Those same kids, don't have any real idea who Gary Gygax is.

That someone has learned geometry without learning who Euclid is does not mean Euclid was not the founder of Western geometric mathematics.

You have conflated "relevance to emerging audience" with "historical importance." The two often differ.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I think it's closer than these poll results would suggest, but that Gygax and Arneson stand out far above all other contributors, with the possible exception of Greg Stafford. Regardless, Ed Greenwood would be beneath Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman if I made a list.

This feels like wishful thinking by someone who, like me, vastly prefers DL to FR, and has more respect for it.

D&D today is far and away more influenced by FR than DL. It’s not even close.

Hell, I’d say Eberron has more influence on 5e D&D than DL.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Hell, I’d say Eberron has more influence on 5e D&D than DL.

Definitely. New players know Eberron, but don't know Dragonlance.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Who cares about "early 2e?" That's not even a highly influential era of D&D. Concerning a series of articles that are nostalgic but couldn't even cut it as a regular type of article in later years.


No, it's not. FR isn't even the most influential of the settings across all the editions, Ed's contributions are not even a majority of the contributions to that setting these days, and published settings are not even used by a majority of the players, much less a specific one.

But hey, you can look at the results of this poll. You stand with one or two other people total. This is about as skewed a result as you will ever find on ENWorld for a poll. I can't recall a poll that had a 95% agreement!

No poll on enworld ever has any actual significance.

 

[Mistwell]

Mistwell, respectfully, please keep your tone polite. You love Gary, I love Gary...so please don't make a thread that is asking a HARMLESS question, engendered from playing D&D with young kids, into an ad hominem attack.

Nothing I said is even vaguely an ad hominem attack. You're reading tone that isn't there. I didn't even say I love Gary. If you think my tone is not polite, that is entirely you. Re-read what I wrote as if you think my tone is polite, and you will find it is in fact just that.

 

[Davies]

This feels like wishful thinking by someone who, like me, vastly prefers DL to FR, and has more respect for it.

Prefer, no. Respect, yes.

And as to DL's lasting influence, imagine dragonborn without draconians. For that matter, the enormous influence and power of dragons in Eberron would never have come about had dragons been so important in those modules. Before that, dragons were just random encounters, for all their supposed intelligence and magical power.