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Albromor · 03-07-2002, 10:53 PM

Yes, these are excellent reads. I re-read my ancient ACE edition paperbacks (I got them all) a year ago. Leiber was a wordsmith extrodinair and if you ever get to read other works by him by all means do so. As for D&D being based on his works this is so very true. Of course, as has been mentioned, Tolkien was a major influence. Jack Vance's magic system from his Dying Earth series was also adopted. Then there is R.E. Howard's Conan series that was also a major influence (it is Howard who came up with Frost Giants). Basically D&D is a conglomeration of many writers. Gygaxx was not nearly as creative as he would have us believe.
And speaking of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, their main residence of the city of Lankhmar was the inspiration behind the now defunct Judges Guild's D&D supplemental product entitled The City State of the Invincible Overlord. It was a great product and if you ever read the books and saw this map you'd swear you were looking at Lieber's description of Lankhmar.

03-07-2002, 10:53 PM	#4
Albromor Mephistopheles Join Date: June 13, 2001 Location: Northfield, NJ USA Posts: 1,417	Yes, these are excellent reads. I re-read my ancient ACE edition paperbacks (I got them all) a year ago. Leiber was a wordsmith extrodinair and if you ever get to read other works by him by all means do so. As for D&D being based on his works this is so very true. Of course, as has been mentioned, Tolkien was a major influence. Jack Vance's magic system from his Dying Earth series was also adopted. Then there is R.E. Howard's Conan series that was also a major influence (it is Howard who came up with Frost Giants). Basically D&D is a conglomeration of many writers. Gygaxx was not nearly as creative as he would have us believe. And speaking of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, their main residence of the city of Lankhmar was the inspiration behind the now defunct Judges Guild's D&D supplemental product entitled The City State of the Invincible Overlord. It was a great product and if you ever read the books and saw this map you'd swear you were looking at Lieber's description of Lankhmar.