Prisoners of Gravity: Tolkien (Part 1/3)

Originally broadcast November 24th, 1993.

This part includes clips with Walt Simonson, Charles Vess, Mike Ploog, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles De Lint.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Prisoners
• of
• Gravity
• TVO
• TVOntario

[bradchodges]

Another great post!

[Teddog3000]

Thanks! I'm trying to do one episode a week, but I missed last week due to illness. That means double episodes this week!

[puppeli]

Im with Mike Ploog, I too didnt like LotR. For me thought, it was that by the time i finally picked it up (in 2000 or 2001) I had already read hundreds of fantasy and scifi books and after all those other stories LotR just seemed boring and infantile

[danbuter]

This show is soooo cheesy. And yet awesome.

[Pyat]

@KentAllard

Yes, Gygax was primarily inspired by Vance and Moorcock and Howard. But you wrote that D&D was NOT inspired by LoTR at all, which is a silly thing to say.

As noted, the very first edition of D&D had Hobbits, Ents, and Balrogs, until they were renamed for fear of legal action from Tolkein's estate.

Gygax himself said he put as much Tolkein-influenced stuff in the game as possible. Maybe he'd have preferred not to, but to say it was NOT an influence denies the man's own words.

[KentAllard]

players demanded it, makes good business sense to include that sort of stuff.

His creations drew from the sources I previously mentioned.

[Pyat]

@KentAllard

Gygax once wrote: "How did it influence the D&D game? Whoa, plenty, of course. Just about all the players were huge JRRT fans, and so they insisted that I put as much Tolkien-influence material into the game as possible. Anyone reading this that recalls the original D&D game will know that there were Balrogs, Ents, and Hobbits in it. ...

Indeed, who can doubt the excellence of Tolkiens writing? So of course it had a strong impact on A/D&D games...."

[Pyat]

@KentAllard

The first printings of D&D had Hobbits, Ents, and Balrogs. While the picaresque adventures have much more in common with Howard, Leiber and Vance, there's a lot of the ol' JRRT in there as well. Next comment will have a quote from Gygax himself about it...

[KentAllard]

D&D was not influenced by LotR.

Gygaxs influences were Fritz Leibers Lankhmar works, Michael Moorcocks Elric, and Robert E. Howards Conan to name three.

[Teddog3000]

Well, I was only 10 myself.... ::coughs:: Yeah, I missed the boat originally.

[Drakesverd]

My excuse is that I was 3 years old. That's also my excuse for not being at the PULSE consert

[Elric33239]

Interesting. Unless your local public television station didn't air it, which is extremely possible, or you weren't an avid PBS viewer in the early to mid 90's, I don't see how you could have missed at least one installment of it. The one in Phila., PA aired it around the same time as Dr. Who and other SFTV shows in the possible hope of netting in the same audience, not realizing that Cmdr. Rick brought up a less-than-favorable image of fandom. I liked the few that I saw & can't wait for more!