D&D 4E 4e Design and JRR Tolkien

[Nifft]

"classic" Tolkienesque heroes like dagger-wielding hairy-footed bi-curious sneak-theives?

Ding ding ding! It appears we have a winner here.

Thanks everyone, thread's over now.

Ciao, -- N

 

[Darkwolf71]

Umm....REH, as in Robert E howard, creator of Conan? Just to be clear

SO between the entire republishing of all his original Conan Wierd tales stories over the past 6 years in anthology form, the printing of complete Brak mok morn, Soloman Kane, Cormac mac Art and Kull the conqurer anthologies, Dark Horse comics creating an entirely new comic line for Conan, Dark Horse reprinting all the old conan comics in graphic novels, the creation of TWO videogames being released this year (a conan platformer for XBOX and a Conan MMORPG for PC), Two entire collectable figure lines created by McFarlane, and Mongoose publishings highly successful Conan RPG in its third printing....

EDIT: I forgot one. The animated movie adaptation of "Red Nails" due in 2008, and the casting for a new live action Conan movie has begun. SO between ALL that....

...your saying Robert E Howard's works aren't popular right now? I think you need to get in touch with the fantasy market my friend.

Try Conan.com, www.darkhorse.com, moongoosepublishing.com, and spawn.com for starters.

--Gothmaug--

PS. Oh and Lieber's Lankhamar series is getting a refit as well, his novels are currently being reprinted by ACE or TOR (I can't remember which).

Gaaaahhh!

You so stole my thunder.

All very good points, and ones that I was going to make. REH is very popular right now. Age of Conan is IMO set to take a large share of the MMORPG market. I'm sure it won't be challanging WOW for 'Top Dog' status, but I see it as a very strong contender for a clear second place. Red Nails is going to blow the doors off of the FUGLY tragedy that is masquerading as a Dragonlance film.

 

[Baby Samurai]

Where did I hear that within the D&D rules Aragorn would probably be a 5th level character (fighter 1/paladin 3/ranger 1)?

I would have to agree, as the Fellowship are pretty feeble next to your average mid-level D&D party.

I would like to see a departure from so many of the Tolkien legacy items that still pervade D&D (Halflings etc).

 

[hexgrid]

One game to rule them all, Gleemax to find them, fourth edition to bring them all and in their fandom bind them.

Seems Tolkien was a significant influence on 4e design philosophy. 4e - The New Classic.

This analogy would make more sense directed at the concept of the d20 license.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Lord of the Rings is popular but other D&D fantasy isn't. I don't see a resurgence of interest in REH, Leiber or Vance at the moment.

Just to point out:

* Conan has a comic again for the first time in over a decade. It is doing well, and is an excellent tribute to Howard. To be clear, it is doing well enough that Dark Horse will be bringing out Kull and Solomon Kane next year. At the same time, DC brought out its Conanesque Warlord again, and Dynamite is doing several Red Sonja titles. IDW is planning a comic adaptation of A Princess of Mars, and there is even talk of a John Carter film.

* Both Burroughs and Howard are currently being reprinted. Howard is, by far, getting the better treatment, with beautiful books in both hardcover and softcover, covering the gamut not only of his Conan work, but all of the work published in Weird Tales and even his boxing stories. Some of these volumes include unpublished fragments, as well as drafts, and interesting critical commentary.

* I'm not aware of any resurgence of Leiber or Vance either.

* In the wake of the LotR movies, a lot of older work is being re-examined in light of what might become the next big Hollywood property. Hence, the Narnia films and The Dark is Rising (based off the Susan Cooper book), as well as several others I'm too addle-pated to recall at this moment. The rights to REH's work had been bound up in legalese for a bit, but now that they are clear again, I'd not be too surprised to discover a new Conan film in the works for 2010 or so.

* League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comic/graphic novel, not film) has certainly provoked renewed interest in characters like Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain and Verne's Captain Nemo.

* In selling short stories, I have found that those cleaving closer to the pulp era dynamic sell better than those cleaving to a more Wahoo! dynamic. Of course, this might be due to my writing style/prefered markets.


I agree with those who've said that 4e seems to recall some of the tropes of earlier fiction more than 3e; the points-of-light setting being one of those tropes. I am somewhat encouraged by James Wyatt's comments (in the Influences article) about I1. Fleshing out the Forbidden City, to tell multiple stores, and to be tackled in the way that the DM and players involved want to tackle it, is what I want from a module. It also makes the setting seem more pulp-era to me.

RC

 

[I'm A Banana]

Just to point out:
-snip-

Aaaah, so in the wake of the Transformers movie, marketers are realizing that rich nerds have a powerful affection for nostalgia!

I prefer my memories like Proust.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I prefer my memories like Proust.

"Sir, if you're calling the author of À la recherche du temps perdu a looney I shall have to ask you to step outside!" - M. Python

 

[Darkwolf71]

Aaaah, so in the wake of the Transformers movie, marketers are realizing that rich nerds have a powerful affection for nostalgia!

I prefer my memories like Proust.

Sooooo...

You figure all these REH licences, comics, reprintings etc. Have come about in the last four months? (Not to mention all the other pulp authors that have been brought up.)

Sorry to burst that bubble (ok, not really), but AoC, Conan: Red Nails, and the Dark Horse Conan comic have all been around in some form of development since 2002/2003.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Some of the Leiber and Vance stuff has been reprinted, in the last few years. I have no idea how well it sold. Last time I checked, you could go buy the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books at Amazon, two original books per volume.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, all the REH congrats aside, it's my understanding that the Del Rey (wasn't it Del Rey?) recent reprints didn't really sell all that well.

I think I remember reading that anyway.