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Endarire
2017-10-08, 12:11 AM
Greetings, all!

At least for awhile, it was commonly true that people into D&D were also into sci-fi and fantasy, such as Dr. Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings. Since the earliest versions of D&D were released before Star Wars (1974 vs. 1977), I'm curious how Star Wars (primarily in the movies and secondarily elsewhere) was inspired by/borrowed material from D&D.

BWR
2017-10-08, 12:25 AM
Minimally to not at all, I should think.
While it is not inconceivable that Lucas had come across D&D at some point there is nothing in SW that must have come from D&D, or even likely to have come from D&D rather than another source.

Haldir
2017-10-08, 12:45 AM
Lucas states very distinctly that he was more of a film nerd. Much of his inspiration is drawn from old Japanese films depicting Samurai.

Some of the more fantastical beasts like tauntauns and ewoks may have some roots in fantasy, but no direct link is clearly made.

Pugwampy
2017-10-08, 01:31 AM
Gamoreans are obviously orcs

scalyfreak
2017-10-08, 01:34 AM
How did D&D inspire Star Wars?

It didn't.

Being inspired by generic fantasy is a bit different.

PhoenixPhyre
2017-10-08, 12:56 PM
It didn't.

Being inspired by generic fantasy is a bit different.

Agreed. Like most fiction, there are common roots but one is not directly influenced by the other. Both are drawing from the same general well of ideas and themes.

Anxe
2017-10-08, 01:09 PM
Lucas first imagined the Star Wars story in 1971. The final product was mostly inspired by Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress. While the Hero's Journey story archetype inspired both Lucas and Tolkein, I don't think there's any direct connection between D&D and Star Wars. At least for the original movie.

Was there something in one of the other movies/media that made you think of this?

Mando Knight
2017-10-08, 01:24 PM
Given that TSR was just a startup in '74, only sold around 1000 copies of the original White Box in that year, and was based in Wisconsin rather than Los Angeles, the probability of George Lucas being significantly influenced by the infant RPG is next to zero. Furthermore, the initial story treatment for Star Wars was sent to film studios in early '73 and the script's first draft was completed one year later.

FreddyNoNose
2017-10-08, 02:34 PM
Are you serious? None.

Anonymouswizard
2017-10-08, 03:09 PM
For the first film? None. It's fairly well known that Star Wars is a descendant of pulp space opera (the two specific ones I know are Flash Gordon and a bit of Foundation for the Empire) and samurai films.

For the later films and editions of D&D, there was probably some overlap and inspiration from both sides. I wouldn't be surprised if Jedi were one of the reasons Paladins were moved away from being knights of good and closer to religious warriors. At the same time, especially outside of the films, I wouldn't be surprised if D&D-style wizards eventually helped inspire Jedi Consulars.

Mechalich
2017-10-08, 04:59 PM
For the first film? None. It's fairly well known that Star Wars is a descendant of pulp space opera (the two specific ones I know are Flash Gordon and a bit of Foundation for the Empire) and samurai films.

For the later films and editions of D&D, there was probably some overlap and inspiration from both sides. I wouldn't be surprised if Jedi were one of the reasons Paladins were moved away from being knights of good and closer to religious warriors. At the same time, especially outside of the films, I wouldn't be surprised if D&D-style wizards eventually helped inspire Jedi Consulars.

There is/was an immense amount of cross-pollination between D&D and the Star Wars Expanded Universe, down to the level of shared staff. This is most obvious with the novelists; ex. Troy Denning had a huge influence on the development of both the Forgotten Realms and late-period main plot Legends EU material (to the detriment of both, regrettably), but clearly extends past that. WotC produced multiple editions of the Star Wars RPG after all.

Corsair14
2017-10-08, 10:15 PM
Film influences were Japanese films and space opera, along with his love of ww2 movies specifically Midway which is where all the space battle imagery came from. DnD no influence at all.

Koo Rehtorb
2017-10-08, 10:24 PM
Ah yes all those iconic scenes of Luke Skywalker going into a dungeon to fight monsters and steal their treasure...

BWR
2017-10-08, 11:26 PM
I wouldn't be surprised if Jedi were one of the reasons Paladins were moved away from being knights of good and closer to religious warriors.

Um, I think you have this backwards. Their origins were always religious warriors (who were also good). It's basically from 3e and on that the focus has been on Good divorced from religious and /or knightly orders.

Anonymouswizard
2017-10-09, 01:32 AM
Um, I think you have this backwards. Their origins were always religious warriors (who were also good). It's basically from 3e and on that the focus has been on Good divorced from religious and /or knightly orders.

No, my point was that since 4e paladins have had no requirement to be good. Seriously, in 4e it was literally 'warrior who uses divine power'.

Hunter Noventa
2017-10-09, 09:41 AM
For the first film? None. It's fairly well known that Star Wars is a descendant of pulp space opera (the two specific ones I know are Flash Gordon and a bit of Foundation for the Empire) and samurai films.

For the later films and editions of D&D, there was probably some overlap and inspiration from both sides. I wouldn't be surprised if Jedi were one of the reasons Paladins were moved away from being knights of good and closer to religious warriors. At the same time, especially outside of the films, I wouldn't be surprised if D&D-style wizards eventually helped inspire Jedi Consulars.

In fact, I think he originally wanted to get the rights to Flash Gordon and make movies based on that, but couldn't, so he struck out with something original, but inspired by it.