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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Geoffrey" data-source="post: 3289679" data-attributes="member: 764">Quoting Gary Gygax's article "The Influence of J. R. R. Tolkien on the D&D and AD&D Games: Why Middle Earth Is Not Part of the Game World" in Dragon #95, p. 13:"The seeming parallels and inspirations [between D&D and Tolkien] are actually the results of a studied effort to capitalize on the then-current "craze" for Tolkien's literature. Frankly, to attract those readers - and often at the urging of persons who were playing prototypical forms of D&D games - I used certain names and attributes in a superficial manner, merely to get their attention! I knew full well that the facade would be dispelled by the actualities of play. I relied on the power of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game to overcome the objections which would naturally occur when diehard Tolkien enthusiasts discovered the dissimilarity. This proved to be the case far more often than not. Tolkien fans entered the D&D game fold, and became a part of its eager audience, despite the fact that only a minute trace of the Professor's work can be found in the games. As anyone familiar with both D&D games and Tolkien works can affirm, there is no resemblance between the two, and it is well nigh impossible to recreate any Tolkien-based fantasy while remaining within the boundaries of the game system." [emphasis mine]I'm particularly interested in the bolded part of this quote. It sounds like Gary included dwarves, elves, and hobbits as PC races just because some of his players begged him, "Oh, PLEEEEEEEASE, can't I play a dwarf/elf/hobbit just like in Tolkien!?"My gut instinct has for a long time been that demi-human PCs feel "tacked-on" in D&D. Gary's quote seems to support that intuition.</blockquote>

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