Record = Dungeons & Dragons?

[Slugfest]

For anyone who may/many not play Dungeons & Dragons: does anyone else feel that the series is an EXACT replica of the game? I mean, Orc, Kobalds, Mages not useing bladed weapons, clerics using blunt weapons, the list goes on. Seems like it parallels the game in almost every aspect.

D&Der's, submit your opinions!!!

[Nokari]

Dungeons & Dragons is based in the same sort of universe that all fiction Medieval stories are. You can find Orcs, elfs, fairies, and the such in almost any fantasy book during that general time period. Even Harry Potter has Goblins and trolls in the story..

[DarkHunter6523]

Like Nokari mentioned, this is just standard Medieval fantasy, there's been dozens of legends, stories, and as well as games before both D&D and Lodoss. The only reason D&D may seem to be like Lodoss is probably because the people who made D&D got far too detailed in creating it. Lodoss is a good rendition of it all, but there are better (if someone can name one for me, then please do).

If you really try to research the topic you'll find that many different cultures also have similar legends surrounding what we believe as fantasy. Faries, demons, giants...you would think that after all the times they were mentioned that there just may be some truth in some of them.

[Coign]

As an actual D&D enthusiast: I can rightly say the major influence of ROLW is most definately D&D. You're right to say it's all there. Of course people who have never actually played will be the first to start just accusing ot of being of the 'Fantasy' genre... but you also have to remember that LOTR was a major inlfluence on D&D.

[DarkHunter6523]

But when was either one of them made? Perhaps it's the other way around?

[Nulani]

I think I heard somewhere that RoLW was infact originally a D&D game *blinks*... and in any case Ryo's said to be a heavy D&D enthusiast so it ain't very suprising.

[Slugfest]

Originally posted by DarkHunter6523
But when was either one of them made? Perhaps it's the other way around?

Hehe, well here is the timetable I know of:

The Hobbit: originaly released back in 1937, 1938, and 1966. This of course, influenced EVERYTHING.

Dungeons and Dragons: released as a game back in 1979. I started playing in 1980.

Record of Lodoss War, first series: released back in 1990

Here is an example of specifics. I have not seen the series all the way through (watched the first 7 episodes) but if memory serves I recall seeing a 5 headed (or maybe 5 seperate) dragon behind the heros of the story. Now in D&D there WAS a five headed dragon called Tiamat. She (yes, she) was one of the ruler of the 9 planes of hell. The colors of the heads were white, black, blue, green, and red. I have NOT seen the series all the way through. It should be interesing to see if this dragon makes an appearance.

Other specifics: in D&D mages cannot wear armor and are only allowed to weild staves, daggers, and slings. The mage in the story fits that to the T

Clerics (healers) in D&D are not allowed to use bladed weapons, only blunt weapons. Well, why not? The cleric in the party also displays this charactistic.

Monsters: Kobalds are very specific to D&D. I have never seen that race referenced in any other fiction or graphical representaion. They even fit the description: dog, almost hyena like creatures. They are however, MUCH bigger and powerful in ROLW. In D&D they are very small, not much larger than a human child of 10-12 years of age.

[Darklightz]

I think the Kobolds of RoLW is more like a Gnoll of D&D

And I've seen the 3rd Edition monster compendium and monsters are much different.Kobolds are like mice standing on their feet and Dragons are finally brought to their true might and power

[Robotech Master]

Um...Lodoss war is like an D&D RPG because that is what it basically was before being a novel.

Ryo Mizuno really liked D&D, but it didn't really exist in Japan, so he made a game similar to it. This RPG game took place in several worlds, but Ryo Mizuno had a hand in creating Forceria, the planet Lodoss is on.

The Lodoss War RPG was a 3 book supplement to the entire RPG game in general. Mizuno worked on it a lot, so he decided to write novels based on the RPG. Those 7 novels were turned into a manga, the manga was turned into an OVA series, and was then followed by the TV series that follows the novels in more detail.

That is why it is like an RPG.

[DarkHunter6523]

The reason why mages cannot wear armor is becasue the metal in the armor conducts energy and since magic is pretty much various forms of energy, a a mage who weares metal would have a harder (if not impossible) time casting spells. This is more common knowledge than just D&D specifics.

Personally, I think Lodoss came first because the ten novels (which actually spans 30 years) from which Lodoss was based on some RPG called Sword RPG or something like that. But as for creation, I think they were both created quite independent of each other.

I actually play both the Atomik Fusion version of the Lodoss RPG and D&D so I'm quite well versed in the legends of Lodoss and can verify that it is very different from D&D. If any of you want to give the Lodoss RPG a try, then go here: http://www.meta-earth.com/lodoss/main_index.html

As far as I can see, this site has no links or ads to other places aside from the Atomik Fusion main page and since Atomik Fusion is completely free so I don't think posting the URL should be a problem

[Flipflamflank]

When I first saw RoLW I thought that it'd make a better D&D series/movie than any D&D series/movie ever has. Someone could take it, change one or two things, slap "Dungeons and Dragons: The Lodoss Wars" on in the title, and everyone wouldn't blink an eye.

flip

[Dark Genesis]

Yeah Hunter remind me to never ever play D&D with you again. God those adventures were nuts. Remember your dwarf character who was obssesed with beer kegs?

God imagine Ghim carrying around a keg of beer everywhere.... This is the hell I have to go through as a DM. :rolleyes:

[Robotech Master]

You think that's a wierd adventure, we had a campaign with randomized race and stats, where one of my friends was a Demon Knight with Charisma 19, Intelligence 3, and Wisdom 7, plus he was obsessed with beer.

One of my friends was a human knight, really strong, but had 3 for intelligence and wisdom. One was a centaur with fairly even stats, except she couldn't fit through most doors, and I was a Lizard Man high intelligence and magic abilities.

The last was a paladin who was so, well...hmmm..lets just say he broke through a wall to get inside a house.

[Dark Genesis]

I remember making kobolds steal Hunter's booze.... do you know what an enraged dwarf does when kobolds steal their booze? And some people think the Lodoss scenes are violent.... ^^

Hmmm maybe we can start a Lodoss RPG thing in the RPG forums...? That might be entertaining...

[Robotech Master]

Yeah, that might be a good idea.

Yeah, my DM adventures had some pretty wierd things. The Demon Knight would be so obsessed that he would spend a minimum of 200 gold from the group on Beer. The rest of the group would often Tie him with Chains and Rope to a tree to keep him from reaching the tavern so they could actually go do the quest. Meanwhile, the Demon Knight would spend each turn rolling a strength check to see if he could pull the Tree out of the Ground.

The Stupid Warrior with 3 for Int and Wis, meanwhile, was so dumb that he couldn't speak or comprehend words more than "Go get" or "Kill Thing over there." And even then it didn't work unless his party members mixed it with sign language (very SIMPLE sign Language).

[Dark Genesis]

A couple of things that have strayed across my mind during my break from Calc....

Hunter, there is an exception to the mage armor rule: Elven chain mail, being made of mithril, can be worn by mages without trouble. The problem is finding one that fits w/o losing an appendage... being a nasty dungeon master can lead to some intesting choices there. ^^

Slugfest, Deedlit's a mage. (well high elf priestess, elementalist, come on bear with me here) She wears armor. That armor is elven mail. *DING*! Plus, she uses a sword. The D&D rules have mods that allow you to get around the class restrictions, ie to create a sword weilding mage, say like Gandalf from LOTR.

And Robotech Master, sounds fun. Anyone else on this board interested? (I predict many Parn assassination attempts :D )

[Robotech Master]

RE: I predict many Parn assassination attempts

I predict a greater number of attempts to Score with Deedlit.

[Dark Genesis]

Darn..... there goes 1/2 the plot......:lol: