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Which parts of D&D came from Tolkien?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7266260" data-attributes="member: 6778044"><p>Gary commented on this a number of times over the years, here's some quotes and thoughts from Grognardia:</p><p></p><p><a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/01/gygax-on-tolkien-again.html" target="_blank">http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/01/gygax-on-tolkien-again.html</a></p><p></p><p>The ranger is more likely to be inspired by Tolkien because it wasn't written by Gygax. Joe Fischer wrote the original class so it doesn't share the same genesis as the rest of the game. When asked, Gary always said he had no idea what Joe's inspiration was for the ranger class, and I've never seen any comments from Joe himself so I'm not sure we'll ever know. Most folks point to Aragorn as the model since the ranger can use scrying devices, but the connection to clerics (initially) would obviously not be a Tolkien thing since clerics (and almost religion itself) are entirely absent in his works, and I don't recall any indication that Aragorn would have been a spellcaster. </p><p></p><p>But ultimately, I think what's more important is not what parts might have come from Tolkien. It's that players could easily conform the game to Tolkien. Being a game that happens entirely in your mind, fans of Tolkien and other fantasy at the time would naturally experience it in that light. That's part of the beauty of the game and the RPG genre as a whole. So I think it has more to do with what the players chose to do with the game, which often layered a strong Tolkien influence on top, rather than the original intent of the game, or what material actually came from Tolkien.</p><p></p><p>If there hadn't been a lot of interest in Tolkien at the time (even cropping up in music as diverse as Led Zeppelin and Joe Walsh, among others), I suspect that D&D would have been more of a niche game initially. In fact, it really took off with the release of the first Basic Set. Had D&D not been so huge compared to the rest of the industry at the time, a science-fantasy variation with loose references to Star Wars after 1977 very well could have been the game that took off.</p><p></p><p>My 2cp anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ilbranteloth, post: 7266260, member: 6778044"] Gary commented on this a number of times over the years, here's some quotes and thoughts from Grognardia: [url]http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/01/gygax-on-tolkien-again.html[/url] The ranger is more likely to be inspired by Tolkien because it wasn't written by Gygax. Joe Fischer wrote the original class so it doesn't share the same genesis as the rest of the game. When asked, Gary always said he had no idea what Joe's inspiration was for the ranger class, and I've never seen any comments from Joe himself so I'm not sure we'll ever know. Most folks point to Aragorn as the model since the ranger can use scrying devices, but the connection to clerics (initially) would obviously not be a Tolkien thing since clerics (and almost religion itself) are entirely absent in his works, and I don't recall any indication that Aragorn would have been a spellcaster. But ultimately, I think what's more important is not what parts might have come from Tolkien. It's that players could easily conform the game to Tolkien. Being a game that happens entirely in your mind, fans of Tolkien and other fantasy at the time would naturally experience it in that light. That's part of the beauty of the game and the RPG genre as a whole. So I think it has more to do with what the players chose to do with the game, which often layered a strong Tolkien influence on top, rather than the original intent of the game, or what material actually came from Tolkien. If there hadn't been a lot of interest in Tolkien at the time (even cropping up in music as diverse as Led Zeppelin and Joe Walsh, among others), I suspect that D&D would have been more of a niche game initially. In fact, it really took off with the release of the first Basic Set. Had D&D not been so huge compared to the rest of the industry at the time, a science-fantasy variation with loose references to Star Wars after 1977 very well could have been the game that took off. My 2cp anyway. [/QUOTE]
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