It all started when I first discovered a box for Dungeons and Dragons first edition...
Never played a single game of it, but I did read through the material and planned dozens of campaing settings with detailed maps and such at the age of 7.
The funny things is, I'm still younger than most of you old coots. :P
Well, read this and that, played here and there.
Who are your influences?
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*Mil
- Posts: 18
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
Ironically, I drew most of my influences from SciFi and horror, rather than 'classical' fantasy. In my youth, I liked to read a lot of books by Clarke, F. Herbert's 'Dune', Barker's "Books of blood" and "Weaveworld" and then there was also a certain book about a world with dragon riders. As time progressed, my taste also included Dan Simmons who is now my favorite writer, along with Arthur C. Clarke; their optimism and pessimism complement each other nicely.
Fantasy novels and videogames were scarce before 2001, the year I got my first PC. Tabletop playing, complete with dice and whatnot, is almost nonexistent in Serbia, at least in my part of Serbia, and it is (just like videogames) viewed with a good dose of disdain by 'normal' people who like to do 'normal' things. Luckily, trends are changing, slowly but steadily, and I have to give a lot of thanks to Tolkien, too, because LOtR movie trilogy did here more for emancipation of fantasy as a valid and respected genre than a heap of books by foreign and domestic writers did before them. It would probably be fair from me to mention Rowling too, but I can't stand her :P so cudos to Tolkien.
Fantasy novels and videogames were scarce before 2001, the year I got my first PC. Tabletop playing, complete with dice and whatnot, is almost nonexistent in Serbia, at least in my part of Serbia, and it is (just like videogames) viewed with a good dose of disdain by 'normal' people who like to do 'normal' things. Luckily, trends are changing, slowly but steadily, and I have to give a lot of thanks to Tolkien, too, because LOtR movie trilogy did here more for emancipation of fantasy as a valid and respected genre than a heap of books by foreign and domestic writers did before them. It would probably be fair from me to mention Rowling too, but I can't stand her :P so cudos to Tolkien.
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*Dedic8ed
- Posts: 112
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
The standards, of course. Martin, Jordan, Goodkind, Brooks. With a healthy dose of Pratchett. Erikson and Sanderson moving to the forefront nowadays...
okay, now i have to respond to something, because Mil had it absolutely right. And I apologize to anyone who may take offense at this, but...
If you list Harry Potter as one of your influences, there's something wrong. Rowling, as popular as she may be, writes children's books, young adult at best. Most of the concepts in the stories (which I admit, I only know from seeing a few of the movies, but still) are rehashed cliches of the genre. Taking direction from this would be much the same as being influenced by Pooh.
*Goblins have set up a lair in the hundred-acre wood, and it is up to a brave donkey ranger and his kangaroo cleric friends to destroy their lair and drive them from the wood!*
okay, now i have to respond to something, because Mil had it absolutely right. And I apologize to anyone who may take offense at this, but...
If you list Harry Potter as one of your influences, there's something wrong. Rowling, as popular as she may be, writes children's books, young adult at best. Most of the concepts in the stories (which I admit, I only know from seeing a few of the movies, but still) are rehashed cliches of the genre. Taking direction from this would be much the same as being influenced by Pooh.
*Goblins have set up a lair in the hundred-acre wood, and it is up to a brave donkey ranger and his kangaroo cleric friends to destroy their lair and drive them from the wood!*
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*CheeseWedge
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
Well, I would have to say it allll started with my dad. When I was a wee baby, he would balance me and a baby bottle in one arm, and use the other to play Ultima Online. So, of course, I grew up intrigued with this fantasy world and the notion of roleplaying (which he and his guild did). When I was about seven, he gave me my first roleplay/adventure game "Curse of the Azure Bonds" (or something like that), which I was immediately taken with though I was too young to really understand the game much at all.
When I wasn't playing the game, however, I would draw up little "character sheets" and make my little sister run around the house with me pretending to be these people (my little brother would join in later once he was old enough to not get upset over play-violence <.<).
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall was my next biggest influence. At eleven years old, it was my first M rated game. Boobs everywhere <.<'. I was old enough at that point to understand what a back story and a plot were (rather than running around on the screen killing things) and would make a point of giving a character some real history before playing. =) (Of course, I'm a girl, so I also spent a large portion of the game collecting clothes and tossing them in my wagon).
It was also at that point that I started play-by-post roleplaying on message boards and forums. And I would not only play humans (or humanoids), but wolves, horses, dragons, the whole lot. The sort of roleplaying where I would have time to really sit down and -think- about what my character would say or do and why they would do it, really helped me to learn to pay attention to those little details that are so important to a good character.
I roleplayed a bit of Ultima Online with my dad, messed around in Morrowind and Oblivion, became enthralled with Baldur's Gate. During which I was very influenced by the writings of Tolkien and Tamora Pierce (<- strong and moody women, anyone?).
I've only ever played tabletop a couple of times (I'm a bit shy face-to-face) and most of those times it's been with my dad and his guild. I honestly have to say I'm still more for running around the woods with my siblings (yes, even at 21), though I've never gone and done a group LARP.
Art and music. I'm an intense music-listener. I put my headphones on and pace around the house, because I think better when I pace. And all sorts of thoughts, characters, and scenarios come to mind (unfortunately, I get so absorbed in this that I'm likely to snap at anyone who interrupts me). And art, because I'll see a person (whether photo or drawing) and immediately try to put a personality and story to them, or a landscape or scene and decide how it came to be as it is and what sort of stories lurk in the corners you can't see. I've a very overactive imagination, I suppose.
Individual characters often start as little parts of me, and will often evolve beyond that until that character's connection to me is -mostly- unrecognizable. Ixia, for example, stemmed from my own temper (that I have a better hold on) and cattiness (though mine is more inward and rarely spoken out loud). I also try to let a character's history mold them a bit, like Ixia's sheltered and pampered upbringing, along with the metaphorical gilded cage she was placed in and hated.
... And I wrote a lot more than I thought I was going to.
When I wasn't playing the game, however, I would draw up little "character sheets" and make my little sister run around the house with me pretending to be these people (my little brother would join in later once he was old enough to not get upset over play-violence <.<).
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall was my next biggest influence. At eleven years old, it was my first M rated game. Boobs everywhere <.<'. I was old enough at that point to understand what a back story and a plot were (rather than running around on the screen killing things) and would make a point of giving a character some real history before playing. =) (Of course, I'm a girl, so I also spent a large portion of the game collecting clothes and tossing them in my wagon).
It was also at that point that I started play-by-post roleplaying on message boards and forums. And I would not only play humans (or humanoids), but wolves, horses, dragons, the whole lot. The sort of roleplaying where I would have time to really sit down and -think- about what my character would say or do and why they would do it, really helped me to learn to pay attention to those little details that are so important to a good character.
I roleplayed a bit of Ultima Online with my dad, messed around in Morrowind and Oblivion, became enthralled with Baldur's Gate. During which I was very influenced by the writings of Tolkien and Tamora Pierce (<- strong and moody women, anyone?).
I've only ever played tabletop a couple of times (I'm a bit shy face-to-face) and most of those times it's been with my dad and his guild. I honestly have to say I'm still more for running around the woods with my siblings (yes, even at 21), though I've never gone and done a group LARP.
Art and music. I'm an intense music-listener. I put my headphones on and pace around the house, because I think better when I pace. And all sorts of thoughts, characters, and scenarios come to mind (unfortunately, I get so absorbed in this that I'm likely to snap at anyone who interrupts me). And art, because I'll see a person (whether photo or drawing) and immediately try to put a personality and story to them, or a landscape or scene and decide how it came to be as it is and what sort of stories lurk in the corners you can't see. I've a very overactive imagination, I suppose.
Individual characters often start as little parts of me, and will often evolve beyond that until that character's connection to me is -mostly- unrecognizable. Ixia, for example, stemmed from my own temper (that I have a better hold on) and cattiness (though mine is more inward and rarely spoken out loud). I also try to let a character's history mold them a bit, like Ixia's sheltered and pampered upbringing, along with the metaphorical gilded cage she was placed in and hated.
... And I wrote a lot more than I thought I was going to.
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*CheeseWedge
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
... =[ You mean you can't see the heffalump in Ixia?Dedic8ed,Feb 13 2010 wrote: Taking direction from this would be much the same as being influenced by Pooh.
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*Product of Void
- Posts: 355
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
Interesting question.
Hmm...Nenir is a test. To have drive yet a total disconnect from the world. Someone who would put tons of effort into avoiding or not doing work. A pretty boy with Zero sexual drive actually a love potion makes him pass out. :D An attempt to understand a minor case of ADD.
Shiv damn that is a hard one. He is everything I am not, and will never be. Though If I removed my sense of morality, gave up on everyone but myself, became an atheist, and a jack the ripper. Then I might be close.
My characters are a test of if I can do something or RP something. Usually drawn from the idea of "Can I do that?". I see them as puppets that dance for my amusement, I like to make sure I refer to them as a separate person because HOPEFULLY people will not assume I am like my characters.
Though I have to admit there is a part of me that comes through the characters, my better half says so. Anyone with a wife knows, they know you better then anyone. They are also my way of venting from a hard day.
In pnp I have played cowering goblins, Thieving fighters, cigar smoking battle ragers and sadistic monks. The DM made a rule my characters must have an int of 10 plus :( I was enjoying dwarf tossing.
Read a few books, have lots of 2nd and 3 ed books. There is probably more though already written a freak'n book.
Hmm...Nenir is a test. To have drive yet a total disconnect from the world. Someone who would put tons of effort into avoiding or not doing work. A pretty boy with Zero sexual drive actually a love potion makes him pass out. :D An attempt to understand a minor case of ADD.
Shiv damn that is a hard one. He is everything I am not, and will never be. Though If I removed my sense of morality, gave up on everyone but myself, became an atheist, and a jack the ripper. Then I might be close.
My characters are a test of if I can do something or RP something. Usually drawn from the idea of "Can I do that?". I see them as puppets that dance for my amusement, I like to make sure I refer to them as a separate person because HOPEFULLY people will not assume I am like my characters.
Though I have to admit there is a part of me that comes through the characters, my better half says so. Anyone with a wife knows, they know you better then anyone. They are also my way of venting from a hard day.
In pnp I have played cowering goblins, Thieving fighters, cigar smoking battle ragers and sadistic monks. The DM made a rule my characters must have an int of 10 plus :( I was enjoying dwarf tossing.
Read a few books, have lots of 2nd and 3 ed books. There is probably more though already written a freak'n book.
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*Biohazard89
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am
Well lets see..
I get my influences from alot of Warhammer 40k Novel writers like Dan Abnett and Gav Thorpe With the Famous Novel series the last Chancers and Gaunts Ghosts.
I also draw my influences from the real world trying to picture how people would be in a Scifi or Horror or Fantasy setting is kinda fun.
My biggest influence however is Black isles Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale games.
Ive always put more stock into makeing a believeable character with ALOT of Flaws who isnt a Powerhouse either, because they are generally those that are the most enjoyable to play.
perfect Characters are fun for two minutes and then your like Ohh well *** that.
By the way i love Scifi and horror settings aswell. :lol:
I get my influences from alot of Warhammer 40k Novel writers like Dan Abnett and Gav Thorpe With the Famous Novel series the last Chancers and Gaunts Ghosts.
I also draw my influences from the real world trying to picture how people would be in a Scifi or Horror or Fantasy setting is kinda fun.
My biggest influence however is Black isles Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale games.
Ive always put more stock into makeing a believeable character with ALOT of Flaws who isnt a Powerhouse either, because they are generally those that are the most enjoyable to play.
perfect Characters are fun for two minutes and then your like Ohh well *** that.
By the way i love Scifi and horror settings aswell. :lol: