Tuesday, 9 March 2010

Separated at Birth


The Tarrasque

The Gruffalo
Posted by Daddy Grognard at 13:47
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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous9 March 2010 at 14:49

    I wonder if the Gruffalo approaches the Tarrasque's level of unkillability.

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  2. Geordie an Exiled FoG9 March 2010 at 15:25

    lol

    I see what you mean :)

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  3. Anonymous10 March 2010 at 00:07

    See also: the Deathclaw from the Fallout computer games series. (Fallout 3 version pictured at link.)

    http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/9/9c/Deathclaw.png

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  4. Daddy Grognard10 March 2010 at 09:15

    @eabod - that is a remarkable similarity. Clearly the basic archetype is very influential. I wonder which one came first?

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  5. Anonymous10 March 2010 at 11:52

    @Daddy - The Deathclaw is almost certainly an homage. The entire Fallout series - especially the earlier editions - is laden with references, asides, and brazen rip-offs of things that the designers liked or found funny. And since the Tarrasque appeared in the original AD&D (1977), the designers probably knew all about it by the time the original Fallout was published in 1997 (many game designers play tabletop games on their off days, sometimes in the empty conference rooms at the office!).

    Difficult to say which inspired the Gruffalo, though (1999). :)

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  6. Daddy Grognard10 March 2010 at 13:28

    @eabod - thanks for the information on that. I'd not heard of Fallout before.

    As for Julia Donaldson, the author of the Gruffalo, perhaps she is a secret gamer and has had a bad encounter with the Tarrasque.

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