What Genre Do You Wish Inaugurated TTRPGs?

[Morrus]

It would be interesting to see how the game would have developed if Gygax had been a Tolkien fan, rather than begrudgingly adding in Tolkien influences.

You mean begrudgingly being forced to rename hobbits, ents, and balrogs, as halflings, treants, and balors, and claiming forever thereafter that Tolkien wasn't an influence.

D&D was definitely inspired by Tolkien. Mountain dwarves, high and wood elves, halflings, treants, balors, mithril/al, rangers, orcs, nazgul/wraiths, Moria (the dungeon)... he can claim he wasn't inspired by Tolkien, but that's clearly not true. I agree that after Tolkien forced him to change the game, though, he was definitely not a fan. And, it seems, would never again admit to having been one, or being influenced by it.

That D&D was inspired by Tolkien (amongst other things of course) is clearly a post-legal fiction. The truth was right there in the pages of D&D in black-and-white.

(In fairness, we're talking about TSR, not just Gygax; he didn't work in isolation).

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

It would be interesting to see how the game would have developed if Gygax had been a Tolkien fan, rather than begrudgingly adding in Tolkien influences.

In the future, when I have the spare year to write my Magnum Opus, I'm Snarf and You're Not: How a Complete Lack of an Inner Self Is the Secret to Success, I will devote at least a chapter to something I've been thinking about for a while.

I think it's a truism that elements of D&D are obviously borrowed from Tolkien, to the point of DUH. But ... the more I have really delved into it, the more obvious it is that those elements were almost never put in there by Gygax.

The original Chainmail fantasy supplement obviously has Tolkienisms ... but that's because it .... borrowed ... heavily from Leonard Patt's game that was a straight-up adaptation of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

The Ranger IS Strider, but that was written by a fan, not Gygax. And so on.

This isn't to either minimize the Tolkien influences on D&D (or the fact that Tolkien's success in the '70s helped D&D), but to point out that Gygax wasn't being disingenuous (not fully) when he kept saying that he was all about the swords and sorcery. Yeah, there's a lot of Tolkien, but most of it was because of other people that Gygax borrowed from. Gygax put in some Tolkien, but most of his stuff was influenced from other sources.

At least, that's my view currently. I'll expound upon it at some point in that book.

 

[TwoSix]

This isn't to either minimize the Tolkien influences on D&D (or the fact that Tolkien's success in the '70s helped D&D), but to point out that Gygax wasn't being disingenuous (not fully) when he kept saying that he was all about the swords and sorcery. Yeah, there's a lot of Tolkien, but most of it was because of other people that Gygax borrowed from. Gygax put in some Tolkien, but most of his stuff was influenced from other sources.

For sure. D&D has a ton of Tolkien influence. Just because something is in D&D doesn't mean Gygax wanted it there.
Gygax wasn't the single voice behind what D&D became, just a formative one. But if he had been a Tolkien enjoyer, D&D would certainly be MORE Tolkien-ish than it already is.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

For sure. D&D has a ton of Tolkien influence. Just because something is in D&D doesn't mean Gygax wanted it there.
Gygax wasn't the single voice behind what D&D became, just a formative one. But if he had been a Tolkien enjoyer, D&D would certainly be MORE Tolkien-ish than it already is.

If he had been more of a Tolkien enjoyer, I'm not sure I would have the same love for D&D that I do.

Don't get me wrong! I love me some Tolkien, whether you pronounce it the right way like I do, or try to force that weird way that he pronounced his name on me (tol-KEEEEEEEN!). Some good books that I loved as a kid, and still think capture so much magic that they practically demand to be read by new generations ... and of course the obligatory "He was a smart man and a professor and a cunning linguist ...." heh.

But when people start going into the whole "Let me tell you about how the published version of The Silmarillon doesn't fully realize his vision of Doriath, and ...." I try my best to smile and pound the drink in my hand and then move quickly to the flask.

I love their enthusiasm and joy for it, I just would rather have someone tell me about the last three years of dreams that they have had.

 

[TwoSix]

If he had been more of a Tolkien enjoyer, I'm not sure I would have the same love for D&D that I do.

I don't disagree. I'd just like to see a world where "fighting guy"/"magic guy" hadn't been an original point of demarcation. Or the inspiration for how magic worked hadn't been so specific.

 

[MGibster]

I enjoy fantasy well enough that I can't honestly say I wish some other genre was the choice for early role playing games. Given RPGs as we know them today grew out of war gaming, I'm hard pressed to think what genres would have been available outside of fantasy, science fiction, or historical as those are the holdy trinity of historical miniatures warfare.

I'll just have to go with science fiction I guess.

 

[Autumnal]

‘70s comics include a bunch of my own personal faves and influences. And then. ‘80s comics and include a bunch more. I suspect that I’d enjoy an rpg scene spinning out of superheroes of that era, which would include fantasy, science fiction, and horror as part of the blend.

(For my fellow nerd; Claremont & Cockrum, Claremont & Byrne, Levitz & Cockrum, Moench & anyone wandering by editorial, Nino, Russell, Starlin, Kane…)

 

[Deset Gled]

There's a critical flavor to TTRPGs that is naturally included in the fantasy settings, but not included in many others. And that is melee combat.

The problem with so many other genres, like western, sci-fi, World War X, superhero, etc, is that they all quickly devolve into nothing but ranged combat. Fantasy has a baked in focus on swords and close-quarter combat, while still allowing ranged options under the guise of "magic" that can always be hand-waved with limitations that allow for balance (both game and story wise) with a good hack-and-slash. In fact, lots of other genres work their butts off to come up with excuses to shoehorn melee combat back in (e.g, lightsabers in Star Wars, Batman's self-imposed "no guns" policy, etc).

So, that being said, I would only want a different "inaugural" TTRPG genre if is also includes the same melee-positive options. And the main genre alternative for that is horror. Vampires that need wooden stakes to kill, demons weak to salt, various baddies that can only be hurt by fire, etc. It's a genre with built-in highly specific weaknesses that allow for a game built around melee combat.

 

[Spellslinging Sellsword]

Fantasy is my favorite, so I can't really answer your question other than maybe a broader fantasy foundation.

 

[The Soloist]

Sci-Fantasy à la Buck Rogers. Great setting for crawling in the tunnels of the various planets and asteroids bashing nefarious aliens to save humanity.