While far less often acknowledged than those of Robert Howard, Micheal Moorcock or J.R.R.Tolkien, Poul Anderson has undeniably influenced the history of roleplaying games, particularly through its influence on early D&D.
However, I've noticed that a couple of major running themes through his fantasy works never really made it, somehow: first is the use of historical settings rather than fantasy ones (or, as in the case of Tolkien and Howard, the assumption of stories taking place so far into the past they might as well be fantasy settings). The second is the conflict between Christianity and Paganism and the heavy reliance, compared to the others on this list, on traditional European folklore (as opposed to Tolkien's use of Norse mythology as a basis for a mostly imagined world or Howard and Moorcock's near entirely fictional, exotic ones).
How would modern RPGs have looked if, back in the day, those elements of Anderson's writing have been introduced into early D&D?
Nicholas Rogers
There was a big emphasis on historical settings back in the day, when the hobby was mostly wargamers with a bunch of lead infantry ranked up. I can't imagine a situation where it stays historical, rather than the current system of 'fictional worlds stolen from various eras'.
Adrian Ramirez
Why do you think so?
Aaron Baker
I for one would love an RPG system that's all centered around the idea of a world slowly becoming more and more monotheistic, while in the other world, the gods have begun searching across the supernatural worlds for that fucking cunt YHWH that has been stealing their believers.
While the Gods are gone looking for that Jewish desert demon to beat up, the trickster gods and embodiments of chaos have free reign to play with Earth.
Dylan Gonzalez
Man, Poul Anderson was the shit back then. How come nobody remembers him?
Evan Williams
The Boat of a Million Years is one of my favorite books.
Hudson Cook
So what would you actually play as, in that game? How would this big theological cosmic drama play out?
Pic sorta related; Scion does interfaith stuff pretty well, and explains what's going on with YHWH in a way that works even if it is totally blasphemous and heretical.
Benjamin Lee
Not the same user, but fictional settings give a lot more freedom to both game designers and GMs to do what they want. You can just come up with whatever you think will be interesting/cool/fun without having to worry about historical accuracy.
As for the Christianity vs. Paganism theme, there's a good reason that RPGs mostly steer clear of Christianity. You don't want people getting offended because they believe in a different interpretation of the Bible than you're using. You also don't want to scare away non-Christians.
Hudson Murphy
You can always try pulling an Ars Magica in that regard.
Brandon Miller
>Not the same user, but fictional settings give a lot more freedom to both game designers and GMs to do what they want. this. the introduction of the mythical and ahistorical opens up narrative space.
