Also, interesting to talk about while still telling Mark Delsing “Damnit Mark”…

We often look at where D&D came from, in terms of fantasy novels, movies, etc. But, I also think D&D has had an effect the opposite way.

A lot of computer games, obviously, are fantasy by way of D&D’s particular brand of fantasy. But a lot of … uh… “standard fantasy” novels (sorry everyone, the term works here, I think) have tropes that really got set and reinforced by D&D all over them. And from there, through other novels.

Even movie wise, I think you can see a lot of things that really hit their stride — if not being born outright — in D&D coming up in big fantasy movies. A lot of the Hobbit movies, for example, felt more D&D than Tolkien.

The only other game I can see having anything like this effect is Vampire on Urban Horror, and even that’s a pretty tangential and arguable point. But for D&D… I’d say that while it’s a genre of it’s own, and one that came out of, but now is independent of, fantasy literature… it’s also one that has gone on to influence that genre as well.