On 28 March 2013 23:18, Raymond Feist <[email protected]> wrote: > I've commented on this before, but in brief, what came through the game > was the concept of Great Path/Lesser Path magic, which was a mechanical way > to deal with why we had to concepts of magic, I should add, not that we > were using EPT Magic system. The only thing that ever made it's way into > the game were the EPT monsters. > > So the concept of a riftwar was how we explained that. The one other > concept that held on to was the metal poor thing, because I thought it made > for a cool distinction technologically. Other than that, nada from EPT. > > I dealt with this silly nonsense 20 years ago. I've heard "Feist stole > his ideas from Barker," "He stole Barker's dream," etc. Look, Phil Barker > got published by DAW, two EPT novels, I believe. They did not do very > well. Whatever tiny elements I inherited through the game, took nothing > away from his opportunity for an audience to find his work. Apparently, > not many people were that interested in his fiction. He had a very loyal, > very supportive game community that loved his stuff and they stuck with him > quite a long while, but EPT never challenged D&D either. > > Joel Rosenberg, God rest him, knew the situation intimately, living in > Minneapolis, where Phil lived, and knowing him through the SF/F community. > His take was simply that Barker felt a sense of injury. What he > apparently didn't know or didn't care to know was that before Magician was > published, Steve Abrams explained the genesis of the Petal Throne to me, > lent me the manual, and I went though a VERY early draft of Magician and > took out everything that was remotely EPT and that's when I started melding > my Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Aztec/Zulu culture--I believe EPT was based on > Indian/Dravidian culture, not Asian. I kept the bugs because I liked them, > but I went for a hive-mind thranx, not whatever it was EPT had, and the one > thing that probably set this whole thing off was I didn't change the name > Tsurani, which was just me doing a funny spelling of the Serani tribe of > Africa; I went for the Ts because of Senator Paul Tsongis just because I > thought it looked cool. > > Anyway, Phil is dead, and Joel is dead, and anyone who has any sense of > what influence is all about in the world of writing knows that what came > from EPT through the game into my work is trivial. 30 novels over 30 years > did not result from any labor but my own. > > Best, R.E.F. >
Hi Ray, Thanks for the reply. Sorry if this brought up bad memories. I actually hadn't heard/read the story before. Something that's probably slipped past me. I'll pass it on to my friend, but I'm not sure if he'll come around. Like you said, people can get fanatical. As Kosh said, "Truth is three-edged sword". Thanks again for the explanation and insight. Anestis. -- Anestis Kozakis | [email protected]
