Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Ralif Redhammer" data-source="post: 8193668" data-attributes="member: 30438">Trying to picture D&amp;D coming out today is a tough one - as others have noted, its influence on pop culture was massive. A lot of the potential influences on a modern D&amp;D wouldn't exist, or wouldn't be the same. Without D&amp;D in 1974, would we even have the language to ponder the question? I'd like to think that the creatives that were emboldened by D&amp;D like Ken St. Andre, Greg Stafford, MAR Barker, and Marc Miller would've eventually written their games without that lightning strike, but maybe not? No D&amp;D could very well be the equivalent of Bradbury's dead butterfly.D&amp;D was invented riding a huge groundswell of interest in fantasy - Tolkien, the Ace/Conan Lancer books, the Sword &amp; Sorcery boom, the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. For the purposes of the exercise, assuming that the person that would create D&amp;D here and now did so at age 36-ish as well. Going back to when this person would've been a kid/teenager, twenty years ago, we still have Lord of the Rings with the movies coming out. What we don't have as much of are the Sword &amp; Sorcery influences - those would likely be replaced by anime, though one could argue that the modern Grimdark movement would handily take their place. Magic the Gathering, too. Star Wars is another possibility, since the prequels came out around that time, too. But then the case could also be made that today's D&amp;D would have been influenced by the Game of Thrones series, or even the MCU.I think it certainly would've been a more narrative game, assuming wargaming would continue to fall out of fashion in favor of videogames. But then where would the mechanical skeleton of the game come from, if not there? Boardgames? Cardgames? We could certainly have seen a D&amp;D informed by Magic the Gathering's mechanics. Or none of it could've happened, and I suspect some of us would be best-selling authors, rather than underappreciated dungeon masters...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ralif Redhammer, post: 8193668, member: 30438"] Trying to picture D&D coming out today is a tough one - as others have noted, its influence on pop culture was massive. A lot of the potential influences on a modern D&D wouldn't exist, or wouldn't be the same. Without D&D in 1974, would we even have the language to ponder the question? I'd like to think that the creatives that were emboldened by D&D like Ken St. Andre, Greg Stafford, MAR Barker, and Marc Miller would've eventually written their games without that lightning strike, but maybe not? No D&D could very well be the equivalent of Bradbury's dead butterfly. D&D was invented riding a huge groundswell of interest in fantasy - Tolkien, the Ace/Conan Lancer books, the Sword & Sorcery boom, the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. For the purposes of the exercise, assuming that the person that would create D&D here and now did so at age 36-ish as well. Going back to when this person would've been a kid/teenager, twenty years ago, we still have Lord of the Rings with the movies coming out. What we don't have as much of are the Sword & Sorcery influences - those would likely be replaced by anime, though one could argue that the modern Grimdark movement would handily take their place. Magic the Gathering, too. Star Wars is another possibility, since the prequels came out around that time, too. But then the case could also be made that today's D&D would have been influenced by the Game of Thrones series, or even the MCU. I think it certainly would've been a more narrative game, assuming wargaming would continue to fall out of fashion in favor of videogames. But then where would the mechanical skeleton of the game come from, if not there? Boardgames? Cardgames? We could certainly have seen a D&D informed by Magic the Gathering's mechanics. Or none of it could've happened, and I suspect some of us would be best-selling authors, rather than underappreciated dungeon masters... [/QUOTE]

Verification