A Song of Ice & Fire = D&D?
You know, reading A Dance with Dragons, I was struck by how perfectly it fit into Unearthed Arcana-era AD&D. Not just the use of wights, but the characters fit pretty well into the character classes available during that period. Besides the obvious fighters, we have many knights who are above-average or better warriors (cavaliers); the Night's Watch's active warriors are referred to as rangers, and they fit the D&D description pretty well; Arya trains to become an assassin; and the Wildlings are pretty apt barbarians. The missing link, as always -- and this is true of my own D&D-germinated fiction -- that the clerics are not the clerics of D&D. Still, it would be no great effort to play a game based on the series.
It makes me wonder if George R.R. Martin is drawing on some D&D experience for these novels. In its early days D&D was quite popular amongst serious writers, with people like Fritz Lieber and Katherine Kerr contributing to Dragon magazine, and Andre Norton writing the first D&D novel. As the excellent book Dungeons and Dreamers says, the importance of Dungeons and Dragons to early computer gaming cannot be overstated, as well. D&D begat Wizardry and Ultima, which in turn begat Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. D&D begat Warhammer, which begat Warcraft, which begat World of Warcraft.
Besides creating the foundation for a great many of the tropes of modern fantasy, more than a few novel series and other fictions have been based on the writer's D&D games. Off the top of my head Raymond Feist's novels were based on a D&D game. It amazes me how much of an influence D&D had in Japan. Besides the video game lineage noted above, the Slayers franchise was based on D&D at its core, I believe, and Record of Lodoss War was originally a series of transcripts of actual games! Back to the English language, The Black Company and the Jhereg series are pretty suspect. Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar novels were based on a world created for his own RPG that he created.
So, I don't think it's crazy to think that perhaps A Song of Ice and Fire could have the same roots. Makes me wonder.
(Man, I remember one of the crazy disenfranchised Star Wars fan on a board I read announcing that he was now a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire instead of Star Wars. This is a guy who said he cried after he saw The Phantom Menace because he was so disappointed. I think it might be better to have no fans at all than someone like that -- people who are looking for something to fill an emotional void and God help you if you disappoint them down the road! Transformers has taught me to avoid super-fans/fanboys!)
It makes me wonder if George R.R. Martin is drawing on some D&D experience for these novels. In its early days D&D was quite popular amongst serious writers, with people like Fritz Lieber and Katherine Kerr contributing to Dragon magazine, and Andre Norton writing the first D&D novel. As the excellent book Dungeons and Dreamers says, the importance of Dungeons and Dragons to early computer gaming cannot be overstated, as well. D&D begat Wizardry and Ultima, which in turn begat Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. D&D begat Warhammer, which begat Warcraft, which begat World of Warcraft.
Besides creating the foundation for a great many of the tropes of modern fantasy, more than a few novel series and other fictions have been based on the writer's D&D games. Off the top of my head Raymond Feist's novels were based on a D&D game. It amazes me how much of an influence D&D had in Japan. Besides the video game lineage noted above, the Slayers franchise was based on D&D at its core, I believe, and Record of Lodoss War was originally a series of transcripts of actual games! Back to the English language, The Black Company and the Jhereg series are pretty suspect. Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar novels were based on a world created for his own RPG that he created.
So, I don't think it's crazy to think that perhaps A Song of Ice and Fire could have the same roots. Makes me wonder.
(Man, I remember one of the crazy disenfranchised Star Wars fan on a board I read announcing that he was now a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire instead of Star Wars. This is a guy who said he cried after he saw The Phantom Menace because he was so disappointed. I think it might be better to have no fans at all than someone like that -- people who are looking for something to fill an emotional void and God help you if you disappoint them down the road! Transformers has taught me to avoid super-fans/fanboys!)