Common fantasy genre assumptions

[Zhaleskra]

[MENTION=7663]Starman[/MENTION]: For the sake of completion,
Dark Fantasy

 

[Desdichado]

A very large multiplicity of intelligent species (most novels stick to humans, dwarf-type, elf-types, orc-types, plus maybe dragons and demons - you won't often see the zillions of araneas, jackalweres, kobolds, shadar-kai, thri-kreen, vegepygmies, sphinxes, formians and so forth that show up in an RPG setting)

I'm not even sure that I'd say that elves and dwarves, or orcs are common in most novels. There's certainly a legacy of them. Tolkien, of course. Terry Brooks and Ray Feist used them in superficially D&D/Tolkien-lite settings too. Beyond that? They start getting rare awfully quickly.

 

[The Red King]

The world I'm GMing right now has a large % of people who are neutral, or evil. Very little Good. The players are all Evil, or Neutral, and are having fun fighting all the crazy undead I throw art them.


A few weeks ago they came across a corpse gatherer fighting a few Meglasaurs.

They diddnt want to fight it.

 

[Corathon]

I've never seen some of these tropes:

- Dwarves live underground, drink ale and are Scottish.

Never saw Scottish dwarves in any D&D game that I ran or played in.

- Humans are numerous, varied and (usually) evil but not evil enough to be repelled like Orcs.

Never saw "humans are usually evil" either.

- There is always the icy country, the fire/desert country, the forest country, the country full of beaches, the mountainous country and sometimes the underground country. All countries and continents usually follow just one of these unique geological types, with no variance.

Same-terrain countries I've seen (although most countries that I've seen have not been like that) but...the country of beaches?

- The thieves or mages guild will always be in the desert.

Yet another that I've never seen.

- There is always one church or temple per town.

And yet another.

 

[The Red King]

I've never seen some of these tropes:



Never saw Scottish dwarves in any D&D game that I ran or played in.





Never saw "humans are usually evil" either.



Same-terrain countries I've seen (although most countries that I've seen have not been like that) but...the country of beaches?



Yet another that I've never seen.



And yet another.

An all beach country is an island.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I've never seen some of these tropes:


Never saw Scottish dwarves in any D&D game that I ran or played in.

.

I agree with most of your list, but most of the dwarves I see either have that Scottish accent, or are Scotch-Pirate.

 

[Corathon]

An all beach country is an island.

A very small island.

I agree with most of your list, but most of the dwarves I see either have that Scottish accent, or are Scotch-Pirate.

I have heard of the "Scottish dwarf" thing, but have never personally encountered it. The "dwarf pirate" thing I haven't even heard of. Most dwarves I've seen hate/fear water.

 

[The Red King]

A very small island.



I have heard of the "Scottish dwarf" thing, but have never personally encountered it. The "dwarf pirate" thing I haven't even heard of. Most dwarves I've seen hate/fear water.

The island doesnt have to be small, just very narrow.... Think Sandy Hook in NJ, but as an island, or string of islands. It can be a long stretch of islands, just not very wide islands.

 

[Desdichado]

I've never seen some of these tropes:

I've seen most of them repeatedly.

Well, with the exception of Beachland, I guess. I've never seen that either.

 

[NewJeffCT]

A very small island.



I have heard of the "Scottish dwarf" thing, but have never personally encountered it. The "dwarf pirate" thing I haven't even heard of. Most dwarves I've seen hate/fear water.

It's not that the dwarves are pirates, it's just that the persons playing the dwarf gives them a voice that is part Pirate and part Scottish.