Where's the American Fantasy RPG?

L. Frank Baum's Oz series established American Fantasy as a genre, and yet it hasn't had much influence on popular tabletop role-playing games despite several American fantasy authors providing the inspiration for co-creator Gary Gygax's Dungeons & Dragons. Why not?

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

American Fantasy Defined

As described in The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, the tenets of American Fantasy include a contrast between real world struggles and a fantasy land (Kansas vs. Oz), the Garden of the World set in the midst of the Great American Desert (Oz), and pastoral qualities that encompass the heartland like corn fields, crows, wildcats, and field mice. Baum's Oz is different in character but similar in texture to American agrarianism.

There is technology too, always at the cusp of becoming ubiquitous, with objects taking on a life of their own. Baum was uneasy about the impact of technology on society: concerned about the impact of "flying machines", worried about what would happen to premature children in "incubators", and wary of slick-talking characters using gimmicks and puppetry (the titular Wizard of Oz). Judging by the abuse Baum heaps on an animated phonograph, he wasn't a fan of recorded music either.

As Brian Attebery puts it in The Fantasy Tradition:

"Oz is America made more fertile, more equitable, more companionable, and, because it is magic, more wonderful. What Dorothy finds beyond the Deadly Desert is another America with its potential fulfilled: its beasts speaking, its deserts blooming, and its people living in harmony."

Gygax and Dave Arneson were following a European tradition, itself descended from historical battles of interest in Chainmail, infused with their own American influences, such that little of Oz appears in D&D. At least not overtly.

Ozian Elements in Plain Sight

Jack Vance's influence on D&D is significant. From the "Vancian" spellcasting system to the Eye and Hand of Vecna, Vance's work permeates the game. Vance was a big fan of Baum's work and cited him as a major influence. One character recreates the Land of Oz in The Madman Theory (written by Vance under the pen name Ellery Queen), but Baum's influence goes beyond that work and appears in the Dying Earth series, as explained in Extant #13:

"...I speculated that the Phanfasms inspired the village of Somlod, as seen through the lost lenses of the demon Underheard (Cugel the Clever), and that Sirenese society, in The Moon Moth, was inspired by the Whimsies. Among the scarce commentators on Vance there seems little interest in the Baum influence, while influences which are minor or even nonexistent are often emphasized, such as Clark Ashton Smith."

Cugel, whose adventures take place in The Dying Earth setting, has more in common with the Wizard of Oz than Dorothy of course, and his adventures would go on to form the thief archetype in D&D, as per Gygax:

Of the other portions of the A/D&D game stemming from the writing of Jack Vance, the next most important one is the thief-class character. Using a blend of “Cugel the Clever” and Roger Zelazny’s “Shadowjack” for a benchmark, this archetype character class became what it was in original AD&D.

The Dying Earth wasn't a fantasy world, but a post-apocalyptic one set long after technology had fallen into decay. And that's a hint of where we can find Oz's influence.

Talking Animals, Weird Technology, and Untold Wonders

D&D has strayed from its cross-dimensional sci-fi roots, but one game has never wavered from its focus on a post-apocalyptic world filled with strange beasts, ancient technology, and hidden secrets: Gamma World.

The parallels between Gamma World and Oz (where animals can talk, characters can play robots, and humans are relics of another world), as filtered through Vance, finally gives Baum his due. If Baum was so influential on Vance, why hasn't there been more discussion of the parallels? The editor of Extant #13 explains:

"Given Vance’s own repeated and enthusiastic declarations regarding Baum, as well as the obvious parallels between Vance’s favorite Oz book (The Emerald City of Oz) and several of his own stories, I cannot rid myself of the suspicion that this lack of interest suggests an enthusiasm about certain subject matters and styles rather than an interest in Vance as such. I also suspect the Baum influence lacks appeal because he seems old fashioned, quaint and childish. The fashionable taint of the weird is absent."

This may be why Gamma World has struggled to find its audience like D&D has. Where D&D's tropes are so embedded in pop culture to be ubiquitous these days, Gamma World—like Oz—has alternately been treated as ludicrous, deadly serious, or just plain wacky ... the same criticisms leveled at Baum.

It seems we already have our American Fantasy RPG, it’s just a little “weirder” than we expected.

 

[theworstdm]

The Strange is the best example that I can think of for a game that gives players that contrast between a fantasy world and a reality world like The Wizard of Oz does. There's also games like Colonial Gothic that ramp up the idea that there used to be much more supernatural elements to America in our past.

 

[innerdude]

While mildly interesting on an academic level, my gut reaction to the question, "Why isn't there more uniquely 'American' fantasy?" is "Who cares?"

Furthermore, I largely reject the notion that "Oz" is somehow a paragon of "American" fantasy.

The United States has always been the breeding ground for traditions brought from elsewhere. Too, why wouldn't the myriad forms of Native American spiritualism spread across the continent count as "American" fantasy? While I can't speak to specifics, it's my impression that such traditions look nothing like "Oz", but are certainly tied to the roots of the U.S. at least geographically.

And what about Southern Gothic horror? It's a mystical genre with a rich tradition of its own.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Oz. A good friend of mine has the Battle for Oz Savage Worlds setting, and it's a lot of fun. I just don't understand the notion that Oz specifically needs to be upheld as a specific American fantasy "tradition."

If it's a setting worth being played, people will play it.

 

[LordEntrails]

I was really looking forward to a good definition of American Fantasy. But I don't see it here. Unless it is being defined as the the land of Oz...? Certainly Baum is not the only defining source for such a definition?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Defining "American Fantasy" to exclude some of these greats is like defining "British Rock" to mean Coldplay but not the Beatles or Rolling Stones then asking why British Rock had no influence on American music.

Coldplay is influential, whether we're comfortable with that fact or not.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

For my part, I think if I had to define American Fantasy, it all goes back to the frontier and the wild west. It's about individuality and freedom and a strange land where people of all different cultures come together. Whether that's John Carter and Barsoom, Conan and Hyboria, Dorothy and Oz, that is American Fantasy.

I would point out the TV series, Once Upon A Time, as a recent example of American Fantasy. It's a melting pot of tropes, genres, and characters. Heck, it even featured the Wicked Witch and Oz.

Frank Baum's influence is still around, perhaps more by osmosis than direct influence, but it's still here. Just looking at it as a portal fantasy, it's this long lineage that goes way back, arguably to the stories of people being abducted into the lands of the Fae, to Alice in Wonderland, to Oz, to A Princess of Mars, to Harold Shea, to Narnia, to The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, to Every Heart a Doorway.

I was really looking forward to a good definition of American Fantasy. But I don't see it here. Unless it is being defined as the the land of Oz...? Certainly Baum is not the only defining source for such a definition?

In a discussion of American Fantasy, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Americana RPG. Tolkien meets Stand By Me, it addresses those same anxieties about youth and authority that have been around for ages, whether we're talking Rebel Without a Cause, just about any John Hughes movie, Huckleberry Finn, and countless others.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

While mildly interesting on an academic level, my gut reaction to the question, "Why isn't there more uniquely 'American' fantasy?" is "Who cares?"

Furthermore, I largely reject the notion that "Oz" is somehow a paragon of "American" fantasy.

The United States has always been the breeding ground for traditions brought from elsewhere. Too, why wouldn't the myriad forms of Native American spiritualism spread across the continent count as "American" fantasy? While I can't speak to specifics, it's my impression that such traditions look nothing like "Oz", but are certainly tied to the roots of the U.S. at least geographically.

And what about Southern Gothic horror? It's a mystical genre with a rich tradition of its own.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Oz. A good friend of mine has the Battle for Oz Savage Worlds setting, and it's a lot of fun. I just don't understand the notion that Oz specifically needs to be upheld as a specific American fantasy "tradition."

If it's a setting worth being played, people will play it.

I'd agree with pretty much all of this.

I do think Michael correctly identifies Gamma World as a peculiarly American take on fantasy (it's somewhat coded as SF, but it's solidly fantasy) which has been successful, and which links to a lot of Oz-ish ideas, but I agree with you that American fantasy isn't really defined by Oz any more than British fantasy is defined by Narnia (which is surely is not).

Some other peculiarly American fantasy/horror RPGs stick out to me:

1) World of Darkness - This could never have been written in Europe or anywhere else. The ideas, the concerns, the focus, the initial settings and so on, it's deeply American. Sure, there is a lot of Old World influence, and a lot of references to stuff outside North America, but Vampire, Werewolf, Mage? No way anything like these (particularly Werewolf) could have emerged elsewhere. Obviously you could have a vampire-centric RPG from Europe, but the concerns, focus, style would be different.

2) Shadowrun - It's very popular in Europe, and again has a worldwide setting, but this is also uniquely American. This is part of why it so badly lost its way when it got sold to the Germans. I know it is very popular there, but there's something different about how they perceive the whole setting and a lot of what was done was deeply misguided.

3) RIFTS - Again with the worldwide setting, but I think this is an RPG which has more than a little of an Oz-ian feel, and again, it's a setting which could really only out of the US.

Coldplay is influential, whether we're comfortable with that fact or not.

Who have they influenced? Genuine question though I am asking in part so I can avoid them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Who have they influenced? Genuine question though I am asking in part so I can avoid them.

The Chainsmokers, for one, whom you should definitely should be avoiding.

 

[GMMichael]

There is technology too, always at the cusp of becoming ubiquitous, with objects taking on a life of their own. Baum was uneasy about the impact of technology on society: concerned about the impact of "flying machines", worried about what would happen to premature children in "incubators", and wary of slick-talking characters using gimmicks and puppetry (the titular Wizard of Oz). Judging by the abuse Baum heaps on an animated phonograph, he wasn't a fan of recorded music either.

America has its own magic items, too. I heard something about ruby/crystal spectacles placed on North America by Jesus himself.

Gotta say, though: Baum's concerns weren't very far off the mark.

Doesn't "American Fantasy" sorta dominate the Urban Fantasy market?

I'm thinking Steampunk and Cthulhu are American Fantasy.

 

[Ace]

For my part, I think if I had to define American Fantasy, it all goes back to the frontier and the wild west. It's about individuality and freedom and a strange land where people of all different cultures come together. Whether that's John Carter and Barsoom, Conan and Hyboria, Dorothy and Oz, that is American Fantasy.
SNIP


In a discussion of American Fantasy, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Americana RPG. Tolkien meets Stand By Me, it addresses those same anxieties about youth and authority that have been around for ages, whether we're talking Rebel Without a Cause, just about any John Hughes movie, Huckleberry Finn, and countless others.

I don't disagree though this was by the 1990's.

If you are talking about Now I'd argue that most of what you have mentioned is basically no longer part of the American canon. I haven't seen the Wizard of Oz on TV in years and odds are a lot of even adult gamers have never seen nor will they care about or understand a good chunk of the stories you mentioned. They have been too busy with One Punch Man or the like to have paid much attention to these.

This suggests to me that we will go back to a more regional culture or cultures and a huge range of influences from all ovber with each political and ethnic subdivision finding its own kind of stories that matter to them.

There could be an distinctly old American fantasy tradition modernized (like Red Dead Redemption say) along side a lot of influences from Anime and Manga and non European immigrants each forming different styles. This is going to make huge shifts in the broader culture and how these fuse is going to be interesting.

 

[Minigiant]

Some other peculiarly American fantasy/horror RPGs stick out to me:

1) World of Darkness - This could never have been written in Europe or anywhere else. The ideas, the concerns, the focus, the initial settings and so on, it's deeply American. Sure, there is a lot of Old World influence, and a lot of references to stuff outside North America, but Vampire, Werewolf, Mage? No way anything like these (particularly Werewolf) could have emerged elsewhere. Obviously you could have a vampire-centric RPG from Europe, but the concerns, focus, style would be different.

2) Shadowrun - It's very popular in Europe, and again has a worldwide setting, but this is also uniquely American. This is part of why it so badly lost its way when it got sold to the Germans. I know it is very popular there, but there's something different about how they perceive the whole setting and a lot of what was done was deeply misguided.

3) RIFTS - Again with the worldwide setting, but I think this is an RPG which has more than a little of an Oz-ian feel, and again, it's a setting which could really only out of the US.

These were the games that first came to mind. American RPGs tend to be multiculural in internal design much like how the nation came to be. It tilts to warring faction with a metaplot above it and subplots below it all with idea puled from all over.

This tend to move American Fantasy to American Gothic, Horror, Punk, or Urban fantasy.

You could make a Oz-like RPG but to make it feel really American, you'd have to add urban and/or suburban theme and drama as the Americas was very different from Europe in the Classical through Renaissance Era and the nation itself missed them.