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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DragonLancer" data-source="post: 5820349" data-attributes="member: 11868">This is a topic that came to mind a few nights ago and I would like to see other people's thoughts and opinions. I'll be referencing D&D 3.X and Pathfinder mainly but it can apply to any fantasy RPG.When I started with basic (red box) D&D and 1st edition AD&D my friends and I never saw the world/s we used as overly fantastical. Sure, there were wizards and monsters, but otherwise they looked and felt like what we would expect from the medieval of our own world. Same thing with 2nd edition AD&D. Even the artwork, while not historically correct didn't feel out of place for us.Then when 3.0 was released we noticed that all the artwork had become what became known as "dungeonpunk". The whole look of D&D and it's worlds had changed. More than that though seemed to be the rise of the fantastical throughout everything. Eberron was a perfect example of that being a world built around the concept of what would a world with the power level of D&D look like. That setting never worked for me because of that. I've never been a fan of magic as technology. I've played games where there were continual light globes as street lamps (Waterdeep had this IIRC). Other games have had murders solved because the local watch brought a priest from the temples to cast speak with dead or similar magics. Can you have a non-magical plague strike somewhere when cure disease so such a low level and thus common spell? Such concepts have begun to spoil my sense of immersion in fantasy roleplaying. It makes such games too fantastical.The same thing goes with magical items. They just seem far too common in games these days. Not just every watch captain or whoever owning magical armour and/or weapons, but concepts such as flying ships or magical seige weapons. Why does a merchant need a caravan with horses and guards when he can buy bags of holding to keep his goods in?I guess as I get older I am finding myself wanting to run games that go back to the classic medieval look and feel. Which is what I plan to do in my next Pathfinder campaign. I want to keep the monsters, the spellcasters and such, but not go the route that fantasy gaming seems to have done.If you've got this far thank you for reading (I do ramble, sorry). My question is do you think that fantasy roleplaying (D&D and Pathfinder specifically) has to be fantastical. If so why, if not, what are you reasons?Thank you.</blockquote>

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