How tokien ruined modern fantasy

[Faerl'Elghinn]

Umm, dude... Tolkein virtually created the entire fantasy genre. Without his scribblings, there would likely be no ENWorld on which for you to post your criticism... *grimaces*...

 

[DragonLancer]

I'm not keen on JRRT's books myself. Far too ponderous and slow for my tastes, but without his books I doubt we would have the D&D we have today (if at all). Regardless of what some may say, what he came up with inspired many fantasy authors and games designers.

 

[warlord]

I stand by my reasons most of you are Tolkien fanboys who can't accept change. Also he didn't create the orc he stole it from mythology in fact almost everything in LOTR is stolen from mythology. And he madew elvese bow obssesed that is enough reason for me to have thias thread. Hobbits are fat crybabies all they do is sit holes smoke and eat six meals a day. They are inferior to Kender and halflings in everyway. For that guy who said I have no #9 here it is 9. Sauron, and tolkien didn't make elves tall he stole them from celtic mythology

 

[Dark Jezter]

I'm not keen on JRRT's books myself. Far too ponderous and slow for my tastes, but without his books I doubt we would have the D&D we have today (if at all). Regardless of what some may say, what he came up with inspired many fantasy authors and games designers.

Tolkien wasn't as big of an influence on D&D as many people believe, actually. Gary Gygax has said so himself. Here is an exerpt from Gamespy's recent interview with Gygax.

GameSpy: When you were writing and creating the first scenarios and monsters and magic system for Dungeons & Dragons, what influences did you draw from?

Gygax: Mainly Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague DeCamp, and Fritz Lieber. The magic system is based on Vance's work.

(Snip)

GameSpy: How profound an influence was Tolkien on the creation of the world?

Gygax: Not that much, although he certainly assisted in popularizing it because I did put Tolkien-esque things in there. I'm not a big Tolkien fan, though. I did love the movies, but I yawned through the books. I found them very droll and very dull. I still don't give hoot about Hobbits.

GameSpy: That's interesting, because most people who look at Dungeons and Dragons tend to think that Tolkien was a much heavier influence than apparently he was.

Gygax: [Laughs] I've been reading fantasy since 1950.

GameSpy: So much of the game came from these pulp authors?

Gygax: Yes.​

While many later D&D products would borrow heavily from Tolkien, his works were not a big influence on Original Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[Faerl'Elghinn]

I'm not keen on JRRT's books myself. Far too ponderous and slow for my tastes.

You and I concur precisely on this one. I've tried to read them, but I just find the drolling descriptions and meticulous attention to the innocuous to be far too tedious.

 

[DragonLancer]

Tolkien wasn't as big of an influence on D&D as many people believe, actually. Gary Gygax has said so himself. Here is an exerpt from Gamespy's recent interview with Gygax.

Aye. I've read that. But I still think whether he was a big influence or not on people like EGG, Tolkien and Middle Earth have been major influences on a lot.

As I say, I didn't get on with the books too well (took me 10 years to finsh the LotR from beginning to end ), but the epic story and world have influenced a lot of what I have done in homebrews and adventures.

 

[DragonLancer]

You and I concur precisely on this one. I've tried to read them, but I just find the drolling descriptions and meticulous attention to the innocuous to be far too tedious.

I found the first book ok, but the Two Towers and Return of the King were just as you describe them.

 

[dreaded_beast]

I know this is a touchy subject, but IMO, calling the original poster a "troll" and laying down the sarcasm may not be the best way to get your point accross. Although the original poster may have expressed his opinion in a less than tactful manner, the original poster may actually have some interesting things to contribute before everyone jumps on the "troll bandwagon".

Anyways, I've only read Tolkien once or twice, mainly for HS. I can't really remember much except for what I saw in the recent movies, which I enjoyed immensely. Tolkien ruining fantasy? No, I don't think he did, but I believe he had a great influence, one way or another.

 

[Dragon-Slayer]

Don't forget that Tolkien also read the works of (and from some accounts was influenced by) early twentieth century fantasists like Lord Dunsany, William Morris and Eric Rucker Eddison. Of these Dunsany (in my opinion) is the best for campaign inspired mayhem.

 

[David Howery]

Gygax can claim what he wants, but the whole idea of elves/dwarves/halflings being actual people instead of mystical mysterious demi-god types comes from Tolkien. For that matter, one wonders what D&D would be like if Tolkien hadn't had such a strong influence on modern fantasy. Maybe something along the lines of REH or Arthurian mythos... no demihumans, all the PCs would be human, and elves/dwarves and the like would be monsters. There wouldn't be halflings at all (did Tolkien invent these, or get the idea from all the 'little people' mythos of Ireland etc.?). Rangers would be likely to be absent, although I suppose there might be some type of woodsman PC.