Me and D, talking (edited for concision)…
The short tough and mean guys don’t get along with the tall graceful ones. The big ugly ones don’t get along with anyone. Humans get along with everyone (kind of). The little ones just try to hide their communities or blend into the larger races lands. But really everything is not so different because some of them can mate with each other and everyone is competing for the same resources.
These are assumptions everyone goes into a game with. Your “You saw Lord of the Rings, right?” promise that is fulfilled with every setting.
Does that make sense?
I think my main problem with what I called the assumptions of D&D is that I see them as mostly one man’s interpretation of the common folklore.
I’m a bit of an odd ball because I didn’t read any tolkien until I was in my 20s. As a child I was more familiar with the source material (folklore) than the shiny world of middle earth he had created. The first fantasy I read was Ursula K LeGuin’s Earthsea books. Those stories operated under a different framework of ideas. Not completely different, but different enough.
D&D introduced me to tolkien’s elves, dwarfs and hobbits. To me they weren’t entrenched tropes, but strange new takes on old familiar stories. Elves were like the Sidhe, but nicer. Instead of coveting master craftsmanship or music they were master craftsmen and musicians themselves. It wasn’t huge leap, but it was one that I had to make.
It is amazing to me just how much the tolkien take on it has invaded our culture. With the movies, books and all of the other IPs that make use of these same tropes, including 40 years of D&D, it really has become a common mythology.
You are correct, the idea of trying to ignore all that common ground would only create barriers to play. Besides, I have had tonnes of fun playing in that same framework. I guess it just bothers me that it has become the “right way” to do it, instead of one way of many.
I feel like a crazy person right now because I agree with pretty much every point you’ve made. The Tolkien setup still feels like a box. Drifting is a great way to turn the box on it’s side, giving us a whole new perspective and set of possibilities, but it’s still inside the box. I like the idea of jumping OUT of the box, even though it seems insane and impossible. Not to mention lonely.
Clearly D&D needs to remain inside it’s own framework to move forward. I wonder if they can leave room for drifting or jumping in their new rules?













