I was watching The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian yesterday, and discussing it with my wife. We both feel it's a far superior film to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. In particular, I feel that the fight scenes are spectacular, and that the film does an excellent job of redeeming Edmund. During our conversation, I commented that I felt the director had taken a similar approach to Lord of the Rings, and really amped up the combat and drama.Which got me thinking about roleplay, which most things do.
My train of thought was basically "how could I make this work as a game", which logically led to D&D.
Now, most people consider D&D to be 'heavily influenced by Tolkien', but I would like to present the argument that D&D is now set in Narnia, and has been for years.
If you want to play a Tolkien game, then may I suggest Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
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| A Minotaur and a random fantasy creature storm a citadel |
My argument focuses on playable races. The Fellowship of the Ring are Dwarves, Humans, Elves and Hobbits. The playable races in Warhammer are Humans, Dwarves, Elves and Halflings (nee Hobbits). The playable races in D&D are almost too numerous to list, but include various races of beastman and all variety of fantastic creatures in a bizarre mixed bag of randomness. Like Narnia.
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| A Minotaur and some random fantasy creatures storm a citadel |
It's probable that as soon as movies and computer games media were able to better realise fantasy environments than books and traditional rpgs, the rpgs developed an insecurity complex (much like comic books) and started emulating the look of live action.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for the Festive Season and the New Year, fellow rpg-ers!