This is inspired by seeing one of the preview books of the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

I get that the look of it is probably referring to all kinds of video games and anime that I don't know about, but -

I would've thought that Harry Potter was more popular than most of those things, and it doesn't seem to be trying to evoke that.

Ditto the Lord of the Rings films. That was a while ago, but again, pretty popular, and unless they're going for really young kids you'd think that there'd be people in their target market who'd have seen them, and would think of D&D type adventures as 'looking like' that.

And for that matter it doesn't look much like Order of the Stick - OK it's obviously satirical, but then so are a lot of games - and anyway is there a serious fantasy comic that more people read than read Order of the Stick?

I'm not one of these guys that thinks that old D&D looked better, and I'm assuming they have actual qualifications and know what they're doing, and I get that it's not meant for me, but...my uninformed layman's idea would be that they'd think about "what stuff in popular culture are our target market going to want to replicate", and then have art that gets across that you can do that.

My kids-who range from six to eight, one boy, two girls-see the Spiderwick Chronicles, the LoTR video games, and movies, as well as Harry potter as the modern face of fantasy-with a little Disney and Japanamation mixed in for the good.

My nephews, who range from 6 to 11, numbering 4 I think, agree with those choices and added Strong Hold Crusader, which is some video game apparently.

World of Wacraft, Lineage... that sort of thinks, so it's not suprising, tah WoTC brings up some demon-like and dragon-like races as core races, while cutting out boring races like gnomes...

Not having gnomes doesn't strike me as weird. Having half-dragon/demon babes seems to make sense. But having halflings who don't look Lord of the Rings-y I don't get.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Disney. And on that note I guess the first Narnia film must have done OK because they're making another one - so the lack of talking animals (along those lines - half-dragon babes being a seperate thing I think) can be added to the list.

The fantasy genre is evolving indeed. Western fantasy is influenced with east fantasy (anime/manga), the new medias like computers have its influence. But some anchors - like Lord of the Rings still stays which means the evolution is still quite slow, because some basic archetypes and clichés stays which provides continuity and common ground.

I also don't mind neither WoW influence nor dragonborn and thiefling races in D&D 4e. They both have it own aesthetics.

High School Musical. Most of the kids here watch those movies. It ain't no Fame if you ask me .

Edit: Sorry not really fantasy....for the fantasy stuff it's Harry Potter and Anime.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: AlnagI also don't mind neither WoW influence nor dragonborn and thiefling races in D&D 4e. They both have it own aesthetics.

My :confused: isn't the presence of those things, it's the absence of other things.

Age of Fable: Absence of what...?

Quote from: FritzsAge of Fable: Absence of what...?

The Lord of the Rings films, Harry Potter, Order of the Stick, Buffy, fairies, Pirates of the Carribean, The Chronicles of Narnia films (do kids watch Doctor Who?)...

In general, things that a reasonable number of their target audience presumably likes that could be a way of selling the idea of Dungeons & Dragons to them.

Presumably that's why they put World of Warcraft and anime in there, I'm wondering why the same idea wasn't applied to various other things.

And yes, the result of doing so would be a strange mish-mash. But no more so than combining Lord of the Rings, Conan, and martial arts movies (then setting it underground, and adding monstrous Jello).

QuoteWorld of Wacraft, Lineage... that sort of thinks, so it's not suprising, tah WoTC brings up some demon-like and dragon-like races as core races, while cutting out boring races like gnomes...

It's kind of funny that WoTC is cutting out a race D&D used to have, but WoW still has- gnomes...

feralwolf: Gnomes from WoW are a lot different from DnD gnomes...

Fritzs: Indeed they are different. I did not mean to imply they were the same; I meant to say that WoTC was getting rid of a player race called "gnome", while WoW still has a player race called "gnome."

The only fantasy my kid brother really into is ./hack, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts.

Quote from: Age of FableNot having gnomes doesn't strike me as weird. Having half-dragon/demon babes seems to make sense. But having halflings who don't look Lord of the Rings-y I don't get.

I'd say this is mostly due to them wanting to clearly delineate their halflings from hobbits to avoid any legal wranglings. Elves, dwarves, gnomes, and even orcs have precedence in myth, legend, and literature, whereas Tolkien pretty much created hobbits out of whole cloth. D&D's creators and subsequent designers could easily point to any number of sources for their elves and dwarves that pre-date Tolkien; they really can't do that with halflings. I think it's pretty much that simple.