So I've been, as stated in previous posts, a gamer for about 25 years. Of the Tabletop RPG genres, I've played 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons once. I've played various GURPS settings, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, assorted Old World of Darkness games, Rolemaster, and Torg. I've played a bit of Champions, a couple games of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and one memorable game of Macho Women with Guns. So I've certainly played my share.
But note above: I have played D&D once. And it was 2nd edition. I have also played a number of D&D video games - Temple of Elemental Evil, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate - in a very desultory fashion, usually in trying to reproduce a bug so I could know what I was talking about when writing FAQs. And I read several Dragonlance novels as a teenager and young adult.
So when I came into possession of the first six books about Drizzt Do'Urden, one of the very few Good Drow (not always nice. Good does not equal Nice. But he's Good), I decided to read them. I was very surprised by how much about the Forgotten Realms (the setting in which the Drizzt books take place) I actually knew already. I knew who Drizzt was, in basic terms. I knew what Drow were, and the basics of their racial makeup and social mores and magical systems. I knew about their city of Menzoberranzan and the basics of its political structure.
How did I pick all this up? Osmosis from hanging out with D&D gamers? (I do work with a bunch of them, and I've often played other games with them) References in other works? (I did spend a while perusing Order of the Stick and buying things like this infant bodysuit). Just general knowledge of High Fantasy and its ilk? Who knows? But for me, facts like that are pop culture. Just a smaller culture than Mainstream American
Alas, am I going to feel compelled to comment on every post you write? Evidently.
ReplyDeleteSo this post? It's me. Through and through. I have this same experience with the Star Wars Expanded Universe, though I've only read 4 or 5 novels (all by Timothy Zahn) out of the thousands in the EU.
And let's be clear here - my wife is a geek. Not kind of a geek, a bit of a geek, she's totally a geek. But not the same *kind* of geek, exactly - not so much of a gamer. So I find myself casually making reference to some obscure character from one of these expanded Universes - something I did for years with my little circle of gamer geek friends without giving it a second thought - and I get this look like, "I know you think I know what you're talking about. In a second you will realize that I don't, and then you will explain. Not that it will make much sense."
There are a few basic facts that *everyone* knows if they have hung around many geeks. Most people know Drow are evil (makes em cool). Most people either love (or hate) Drizzt (and his fanbois). You go to Norwescon for goodness sakes. Whether you immerse yourself in the lore or not, you are bathed in it on a very subtle level.
ReplyDeletewell then, that'd be #1 - Osmosis, wouldn't it? ;)
ReplyDelete