poll: What has most influenced your conception of fantasy?

[Fenros]

Actually, my first influences of fantasy were in comic books. Most of which were Euro mags like "Heavy Metal" and stuff.

Then next is art from the eighties. Looking at fantasy paintings from back then conjured up these epic tales in my head. Pictures like the Elmore paintings on the box basic D&D sets. Y'know the one with the knight with the magical two handed sword facing off with the huge green dragon. Stuff like that influenced my early conceptions of fantasy.

Latter half of the eighties were novels, then early nineties was anime, manga, HK cinema, etc. Not that anything I DMed or created in the traditional European Medieval settings suddenly got a bunch of Asian stuff in it, but more to do with storytelling and stringing stories together episodically. Japanese anime writers know great melodrama like no one's business! Great for roleplaying.

 

[MythandLore]

I had to pick Myths and epics (Homer, Virgil, Hercules, Beowulf, Norse sagas, et al)
Followed by Chivarlic tales and poems (King Arthur, Tristan und Isolde, Roland, El Cid, Spencer, Boccaccio, et al) which I'd group in there with the epics.
Followed by Lord of the Rings and its progeny which itself is based on Finnish myths.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Why aren't comics on that list?

...but I'm just gonna ditto what Turlogh said.

 

[Plane Sailing]

My thoughts are mostly shaped by the Conan novels and other pulp fiction, but with a hefty dose of Ursula K LeGuins Earthsea trilogy (although I believe it has sprouted another book since those days)

Cheers

 

[Psion]

What has most influenced my vision of fantasy is the Dungeons and Dragons Fantasy Role-playing Game. I started playing D&D and then I developed an interest in fantasy. Before that I mostly read science fiction.

Sounds familiar. I was interested in mythology, but never read fantasy before I got into D&D.

Heck, I still read more SF than fantasy... I find it more interesting reading.

 

[Henry]

Ho hum -- yet another poll that doesn't have my proper answer on its list of choices.

As some of the others, the first thing that leaped to my mind was the D&D game itself. When I was a child, I enjoyed things such as Shogun Warriors, Godzilla, Comic Book Heroes, G.I. Joe, and so forth, but my first real exposure to Fantasy was through Gary Gygax's and Dave Arneson's Game. I first learned through Basic D&D, with the Red Box with Erol Otus's Artwork on the cover.

From there, I picked up an interest in Fantasy in general, and I learned the many different shades of fantasy genre, as well as the reasons behind the storytelling of both Fantasy and Sci-Fi - the concept to tell a story and also teach a lesson.

At the risk of sounding corny, even Basic D&D is no mere game - it teaches both cooperation and ideals of heroism and bravery.

 

[Ace]

For me a little of the above mostly Epics, LOTR and Pulp stuff leavened with Modern Fantasy.

 

[Tsyr]

For me, it's sorta even between fantasy novels (Tolkien, Moorcock, Wies, and several other "favorites"), Anime, and a few good american movies (Willow, Conan, now Lord of the Rings, etc).

I voted Anime, just because Anime should always get votes

 

[arwink]

Prob'ly the DnD cartoon, followed by the game itself, followed by tolkien and eighties fantasy movies (never ending story, labrynth and the dark crystal). It was a long time ago, but i think that was the order it took

Realistically though, anything on that list influences my game depending on the campaign. I tend to alter my game concepts a lot, otherwise i tend to get bored.

My current game is kinda conan meets the never ending story with a tinge of manga thrown in.

 

[drnuncheon]

with a hefty dose of Ursula K LeGuins Earthsea trilogy (although I believe it has sprouted another book since those days)

Two, and a collection of short stories. I haven't read the fifth, but I hated the fourth (Tehanu). :/

J