D&D General D&D: Literally Don't Understand This

[Micah Sweet]

But who considers it unusual? Presumably... high heels(?) or whichever other modern anachronism that supposed D&D purists want to make their hill to die on this time... aren't out of the ordinary for the world this adventure takes place in.

A Lightning Rail would be remarkable on Greyhawk but warrant a shrug on Eberron.

Clearly several people here consider it a strange inclusion.

 

[TiQuinn]

But who considers it unusual? Presumably... high heels(?) or whichever other modern anachronism that supposed D&D purists want to make their hill to die on this time... aren't out of the ordinary for the world this adventure takes place in.

A Lightning Rail would be remarkable on Greyhawk but warrant a shrug on Eberron.

Speaking of Greyhawk: How about a demigod who wields six shooters and wears a Stetson?

Murlynd

In the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Murlynd is a minor deity. He began as a player character created by Gary Gygax's closest friend Don Kaye in 1972 for the second-ever session of the game that would become D&D. Kaye continued...

wikiproject-dungeons-dragons.fandom.com

 

[Koloth]

Nobody was dressed like this either or wielding axes like this but i seldom see people questioning it in their fantasy.

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I have seen many a photo and drawing of non-European cultures where that was pretty much the normal dress style. Lots of kids have perused National Geographic magazines over the years for the naked natives photos. Not everyone wears heavy armor for combat.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Clearly several people here consider it a strange inclusion.

It's reasonable for it to seem strange when you're not aware that it was part of an anthology that explored micro-settings.

All you need to know is that it is consistent with the vibe of its setting, and it doesn't really have a wider implication than that, other than that settings like that are probably going to continue to pop up here and there, because they are becoming popular in the fantasy space.

Lots of other D&D settings, though! We can stick to one of those if we prefer, or make up our own, like we always could.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

art matters to me in games.

Previously there was the”debate” about people wearing glasses in art. Arguments they are/are not anachronistic and all the rest. Then you hear the game is no loner based on medieval European mythology. “It’s not even accurate history bro.”

And so on. And it all misses the point.

Does it evoke the fiction and archetypes you want to play with? D&D used to evoke a fiction and a vibe, not real world history.

I will take bucket helmets, battle axes and chainmail, wands and weird wizard robes and skull topped staves.

They say the kids like seeing their adventurers eating tacos/sushi, wearing glasses and apparently high heel 20th century outfits. I mean I don’t think you are a bad person for liking those things but I can’t join you.

I think I his kind of thing really made 2024 D&D an easier pass for me. I don’t even know what it’s trying for anymore.

You might say it’s a multiverse! There is room
For it all. Sure. Put knights on one page, cowboys and jet fighters on another. It’s not supposed to be tied anything, right?

No thanks.

You do know this isn’t even 2024 art. The vast majority still looks like medieval fantasy.

 

[Scribe]

You do know this isn’t even 2024 art. The vast majority still looks like medieval fantasy.

It's post Tashas, bad enough.

 

[Cadence]

Clearly several people here consider it a strange inclusion.

Certainly.

Karl Treuherz in Fafhrd and the Mouser and the Barrier Peaks module are both cross genre and much of the Appendix N inspirational reading is decidedly not medieval. The pantheons in 1e Deities and Demigods disjointedly span five millennia as do the tech and clothing of their worshippers, but I bet they are mixed together contemporaneously in many campaign worlds.

I wonder if the way many people in my generation accepted those without thinking is because of some common frame of reference or simply because we were presented it at the right age to just run with it.

This all has me wondering a bit what is in the YA Fantasy section and TV shows and Anime that I have never seen that younger generations than mine may just run with.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

You do know this isn’t even 2024 art. The vast majority still looks like medieval fantasy.

Right. I don’t like this or 2024. Tasha pushed it, this stuff for me pushed it over.

 

[TiQuinn]

I have seen many a photo and drawing of non-European cultures where that was pretty much the normal dress style. Lots of kids have perused National Geographic magazines over the years for the naked natives photos. Not everyone wears heavy armor for combat.

 

[The Firebird]

I have seen many a photo and drawing of non-European cultures where that was pretty much the normal dress style. Lots of kids have perused National Geographic magazines over the years for the naked natives photos. Not everyone wears heavy armor for combat.

The 1984 rendition of The Bounty takes this more authentically than others.

I like Conan and you know, there really is something to the Vallejo and Frazetta art. But I'll confess I also find it very off putting to have as the point of entry or representative of the genre. It's just too easy to read as a manifestation of the male gaze. I think there is much more to both artists but, you know, if I had to show it to an acquaintance or a stranger as an example of what I'm into, I'd worry about coming off wrong.

I'd like to see more...clothed fantasy art with the same classic kind of feel. Frazetta's Death Dealer, for example.