Recent content by Doug McCrae

Lew Pulsipher reviewed the rpg Tunnels & Trolls, unfavourably, in White Dwarf #2 (Aug/Sep 1977). His views are consistent with those he expressed in the "D&D Campaigns" series. T&T is too silly: The rules suggest that the referee include as much humour in the 'tunnels' as possible and that...

In his review of the rpg Chivalry & Sorcery in White Dwarf #5 (Feb/Mar 1978), Lew Pulsipher distinguishes between two styles of play, "simulation" and "game": "C&S is the fantasy role-playing expression of the wargamers who favour realism and simulation while D&D is the expression of playability...

They go back to a series of articles Gary Gygax published in a Diplomacy fanzine called Thangorodrim in 1969 and 1970. Gygax seems to have been extrapolating from Smaug in The Hobbit who is red and breathes fire. From there the colour-coded dragons made their way into Chainmail and then D&D...

Good to interact with you again, pemerton! I completely agree that Gygax and Pulsipher are describing the same playing style. There is a small difference of emphasis, I think. When Gygax gives advice to DMs his main concern is to avoid making things too easy for the players whereas Pulsipher...

Multiple play styles co-existed, and were perceived to co-exist, in the 70s and 80s. In Part I of his series "D&D Campaigns" published in White Dwarf #1 (June/July 1977), Lew Pulsipher (@lewpuls) notes that "D&D players can be divided into two groups, those who want to play the game as a game...

I'm glad you liked them. All the words in the later Bestiaries are real or are derived from real (or D&D) words. For example in Volume VI "grobian" means a "clownish, slovenly person" according to the OED and "leptorrhinian" means possessing a long, thin nose. I used resources such as...

You could have a world where prejudice is directed against all superheroes, not just mutants. This is the case in Alan Moore's run on Captain Britain from the early 80s. I think these excerpts give a good sense of the way this oppression works:

I'd recommend reading Three Hearts if you're interested in the sources of D&D, mostly because it's one of the two main inspirations for alignment, along with Michael Moorcock. There's a lot of D&D to be found in The Hobbit, Three Hearts and Three Lions, Stormbringer, the 20-page Dying Earth...

Personally I don't much like Drizzt do'Urden but Raven is one of my favourite fictional characters. The four travellers in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz seem like a good model for a PC group, which is fairly rare in fantasy fiction. @talien has talked about Oz as a source for 5th ed D&D. My own...

Perhaps a more modern, and self-referential, version would be: D&D is the game where Locke Lamora, Drizzt do'Urden, Samurai Jack, the Tin Woodsman, and DC Comics' Raven team up to fight the Gentleman with Thistledown Hair from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. On the way Raven bullies the Tin...

That's a great post. Yeah, D&D is the game where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser team up with Aragorn, Sir Galahad, and Mazirian the Magician to fight Dracula. On the way to his castle they have random encounters with a regenerating troll from Three Hearts and Three Lions, an annoying pixie, and a...

I completely agree that the X-Men are a major influence on the D&D sorcerer. In the 3.5 PHB's Background section for the sorcerer class, "sorcerers develop rudimentary powers at puberty." Marvel mutant powers first appear at the same time. "Their first spells are incomplete, spontaneous...