The Books That Founded D&D
Dan Clore
http://tinyurl.com/y9gf2naD
The Books That Founded D&D
by James Maliszewski
Although it's commonplace nowadays to assume that J.R.R. Tolkien's The
Lord of the Rings was the primary source of inspiration for Dave Arneson
and Gary Gygax when they created the world's first tabletop roleplaying
game, Dungeons & Dragons, a careful examination of the game suggests
otherwise. There's no question that Tolkien's work did influence D&D.
The earliest editions of the game included explicit references to
Hobbits, Ents, Balrogs, and Nazg�l, for example - at least until the
Tolkien estate threatened legal action, a fact that probably encouraged
Gygax to downplay the influence of the Oxford don in later years.
Still, it's interesting that the game's original foreword, which Gygax
penned in November 1973, long before any legal concerns entered into the
picture, states: "These rules are strictly fantasy. Those wargamers who
lack imagination, those who don't care for Burroughs' Martian adventures
where John Carter is groping through black pits, who feel no thrill upon
reading Howard's Conan saga, who do not enjoy the de Camp & Pratt
fantasies or Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser pitting their
swords against evil sorceries will not be likely to find DUNGEONS and
DRAGONS to their taste." There's no mention of Tolkien there and indeed,
even with the aforementioned references to Hobbits and Balrogs and the
like, there are probably even more references to the Martian creations
of Edgar Rice Burroughs in the text of the game itself.
So, if The Lord of the Rings wasn't as influential in the creation of
D&D as some would have it, then what were the most significant literary
inspirations for the founding game of the hobby of roleplaying? Let's
first take a look at the ones Gary Gygax specifically mentions in his
foreword.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Although perhaps best known for creating Tarzan, Burroughs also created
John Carter, a Civil War veteran who, by means of astral projection,
journeys to the planet Mars - or Barsoom, as it is known by its
inhabitants - where he wins fame, power, and the love of the
incomparable Dejah Thoris, princess of the city-state of Helium. The
Barsoom novels were hugely influential in the development of both later
fantasy and science fiction. Gary Gygax famously sent a character from
his home campaign to Barsoom as a result of a cursed scroll and
Barsoomian monsters figure prominently in the game's earliest wilderness
encounter tables.
Robert E. Howard
REH barely needs an introduction. The creator of Conan the Cimmerian,
along with Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane and many more memorable
characters, Howard almost singlehandedly created the genre we now call
swords-and-sorcery. Contrary to the caricatures, Howard's best stories
deftly mix daring adventures with an almost existentialist philosophy.
His characters, including Conan, are not muscle-bound blockheads but
intelligent men whose dangerous endeavors offer surprising insight into
the human condition. Even so, Conan is out to make a name for himself in
the world and makes a great model for many D&D adventurers.
L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
Both L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt had written fantasy and
science fiction stories separately, but it was their collaboration on
the Enchanter stories that most influenced D&D. These stories introduce
a psychologist named Harold Shea who, by means of an unusual system of
symbolic logic, is able to transport himself and his companions into
parallel worlds. These worlds all have different physics from our own,
including working magic, and usually bear a close resemblance to those
of mythology, such as Norse, Irish, Finnish, etc. -- just like many D&D
settings.
Fritz Leiber
In his youth, Fritz Leiber was a correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft and
many of his fantasy tales show a definite Lovecraftian influence.
Leiber's most famous creations are Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, a pair of
roguish adventurers whose exploits in the City of the Black Toga,
Lankhmar, adeptly combined derring-do and naked self-interest. Fafhrd
and the Gray Mouser are thus prototypical D&D characters, willing to
undertake all manner of foolhardy tasks to keep themselves in wine,
women, and song. Interestingly, Leiber designed a boardgame based on his
Lankhmar tales, which TSR, the publisher of D&D, published in 1976.
While these five authors are the only ones mentioned by name in the 1974
edition of Dungeons & Dragons (along with Tolkien, whose name is
consistently misspelled as "Tolkein"), they're not the only ones whose
writings influenced the game. According to an appendix to his 1979
Dungeon Masters Guide, Gygax notes that the authors having "the most
immediate influence ... were probably de Camp & Pratt, REH, Fritz
Leiber, Jack Vance, HPL, and A. Merritt." Several of those names were
already mentioned in the original foreword to the game, but several are new.
image
Jack Vance
Of the many short stories and novels Jack Vance wrote, it was his 1950
collection The Dying Earth and its 1966 sequel The Eyes of the
Overworld, that had the most influence on D&D. Set in the impossibly far
future, when magic has returned and the sun is sputtering its last rays
of light, these books introduce a peculiar form of magic that depends on
imprinting spell formulae on the mind of a wizard, who immediately
"forgets" them after use - the very system D&D adopted. Indeed, D&D
borrows many spells and magical artifacts from these books and the
protagonist of The Eyes of the Overworld is, along with Leiber's Gray
Mouser, the prototype for the Thief character class, first added to the
game in its first supplement in 1975.
H.P. Lovecraft
Like his contemporary, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft needs little
introduction. His "Cthulhu Mythos" and the cosmic horror it embodied
have proven enormously influential in the decades since his death in
1937. Lovecraft was unique in his time for combining a Gothic literary
sensibility with a philosophy that downplayed humanity's importance in
the universe. Though Lovecraft's worldview is in some ways antithetical
to that presented in D&D, many of the game's monsters are clearly
inspired by his stories, most notably the octopus-headed mind flayers
and the ichthyoid kuo-toa, which recall Cthulhu and the Deep Ones,
respectively.
Abraham Merritt
Largely forgotten today, Abraham Merritt was a giant of early fantasy
and science fiction. H.P. Lovecraft thought highly of his stories, as
did SF pioneers Jack Williamson and Walter Shaver. Merritt's works often
involve ancient but advanced races that dwell beneath the earth or in
inaccessible locations, whose horrific societies and cultures are
stumbled upon by people from the surface world - sounds like the set-up
for many D&D adventures, doesn't it?
Poul Anderson
Anderson was equally at home in fantasy and science fiction. His
historical fantasies, most especially Three Hearts and Three Lions, were
hugely influential on D&D. Its protagonist, Holger Carlsen, is the main
model for the game's Paladin character class. Likewise, D&D's
regenerating troll and fairy swanmays owe their origins to this book.
Even more significantly, Anderson's conception of an eternal struggle
between Law and Chaos inspired British author Michael Moorcock, whose
own stories of Elric of Melnibon� would in turn inspire the earliest
versions of D&D's alignment system.
As you can see, no single author or novel is the sole source of
inspiration for Dungeons & Dragons. Instead, its origins are
multifarious, with many books providing the raw materials from which
Arneson and Gygax crafted the game that changed the world.
It's unfortunate that so many of these books and authors today are
largely unknown except to aficionados of early fantasy and science
fiction. It's my hope that, by bringing these authors to wider public
knowledge, more people might not only recognize the debt that the hobby
of roleplaying owes to their remarkable imaginations but also enjoy
their writings in their own right. Like D&D itself, whose influence
extends far beyond tabletop roleplaying games, these writers and their
ideas contributed much to contemporary popular culture and they deserve
their due.
James Maliszewski is a writer currently living in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada. His blog, Grognardia, explores the history and traditions of the
hobby of roleplaying.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
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"Tho-ag in Zhi-gyu slept seven Khorlo. Zodmanas
zhiba. All Nyug bosom. Konch-hog not; Thyan-Kam
not; Lha-Chohan not; Tenbrel Chugnyi not;
Dharmakaya ceased; Tgenchang not become; Barnang
and Ssa in Ngovonyidj; alone Tho-og Yinsin in
night of Sun-chan and Yong-grub (Parinishpanna),
&c., &c.,"
-- The Book of Dzyan.
Dan Clore
The URL is:
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord We�rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"
Teramis
[mass snippage of essay]]
Thanks for sharing that. It's nice to see the various works that
inspired D&D recognized, and there is an entire generation or two of
gamers and fantasy fans these days who have no idea what fiction
heritage inspired their current entertainment/s.
I remember reading Gygax's notes about the fiction that inspired D&D
in 1979. Am especially fond of Jack Vance myself. It was nice to see
elements of those other worlds and ways of being come alive in the
unique
way that only an rpg permits.
-Teramis
---
Deborah Teramis Christian
Novelist
www.deborahteramischristian.com