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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 7342698" data-attributes="member: 6779310">D&D is filled with iconic thematic elements.Everyone gets "Fighter" or "Fighting Man".Almost everyone gets "Cleric" once it's explained as "Combattant priest" or "Combat Shaman".Everyone gets Magic User.Everyone gets Thief, most get "rogue" as a more inclusive termThose four iconic themes for characters are near universal.The Bard, while the term itself is a sometimes mismatch, is another iconic role. The musician living by his wits, with a ready dagger and/or sword, is part of English mythology, as well as Scots and Irish. An early 19th C song (by Thos. Moore) highlights the linguistic shift in meaning of Bard from Celtic pagan priest to fighting The Paladin, while again appropriating a term, is a classic of lit, too. The holy warrior. The Crusader knight.The Ranger is a standard of lit... modeled after Aragorn from LotR, it's a recent version of an older archetype - Robin Hood and Will Handy both competent swordsmen and archer, most at home in the woods.The Druid again rears ahistoric terminology to an iconic class: The nature priest. (Druids historic were priests, period.) And they occur in myth, legend, and fiction alike.The rules for D&D also force Campbell's "Hero's Journey," a story motif that is at least as old as the written tale.Add to that the inertia of having been first, both in the market and in most player's experiences...... it is easy to find groups for because of its popularity. It's popularity is fueled by the combination of mythic archetypes in a time where popular entertainment is going to the anti-heroes and avoiding Campbell's monomyth, and it's own institutional inertia, as well as being "Good enough" for most players to enjoy, even if it's not their favorite.</blockquote>

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