Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="CruelSummerLord" data-source="post: 3442760" data-attributes="member: 48692">Apparently what I consider "D&D fantasy" is different from what others view it as.  What I had in mind was rather the telling of stories that may or may not have to do with adventurers, only based in a setting with dragons, elves and wizards.  I see no reason why classical stories and legends, when they are adapted for the modern 21st century or the far future, could not also function as well in a swords and sorcery setting.  When adventurers are involved, the goal is not to replicate the same kind of hack and slash dungeons, desire to "get stronger" and acquire more feats or magical items, or to have a selection of characters with distinct skill sets.  The emphasis is more on ethical and moral outlook rather than how much damage a character can dish out in one round.  Some small liberties might be taken with the rules to better fit the narrative.  Characters do not always have clearly delineated roles-"named" prestige classes do not figure heavily in the descriptions of characters, besides their roles as "shaman", "samurai", "barbarian" and other traits that can appear as often in the real world as in a fantasy world.  I suppose the stories I would have in mind might center around a group of adventurers who encounter various Conan or Fafhrd-and-the-Gray-Mouser type plots, anchored in a continuing narrative by the personal conflicts and growth of the adventurers themselves.  They might travel across the continent, make new friends and enemies, and learn more about themselves, but this is the emphasis, not whether their magical sword has the flaming or ghost touch abilities.  Metagaming doesn't count for much in the actual writing of the story.  And, of course, a reader might wonder why Conan, Elric or Fafhrd are continuously beset by problems and perils.  The argument that having so many bad things happen to the same party strains versimilitude doesn't work, I think; were that the case, the heroes of Lieber, Moorcock, and Howard would have stretched their credibility, but I haven't ever seen anyone complain about that.  Some may wonder why I insist on incorporating a D&D mythos into such stories, instead of simply creating my own.  Well, in some ways, doing so might seem horribly contrived and artificial.  Besides which, I rather like many of the races and monsters that appear in D&D, irrespective of edition; I enjoy thinking up creative ways in which a lone thief or a wizard with no physical support might defeat a creature like a cloaker or a tempest, and I also enjoy having many of the racial details already sorted out.  Besides their functions for gaming, they also have potential as a fully-fledged mythos of their own, to rival any of our modern myths, such as Lovecraft or Rowling, for example.  That's why I consider D&D fantasy to be something more than just a framework for gaming.  It certainly has that role, but it can take on a life of its own and be used for writing deep works of artistic merit, fitting the needs of both the group of gamers and the lone author quite nicely.</blockquote>

Verification