Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Warpiglet-7" data-source="post: 8163463" data-attributes="member: 7025282">So if an author popularizes old folk tales in such a way that another race:1. becomes known throughout the western world2.  Spawns a game (yes reverend Gygax, they did influence you!) that pretty much kicked off archetypical things in video games other games and fiction for decades that follow3. are ubiquitous for decades and become part of the language of fantasythen that race too will get your shot!maybe.I think the fact that they are closer to humanity, exaggerating certain aspects of our world also means they endure.That said, I don’t think “spider people,” “elephant people,” or “lizard people” will resonate as much due to their more alien nature at least for a while.you can disagree but that is my belief.would all of this be true in all cultures?  Dunno.  They get to decide.  But frankly D&D is a western invention steeped in European folklore and American assumptions.  That it was embraced an popularized in America and disseminated in an an enduring way is beyond debate.will new generations hook into less “human” characters?  Maybe. Part of their cultural space is taken up by anime and other fiction.  The game is drifting from its feudal roots also seems to be true.sadly for me, but happily for others.  But the other issue is that the dwarven and elven and Hobbit cultures are actually fairly rich.some say otherwise but I think seeing them as dull is just a function of players being overly familiar with and numb to many of these things.If you were naive to dwarves of D&D and Tolkien, you would find their take on religion and culture and war and wealth and honor to be novel and different. After all of these years it’s “just dwarves,” to some because they are so familiar or the player just plays a dwarf as a short human who pounds ale and little else.so is say their popularity is due to a combination of different from but also similar “enough” to humanity to hit the sweet spot.</blockquote>

Verification