Writer Jack Vance Dead At 96 83
New submitter angelofdarkness writes "Jack Vance died Sunday evening. He was 96. Thank you for the stories and adventures and for influencing the games I still play after all these years.
From the article: 'A science fiction Grand Master, Vance is probably best remembered for his four Dying Earth novels, which take place in a far-future Earth where the sun has dimmed and magic has been reestablished as a dominant force. They feature a brilliant picaresque adventure tone, including the unforgettable thief Cugel the Clever, and they were also celebrated in a recent anthology Songs of the Dying Earth, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. These books contain Vance's characteristic ironic, lightly humorous style, which has influenced generations of science fiction writers." Reader paai points to the official Jack Vance website, and this 2009 profile in the New York Times.
Also influenced D&D (Score:5, Informative)
For many, Vance is most remembered for "Vancian" casting in Dungeons and Dragons where spellcasters prepare their spells in advance and then cast the spells, causing them to leave their minds. Gary Gygax, one of the two major founders of D&D, liked Dying Earth and so incorporated the idea into the game. The casting idea does show up in the Dying Earth, but in a very different way, where spells are big and rare, and having a spell in one's mind takes up a lot of space. In contrast, in most versions of Dungeon's and Dragons a wizard could have many spells memorized at the same time. To some extent, Vancian casting has been a cause of controversy, with some people blaming it for being partially responsible for the overpowerd nature of spellcasters in some editions, especially 3.0 and 3.5. Yet, many who rejected 4th edition did so because 4th dropped the Vancian casting.
Vance is also remembered in D&D in a different way- the legendary lich-wizard "Vecna" was named that as an anagram of Vance. Jack Vance had a lot of influence on a lot of different aspects of scifi and fantasy culture.
Re:In memoriam (Score:4, Informative)
FTFY.
Re:Also influenced D&D (Score:4, Informative)
Among many other things that found their way into D&D, he created IOUN stones. Gygax decided that all-caps wasn't necessary, which I always thought was a shame.
Also, 4e's Wizards did have Vancian casting - unlike every other class, they had a spellbook with multiple big spells in, and chose which one to memorise each day. It's not the bastardised, fucked-up version of Vancian casting earlier editions used, and it's not pure Vance, but it was a cool addition. 3e's overpowered casters weren't due to the spell memorisation system - they were because the playtesters and designers were literally incompetent, adding and changing rules "because duh, that makes sense!" then "playtesting" by playing exactly as they would in an earlier edition, without actually looking at the rules. Save-or-lose spells come to mind - the playtesters played blaster wizards whose idea of a fight-ending spell was Fireball, not considering the new monster maths' effects on HP and failing to recognise the way the rules massively nerfed saving throws.
I'm an idiot grog who goes off on tangents.Vance owns. Ignore the rest.