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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenjib" data-source="post: 349709" data-attributes="member: 530">That picture cracks me up each and every time Thorntangle!One angle with which to look at this is the type of game that different systems support out-of-the-box.  I think that D&D supports a style of play more in-line with modern high fantasy than older, more literary works of the past.  It also retains influences from earlier pulps thanks to Gary Gygax's continued legacy but I think that 3e has moved away from the older pulp feel and more toward the modern fantasy feel.By "more literary" I am not making a measure of quality.  I am simply referring to the fact that they are more widely accepted in literary circles and canonized.  Tolkein is perhaps the only modern fantasy author whose work can be considered literary canon, although I think H.P. Lovecraft is also approaching this status.  Beyond that you have works like Morte D'Arthur, Beowulf, the Faerie Queen, and older works of myth and folklore like the Eddas and Grimm's Fairy Tales.The feel of most of these stories are not easy to run with D&D straight out of the box.  Because the system is generic, you must tweak the system to attain the flavor you want.  D&D is a hodge-podge of different styles and as such has no real style of it's own.  It is a massive pastiche of fantasy.  So, if you want to run a more literary or historical campaign you likely need to either heavily tweak D&D or run another niche system already designed for one of these literary or historical styles, such as Harn's emphasis on a gritty medieval historicism infused with traditional fantastic elements.So, I think that D&D's lack of being built around a specific setting is both a benefit and a curse.As a slight tangent, while I prefer 3e for it's superior ruleset, I do think that 1e had a stronger connection to older literature, history, and myth than 3e does.  I think the perspective of Gygax versus WotC has something to do with this, although it is true that the game must follow modern demographics and customer preference to be successful.  Perhaps some people associate such things with sophistication or lack thereof.</blockquote>

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