Posted by Kryschenn
on 3/6/2008, 7:58 pm, in reply to "Re: In memory of Gary...."
--Previous Message--
: One of the things I always seem to hear is that Dungeons and
: Dragons is a plagerized game, having borrowed heavily from
: Tolkien, but Tolkien only borrowed from those before him.
I remember reading that there was a lawsuit over the very first edition of D&D using the terms "Hobbits" and "Ents", which, when the first AD&D was issued, were changed in the Monster Manual to "Halflings" and "Treants."
:
: It is an ancient and honorable tradition that each storyteller,
: each generation, take the stories that were passed to them, add
: something of their own, and then pass them on again to the rest
: of us. Gary did that, and more.
Tolkien himself believed in that tradition and felt it applied to himself as well as those who followed. In his own words:
"I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds, and hands, wielding paint and music and drama." -- JRR Tolkien
Seems to me that Tolkien's statement gave Gygax and others like him outright permission to carry on the torch.
R.I.P Gary... The realm of Fantasy just wouldn't have been the same without you.
Kryschenn
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