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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marandahir" data-source="post: 9716183" data-attributes="member: 6803643">I was introduced to both early on by loving Rankin-Bass/Studio Topcraft (aka proto-Studio Ghibli)'s Flight of Dragons and their contemporary adaptations of both The Hobbit and The Return of the King (and The Last Unicorn to complete the quartet of these films, though that one is neither Tolkien related nor FRPG related).As both my parents adored the books, I would have been exposed to Tolkien's Legendarium whether or not I had seen Flight of Dragons, but I can't remember whether I saw Flight of Dragons or Return of the King first. I know I definitely saw Return of the King prior to The Hobbit, but luckily by the time I first read Tolkien at age 10, I had only remembered vague images and ideas and melodies from seeing these 4 films as a 6 year old.I remember being obsessed with Flight of Dragons and making my own combination board game / chess game / card game / RPG based on the events of the film and the imagery of the main character's FLGS and the chess board representing the 4 Wizards and their forces. I was trying to turn Chess into something more like a Tactical RPG, and way later in High School, when I first played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, I realised these games scratched the itch I was looking for with the Flight of Dragons game I had made.I was first exposed to Dungeons & Dragons properly in 6th Grade via 2nd Edition at my 11th birthday party, but we played theatre of the mind there and so the recollection wasn't triggered. But this was the same year I read all of The Lord of the RIngs and actually finished reading The Hobbit - I couldn't quite manage the year earlier. I think I was motivated by my father to read all four books before Fellowship came to theatres the following year. He wanted me to have my own relationship with the characters and the book and form my own ideas of these characters in my mind. I was still influenced by Rankin/Bass' images and melodies, but we made sure not to rewatch these until after I had finished the books. I did NOT remember Flight of Dragons at that time - the main theme was echoing in my head and dreams, but I couldn't recall the name of the film, just images and feelings.Later on around the same time as the video games above, when I was 15-16, I was introduced to D&D 3.5e, and started playing with the group I would play alongside for the next 4 years or so. Given that we used a battle grid and miniatures, it scratched that same itch as well, but I still couldn't remember the reason - I still didn't recall Flight of Dragons and googling doesn't help when something is on the tip of your tongue (or at least I didn't know how to find that at that point). I was also exposed to Record of Lodsoss War at that point, around age 16, and the aesthetic of the show seems to be inspired a bit by the aesthetics of Flight of Dragons. I knew that I was remembering something but couldn't recall what it was.In college I wrote a piece of music for freshman year music composition class, which I called Dream Cycle because it built off a melody I only heard in my dreams. But I hadn't connected the music to Flight of Dragons; I remembered it from a childhood dream that related to Turtles Through Time and a vacation in Puerto Rico, and The Mummy, of all things. It was a dream to me and I didn't relate it with the other nostalgic images and ideas from the film. The next year, I discoverd both TV Tropes and r/TipOfMyTongue, and successfully used one or both of these to discover the name of the film, and upon googling its theme discovered that my composition, while not plagerism, was definitely inspired by and shared a chord progression and repeating descending notes with the film's main theme. About a decade later I got into the MCU, and I was a bit less worried about accidental plagerism when I discovered that both the climatic battle music for THOR (2011) and the main theme of DAREDEVIL (2015) use the same descending note pattern. Either Patrick Doyle and John Paesano were riffing on Flight of Dragons too, or else this pattern was common enough to have a very different timbre in each of these 4 pieces of music.After rediscovering Flight of Dragons, I of course rewatched it. I cringed at the cringy parts, but genuniely loved most of it that rewatch and still do to this day. I also noticed the FRPG elements in the movie, and chuckled at how some part of me must have yearned for this again when D&D came into my life. And when I realised it was made by Proto-Studio Ghibli (who made my absolute favourite movie of all time, Castle in the Sky, followed only very closely by Fellowship of the Ring), it all clicked together for me. I called my Mom to ask if she still had that board game I made when I was a kid for Flight of Dragons. She was able to find it the next time I came home, but unfortunately much of it was destroyed in a flood of the basement years earlier. Still, it was a joy to rediscover.I don't cringe at the goofier parts of the hobby anymore. I embrace it! And the same is true for the 4 Rankin/Bass Topcraft films. Theres a lot wrong with them, but there's also a lot right. And I can accept the good and the bad and love them all the same. Anyway, that's my story introducing me to FRPGs and Tolkien, and why I said both at the same time.</blockquote>

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