D&D ranger = Texas Ranger?

[Felon]

Those who have studied the history of the Southwest know that the Texas Rangers of old had a reputation for being corrupt and racist. Not all of them, of course, but extrajudicial murders and lynchings were common and have been well-documented. I'd hardly want to play a character modeled after that aspect of the Texas Rangers -- unless he was an evil ranger.

Obviously, the concept of a lawman enforcing his own brand of frontier justice creates certain conflicts with modern notions of political correctness. However, I can see a chaotic good ranger acting as sole judge and executioner (screw the jury!).

Again, I direct you to our most stalwart of all rangers, Cordell "Cord" Walker, who for eight years entertained children of all ages with unprovoked acts of violence against anybody he didn't like, be it a 98-lb. stoolpigeon, an already-surrendered felon, or a namby-pamby bureaucratic fellow federal agent. Now that was a thug kids could look up to!

 

[Felon]

How are D&D Rangers not racist? Hell I joke about them all the time - I play a halfling rogue 6/racist 6 (oops I mean ranger 6).

Damn good point. Can't quite recall the last time my party packed a group of suspicious-looking orcs into a paddywagon or spent a couple of days staking out a bunch of kobold bandits--excuse me, alleged bandits--to actually commit a crime so we could catch them red-handed. Even good-aligned D&D characters generally feel quite comfortable attacking any members of a well-known "evil" race on sight.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Damn good point. Can't quite recall the last time my party packed a group of suspicious-looking orcs into a paddywagon or spent a couple of days staking out a bunch of kobold bandits--excuse me, alleged bandits--to actually commit a crime so we could catch them red-handed. Even good-aligned D&D characters generally feel quite comfortable attacking any members of a well-known "evil" race on sight.

That's another thing though - you don't have to be an evil ranger to have favored enemy - human. Or favored enemy - elf. It cracks me up. One can get away with all kinds of things playing a ranger, as long as you can say "Hey, he's my favored enemy!"

 

[shilsen]

That's another thing though - you don't have to be an evil ranger to have favored enemy - human. Or favored enemy - elf. It cracks me up. One can get away with all kinds of things playing a ranger, as long as you can say "Hey, he's my favored enemy!"

Funny. I think that was a very good change to the favored enemy rules in 3.5. The 3e version made it impossible to play a non-evil cop or bounty-hunter or similar type who was skilled at apprehending people of the same race.

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, so that theory was shot down. But how about my theory that Walker, Texas Ranger, was actually based on Strider?

Stride...walk....Chuck NORiss...ArrigORN...it's all so obvious if you think about it.

I have nothing to contradict it. Congratulations! I'm throwing all my support behind it!

 

[Lasher Dragon]

I agree that it is a good change, for just those reasons. I still laugh whenever someone refers to Rangers as Racists though.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

lie, cheat, underhanded...

prideful

throwing thousands of lives away against an enemy on his own whim...


yeah, the perfect role model.

That's quite some spin you've put on it. Too bad it doesn't bear any relation to the character in the book. Perhaps it's another Aragorn?

 

[Steverooo]

The original ranger had bonuses to fight "giant-class" creatures, right? Seems like a Jack, The Giant-Slayer inspiration to me. Like many things in D&D, the ranger seems like an amalgam of several sources.

In LotR, before & after losing Gandalf on the bridge of Khazad-Dum, both Boromir and Aragorn slay many Orcs. On the way out the door, Aragorn slays the Orc Captain of the guard in one blow. When told by Eomer, at their first meeting, that he must know little of Orcs to pursue them so, he responds that few living know more of Orcs than he (and previously, he had identified a host of differences between your typical Misty Mountain Orcs and Sauruman's Orcs). Nope, I think the D&D Ranger is clearly Tolkien-based. Sure, other elements may be added on, but...

 

[Steverooo]

Obviously, the concept of a lawman enforcing his own brand of frontier justice creates certain conflicts with modern notions of political correctness. However, I can see a chaotic good ranger acting as sole judge and executioner (screw the jury!).

The Mexicans typically called the Texas Rangers "Los Diablos Sangrientes", the "Bloody Devils". Their objective was to restore law and order, but their method was to restore order, first, and then the law...

IIRC, Tolkien, himself, did a stint as a cavalry officer, and was well acquainted with fieldcraft. While Roger's Rangers may not have been his inspiration, the skills that they had would have mirrored Aragorn's, quite well...

 

[Bront]

And what about Ranger Rick?

http://www.nwf.org/kidzone/kzPage.cfm?siteId=3&departmentId=81

He's a protector of the wilds; I'm sure that there was some subliminal inspiration for the D&D ranger that came from him!

When I was realy young (7) I only played rangers and named them all Rick because of him. So apparently it worked.