And the mystery race is...hated

[frankthedm]

Can you imagine the half-orc? After all. He's half orc. The Orcs, who ravage the land and rape the women and are evil incarnate, and yet here's one of the half breeds sitting in a tavern with farmers and craftsmen who've likely lost relatives to orc raids. How do they not kill that orc? He's got ORC BLOOD. Woe, how can they tolerate him?!

Well IIRC that half orc is supposed to be of the 10% of half orcs that could possibly pass for an ugly human in the first place. But yes, half orcs in the wrong bar should wind up lynched, especially in a world where alignment is downplayed, since the reasons NOT to do so are far less obvious.

 

[Odhanan]

You're right on S&S preceding LotR, however (although not Tolkien's work; IIRC, the first parts of what would eventually become Silmarillion go back to early 1920s or so).

1916/17, to be exact, with the first draft of the Fall of Gondolin.

 

[Reynard]

You're right on S&S preceding LotR, however (although not Tolkien's work; IIRC, the first parts of what would eventually become Silmarillion go back to early 1920s or so).

LotR isn't S&S for a very simple reason: the sub-genres of fantasy are arbitrary distinctions, and those that define the genre -- the magazine editors and the publishers, use LotR as the benchmark for "Epic Fantasy" in the same way they use Conan for "Sword and Sorcery". It really isn't worth getting worked up about, since the lines are blurry and artificial, anyway.

 

[Odhanan]

LotR isn't S&S for a very simple reason: the sub-genres of fantasy are arbitrary distinctions, and those that define the genre -- the magazine editors and the publishers, use LotR as the benchmark for "Epic Fantasy" in the same way they use Conan for "Sword and Sorcery". It really isn't worth getting worked up about, since the lines are blurry and artificial, anyway.

Spot on.

 

[med stud]

Can't the ones who want to discuss S&S vs Epic fantasy make a new thread for the discussion? I liked it more when the thread was about PC races...

 

[Shortman McLeod]

...

Who laps pudding?

The kind of people who will like dragonborn.

 

[WSmith]

I would have rather they cut the extra races and gave us more classes, like the bard. In the very slim chance that I do pick up 4e and run a game, there will be four race choices, elf, dwarf, halfling, and human. Hum, oddly enough that is just like OD&D and Classic D&D, my games of choice.