Dark Fantasy

[Edena_of_Neith]

Ok, I admit it.
My paragraphs have been corrupted by Dark Fantasy.
They have become Dark Fantasy Paragraphs.

Dark Fantasy has influenced my thinking, and those spaces between paragraphs and sentences are really meant to be windows into the lightless void of Eternal Darkness.
Dark Fantasy has influenced my writing, and the hopelessly confused subject material is Evil Manifested, and it will drag all who attempt to read it down into the Eternal Darkness.
Dark Fantasy has influenced my very fingers, corrupting them, so that they create long, confusing sentences meant to drive the reader into the Insanity of the Eternal Darkness.

These are Dark Fantasy Paragraphs.
You should never read Dark Fantasy Paragraphs, especially ones written by ME.
Because, if you do, you will inevitably suffer an Alignment Check (to avoid turning Chaotic Evil), and you will have to make a Ravenloft Powers Check (to avoid going into an evil rage), and an Insanity Check (to avoid catatonia, after trying to figure out what I was trying to say for too long.)

Didn't you realize that?
Don't you realize it NOW?

By reading these very WORDS, RIGHT NOW, you are falling into my despicable trap!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[ruleslawyer]

I agree 100% with the Serge here.

I also think that E_of_N is misapprehending the definition of dark fantasy here. "Dark fantasy" isn't about prurience and gratuitous description; it is, as Joshua said, a take on the fantasy genre that infuses elements of horror and despair. WFRP is dark fantasy; Ravenloft is dark fantasy; there are even parts of Tolkien (the Akallabeth, good solid middle stretches of the Silmarillion) that are dark fantasy. Gratuitous depiction of rape, murder, and torture scenes is not.

 

[William Ronald]

Hi, Edena:

I thought an old high school group of mind was a bit out there, but yours was much more extreme. (The campaign began normally enough, but the DM got Monty Haul -- for those he liked. Suffice it to say, I moved on to a better campaign.) Suffice it to say, the favored ones were powerful but were not into evil characters. (I think they believed Chaotic Neutral let you get away with everything.)

There was some character infighting, but nothing on the scale you described.

I tend to think of Dark Fantasy as a combination of fantasy and horror. Some of Lovecraft's stories, such as "Polaris" and "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" and much of Moorcock's works can be categorized as dark fantasy. The characters in the campaign you described were anything but heroic.

The group you described seem to be more about seeking power without earning it and playing out some personal fantasies that make me wonder if any of them ever sought psychiatric help. They must have had an indulgent DM.

To me, power has to be earned to have any meaning. I think that the players in your youth were more about obtaining power, and spreading mayhem. My earliest campaign experiences were mostly dungeon crawls, and epic fantasy. I do not think the problems you experienced were so much the system, as the individuals. Role playing is an experience much like music. Depending on who is playing, you can have something wonderful or horrid.

I did like your parody of Dark Fantasy paragraphs. I have my own built in immunity.

 

[Oracular Vision]

Instead of "know thy self," advice some on here take too literally, I would advise you to "edit yourself." Whatever point there was in that mess could have been made with 10 percent of the words. We are all busy here, if you have a point, and want us to know it, formulate it, THEN start writing it down.

And stay away from the Brown Acid...

 

[Ulrick]

All I have to say is:

I was 16 when I first read
"ARIOCH! ARIOCH! BLOOD AND SOULS FOR MY LORD ARIOCH!"

Now that is dark fantasy.

Ulrick

 

[(contact)]

Edena said: I watched as the Flanaess (the World of Greyhawk Setting) was totally destroyed by the characters, as they fought each other.

Well, I don't know what you *thought* you saw, but it wasn't the Flanaess being destroyed. I know because I have a game that runs in the Flanaess once a week, and we just played. I think those kids might have been just messing with you, dude.

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

WFRP

Warhammer? Dark?

It certainly wasn't when I played it... at least not with the GM I had.

Our biggest tragedy was when the party halflings ate the giant pie-crust boat during a river race.

-F

 

[Zappo]

Warhammer? Dark?

It certainly wasn't when I played it... at least not with the GM I had.

Our biggest tragedy was when the party halflings ate the giant pie-crust boat during a river race.

Argh. I can say that you weren't playing the way the game was designed for.

Trust me, WHFRP is supposed to be dark fantasy. Check the other thread about it for more.

 

[Erekose]

Well Edena_of_Neith I find your experience terrifying beyond words and the fact that a few of the later posts have concurred with what you've said (but not as extreme) is also deeply worring and for me inexplicable.

When I started roleplaying with D&D we were a group of teenage boys but as different from those you describe as I can possibly imagine.

Sure we wanted a kind of gritty realism to the game but it was always a game of good versus evil in one form or another. Killing was common place but only to prevent the deaths of others (or often ourselves). My characters were often stereotyped as being very much like HE-MAN from the cartoon of the same name.

Our experience of Dark Fantasy was very much along the lines of the Michael Moorcock books (which are also termed High Fantasy depending on which argument they feature in!).

What I'm saying is that yes it would appear that experiences like yours happen but are certainly not my experience and I hope are FAR from the norm.

 

[Zappo]

They aren't my experiences either. We've had evil campaigns, with occasional extremes, but never those rampant examples of munchkinism. I still have to understand what 100th level characters who kill with (or without) a thought have to do with dark fantasy.