D&D has numerous influences, including pulp fiction and Tolkien. What has always interested me the most were the uniquely American (and British) influences, such as the pulps and westerns. The earliest editions of D&D described the world as similar in geography and population to the American west and introduced order/chaos politics straight out of Moorcock, with the Tolkien influence (elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs) serving largely as window dressing. At some points we even got cool stuff like crashed alien spaceships and a blurry line between magic and technology.

Tolkien's legacy has colored all fiction that came afterward. G.R.R. Martin is often hailed as the "American Tolkien" because he is an American who wrote edgy LotR fan fiction. Meanwhile, the real American Tolkiens like Lovecraft and Howard and Baum receive almost no recognition in popular culture outside of endless reprints of their work because of their public domain status. As more D&D settings developed, they grew closer and closer to the pseudo-medieval aesthetic of Tolkien and further away from the pseudo-western and pulp aesthetic.

How does one make a campaign setting less Tolkien? What are the styles and world building elements that make the westerns, pulps, Oz, etc unique from Tolkien clones?

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1033530D&D has numerous influences, including pulp fiction and Tolkien. What has always interested me the most were the uniquely American (and British) influences, such as the pulps and westerns. The earliest editions of D&D described the world as similar in geography and population to the American west and introduced order/chaos politics straight out of Moorcock, with the Tolkien influence (elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs) serving largely as window dressing. At some points we even got cool stuff like crashed alien spaceships and a blurry line between magic and technology.

Tolkien's legacy has colored all fiction that came afterward. G.R.R. Martin is often hailed as the "American Tolkien" because he is an American who wrote edgy LotR fan fiction. Meanwhile, the real American Tolkiens like Lovecraft and Howard and Baum receive almost no recognition in popular culture outside of endless reprints of their work because of their public domain status. As more D&D settings developed, they grew closer and closer to the pseudo-medieval aesthetic of Tolkien and further away from the pseudo-western and pulp aesthetic.

How does one make a campaign setting less Tolkien? What are the styles and world building elements that make the westerns, pulps, Oz, etc unique from Tolkien clones?

Outside of removing the Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves, and perhaps even Dragons?

So, the only thing D&D really shares thematically with Tolkien is the idea that the past was better and history is retrogressive rather than progressive.  In D&D's case this is largely to allow for anarchic adventure and vast treasure hordes in underground complexes.  You could make the backdrop alien and technologically advanced, glass and plasteel instead of crumbling stone.  D&D is late medival and LotR is late dark ages.  It's really, just that the average person doesn't make these distinction.  I would suggest a step away from positivity towards fatalism and cynicism is the usual direction D&D moves away from Tolkien, the triumph of good is by no means assured.  You might want to read Michael Moorcock's essay "Epic Pooh", but then again you might not.

The first thing I would do is drop elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs, goblins, dragons, ents, and all the other elements also found in Tolkien. Be ruthless.

Then read a lot of the Thousand Nights and One Night and see what D&D could be if not based on Nordic/Germanic myth via Tolkien and Anderson. I think a lot of it comes down to reading non-Tolkienesque fantasy, sci fi and pulp and getting your players to do the same. Then pick the elements you like from that and start playing. Picking a setting that is not a European analogue, especially avoiding pseudomedievalism will help. No long swords and plate mail.

Take a look at games like Spears of the Dawn, Under the Moons of Zoon, Crimson Blades for non Tolkienesque fantasy.

Quote from: David Johansen;1033531Outside of removing the Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves, and perhaps even Dragons?

Quote from: DavetheLost;1033536The first thing I would do is drop elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs, goblins, dragons, ents, and all the other elements also found in Tolkien. Be ruthless.

This is absolutely a first step in making sure it's not going to be Tolkein-esque. Excise all "demihumans" and goblinoids. Then build back up starting with humans as your default sympathetic species.

For me, the main thing Tolkien did was build a cohesive world. Everything, the whole mythos clicks together perfectly.

Pulp isn't like that. Steer away from cohesiveness and blend genre lines without going full gonzo. Many pulp authors toyed with real world elements, be they real or mythical, and just mixed them with their own creations. Have robots if you must, use interdimensional gunslingers, use obvious WW2 analogies, have them find Mjölnir, leave the world building vague and open ended, and the game will be less Tolkien in no time.

Simple.

You and your players read some books other than Tolkien.

The Tolkienization of D&D is mostly a product of the player base, not the rules.  The default play of D&D changed drastically in the mid 80s when the fantasy literature boom exploded, and if you look at the fantasy books published in the 80s you will notice that a) per Sturgeon, most of them are crap and 2) they are almost ALL "epic quest to save the world" shit.

Read some Howard and Lieber and Moorcock -- EARLY Moorcock -- and DeCamp and Dunsany and Lovecraft, etc, etc, etc.

Stop thinking about Tolkien as the default and Tolkien will no longer be the default.

No need to thank me, just buy me a beer.

Either make up a world that isn't very Tolkien. Or play in an historical setting without all the Tolkien stuff bolted on. Or play Stormbringer.

Watch the Good the Bad and the Ugly. Then Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  Then the newest 7 Samurai (the one with the Comanche warrior) then Tombstone, throw in Rogue One and Firefly.  

Now fill your game with gangs, banditos, gunslingers and desperados.

Read the first six Elric novels. Pull out the Deities and Demigods with the Melnibonean mythos. Have fun.

Have a look at the two rpg worlds that are the poster children for not being derivative of Tolkien's work; Glorantha and Tekumel.

The thing is, Tolkien built his world on the premise that folklore were really true. That all the legends about elves, dwarves, and less friendly types were based on actual events.

While he specifically used Western/Northern myths, pretty much every cultural has stories about elf and dwarf like beings.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1033542Simple.

You and your players read some books other than Tolkien.

But no one reads anymore.  Seriously, with advent of smartphones no one really wants to.

However, that said... When has D&D ever been Tolkienized?  It hasn't been anything like Tolkien since the BECMI, at the very least.

A radical Tolkienectomy or just a Tolkienectomy?

Get other inspirations.  Pick a non-pseudo medieval setting.  The American Frontier seems to be the default setting for the original game, albeit with a medieval skin.  Nice little article here http://initiativeone.blogspot.com/2013/05/od-setting-posts-in-pdf.html  

Read some Poul Anderson.  The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions in particular.  Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories.

Make the campaign setting post-apocalyptic.  The fall of the Western Roman Empire.  The Black Plague.  The massive amount of death due to Euro-diseases in the Americas.  These are certainly apocalyptic.

Excise the Tolkien-esque parts.  Halflings must go.  Elves need to be revised to something more akin to Northern European folklore.  Orcs must go too.  Goblins need to be revised.  And hobgoblins ought to be smaller than goblins.

Fafnir is a fine ideal for a dragon in place of Smaug.

Really, Tolkien just plundered Northern European folklore-- Germanic including Scandinavian, and some Celtic--  for his 'Legendarium'.  Go to the sources yourself, and skip the middleman.

Read Beowulf.

The funny thing is that D&D isn't all that Tolkienesque. In Tolkien's Middle Earth, a typical human would go his entire life without ever seeing a dwarf, elf, or halfling. This notion of melting pot communities with PCs of all races hanging out together in inns is a D&Dism, not something from Tolkien.