The Sources of D&D

[Glyfair]

BTW, wouldn't you say that the shambling mound was from Marvel Comics Man Thing?

Visually, yes. However, it works more like the original Swamp Thing (no "whatever knows fear burns at the shambling mounds touch")

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Not a Tolkien invention at all. sure Tolkien exposed lots of people to the concept but there were folks that wore bear-shirts that supposedly gave thme the strength and ferocity of bears...the roots of Berserkers.

Sure, but, the OP credited goblins to Tolkein too.

Therefore surely the criterion is where Gary Gygax & co saw the inspiration, rather than necessarily where it came from originally?

 

[Tewligan]

Otyugh - Trash monster from Star Wars (but debatable)

Probably not. Star Wars came out in summer of 1977, and the forward in the 1e Monster Manual is dated 9/27/77. I would guess that the otyugh was already statted up and cozy in the MM manuscript by the time Luke realized that there was something alive in there.

EDIT: Please pretend I didn't originally say Star Wars came out in 2007. I'm a dumbass.

 

[Faraer]

Ranger, elf, half-elf, dwarf, halfling, orc, half-orc, goblin, wight, worg, balor, werebear - Tolkien

Joe Fischer's original ranger class, yes, though it diverged. The original D&D elves owe more to folkloric sources and Shakespeare than to Tolkien. Dwarves, orcs, goblins, and werebears also have multiple roots.

Law/chaos, troll, paladin - Poul Anderson

Law/chaos also Moorcock.

Cleric spells, angel, demon and devil - Christianity

Well, Christian-inflected Western culture generally.

Thieves' and assassins' guilds, demilich, wererat – Fritz Leiber

Yes! Remember, the idea of a thieves' guild was originally a joke -- 'In Lankhmar, even the thieves have a guild.'

Mind flayer, gibbering mouther – HP Lovecraft

The mind flayer indirectly, via a Brian Lumley book illustration.

Purple worm – Frank Herbert’s Dune

Maybe.

 

[Doug McCrae]

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.

Are you sure that was the source? The word illusionist, meaning stage magician, was being used in the 1830s according to dictionary.com.

 

[Father of Dragons]

Are you sure that was the source? The word illusionist, meaning stage magician, was being used in the 1830s according to dictionary.com.

I'm afraid I am, given as the class was my fault (I have an excuse! I was in junior high school at the time I came up with the first version). It was a looong time ago, but I do remember bits of what I did and what inspired me.

 

[JustinA]

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 -
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.

Gygax is probably the least reliable source for determining what the antecedents of inspiration were for D&D. He has a long history of making palpably absurd statements.

For example, in this case he claims that "medical" was a traditional role in wargames. What wargames, exactly?

Back to the thread:

I suspect that the division of divine/arcane magic (specifically that only divine magic can provide healing) is derived from Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories. This is the only place, pre-D&D, that I've come across this idea. And the Darcy stories would have been all over the SF magazines during D&D's formative years.

What is now the Use Magic Device skill and used to be a thief class ability is derived from Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, clearly indicating that the Mouser was the primary antecedent of the D&D rogue.

The barbarian is clearly derived from the line of Conan. Although, by the time Gygax was using it, Conan's lineage had already been well-used by many authors.

 

[Glyfair]

What is now the Use Magic Device skill and used to be a thief class ability is derived from Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, clearly indicating that the Mouser was the primary antecedent of the D&D rogue.

I was under the impression it came more from Cugel the Clever from Jack Vance. He uses the Laughing Magician's spellbook to cast a spell, and horribly screws it up getting an effect taht wasn't intended (something that happened to Thieves). Cugel is close to the iconic AD&D thief, even though there are certainly other influences.

 

[T. Foster]

shadow = A. Merritt's Creep, Shadow, Creep
lich = Gardner Fox's "The Sword of the Sorcerer" (CAS used the word "lich" a lot, but the D&D monster comes straight out of this story, see this old thread where I provided the exact quote)

 

[T. Foster]

black pudding = The Blob (1950s horror movie)