About Hierarch of Gygaxian Naturalism
[Sounds like Gygax was more interested in creating level titles for humanoids than worrying about naturalism or credibility.]
James Maliszewski said...
Almost certainly. I think it's a mistake to ascribe any single motive to most of the design decisions in D&D. In the case of the many humanoid species, I think Gary had many motives, including providing a continuing "ladder" of challenges for players, so that there were humanoids for every stage of their level advancement. At the same time, in the context of Gary's campaign, he generally tried to contextualize and provide an explanation (of sorts) for what could be found therein, even if the explanation only amounted to "it's magic!"
December 9, 2008 9:31 AM
