Origin of the term "glass canon"

Mstrdrgn1012

Did a bit of googling, and nobody seems to have an actual root of where this originated.

I'm surprised I didn't hear a mention of the Fire Emblem series, where they had powerful Glass weapons that broke after 3 hits. Its low durability made it good for just that... A hit or two (including a counter), then its done with.

Surely it couldve come from that, since many gaming terms find their origins in cult classic old-school RPGs, and the fire emblem series is definitely a classic.

Any thoughts on this?

(Its not much of a stretch to imagine someone trying to describe a character as a 'glass CANON' using fire emblem glass weapons as reference. The canon being much more deadly than a simple sword)

Sticare_Courts_0073

I think it's an ambiguity of glass ceiling of some sort. If that makes any sense.

Rolf

Surprised to say I've never heard of that one. What era, genre, and game system are we talking for Fire Emblem?

Qeltar

The term goes back a long way, probably to early D&D days in the 1970s.
I remember the old Ultima series in the 1980s had an item called a "glass sword" that could be used exactly once and would one-shot anything in the game (including important NPCs that were not supposed to be killable, creating much hilarity).

Mstrdrgn1012

Qeltar wrote: »

The term goes back a long way, probably to early D&D days in the 1970s.
I remember the old Ultima series in the 1980s had an item called a "glass sword" that could be used exactly once and would one-shot anything in the game (including important NPCs that were not supposed to be killable, creating much hilarity).

Aha! Should've known. When in doubt, go with D&D as the source of everything gaming. ^_^

Technically I was right, goes back to a cult classic RPG. =P