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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3854151" data-attributes="member: 4937">This is second and third hand, but my understanding is that Hickman was one of the main forces behind moving D&amp;D toward the comic book code, and that he was one of the first to recognize that using all of world's beliefs as merely grist for the imagination might not be the best approach to marketing the product.If you look at his own body of work - Desert of Desolation, Ravenloft, Dragon Lance - it is remarkably unoccult and culturally neutral fantasy while still being I think quite obviously deeply influential examples of the craft of adventure creation and mature thoughtful works.&nbsp; I wonder which is really the more valuable intellectual property - Orcus or Dragon Lance?&nbsp; What value is having Belial in the game compared to say Strahd?My personal feeling about Hickman's work is that he was the first prominent D&amp;D writer to take the craft of RPG creation/playing as a mature and serious artform and not just a fun pasttime.&nbsp; And I also think he was the first prominent D&amp;D writer who took the term 'adult themes' to mean something very different from 'contains nudity, obscenity, sacriledge, or the occult' and then did something about it.&nbsp; At least, that's the feeling I get looking at his work in context.Of course, this is just a peiced together outsider's observation, and it doesn't deal with some of the harm that came to the game under 2nd editions revisions, and naturally anyone actually inside the company at the time will have a better perspective than I have.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 3854151, member: 4937"] This is second and third hand, but my understanding is that Hickman was one of the main forces behind moving D&D toward the comic book code, and that he was one of the first to recognize that using all of world's beliefs as merely grist for the imagination might not be the best approach to marketing the product. If you look at his own body of work - Desert of Desolation, Ravenloft, Dragon Lance - it is remarkably unoccult and culturally neutral fantasy while still being I think quite obviously deeply influential examples of the craft of adventure creation and mature thoughtful works. I wonder which is really the more valuable intellectual property - Orcus or Dragon Lance? What value is having Belial in the game compared to say Strahd? My personal feeling about Hickman's work is that he was the first prominent D&D writer to take the craft of RPG creation/playing as a mature and serious artform and not just a fun pasttime. And I also think he was the first prominent D&D writer who took the term 'adult themes' to mean something very different from 'contains nudity, obscenity, sacriledge, or the occult' and then did something about it. At least, that's the feeling I get looking at his work in context. Of course, this is just a peiced together outsider's observation, and it doesn't deal with some of the harm that came to the game under 2nd editions revisions, and naturally anyone actually inside the company at the time will have a better perspective than I have. [/QUOTE]

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