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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shades of Green" data-source="post: 2986153" data-attributes="member: 3297">Going back to Gary Gygax, I'd say that I have a feeling that there are several game-mechanics concepts that he has created: levels (as opposed to linear progression) as a method of measuring character development, spell levels, distinct character classes, armor reducing the chance of hitting that target (rather than, for example, absorbing damage), saving throws, combat turns and rolled initiative, seperate to-hit and damage rolls. All of these have appeared in so many P&P RPGs and computer-RPGs since D&D came out.Also there are central concepts such as the "traditional" pseudo-Tolkienian fantasy world with dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, trolls, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, beholders, dragons and so on, or the cleric/wizard split, that might also be (atleast in part) Gygax's creation. In other words, D&D's world is a combination of Tolkien (and, I've heared, Vance, but I haven't read any of his books) with many mythologies and myths from around the world (mostly European, but a few, such as the Raksash and Yuan-Ti, are not) and with original creations (beholders? mind-flayers? a dragon's color as its "race"?); is that kind of world (that is, the combination itself, not its sources), later repeated (dirctly or in a more or less modified form) in so many places, the creation of Gary Gigax?How many of these were actually created by Gary Gygax and how many were brought forth by pre-D&D wargames and/or fantasy novels?</blockquote>

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