Fritz Leiber’s 100th
By:
December 26, 2010
They’re talking my language at the fantasy role-playing blog Grognardia right now. Friday was the 100th anniversary of Fritz Leiber’s birth, and the old-skool nerds are waxing analytical:
Crazy as this may sound, Leiber and Moorcock are my favorite classic sword & sorcery authors as well but are also the beginning of my disillusionment with the D&D game. Blasphemy? …
Try stating up the Gray Mouser. He’s a thief, who fights pretty well and can use some magic. Not possible for a Human in most early editions of D&D and AD&D without quite a bit of effort. Certainly not as a starting character.
Now let’s take a look at Elric…warrior, sorceror, not an Elf but not Human…begins the game with the ability to command dragons and the wealth and title of Prince. Can your first level guy do that? Not likely.
I’m simplifying but the point is Leiber’s rich world and characters always felt shoehorned when attached to D&D and its mechanics. His creations deserved something a bit more flexible.
If it’s Fritz Leiber’s 100th, then we should also be celebrating the centennial of other members of his generational cohort (1904-13) who gave us the first wave of so-called Golden Age sf and fantasy. Leiber’s contemporaries include: Robert E. Howard, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, Jack Williamson, Eando Binder (Earl Andrew Binder & Otto Oscar Binder), Lester Dent, Fredric Brown, Jack Finney, Nelson S. Bond, Ross Rocklynne, Clifford D. Simak, C.L. Moore, A.E. van Vogt, A. Bertram Chandler, Edgar Pangborn, and Eric Frank Russell, plus John W. Campbell Jr. (as editor of Astounding Science Fiction, single-handedly ushered in Golden Age SF).
Happy Birthday, Fritz!
UPDATE: Some of the authors who gave us the first wave of so-called Golden Age sf and fantasy are members of the New Gods generation (1914-23). None of them will be celebrating their 100th birthday this year, so I didn’t mention them. Stop emailing me, Asimov fans.