(urth) The Distant Suns of Gene Wolfe

[Adam Thornton]

On Jun 5, 2007, at 9:34 AM, Joel Sieh wrote:
> One observation....  I've heard that Tolkien's work was a large  
> inspiration for the Dungeon and Dragons tabletop games.  Just after  
> reading about 100 pages of Tales of the Dying Earth, I'd say that  
> it looks like the D&D creators took a LOT of inspiration for their  
> magic systems from it, much more than anything they would have  
> gotten from Tolkien.  Gandalf's magic was much more organic,  
> subtle, and undefined than the mechanisms and descriptions  
> (including spell names) I've seen in the book I'm currently reading.

Gary Gygax says in the appendices to the AD&D v1 DMG (IIRC) that  
Dying Earth Magic was the immediate inspiration for the D&D magic  
system.  I think it's there that he says that DE and Lieber's Nehwon  
stories are the biggest influences.

There's also an article by Gygax talking about Vance's influence on  
D&D in _The Excellent Prismatic Spray_ issue II.  http:// 
www.dyingearth.com/mag.htm

I have not read it.

Adam