D&D General D&D Archetypes that spread out to other settings and media

[SkidAce]

Lord Vader finds your lack of faith disturbing.

Star Wars was probably as big an influence on Dragonlance as Tolkien was. But the general point is that none of this stuff happens in a cultural vacuum. D&D is in a constant dialogue with popular culture.

True, but there are certainly tropes that while not entirely sourced from DnD, DnD greatly contributed to the spread and saturation of said tropes.

 

[SkidAce]

A capybara is already a dire guinea pig, which is a dire miniature giant space hamster, so that would be a dire dire dire hamster. And have you noticed that capybaras are everywhere all of a sudden?

Even Enshrouded. (video game)

 

[Scribe]

It is my recollection that the looks of Warcraft orcs was a pretty distinct evolution of the Warhammer orc rather than the D&D one.

That old story that Warcraft 1 was supposed to be a Warhammer game, the deal fell through, and we got the Warcraft franchise instead.

 

[Reynard]

That old story that Warcraft 1 was supposed to be a Warhammer game, the deal fell through, and we got the Warcraft franchise instead.

Here is a link: The Inside Story of the Making of Warcraft, Part 1 - Kotaku

Tl;dr version is that they wanted to get the license, could not secure it, and were better off for it.