So why monks?

[kenobi65]

I had also read someplace recently that the original D&D monk was created by (or at the request of) a player who wanted to play a PC similar to Remo Williams, a.k.a. "The Destroyer" (from the "Destroyer" series of novels, on which the movie "Remo Williams" was based). However, I can't remember the source of this story, so it might be apocryphal.

 

[diaglo]

monks were in OD&D. they were introduced in supplement II Blackmoor as a class

 

[MerakSpielman]

It isn't based in European historical figures, as far as I can tell, though Europe had some fine styles of unarmed combat.

But D&D is already a weird mish-mash. The original Cleric concept was loosely Christian, while the Druid is Celtic. Historically there is little justification for having both the Wizard and the Sorcerer class, and historical bards weren't considered to have magical powers.

There's also a hugely innacurate portrayal of weapons. D&D has a random array of weapons from all eras and all regions, from China and Japan to Persia and England, and applicable to time periods from hundreds of years BC to the 1600s.

So singling out the Monk as the sole deviation in D&D from historical Medieval Europe is kind of silly.

 

[driver8]

I'm not fusangite, but I remember it from the Gary Gygax Q&A threads. Here's the post.

Ahh I bow to your research fu! Thats exactly what I was looking for. I always wondered how much the early 70s post Bruce Lee kung fu explosion effected D&D. Now I know. Thanks.

And again, my question wasnt meant as an insult to monks. Its fantasy- you can justify anything, from druids to squid headed brain eaters. I was just wondering how they came to be, not positing that they dont necessarily belong.

And I had totally forgotten about the master rules mystic.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Monks are a fairly recent addition to the game as far as I know.

Ho Ho Ho!

Monks appeared in Blackmoor, the second supplement to Original D&D. As a quick refresher

OD&D - fighter, magic user, cleric
Greyhawk (supplement 1) - paladin, thief
Blackmoor (supplement 2) - monk, assassin
Eldritch Wizardry (supplement 3) - druid

also in strategic Review, an 8 page 'zine, we had
Ranger,
Illusionist
(I forget the exact issue numbers for those now).

So the monk has been part of D&D from the very early days - predating Basic D&D and AD&D very nicely. They were before the Druid, and may have been before the ranger and illusionist depending upon when those issues of SR came out.

Cheers

 

[Crothian]

Ho Ho Ho!

Monks appeared in Blackmoor, the second supplement to Original D&D. As a quick refresher

did you even read the rest of the post???? :\

 

[coyote6]

I read the Remo Williams thing a long time ago; and from the few Destroyer books I read, Remo had near-exact matches of many of the abilities of the original monk class. Since (IIRC) Remo predates the monk class, I would assume that the monk's abilities were at least partially inspired by Sinanju.

And I don't recall Carradine doing the slow fall-while-near-a-wall trick . . .

 

[Chimera]

Darn it, trancejeremy beat me to it. Oh well, here it is again;

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!
Those kicks were fast as lightning!

Who couldn't watch those old cheesy Kung Fu movies and want to play something like that in a D&D game?

 

[Storyteller01]

EDIT: Doing some look up, I find myself victim to an urban legend. The series pilot was done by two other people who had no connection with Lee, though he was apparently considered for the role at one point. Ah, well - still would have been cooler with him in it, though.

Off topic hijack...

Didn't Bruce Lee play Green Hornet's sidekick for two seasons (or maybe just part of one)? I remember a story on the tube where Green Hornet and Batman fought each other (the usual 'oops, my mistake' storyline). If there are heros, there are sidekicks.

Anyway, the story, as I remember it, was that Mr. Lee's character was supposed to lose to Robin. Bruce wasn't having any of that, so the script was rewritten to end in a draw.

Hi jacking over...

 

[trancejeremy]

Darn it, trancejeremy beat me to it. Oh well, here it is again;

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!
Those kicks were fast as lightning!

In fact it was a little bit frightening
But they fought with expert timing