The recent thread here requesting Lankhmar material in Dragon really got me thinking. D&D as we know it today was inspired by a wide variety of classic fantasy fiction, much of which is largely lost on today's players.
So how about an article detailing the artistic inspirations for Dungeons & Dragons and how each one contributed to the whole? Where the genesis of each classic D&D "bit" was originally taken from and so forth?
It could discuss Moorcock and how his Law and Chaos inspired much of the D&D alignment and his cosmology was a direct ancestor of D&D's outer planes. Howard's Conan and Lieber's Fafhred as models for the D&D barbarian and the Grey Mouser as the prototypical "rogue." Jack Vance and how he inspired much of the D&D magic system. Tolkien, of course, gave use halflings, orcs and, to some extent, the versions of elves and dwarves that made it into D&D. Even Lovecraft was an inspiration to D&D's creators.
I think such an article could be really facinating.
I'm bumping this because I can, dammit.
D&D got inspiration from all over the map, and yes such an article would be interesting. :)
Indeed! It's easy to see how Conan influenced D&D, but what about Lovecraft or John Carter of Mars?
Such an article would benefit greatly from collaboration with Gygax and Arneson, of course.
well, lovecraft as discussed in a not-too-old issue of Dragon, gave inspiration for the illithid, aboleth, and kuo-toa.