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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5430213" data-attributes="member: 22424">Very true. In fact, the primary inspirations were probably not directly historical at all, but rather in the types of stories Gygax and the others liked to read (see: Appendix N). So, Conan, Lankhmar, Dying Earth, Lord of the Rings (a bit), etc.Of course, to a large extent, some or all of those writings were influenced by European inspirations, probably just because those were the ones most familiar to the respective authors.In fact, if there's one thing I think D&D has lost over the years, I think it has been in that move from being a glorious mish-mash of influences and styles, and become it's own distinct "D&D fantasy".In the past, the game could do a kinda-Conan, it could do a kinda-Arthurian myth, it could do a kinda-Dying Earth. Hell, there was even a place for the nonsense of "Alice in Wonderland"! (As Jeff Rients said, in D&D, "You play Conan, I play Gandalf. We team up to fight Dracula.")And I think that that may well be one of the reasons why D&D was so successful. Like the Roman mythology (and, dare I say it, early Christianity), when it spread into a new area, it didn't declare what it found to be incompatible and move on, it instead absorbed and assimilated it.But now, D&D doesn't really do that. You can't really run a "Black Company" style game natively in 4e (or in 3e, except at extremely low levels). The tone just doesn't work.And where's Harry Potter? Yes, you can model Harry himself in D&D, but he'll look just like any other Wizard with a wand. Really, what would probably be more suited is some sort of Academy-Trained Mage class/build, with a relatively fixed set of known spells, albeit with some customisations to reflect different OWLS. (Sort of like a more flexible 3e Warmage, or even better the 2nd Edition speciality priests.)And, of course, there's more to Harry Potter than just the character himself. There's almost no support in any of the existing settings for "Wizard sports" like Quidditch. Sure, the "Sharn: City of Towers" book has one example of a local race through the skyways, but where's the sporting leagues (just getting back after the Last War)? Where's the "Wizard Olympics"?Or Pokemon? Sure, we had the joke about the 3.5e Paladin mounts, and there are Summoner classes, but those classes generally summon unnamed and generic creatures. Where's the class that has a handful of named creatures he can summon, each with individual quirks and abilities?Maybe there's nothing in it. Maybe it's better this way. Or maybe I'm wrong (or just getting old). But maybe D&D would do better to stop taking itself so seriously, adopt more of an attitude that "it's what you make of it", and stop tying every damn thing down into it's own little niches.</blockquote>

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