The roots of modern TTRPGs go deeper than Lord of the Rings.
We know imitation is the highest form of flattery which is why early Dungeons & Dragons looked like Lord of the Rings. There are also scores of TTRPGs based on LotR and adjacent to it. Likewise we have dozens of Conan games and Conan adjacent fantasy TTRPGs.
What were people reading before Tolkien and Robert E. Howard produced epic fantasy? No worries, I’m not going to bore you with a history lesson that even makes my eyes glaze over just thinking about it. I would recommend this Wikipedia article to start out with, although there is a very deep rabbit hole of research should you choose to pursue it. I do want to mention a few stories that I find inspirational that date back to before Conan or Gandalf.
Oration of tales both real and fantastic is probably the oldest form of storytelling.
Our earliest ancestors likely sat around the fire at night telling stories about their day or other possibly made up tales. “I caught a fish this big,” is probably some of the oldest fiction known to man. We still tell stories similar to this even today and the fish still gets a little bigger every time. Remind me to regale you with the story of how a sheepshead carp broke my new fishing pole and nearly dragged me into the river sometime. (*That actually happened.)
At the basest level, any animal not easily identified could be misconstrued as a monster. Even the Bible tells of behemoths. I remember my grandmother had a painting from a Bible story and I asked why there were dinosaurs being used as pack animals. Of course I was always quickly corrected because those couldn’t possibly be dinosaurs. (*Love you, Grandma, but I wasn’t trying to shatter your entire Methodist worldview.) Our earliest ancestors’ stories evolved into mythology and into religion. (*Do you think I can find a picture of that painting now? grr!)
My atheist friends would contend every religion is a folktale. I think that’s a little extreme in certain regards, but I’m not a fan of organized religion. Religion does its job in a sociological context, but that’s a discussion for another article. However, in our context, there are some pretty fantastic stories in religion and ancient mythology.
Demons, angry gods, dragons, giants, Leviathan, and yes, Grandma, even behemoths came to us from various religious folklore throughout the world. Of course, modern science has allegedly debunked most of these myths and ghost stories, but a fair amount of the paranormal remains.
Fast forward several hundred years.
Digging through books so old they might crumble or accidentally summon something might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Nor do most of us have the decoding skills to read ancient Babylonian, Sumerian, or Egyptian Hieroglyphics. I would dare say a fair number of us don’t get to hang with Native American or African Tribal Shamans, either. It’s a shame because some of their stories passed down by oral tradition are mind-blowing. That brings us up to the Renaissance era.
One of my absolutely favorite stories of all time, along with many works that spawned from it is Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory. My oldest child’s middle name is Arthur, so was my dad’s. I have numerous King Arthur references on my TTRPG shelves including Chaosium’s Pendragon. Tolkien aside, this legend is my favorite fantasy inspiration. There’s knights, rogues, wizards, demons, a little magic, and romance. Dudes don’t get more badass than some of the knights of the round table.
A couple of other fantasy authors that I don’t think get enough credit are Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne. Yes, these authors are getting up into the time of Tolkien, Lovecraft, and Howard. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a ton of great stuff available to read from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s. Some of those old pulp stories are a great research topic unto themselves. Tarzan has some pretty interesting lore as does Around the World in 80 Days. 20,000 Leagues under the sea has some pretty cool film adaptations if you’d rather watch than read.
I’m looking to incorporate some of these elements into my BRP Design Challenge Submission.
Obviously I’m not interested in handing the judges anything adjacent to Cthulhu or Pendragon. It’d be pretty silly handing that off to Chaosium judges in my opinion. However, I want to borrow some of those very early elements of pre-Tolkien era fantasy into my game. I want to do something outside of that Gygaxian norm.
I have all the love for Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Ed Greenwood, and even Jim Ward. A lot of us OSR guys grew up on Tolkienian fantasy and similar works rooted in Dungeons & Dragons. I want to break out of that mold. What would the world look like without Elves or Dwarves?
Another element I’m looking forward to incorporating into my new game world is a little more along the lines of Science Fiction. H.G. Wells, another one of my literary heroes, along with Jules Verne were somewhat cutting edge for their time. Wells was obviously more science oriented, but both had their share of interesting predictions.
Science and magic really aren’t that far apart, are they? I think in terms of TTRPG mechanics, we can call it whatever we want as long as it works out with the numbers on paper. 6d6 fire damage by any other name still barbe ques the monster, right? Cybernetics and magical prosthetics are truly just cosmetic at the end of the day.
Lastly, I want to bring back that grand sense of exploration. It has forever haunted me in D&D when playing Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk that there’s nothing truly new under the sun to uncover. Everything has been explored by some other named characters from the lore. Everywhere has someone’s flag already planted on it. This was only made worse in D&D 5E when the only part of the setting the designers truly focused on was the Sword Coast.
I want a vast, uncharted landscape for the PCs to uncover. I’m kind of tempted to leave a map out of the book entirely and instead tell the GMs to make their own. The same goes for lore. I’ll get a snapshot of where most campaigns will begin and then fill in the rest down the road in a sourcebook IFF we get that far.
I’m still going to keep exploring this concept after the Design Challenge ends.
Originally I was building a new setting for Shadowdark RPG when this concept arose. The BRP Design Challenge just prodded me to explore further. I want to stir the great melting pot of fantasy experiences into an all new product or at least one that hasn’t been flogged to death yet. (Don’t get me wrong, that’s not disrespect to Shadowdark or the OSR.)
In a year where new fantasy games are dropping like rain; I think it’s vital to push the boundaries and attempt to innovate new concepts even if all I’m doing is revisiting old ones in a new way. I know as a consumer that’s what I’m looking for. World concepts and flavors of fantasy are where the tipping point between selling or not selling will likely be in 2024-2025.
We’ll visit flavors of fantasy another time. The BRP Design Challenge will be at the forefront of my thoughts for weeks to come. There’s a lot more to cover when it comes to game design in general and I never tire of discussing it.
Jeff's Game Box 