Unique British aspects of D&D in the UK?

[jdrakeh]

I'm not British, but I collect a lot of old D&D stuff and I have noticed that early D&D material from the UK seems to be more focused on urban adventures as opposed to dungeon crawling. For example, take both TSR UK's Pelinore AD&D setting or the city of Irilian for AD&D, as it appeared in White Dwarf.

 

[Yora]

I'm not sure if there was a distinctively British style to TSR UK products, or if it was just personal preference of their editor. (How big could that team have actually been?)

I also only now connected the dots that Games Workshop is British and that Games Workshop makes Warhammer 40k, and that this means 40k is a British game.

 

[John R Davis]

We do like Grimdark but the Scandiwegians have certainly taken up that mantle now.

 

[Yora]

The climate in England is just not sufficiently Frostbitten to be truly Blasphemous

 

[John R Davis]

The climate in England is just not sufficiently Frostbitten to be truly Blasphemous

Very true.
Five years ago , according to my FB, I was in Finland and that was -26°C. So yeah, I can feel their frostgrim outlook.

 

[Larnievc]

This is more of a question from a Yank...anyone from across the pond notice any particular British flavour to games over there? I remember reading the Fiend Folio back in the day, and there were UK-specific mods in the early days of D&D...

If this is in any way offensive, I apologise (though I'll say in my defence I used to grow up watching Fawlty Towers and the original Hitchhiker's Guide with my folks)...

Not sure if this is quite what you mean but I remember when playing Baldurs Gate back in the day think that the farmers all seemed like idealised American homesteaders from the 19th Century.

It always made me think how the games I ran had a definite Feudal flavour were said farmer was a serf or some such who was less a self sufficient survivalist and more a subject who owed fealty and expected protection from the Baron or Duke.

 

[Morrus]

Not sure if this is quite what you mean but I remember when playing Baldurs Gate back in the day think that the farmers all seemed like idealised American homesteaders from the 19th Century.

Oh yeah, D&D is ren-faire America, not medieval Europe.

 

[Yora]

Very true.
Five years ago , according to my FB, I was in Finland and that was -26°C. So yeah, I can feel their frostgrim outlook.

Crap, now I wonder if there's a band or a game named Grimfrost yet.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In the UK version of the PHB, iron rations are tea bags and scones.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

To a British player, D&D has an element of Americana which is part of it's appeal.

I've noticed a different art style and tone in British RPG products than their American counterparts. Somewhat equivalent to the differences in UK vs American humor (America could have never produced the genius of Monty Python).

In the UK, cynicism is more socially acceptable, whereas peppy optimism and enthusiasm are not.

I'm not British, but I collect a lot of old D&D stuff and I have noticed that early D&D material from the UK seems to be more focused on urban adventures as opposed to dungeon crawling.

The UK does not have much in the way of wide open wildernesses or remote townships, so this kind of environment is alien to us.