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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 5197429" data-attributes="member: 21169">I don't see any deadly Jello cubes, beholders or rust monsters in Kurosawa, to be fair.Which parts of 4e are from comic books? Note that the shambling mound and the soulknife, both pre-4e, are from Marvel comics. A very small portion of 4e is mmorpg inspired - role names, disenchantable magic items, phased monster fights, possibly the stickier tanks. In some very important respects - no need for a dedicated healer, less Xmas tree - 4e is the least mmorpg-y version of D&D. Tieflings are in Conan though they aren't called that. A battlemind is just a guy with both psionic and physical abilities, and those have been in D&D since forever. The runepriest has a somewhat Norse flavour.D&D has always been its own genre. The magic system is useless if you want the magic of Elric or Earthsea or that of any mythology. If you want non-Vancian, then you have to do it yourself. Nothing in literature or myth resembles the classic D&D mega-dungeon. No stories have the sheer quantity and variety of monsters, weirdness and magic that the typical D&D adventure possesses. D&D is the game where a pre-Roman Celtic druid, a paladin of Charlemagne, Cugel the Clever and Caine from Kung Fu team up to fight Man-Thing from Marvel comics, Harryhausen skeletons, Tolkien's orcs and something from an episode of Space:1999. Most fiction has a single protagonist, often with one or more sidekicks, not the D&D party of half-a-dozen or so roughly equal protagonists. Gray Mouser and Fafrhd, the Argonauts and the Fellowship of the Ring are rare exceptions. Because of the risk of PC death by RAW, D&D isn't very good at simulating the epic quest style of fiction. It's more suited to short sword & sorcery type stuff. Gold for xp in 1e is tied to the representation of Conan and Cugel, not LotR or Elric.Possibly the weirdest thing about D&D is the level track. At low levels, PCs die very easily, in fact far more frequently than any fictional protagonist. At high levels, D&D is a crazy monster-beset magic carpet ride of resurrection and teleportation. Both extremes are very rare in fiction and folklore. The progression itself is unique, as far as I am aware.</blockquote>

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