D&D General D&D is now Steampunk (poll)
- Thread starter GMMichael
- Start date
James Gasik
We don't talk about Pun-Pun
Curiously, from the very beginning, games I've played in have had Thieves/Rogues going to great lengths to not use those terms in-game, lol. When Final Fantasy 6 came out, and the game's Thief (Locke) insisted he was a "Treasure Hunter!", I was highly amused at how accurate that was.
Emerikol
Legend
I'm saying that any book's popularity rises and falls over time and that D&D sent a lot of people out to buy the LOTRs in the late 70's and 80's. Just like the movies no doubt sent people out to buy the books. I'm not saying Tolkien was unheard of prior to D&D. I am saying it popularized it with my generation a lot.
Reynard
aka Ian Eller
How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?
I am 50 this year, and we were assigned The Hobbit in 5th grade. We also had the
That said, my parents were both fantasy and sci-fi fans so in my household I never had to "discover" Tolkien.
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Yeah - my dad is a Boomer, and not remotely counter-cultural, but liked Tolkien and owned the 1968 U.S. paperback boxed set of the three LotR novels which, by the time he gave them to me as a child, were already so well-read by him as to be falling apart at the seams. Those books were very mainstream, and remained continuous best-sellers in the U.S. since they were first published here in the 60s. The 1966 paperbacks sold half a million copies that year. They were the quintessential college dorm room books of the late 60s. "FRODO LIVES" buttons can be seen worn by students in a lot of footage of Vietnam-era protests.
My dad never heard of D&D until I started playing it in 1986 at age 10. Personally, I had read The Hobbit and seen the Rankin-Bass cartoon version well before encountering D&D.
1966 TIME magazine article about The Hobbit craze in the US: Students: The Hobbit Habit
Desdichado
Legend
Technically no, because there is neither steam powered technology, nor the punk theme of dystopian, street level urban rebellion, or anything that's specifically "steampunk." That said, your points are entirely valid, and nitpicking about labels is for losers. I voted yes.
Reynard
aka Ian Eller
I don't know. I think mutually understood definitions of terms allows us to have fruitful conversations, rather than descending immediately to name calling.
Desdichado
Legend
Lots of people do think that, but they're wrong, unless their idea of "fruitful conversations" is interminable purity spiraling about semantics. I knew what he meant by "steampunk". The fruitful conversation is to be had by engaging what he meant rather than devolving into pedantry about the label he used.
Reynard
aka Ian Eller
That is interesting. You "knew what he meant" but still answered in the negative. Huh.
