The Sources of D&D

[Doug McCrae]

The concept of the homunculus as a twisted little manwas around for hundreds of years before the film.

That's true but the early D&D depiction of the homunculus as horned and winged is identical to the one in Golden Voyage. The 3rd ed version looks a bit different though and lacks horns.

It's the same with the shambling mound. I think RC is right that it comes from comic books. My recollection of the original art (or maybe I'm thinking of the D&D adverts that appeared in comics) is that it looked identical to Man-Thing. Again the 3rd ed art is a bit different, obscuring the original source.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Dragon is a difficult one. In a way it's strange that we call the Chinese water creatures dragons as they are quite different from the European beasts. Terminology for things that don't exist is always tricky.

I see the European concept - big lizard, wings, breathes fire, treasure horde, malicious - as the basis for the D&D dragons. The different colours bit was Gary's idea. The Chinese concept of good dragons that take human form was then added to this for the gold and silver dragons.

 

[jasin]

This list is intended to be exhaustive though isn't yet.

This is a really cool idea.

 

[Tewligan]

Werebear - Tolkein.

I wouldn't swear by it, but I thought that Tolkien took that from Norse folklore.

 

[jasin]

Barbarian – RE Howard

I'd say the barbarian is as much Leiber as it is Howard. I remember when I first read the first Lankhmar story and Fafhrd dodges some dropping snow/ice before he can consciously notice it... the best description of uncanny dodge, from a time when uncanny dodge wasn't written.

And barbarian is also something else. Neither Fafhrd nor Conan rage, in the sense the D&D barbarian does.

Magic system, prismatic spray - Vance

Derro – Richard Shaver

More info, please? This is the only item on the list I have never heard of.

 

[Doug McCrae]

No. The cleric wasn't conceived of as a medic, and the thief didn't derive from wargaming. The cleric was a hero with powers, something like a crusader; the thief was a response to situations discovered while first playing D&D in dungeons.

I agree the cleric looks like a crusading knight with Biblical powers added. I think the thief comes mainly from Leiber. But according to Gary Gygax -

Indeed, as far as I know there are no literary parallels of the FRPG adventuring party. My inspiration was from wargaming, the mix of arms on the battlefield. Infantry = fighter, rangers/spies = thief; medical/priest = cleric, artillery/engineers = magic-user.

It could be I'm misunderstanding Gary's quote, he might just be talking about the party as a whole, rather than specific classes. Or it could be that Gary is wrong.

 

[Doug McCrae]

More info, please? This is the only item on the list I have never heard of.

Richard Shaver

 

[GreatLemur]

Rust monster, bulette – Kid’s toys

I believe you can add the owlbear to the sack-of-cheap-plastic-toys-from-Hong-Kong category.

 

[IanB]

The D&D version of trolls is also straight out of Three Hearts and Three Lions as I recall.

 

[Father of Dragons]

The name of the Illusionist class came, alas, from Lin Carter's Warrior of the World's End, but the class abilities were mostly just made up from whole cloth. One exception is the Phantasmal Killer spell, which was taken from E. E. "Doc" Smith's Second Stage Lensmen, in the scene where Kimball Kinnison first meets Helen of Lyrane (Helen attacks Kinnison with a horrible illusionary monster, the slightest touch of which would be fatal, but Kinnison turns it back on her; this is why the rule about using a Helm of Telepathy to turn a Phantasmal Killer on back on the caster is in the spell -- the Helm being the closest thing to the Lens of Arisa you could find in OD&D).