| From: | John E Pederson <lobo1@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Dark Conspiracy (was: FASA Being Sold? Semi-OT?) |
| Date: | Sat, 19 Jul 1997 12:27:17 EDT |
<snip>
>Tolkien based SOME of his stuff on various Mythologies, but some ideas
>were
>his and his alone.
>
>The Elves, for example. before Tolkien, elevs were tiny pixie like
>beings
>with lots of magic. I can't recall a single fable or myth that had
>human
>sized Elevs. Tolkien was the first to make Elves what they're become
>today
>in fantasy fiction adn RPG's. Tall people, usually as part of a
>normal
>"race" of beings with their own govedrnment and such.
I think one of our former list members (I hate it when I can't remember
people's names:( was right when he said that Tolkien didn't actually
invent the idea of the tall, thin elf:) Tolkien borrowed quite a bit from
Teutonic (Norse) and Briton mythos, and the elf that Tolkien popularized
was probably influenced a great deal by the elf of Teutonic myth. I
personally enjoyed Tolkien's books immensely, wasn't bothered in the
least by the presence of the all-powerful elves:) But I like superheroes
and epics anyway:):) 'Sides, the elves didn't actually save the world,
they couldn't. They did, however, start the whole mess...
>Troll's are another example. While SR trolls aren't really much like
>Tolkiens Trolls, They're much closer to tolkaien's than AD&D's. AD&D
>Trolls
>were usually mostly mindless, tall skinny regenerating things.
>Tolkiens
>were Huge 10 foot tall beasties with minimal intelligence. However,
>they
>DID turn to stone in daylight, so...
I don't know. I don't know diddly about **&* (and it's probably safer
that way:), but SR's trolls really aren't too much like the trolls in
JRR's books (well, they're nothing much like the one's in the Hobbit,
anyway). I suppose they do kinda match the ones in the LotR...
>Orks... Well... SR is probably the only game I know of where Orks
>are a
>normal, viable race. AD&D came close with it's half orcs, but...
>That's
>still not the same... And Orcs in Tolkien were pretty much the same
>as in
>AD&D: Evil green beasties... They were also called Goblins in
>Tolkiens
>books...
AFAIK, Tolkien created the word 'orc', but I'm kinda afraid to really say
that, mainly because he borrowed so much from so many other places, I'd
be very surprised if he truly created them as they were in
Middle-Earth...
>Most of the fantasy aspect of SR comes from tolkien, while the
I think it's more like the fantasy aspect of SR is *heavily* influenced
by Tolkien, but I don't think I would say that it really *comes* from
Tolkien.
>futuristic
>stuff comes partly from Cyberpunk and the whole Cyberpunk Genre. It's
>an
>interesting blend, and makes SR very unique...:]
It's probably the one thing that originally drew me into the game. I
don't know of too many other games that combine both magic and tech
(CthulhuPunk, Rifts, I think, but not too many others:)
--
-Canthros
I had rather believe all the fables in the legends and the Talmud
and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind.
--Francis Bacon
http://members.aol.com/canthros1
