ariochdI have no doubt that many roleplaying gamers have been strongly influenced by the fantasy and science fiction work of author Michael Moorcock. Apparently, he has no doubt about the fact either. In a recent Financial Times column, Mr. Moorcock wrote about a visit to a science fiction convention:

Now, such conventions are frequently supported by role-playing gamers. They play for hours, rolling dice and muttering as they perform mysterious strategies and move tiny figures in what HG Wells called “little wars”. Frequently, the participants dress as elaborately as the characters they represent. If so much of what I see strikes me as vaguely familiar it’s because, along with Tolkien, I’ve been a main influence on gaming ever since the publication in the late 1970s of the first Dungeons and Dragons rulebook, which contained my fantasy “pantheon” of characters, demons, deities, magical concepts, symbols and other stuff drawn from my stories.

OK. I prize my first edition, first printing copy of Deities & Demigods, but we all know that wasn’t the first rulebook, right? Good. Because I also love those Elric and Runestaff books. Now move along.