And one of them was the monk.

Why specifically a monk?

Well, some people might not remember the 1972 hit series Kung Fu starring David Carradine, about a shaolin monk in the wild west. But that was basically it.
That's the reason why it's called a monk, and that's the reason why it's so clearly of a different culture: because the whole inspiration was a shaolin monk travelling in America.
5/?

Kung Fu (1972 TV series) - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

@kyonshi Problem with Kung Fu (the series) is that they hardly have any proper supernatural stuff in them. I'd say the Destroyer series was probably the bigger influence on the general theme, apart from the name and bits of the set dressing.

I thought it was more like Chiun and Remo from the Destroyer books.

@Taskerland @kyonshi

This mashup of styles wasn't even all that unusual for the time: Blackmoor also contained the first published dnd scenario "Temple of the Frog" where chaotic monks of an apocalyptic frog cult guarded a swamp temple, ruled over what was essentially a stranded Starfleet officer in battle armour with energy weapons, masquerading as a high priest.

6/?

@mhd yeah, from what I read Dave basically just handed over some campaign notes and had TSR put that into shape (Tim Kask I think)

And ok, here's my problem: why call the class Monk?

Other classes got renamed over time. The Fighting-Man became a Fighter. The magic user was split into multiple different classes. The monk... disappeared from core in ADnD 2nd edition, but came back in 3rd.
And all the time writers bent themselves in pretzels how it's a monastic class that's technically a cleric, but actually more of a fighter, with occasionally some psionics.

7/?

And ok, here's my problem: why call the class Monk?

Other classes got renamed over time. The Fighting-Man became a Fighter. The magic user was split into multiple different classes. The monk... disappeared from core in ADnD 2nd edition, but came back in 3rd.
And all the time writers bent themselves in pretzels how it's a monastic class that's technically a cleric, but actually more of a fighter, with occasionally some psionics.

7/?

I thought it was more like Chiun and Remo from the Destroyer books.

@Taskerland @kyonshi

BECMI DnD actually DID rename it to "Mystic" but that didn't really stick, and also didn't really manage to get the essence of the class. (The name I think fits better to something like a psion)

9/?

BECMI DnD actually DID rename it to "Mystic" but that didn't really stick, and also didn't really manage to get the essence of the class. (The name I think fits better to something like a psion)

9/?

As a total aside, in my own D&D, the Monks were martial artists of the three elements Air (and Numbers)- Fire (and Tme) -Water (and Thoughts) and each had a corresponding style of fighting. I worked out a whole book about them.

And in 15+ years of the campaign, the players never met one.

@Taskerland @kyonshi

@mhd yeah, from what I read Dave basically just handed over some campaign notes and had TSR put that into shape (Tim Kask I think)

As a total aside, in my own D&D, the Monks were martial artists of the three elements Air (and Numbers)- Fire (and Tme) -Water (and Thoughts) and each had a corresponding style of fighting. I worked out a whole book about them.

And in 15+ years of the campaign, the players never met one.

@Taskerland @kyonshi

@kyonshi I always thought it follows a similar pattern like the cleric did. So you start with a vampire hunter. Now how do we fit that into a world more medieval than Dracula's Victorian England? Make it a priest. Now, what else could this "cleric" do? Well, let's look at the bible and turn miracles into spells…

And now you're starting with Remo Williams. How do you put them next to knights and barbarians? Make him a shaolin! Well, what else could this 'monk' do? Let's look at some Buddhist legends… Speak with plants and animals?

They should've done this with more pop culture characters, like turn James Bond into the archetype for thieves or assassins.

Although, on second thought, no. Given that Kask is in play here, I'd rather not see how that would've looked back then…

Right now I keep thinking about calling the class "Ascetic" in my house rules, but I have the feeling that also doesn't capture all it should be.
By now I read a ton of wuxia fantasy though and I feel that might come the closest.
That is besides the phrase "martial artist", which in my opinion also should encompass fighters and clerics.

BECMI DnD actually DID rename it to "Mystic" but that didn't really stick, and also didn't really manage to get the essence of the class. (The name I think fits better to something like a psion)

9/?

@Printdevil I've certainly previously read it was created because someone wanted to play Remo. @Taskerland @kyonshi

@kyonshi Remember that this is the way it has been presented by the Gygax smear campaign against Arneson, when trying to rob Dave of royalties from D&D. Kask was part of that very one sided view of things. It's worth being a bit careful with the wording there.

That being said, it's very typical of how things worked back then to not really include much information about the setting. The Greyhawk book doesn't look like a setting book like we know them now either.

@mhd

@AndreasDavour @mhd yes, but I've read some interesting textual analyses about it and that seemed to be what happened. Arneson seemed to be a great mind for coming up with interesting play ideas, but from everything I've seen he struggled putting stuff into printed form.

(I say as someone who tried to run DNA/DOA)

(By the way what a world we live in that I can talk about a textual analysis if a DnD supplement and mean it)

@mhd assassins as a class were a bit of a misstep as originally written anyway. They were an NPC class that enterprising players could hire, but somehow they got made into a PC class.