D&D General Are You There D&D? It's Me, J.R.R. Tol-KEEEEN!

[MarkB]

Thanks for the nightmare image of an ant farm Shire!

And now I'm imagining a captive village of hobbits with all their hobbit-holes being sandwiched behind glass so that their stone giant captors can observe and record all the peculiar and amusing goings-on within them.

 

[CreamCloud0]

we've generated three pages of posts on a thread topic that is purely it's title and it's a pretty vague title at that without the original post, just an interesting observation.

 

[bedir than]

The Pain (xenforo) and the Great One (Snarf) by J.S.S.S. Blume

 

[Hussar]

Well, in the interests of making something to talk about, I'm going to jump in and defend my point about the game being far more inspired by JK Rowling rather than Tolkien anymore.

1. At will magic. That's the biggie right there. 5e is far, far higher magic than ever before. Nearly every class is casting spells and many of the classes are casting spells every single round.

2. Species. The move to the idea of humanoids all being actual species with cultures and history and whatnot. Tolkien allowed humans and elves and dwarves and hobbits to be species. Orcs? Cursed elves.

3. More in keeping with a naturalistic approach. Monsters aren't just one off demon things like Shelob or the Balrog. They are more naturally (for a given value of natural) occurring creatures that have life cycles.

Is there Tolkien influence in D&D? Oh, of course. Absolutely. That's undeniable. But, 5e has moved pretty far beyond that and is far more rooted in post 1990's fantasy than it ever was.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Now the question is: Will @Snarf Zagyg ever actually finish the OP or will this remain a completely random thread?

I will try and get the energy to tackle it again. It took a lot to start, and losing it when I was just getting going? Ugh.*

Not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe Friday. No guarantees. Besides, I thought y'all were enjoying the Snarfcation?



*Stuff in the real world, man. Just not wanting to write recently.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, in the interests of making something to talk about, I'm going to jump in and defend my point about the game being far more inspired by JK Rowling rather than Tolkien anymore.

1. At will magic. That's the biggie right there. 5e is far, far higher magic than ever before. Nearly every class is casting spells and many of the classes are casting spells every single round.

2. Species. The move to the idea of humanoids all being actual species with cultures and history and whatnot. Tolkien allowed humans and elves and dwarves and hobbits to be species. Orcs? Cursed elves.

3. More in keeping with a naturalistic approach. Monsters aren't just one off demon things like Shelob or the Balrog. They are more naturally (for a given value of natural) occurring creatures that have life cycles.

Is there Tolkien influence in D&D? Oh, of course. Absolutely. That's undeniable. But, 5e has moved pretty far beyond that and is far more rooted in post 1990's fantasy than it ever was.

I'd say I see more influence of, say, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time: the magic system in Wheel of Time d20 thar WotC made is basically an early draft of Pseudo-Vancian 5E casting.

 

[Parmandur]

I will try and get the energy to tackle it again. It took a lot to start, and losing it when I was just going? Ugh.*

Not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe Friday. No guarantees. Besides, I thought y'all were enjoying the Snarfcation?



*Stuff in the real world, man. Just not wanting to write recently.

When you fel like writing, this thread will probably still be going silly. No rush.

 

[pukunui]

I will try and get the energy to tackle it again. It took a lot to start, and losing it when I was just going? Ugh.*

Fair enough! I know the feeling.

Not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe Friday. No guarantees. Besides, I thought y'all were enjoying the Snarfcation?

*Stuff in the real world, man. Just not wanting to write recently.

No worries. We've all got stuff, man. Take your time.

 

[Azzy]

Well, in the interests of making something to talk about, I'm going to jump in and defend my point about the game being far more inspired by JK Rowling rather than Tolkien anymore.

1. At will magic. That's the biggie right there. 5e is far, far higher magic than ever before. Nearly every class is casting spells and many of the classes are casting spells every single round.

2. Species. The move to the idea of humanoids all being actual species with cultures and history and whatnot. Tolkien allowed humans and elves and dwarves and hobbits to be species. Orcs? Cursed elves.

3. More in keeping with a naturalistic approach. Monsters aren't just one off demon things like Shelob or the Balrog. They are more naturally (for a given value of natural) occurring creatures that have life cycles.

Is there Tolkien influence in D&D? Oh, of course. Absolutely. That's undeniable. But, 5e has moved pretty far beyond that and is far more rooted in post 1990's fantasy than it ever was.

A most (if not all) of this stuff predates rowling, though.

 

[Lanefan]

I'd say I see more influence of, say, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time:

If Wheel of Time was all that influential you'd think we'd see psionics be (or become) much more prominent in the game, to the point of even replacing a lot of current spellcasting, given that Jordan's magic system is nearly all mind-based.