We need a new RP

[daft alchemist]

I want to play D&D. I was going to make a female dwarf...and that's really saying something! Even ask Will. I don't like dwarves all that much.

I liked the Yak people too. We were going to make them an intelligent race and peaceful and the like. They were cute too cuz they were smooth and fluffy looking. ;D

[zaku350]

Yeah sorry about the Mantis race from D&D i never meant to imply that i made that race. But the story line and tribal thing i had made up.

[BugHunter]

I would love to have the D&D creature books. They have top-notch character designs and they're so interesting to flip through. But its also kind-of a double edge sword thing too -- I feel that if i do get the books then I would end up making the mistake of copying their designs, which is still a big no-no in the professional world even unintentionally. So if I dont have the books I have the insurance of saying that I never could have copied them since I never had them. But screw it, all designs everywhere borrows influence from something or other at some point in time, so wutevah.

And i do like the mantis race creature. Just as long as u said it was somewhere from D&D its all kosher. Like Tass tells us his necromancer is influenced by Diablo II's necro and his infested kaotoir(sp?) is influenced by an infested Protoss, its still cool. Like my BugHunter character and his clans setup was influenced by Predators. The fact that its from D&D isn't the problem. Just as long as you say where its from.

Its how people get sued over this junk and things get stolen. But it can happen and my professors have several horror stories.

[daft alchemist]

How many D&D books have mentioned that Halflings are based on Hobbits though?

[Fargo Squire]

So you suppose Tolkien was the first to have the idea of halflings, then? He certainly didn't create elves or dwarves, or men or wizards. Legends and stories have been around a long time, and the origins of halflings are undoubtably buried in those old fairy tales. In fact, dwarves and halflings may be spinoffs of the same idea, at some point.

[zoner]

halflings were before that man. In some really old stories (I'm talking pre-biblical here) they use halflings. Right between dragons and pheoni (fAy-Oh-nI=plural pheonix i think).

[daft alchemist]

Whether or not halflings were used back then, they were most likely not the same halflings used today. My guess is that it was used as a term for a creature that was half one race and half another. I'm willing to bet anything that they were nothing at all like Tolkien's Hobbits.

As for Dwarves and Elves, he may not have invented them, but he perfected them. Elves were short and dwarves were more like little trolls. Tolkien at least found some justice to give them. That's why he decided to use Dwarves as the plural of Dwarf instead of the original way, which was Dwarfs. He wanted them to be distinctly seperate.

[Jalathas]

I have no problem with use of a D&D race, I just don't like people calling other peoples' work their own. The character is fine, you just need a way to introduce him.

As to halfling, it's Scottish, and it was a term for awkward teenage guys. Halfway between man and boy, or something like that. Tolkein was definitely first to develop them as furry-footed tiny people. Elves were human-sized in Norse mythology, though, and Dwarves were referred to as "noble folk" in Arthurian mythology.

[zoner]

what did they use in earlier versions of Rip Van Wrinkle? some little people

[Cobra5]

Where it all comes form, I don't think its important... all of these things are so old and so closely integrated with high fantasy in general, I don't think you can attribute a single author or creator to the classic fantasy creatures, in their modern incarnations at any rate.

As for the D&D monster manuals, you can see every piece of published D&D artwork at their main site- and its quite a gallery! The best are the monster manuals. Theres a lot of great creatures in them. Another one I suggest are the various d20 Modern books, because its these fantastic D&D creatures in modern settings (IE, a mage in trenchcoat instead of robes, or ogre's playing a violent game of hockey, or a Kobold in military commando gear).

[BugHunter]

hey, thanks for the hint. Now i have those pages.

[zoner]

i can't find the monster pictures thank goodness I wasn't columbus or vespucci, I can't navigate my way out of a wet paper bag. But I think the picture you drew is still cool, nay, awesome, despite it being a weeee bit derived

[Jalathas]

www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/ag

[zoner]

Ahh! Such l337ness! Thanks so much!

[daft alchemist]

If playing WoW has taught me anything other than how much the Alliance are a bunch of jackass noobs, it's that I cannot navigate for the life of me to a pitiful level. I could be running along a path and trying to figure out why I haven't found a specific house I'd been to before, and I suddenly realize I'm going north when I should be going south.