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Thread: Erfworld's Inspiration?
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2007-09-22, 07:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2007
Erfworld's Inspiration?
Has anyone else read the Darksword Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman?
In book three, the Triumph of the Darksword, there is a battle. But it is not a normal battle: it is played like a game, in turns, on a hexgrid, and each warlord stands at a different edge of the field of honor, commanding his troops and watching the combat on magical stone tables that present miniature illusions of each unit in the field. Almost everyone has magic, and the mages are divided into many different groups, some that control weather, some that summon creatures, some that channel magical power into other, who actually do the heavy spellcasting.
Is it just me, or does that look familiar?
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2007-09-23, 01:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Erfworld's Inspiration?
Given that hex-based strategy games existed long before Weis and Hickman wrote that book (in fact, the original Dungeons and Dragons evolved from such a system), I think you're looking at the wrong place for inspiration.
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2007-09-23, 12:24 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2007
Re: Erfworld's Inspiration?
I'm not a complete idiot, and my idea is founded.
Erfworld isn't chainmail. The hero in Erfworld actually plays chainmail. Or D&D on hexes; I don't think it really specifies. Erfworld is war on a massive hexgrid.
I'm not suggesting that Weis and Hickman invented the hexgrid either.
Of course, it's also possible that Rob Balder came up with the idea all by himself. But giving a chap the benefit of the doubt is no fun at all.
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2007-09-23, 03:28 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Erfworld's Inspiration?
I still don't see your point. Turn-based wargames played on hex grids existed before the Weis and Hickman book. In what way was the game in the book somehow unique in a way that made it similar to Erfworld? Just having different "schools" of magic is hardly an original idea to either source...
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2007-09-23, 04:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2007
Re: Erfworld's Inspiration?
The way it's different is that it's played from within -- by the pieces themselves. Or at least by a warmaster on either side (I think Erfworld is run by a warmaster; I don't read it very often).
And the way that spellcasters work:
Sure, there are different schools, but they are broken up into extremely specific, even absurd subgroups. Everyone is a specialist, and to cast spells outside of your spellcasting domain is taxing if even possible. In Erfworld, it's the difference between Lookamancers and Croakamancers. In Darksword, there are mages who control the weather, mages in charge of the teleportation grid, and mages whose only ability is to channel magical essence.
Also, in both instances the story is told from the villain's standpoint. Or at least, from the side that is steriotypically evil.
Also also, the hero is an outsider: he's the only one in the story without magical abilities or incredible fighting prowice. Then again, the outsider-turned-hero is the way of just about any story.
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2007-09-24, 01:45 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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- Manchester, UK
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Re: Erfworld's Inspiration?
Erfworld isn't like that. Note that Wanda is able to cast an extremely powerful summoning spell that is WAY outside her speciality. While speaking to Sizemore she also says that she has little difficulty casting magic of any kind, but she simply has no interest in any school outside Croakamancy; this implies that the "schools" of magic you can cast in Erfworld come largely down to personality, not any intrinsic limitation of the magic itself.
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2007-09-24, 01:54 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2007
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- Sydney - Australia
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2007-09-24, 02:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2004
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- The Land of Angles
Re: Erfworld's Inspiration?
...I think you're reaching a little. And by 'a little' I mean 'a lot'.
"The game world is real!" stories have been around for as long as there have been games for them to be about. Through The Looking Glass did it!