Talk about blantant idea stealing

[Hand of Evil]

Mmmmm, sound like writers block to me and a law suit too!

Wonder how soon it it be pulled!

I was only making humor...

The idea is from some old plup comic and is a common theme in adventure plots.

 

[Andor of the Blade]

The Conan story referenced here might be "Sons of the Bear God". It was not written by REH. It was printed as a novel and as a four issue comic series (in Conan the Barbarian) by Marvel Comics.

 

[Aaron2]

Doesn't WOTC have the rights to Diable 2 game material? If so, they aren't stealing ideas, they are "incorporating licensed material".


Aaron

 

[Greatwyrm]

I don't think they own the rights, but the certainly got a license to put out 2e and 3e supplements with Diablo 1 & 2 stuff in them. Diablo just called them "Fetishes" if I remember correctly. Otherwise, they are very similar to the pygmy mummies of TMR.

In fact, I remember seeing the trailer for TMR the first time and saying, "wow, those little dudes look just like those things from Diablo."

 

[Don Carnage]

Two Movies

The pygmy battle at the end of The Mummy Returns was an homage to the finale in Boris Karloff's Return of the Mummy where he fights some claymation puppets, which itself was an homage to the 1938 Tarzan and the Green Goddess.

And knowing is half the battle.

 

[Aristotle]

A little bit of Occams Razor here.

I think that, as others have pointed out, a great deal of this "concept" is based on African legend. Are all of these individuals going to the library and digging up the information on the legends and using the concept from there? Not likely. They are probably just using the work of those who did so as inspiration for their own ideas, and so forth...

Let's face it. The pigmy savage that hides in the trees and uses poisoned darts and blowguns has become a staple of the fantasy/adventure genre. I haven't done the research so I can't say where the undead aspect or the defenders of the temple aspect originated. Perhaps they are a part of the original legends that are sometimes left out, or perhaps they are a more recent addition to the concept. Even if that is the case, it is near impossible to tell who "came up with it first".

Writers often borrow from one another. Direct coppies of a previous work can sometimes be annoying, but I don't think you can fault someone for using a standard concept of the genre in their own work. You can however wish they were a bit more creative...

I find nothing wrong with the article or the use of the savage undead pigmies themselves. I do however have to look at it as the writer defaulting to a standard concept for the genre instead of attempting to break new ground. There is nothing wrong with the old concepts, but sometimes you like to be inspired by something "new and different".

Just my opinion...

 

[RobNJ]

I know people in gaming like to reuse neat ideas they see in movies or books or other campaigns. But when someone puts it out on the web I prefer if there is a little more originality and a little less theft.

Amen. This sort of thing is unprecidented in D&D. Sure, there's the elf. And the dwarf. And the halfling. And the ranger. And the treant. And the evil spider goddess.

But come on. Wizards of the Coast have truly broken new ground in their theivery!

 

[Ghostwind]

There's a very old axiom that there are only seven great concepts (or ideas) in literature and all works of literature are merely recycled versions of those ideas. The same thing applies to this thread. The ideas generated of pigmy-sized humans with blowguns can be traced back generations. It is a staple of pulp fiction and from African folklore. The fact that something cropping up in game terms that is based upon this shouldn't really surprise anyone. After all, how many times have we seen a "rescue the princess (substitute any important figure) from the dragon (substitute evil nemesis figure) and prevent the end of the world" story through the years? If you apply the same accusations of theft/lack of originality, then half of the D&D modules published would fall under the same argument.

Writers derive their inspiration from other sources. We draw ideas from other books, movies, news, and real-life. Case in point, when writing Egyptian Gods for Bastion Press, I created a Moon Knight prestige class that is a homage to the original Marvel Comics character done in the late 70s-early 80's. If you are familiar with the character and you read the prestige class, you will see the similarities. Does this mean it rips off Marvel? Not hardly. It is far from a direct copy, but rather one professional's way of acknowledging the genius of another's. You see this all of the time, especially in the movies. Anyone care to count all of the little tip-of-the-hat homages that were present in Phantom Menace or even Monsters, Inc.? Just because similarities exist doesn't mean it is an intentional attempt to blatantly rip off another's idea. Sometimes it is just someone's way of tipping their hat...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

As Pyramid editor Steven Marsh has pointed out, there are no original ideas - just old ideas that are executed in new ways...