What flavor does your campaign have?

[Ace]

I'm probably just being cynical, but I get the feeling that some of these influences appear to be a little too "trendy" to come across as totally sincere.

It's cool to look to old fantasy fiction for inspiration, but honestly, are we all influenced as much by it as this thread makes out versus more contemporary influences? I mean sources that aren't "fantasy high brow", because they're not in novels. For example, I think some computer games such as Planescape: Torment or even gaming supplements such as Skullport have as much to offer to a D&D game in terms of inspiration and style as The King of Elfland's Daughter, but it seems tres chic to cite Moorcock, Lovecraft or Howard instead. And yes, I have read a few of their books and do appreciate their work and ideas...

I'm not having a go at anyone in particular, just airing a view on this thread in general...

There is nothing wrong with citing computer games as inspirations however games were be played in myh game world when 386 PC's were high tech

As for Moorcock, not my style.

I will stand by my cite of Howard, I grew up with those 12 Ace Paperback editions. The Lovecraft stuff, thats inspiration is more recent although I am really fond of Robert Howards Cuthulu Mythos stories.

Dunsanny, Wonderfull writing from what i have read of it but it didn't have any direct influence on my game

As to Planescape Torment , Never played it . IMO The the D&D computer games I have played are dull as dust

YMMV of course.

What weird is over the years I have never bought any of the game worlds, I have read a Greyhawk book or two and bought supplements for cruchy bits but I the only official game world I ever played on was Greyhawk and that was in an apocolyptic Rolemaster game.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

Ace--

As to Planescape Torment , Never played it . IMO The the D&D computer games I have played are dull as dust

I love Planescape: Torment. It has the best ambiance of any electronic RPG game to date. Also, the NPCs have the best characterization of any CRPG ever. (Dak'kon is my all time favorite.)

It does have problems, of course...

If you are looking for a fast paced game, steer clear. This game is pretty much a novel with graphics. But if you dig reading text (which I do), then that's not a flaw, but a feature. Also, the replay value is pretty crappy, better go with Evercrack if you want to be addicted to something for years. (Which I haven't done. I played Evercrack for three 24 hour days, then decided the game was a waste of my time. I'd rather discuss the properties of adamantine arrows on a messageboard...)

 

[hong]

For PST fans

Rhys Hess has extracted (nearly) all the text in Planescape: Torment, given it a narrative structure and turned it into a novel. Lucian Wischik has in turn made it available for download as either a pdf or Word document.

http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html

 

[mmadsen]

It's cool to look to old fantasy fiction for inspiration, but honestly, are we all influenced as much by it as this thread makes out versus more contemporary influences?

I think you have to realize that there's quite a selection bias here, rounser. If I open the thread with references to Jack Vance, et al., and then ask people what literary works form the basis of their current campaign, I'm going to get responses from exactly the well-read people who've given this some thought.

And once those people've weighed in, well, I guess you don't want to be the guy to say, "Herc and Xena with a dash of Conan the TV show."

(And someone will post "Herc and Xena" in 3...2...1...)

For example, I think some computer games such as Planescape: Torment or even gaming supplements such as Skullport have as much to offer to a D&D game in terms of inspiration and style as The King of Elfland's Daughter, but it seems tres chic to cite Moorcock, Lovecraft or Howard instead.

I'm not at all familiar with the computer games you mention, but I've read all the "tres chic" authors you mention. I wouldn't be surprised if the people posting on this thread are in the same boat.

 

[hong]

I think you have to realize that there's quite a selection bias here, rounser. If I open the thread with references to Jack Vance, et al., and then ask people what literary works form the basis of their current campaign, I'm going to get responses from exactly the well-read people who've given this some thought.

And once those people've weighed in, well, I guess you don't want to be the guy to say, "Herc and Xena with a dash of Conan the TV show."

The Comic Book Store Guy does this much better than you.

 

[rounser]

And once those people've weighed in, well, I guess you don't want to be the guy to say, "Herc and Xena with a dash of Conan the TV show."

Exactly...where possible, people tend to want to associate their influences with high brow sources - and brush over or stress a lot less the low brow ones.

It reminds me of the rather revisionary analysis of Star Wars by some journalists under the high brow literary model of the Hero's Journey whilst throwing around the names of classical authors and epics for extra "respect-and-legitimacy-by-association" factor (and Lucas claiming he was aiming at that and was influenced by it from the start), rather than the low brow saturday matinee sources he cites elsewhere, and perhaps more believably...

 

[Black Omega]

I wonder if 'Herc and Xena with a strong dose of Mortal Kombat: The Series' counts.

 

[mmadsen]

Speaking of "low brow" influences, I know there are a lot of people who've mentioned Buffy, Babylon 5, and other TV shows as major influences. X-Files has already come up in this thread.

 

[reutbing0]

Well for the campaign I currently play the main influences are anime and old school 16-bit CRPG. Think Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. As for literary inlfuences, I really don't know. I Should ask my dm about that. In tone the game is both heroic as well as light hearted, humour is definately an important feature. Witty comments, funny and memorable NPC's and humorous dialogue are very common. In the end though it's still a game of D&D. So I guess D&D itself is a major influence.

 

[Sulimo]

And once those people've weighed in, well, I guess you don't want to be the guy to say, "Herc and Xena with a dash of Conan the TV show."

(And someone will post "Herc and Xena" in 3...2...1...)

You know I've always felt that Herc & Xena felt like someones AD&D campaign.