Beyond High Fantasy

[jdrakeh]

Some high fantasy genre crossovers are commonplace (perhsp even overdone) - but what about all of those great genre crossovers that haven't been touched? Where are the Fantasy/Noir, Fantasy/Espionage, and Fantasy/Western crossovers? Then you have some wildly popular, but largely unexploited fantasy genre crossovers - Exalted (Fantasy/Wuxia), Dragonstar (Fantasy/Space Opera), and so on.

I'm toying with the idea of a Fantasy/Noir setting in the vein of Raymond Chandler's fiction, with just a dash of Jack Vance. And I know that at least one or two people who frequent these forums are wokring on what can only be described as 'fantasy technothrillers' - so what are you doing (if anything) to push beyond bog standard high fantasy? Super heroes in a fantasy setting? Double secret agents of The Kingdom?

Whatever your unique creative vision may be, feel free to talk about it here in order to get the imaginations of others jump-started.

 

[Crothian]

I would love to see a noir/fantasy anything. We have some setting that I think could be used for the Noir feel mainly Thieves World, but that would take a bit of work to get it there.

 

[jgbrowning]

I'd postulate that a lot of S&S fantasy is merely westerns with swords.

joe b.

 

[Psion]

Spellslinger's a real cool little take on Fantasy/Western. Something I never thought I would like.

 

[jdrakeh]

I would love to see a noir/fantasy anything. We have some setting that I think could be used for the Noir feel mainly Thieves World, but that would take a bit of work to get it there.

Sure, I think that there are some settings that could be used for fantasy noir, but I really haven't seen any that cover such ground by design. That's what I'm fiddling with - fantasy class analogues to classic noir archetypes such as 'gang boss' and 'private eye', as well as a focus on corruption in government (from the local constabulary to public officials). Also, rules that support genre tropes (such as 'if you draw a weapon, you will be attacked' and the like).

 

[Starman]

Spellslinger's a real cool little take on Fantasy/Western.

I agree. I don't know if I would want to play in a full campaign, but an occasional adventure/one-shot would be a blast.

 

[Turjan]

Where are the... Fantasy/Western crossovers?

That one's called the "Forgotten Realms" .

 

[jdrakeh]

That one's called the "Forgotten Realms" .

Sorry. I'm really not seeing it.

 

[Turjan]

Sorry. I'm really not seeing it.

Maybe, it's my perception because I'm from Europe. The FR, here especially Waterdeep and the North, the Savage Frontier, the Sword Coast, have a specific Western atmosphere for me. The villages are typical American frontier towns, you go fighting with Indi..., err, orcs. It's very much like those westerns from the 50's that haunted the TV of my younger days .

 

[jdrakeh]

Maybe, it's my perception because I'm from Europe. The FR, here especially Waterdeep and the North, the Savage Frontier, the Sword Coast, have a specific Western atmosphere for me. The villages are typical American frontier towns, you go fighting with Indi..., err, orcs. It's very much like those westerns from the 50's that haunted the TV of my younger days .

It might be a matter of perception, yes. I can see where FR might have drawn inspiration from Westerns, but I'd hardly classify it as a 'fantasy western' - FR draws a lot of influence from other sources (most notably Middle Earth) as well, and really doesn't focus on any elements specific to the American Old West. I mean, FR is about as much 'Old West' as Greyhawk is 'Arthurian Britain' (both games borrow bits and pieces from said sources, but neither of them comes close to re-creating them).