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Why does fantasy dominate RPGs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7091836" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I'd believe that 'D&D was first' was the answer except...</p><p></p><p>I've several times tried to launch non-fantasy games and as a GM I can say that they are a lot harder to run or prepare, and I think they are also harder for a player to 'grok'. In fantasy, you've got a sword, you might have a list of spells, you have an foe that is a reified abstract evil (a vampire, an orc, etc.). It's pretty clear what sort of choices you need to make, and then layer on the complexity from there. In science fiction, things are much less clear cut, and the more clear cut you try to make them the more you end up just having fantasy wearing a costume. </p><p></p><p>I actually prefer to read Sci-Fi to fantasy, but if I start listing out Sci-Fi I love it becomes really clear why its hard to adapt to an RPG. And some stories are just really hard to game. I have spent some time running my kids in a Harry Potter themed universe, but writing/running a good Harry Potter story is a lot more challenging than writing/running a typical D&D adventure. JK Rawlings is showing she can do it, by writing the new movies, but if you can do what Rawlings can do then may I suggest you should just go with that marketable skill.</p><p></p><p>Or in other words, I think that we have it backwards. It's not that RPGs are dominated by fantasy because D&D was first. D&D is fantasy because fantasy was the easiest territory to mentally explore in that manner and so, lacking a lot of tools and prior experiences to draw on, it naturally fell into the easiest pathway. Adding magic to a medieval wargame was the easiest and most natural path to making a first RPG.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7091836, member: 4937"] I'd believe that 'D&D was first' was the answer except... I've several times tried to launch non-fantasy games and as a GM I can say that they are a lot harder to run or prepare, and I think they are also harder for a player to 'grok'. In fantasy, you've got a sword, you might have a list of spells, you have an foe that is a reified abstract evil (a vampire, an orc, etc.). It's pretty clear what sort of choices you need to make, and then layer on the complexity from there. In science fiction, things are much less clear cut, and the more clear cut you try to make them the more you end up just having fantasy wearing a costume. I actually prefer to read Sci-Fi to fantasy, but if I start listing out Sci-Fi I love it becomes really clear why its hard to adapt to an RPG. And some stories are just really hard to game. I have spent some time running my kids in a Harry Potter themed universe, but writing/running a good Harry Potter story is a lot more challenging than writing/running a typical D&D adventure. JK Rawlings is showing she can do it, by writing the new movies, but if you can do what Rawlings can do then may I suggest you should just go with that marketable skill. Or in other words, I think that we have it backwards. It's not that RPGs are dominated by fantasy because D&D was first. D&D is fantasy because fantasy was the easiest territory to mentally explore in that manner and so, lacking a lot of tools and prior experiences to draw on, it naturally fell into the easiest pathway. Adding magic to a medieval wargame was the easiest and most natural path to making a first RPG. [/QUOTE]
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