D&D General "Red Orc" American Indians and "Yellow Orc" Mongolians in D&D

[Maxperson]

It would be yes. Were anyone doing that.

I don't know where you're from, but there have been multiple Americans here in this thread telling you that the American frontier is not the predominant type in D&D.

 

[Mordhau]

But this is what we are arguing against. I have said several times it is probably an influence, I just think you are overestimating how much of a default it is for americans as their reference point for frontiers.

So which other frontier do you think has a greater influence?

 

[Maxperson]

Small towns. Generally no. A housewife would brew up some ale and put a sign on her door. If you were looking for a place to sleep you would bed down in someone's house exchange for labour or money (or for free if you had some connection to them).

Now where might this narrative structure in which every town has a tavern/inn have possibly come from?

English pubs?

 

[Bedrockgames]

Now where might this narrative structure in which every town has a tavern/inn have possibly come from?

I would actually be interested in this. I don't think it is necessarily from westerns though. It could be. But my impression when I first started reading fantasy and playing D&D was this all came from the Prancing Pony in Lord of the Rings.

 

[Maxperson]

So which other frontier do you think has a greater influence?

It's a mixture. Think of D&D frontiers as mutts. People aren't building western one horse towns. They're generally just making stuff up that really has no connection to any particular type of real world frontier. Some specific settings or modules, though, make an effort to create towns with a Roman, Greek, or whatever vibe to them.

 

[Mordhau]

English pubs?

Not many of them in the wilderness though.

This is where you really aren't getting what I was saying. You seem to think that a western influence means that every tavern should be a saloon and then you tell me it's not as if that reveals anything than your failure to understand what I was saying. Taverns are based off of the Prancing Pony mostly, from the Lord of the Rings in terms of their superficial detail, but the way they are used, their structural role, is very similiar to the Western.

 

[Bedrockgames]

So which other frontier do you think has a greater influence?

It depends on the writer and game designer in question. If they are a Roman history buff, and not into westerns, frontiers like the Roman Danube will have more of an influence. If they are into wuxia, southern China is probably more of an influence. If they are into westerns, the western frontier. But I also don't think americans equate wilderness and frontier. Like I said, we have large state forests and a lot of us spent time camping in the woods growing up

 

[Maxperson]

I would actually be interested in this. I don't think it is necessarily from westerns though. It could be. But my impression when I first started reading fantasy and playing D&D was this all came from the Prancing Pony in Lord of the Rings.

And Tolkien was English. I expect English pubs influenced him there.

 

[Mordhau]

It's a mixture. Think of D&D frontiers as mutts.

Yes. I said that first.

People aren't building western one horse towns.

Only in your imagination did anyone say they are.

They're generally just making stuff up that really has no connection to any particular type of real world frontier.

No. Imaginary material does not come from a culture less void.

Some specific settings or modules, though, make an effort to create towns with a Roman, Greek, or whatever vibe to them.

Yes. I also said this first.

Also as I said, 'structure' not details. If you don't want to argue with a strawman you need to go back to what I said in post 837 and think about what that means. Everything you've muisunderstood since has followed from the fact that you've not grasped that point.

 

[Yaarel]

Not to mention how the Greyhawk map actually is North America, with a Lake Superior and a Chicago.