Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 3225426" data-attributes="member: 22882">What it comes down to is this: the first incarnation of D&D was not a high-concept game of mythic storytelling tapping into deep-seated archetypes and based on the definitive and instantly recognizable imagery of fantasy.  Nor was it the intricately engineered, designed and developed work of an experienced professional RPG designer, equipped with years of playtest and market research data.It was a fairly down and dirty set of supernatural dungeon-crawling rules grafted to a skirmish-scale miniatures wargame.  In its early years, it grew, not by conscious development to cover previously untapped mythic territory - or to capture hitherto untapped markets - but by fits and starts as various people in its initial playgroups came up with ideas they thought were cool.The potential of those rules captured the imaginations of so many people, they created the RPG industry and *defined* the definitive and instantly recognizable imagery of fantasy.  In retrospect, D&D classes look iconic, but at the time?  Not so much.I'd also make the case that the D&D classes are *no longer* as iconic as they were in, say, the '80s and '90s.  The fantasy genre has moved on somewhat from that extremely D&D-influenced period and is by turns going back to older tropes and incorporating new ones.</blockquote>