D&D 4E 4e Design and JRR Tolkien

[Hairfoot]

Well, OD&D played like the Tolkien books, 4E will play like the Tolkien movies. Sign of the times.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I don't see a resurgence of interest in REH, Leiber or Vance at the moment.

That's only because Peter Jackson hasn't made a movie of them yet.

The other huge fantasy success story right now is Harry Potter. So by your logic D&D should try to emulate that

+6 Wands

'nuff said there.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

+6 Wands

'nuff said there.

Or, you know, "nothing of substance said there". If D&D were becoming more like Harry Potter, wands would be all-but-mandatory for wizards, not one magical tool among many.

 

[gothmaugCC]

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.
.

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).

 

[Ranger REG]

This is a humor thread, right?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

And Soylent Green is people!

Damn it. Now you spoiled it for me.

Again.

I really need to watch this movie.

 

[Wormwood]

This is a humor thread, right?

In every respect except actual humor.

 

[Wulfram]

"You cannot pass," he said. The orks stood still, and a dead silence fell. "I am a servant of the Hidden Flame, wielder of the fire of Pelor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of the Abyss. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass."
The Balor made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew...

-4th edition Bridge of Khazad-Dum

 

[shilsen]

Well, OD&D played like the Tolkien books, 4E will play like the Tolkien movies. Sign of the times.

Must be a coincidence then, since I think Gygax claimed (and yes, I know we should take that with a large grain of salt) that Tolkien was a much smaller influence on D&D when he created it than many other authors, some of whom have a very different feel from Tolkien. In a recent post in the thread where he answers questions on the General RPG Discussion board, he ranked the influences as follows:

Howard
De Camp & Pratt
Vance
Leiber
Moorcock
Merritt
Lovecraft
Saberhagen
Poul Anderson
Tolkien

 

[wedgeski]

Well, OD&D played like the Tolkien books, 4E will play like the Tolkien movies. Sign of the times.

Y'know that's not a bad analogy at all, although I think that Tolkien 'feel' (not influence... his influence is obvious) was just about absent from every edition starting with AD&D.