And now, a #DnD thread about the evolution of D&D's thematic adventure focus, how the shift in the fiction shifted the rules, and how #Dragonlance was a major contributor to that slow change. (h/t @WeisMargaret, @boymonster, @trhickman)
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Early D&D drew many inspirations from swords & sorcery and low fantasy. While many people cite Tolkien's 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 as a major influence, it's clear that D&D owes a lot to other fantasy stories cited in the 1e AD&D DMG's famous Appendix N.
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Thing is, many of these low fantasy stories, like the Conan saga, the Lankhmar series by Fritz Leiber, Moorcock's Elric stories, and of course Vance's Dying Earth, feature protagonists who are not really... heroes. They are scoundrels, antiheroes, heroes-by-happenstance.
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Vance's Cugel the Clever from the Dying Earth saga is a thief and con artist who is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is, constantly running one step ahead of trouble only to get himself into more trouble.
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Conan the barbarian is a thief and a murderer, who steals from the homes of rich politicians and priests, kills anyone who gets in his way, and scoffs at civilized "softness" up until he can indulge in its debaucheries for himself. Just happens to kill ppl worse than himself.
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Fafhrd and Gray Mouser from the Lankhmar books are both thieves and con-men who find themselves embroiled in petty and lowbrow schemes and comic capers. Again, any heroism on their part is largely incidental, or fighting foes who are even worse (like evil sorcerers).
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Early D&D tries to replicate some combination of wargame and low fantasy: The Greyhawk setting itself clearly takes its strong inspiration from the aforementioned material, and while there may be monsters to fight and shining kingdoms to protect...
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... the world is full of scoundrels and bandit kingdoms. Many characters are grave-robbers, imperialists, and sleazy opportunists not to be trusted. (A throwback to the Depression-era influence on Vance's writing probably comes through here.)
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So as others have pointed out, early D&D characters were rarely heroic—they were largely scavengers, scalawags, ne'er-do-wells, with flexible morals, delving into ruins to steal treasures and sometimes killing people along the way. Often failing and dying!
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There are occasional pop-ups of really heroic characters: Paladins like Holger in "Three Hearts and Three Lions," and of course the aforementioned protagonists of "The Lord of the Rings." But many are rough, morally-compromised people, like Skafloc from "The Broken Sword."
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Into this fantasy fiction scene in late 1984 comes "Dragons of Autumn Twilight," the first novel entry in the Dragonlance chronicles. The characters are uncertain, sometimes tormented, but heroic! And it's D&D fiction, directly tied to the brand.
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It's a huge hit, and of course a big influence on D&D for decades—so much so that a new edition is coming soon (2022). It's also a seminal shift in the underlying story assumptions of D&D. No longer are your characters grotty rogues and shifty petty wizards.
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Instead, you're real HEROES—fighting for epic, world-razing, even cosmic stakes. Perhaps fighting the gods themselves, and sacrificing themselves for their loved ones.
(*I have a separate headcanon about Raistlin's battle vs. Takhisis and his motivations.)
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2nd edition AD&D didn't fully embrace this seismic shift. It's more of a polish pass and consolidation of 1e, tossing out edge-casey rules and making new complex additions, but its characters are still assumed to be... well, sketchy.
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But in 1988, @r_a_salvatore's Icewind Dale books launch right before with 2e, and show another group of dramatic but heroic adventurers, even the outcasts and the survivors of tragedy.
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When 3rd edition rolls around, these changes crystallize. The rules start to support doing wildly over-the-top actions, with high-level feats. An early art reveal, showing for the first time a half-orc paladin, meets wild audience applause.
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D&D undergoes a shift. People want to play heroes. They want to tell big stories about saving the world AND personal stories about knowing yourself. They want to play characters that they can believe in, not just grave-robbers and con-artists.
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There are still scoundrels and tormented characters, but the game embraces the core assumption is that your character is heroic. You want to do good, or at least reject evil, even if flawed. Along with this, people want to see characters succeed.
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As written elsewhere (old.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comm…), this culminates in 5e, where characters are heroes from the get-go, with heroic futures, full of potential and ability to do great things. Fate is on their side.
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This comes with a shift in playstyles. People engage in more aspirational play, and they reject characters who are enslavers, abusers, bigots, and rapists. Folks who find that kind of content fun get increasingly pushed into fringe spaces to get frothy and conspiratorial.
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And with the rise of aspirational characters comes a push for people to see folks like themselves represented—gay heroes, Black heroes, mixed-heritage heroes, disabled heroes, trans heroes, every kind of hero for every kind of player.
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Shows like Critical Role get people invested in characters—characters who are messy, or tragic, or funny, but still heroic. Characters whose stories aren't about how they died meaninglessly, but how they lived meaningfully.
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D&D shifted from a game about random nobodies who could die at any time, whose only story is how they went into a dungeon and came out with loot, to an epic tale about extraordinary people having incredible adventures.
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All because people wanted to aspire to be heroes, whether comic, tragic, dramatic, or flawed... like the 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘦𝘴 of the Lance.
~Fin~
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