I thought the bugs came from the GOR books... Joking! sorry could help myself. ;-)
On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 12:51 PM, Anestis Kozakis <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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] >
