The Dragon in the Room

Walt Whitman was the American poet.  Note I said "the," not "an."  Walt Whitman's works were so massively influential in the world of American poetry, and had such a wide-ranging influence on the American psyche, that you can see signs of his influence in basically every American poet who has written since then.  If you're an American and you write poetry, whether you realize it or not, you're taking part in a conversation that he effectively started.

Most other poets of our neighbours to the south write their poetry as a response to his poetry, whether to agree with his statements or to contrast against them.  Many do so consciously, but even the ones that don't are still talking to Whitman through their work, because they speak from a space that he had a huge hand in defining.

These probably come across as bold, sweeping statements to those who are unfamiliar with the world of American poetry.  They are, and there are some exceptions to this rule as to any other.  The point is that it's hard to underestimate how huge an impact Whitman's works had on his culture.  In many ways, while he wasn't the first American poet, he was the first to produce distinctly American poetry.

So what does this have to do with RPGs?

Well, much like the vast majority of American poetry is written (consciously or not) as a response to Whitman's works, most RPGs are written as a response to Dungeons and Dragons.  And I'm not just talking about fantasy games - I mean all RPGs, even video games, though they stand outside of the point I want to discuss today.

It's not that these games don't have interesting ideas or have interesting things to say.  It's just that D&D, for better or worse, defines the industry.  It was first, it was the biggest, and the space that these other games inhabit were created by TSR back in the days of Gygax and Arneson.  There's no shame in this, and recognizing that fact - embracing it, even - gives you a great deal of freedom creatively.

Once you've accepted the mindset of "Yes, this game is a response to Dungeons and Dragons in many ways," you don't need to worry about trying to create something wholecloth, ex nihilo.  Which would be impossible, anyway.

My game is influenced by D&D.  Of course.  How could it not be?  When I design a rule about initiative or spellcasting, I'm making that rule in contrast to their counterparts in D&D.  When I approach rules design with a particular philosophy in mind, I'm doing that because I think the approach that was taken in designing this or that edition of D&D didn't work and I need to do things differently.  Or perhaps I think it did work, and I want to build upon those lessons and successes.

It's all part of the ongoing meta conversation of game design.  There's no point in being anxious about these influences, because they are literally unavoidable.

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Wrote 520 words today (so far).