Grounded or Gonzo?

[Shiroiken]

To me, gonzo is not the addition of the fantastic, but the addition of something incompatible with the setting. Including mechs into Dragonlance (which I've experienced) drastically takes away from the game, since the DM usually doesn't consider the ramifications of doing so. The focus of the game becomes less about the setting than it does the unusual feature added.

As for the original discussion, I prefer to have the fantastic and amazing be reserved. Characters may have some unusual powers (such as spellcasters) which are both rare and distrusted by normal people. Fantastic items are rare and precious, usually having a downside as a cost for their use. Creatures might be somewhat common, such as humanoid creatures like orcs, if the setting allows for them, but magical or mythical creatures are rare enough to be unknown to most except in stories.

 

[aco175]

I would rather grounded myself. I do not mind sky castles or teleporting houses, streets lit with continual flames or mechanical servants. I run into problems with things like races and classes more than the other stuff. Races of frog or crystals or something becomes blah to me, or even having players want to play monsters as PCs.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I think that each has its purpose and its advantages. I’m pretty open to playing any kind of game that people are excited for.

Plus, I don’t even know if the two ideas are all that oppositional. The setting of Doskvol for Blades in the Dark is pretty bonkers...the PCs are trapped in a Victorian-like city that’s surrounded by a lightning barrier that runs on demon blood, and which keeps the ghosts and horrors of the Deathlands at bay. And yet the PCs in my Blades games tend to be far more grounded, vivid, and relatable than PCs of the same players in our D&D games.

 

[Minigiant]

I am fine with either.

But given the choice I want Grounded with people I really know can do it and Gonzo with everyone else.

Ground RPGs have all kinds of interconnected stuff I would quickly expect to see and if I don't, it throws me off. I can easier toss away inconsistencies with Gonzo.

 

[GreyLord]

Gonzo has seemed to be part and parcel for many D&D players ever since Savage Species came out. It had a precursor in 2e, but most didn't use that supplement. In 3e you started seeing the Half Dragon/Half Troll/Half Ghoul/Half Vampire (yes, you have 2 living races, two undead for each portion) type characters with 3 or 4 other classes as the norm in some campaigns...and that wasn't all that unusual in areas I saw.

The more extremes went to play Apes mixed with Blink Dogs and other oddities.

If they were having fun...good for them. That's what gaming is for...BUT...it was a LITTLE too gonzo for me when they have these types of characters and simply waltz into any city in the campaign and no one even blinks or thinks anything odd is going on when this cast of a party walks into a human town or elven village or Dwarven city...etc.

I still see those asking and begging for playing these types of games today in D&D...so it's still a thing, but that's a tad too gonzo for me there.

That said, AD&D in generaly (Greyhawk for example) may be considered to gonzo to some, even as it was in older versions (lots of magic in there)...but I'd consider that grounded...

I guess it depends on what type of perspective you have.

 

[pogre]

For D&D - Gonzo, kitchen sink madness!

We do enjoy a more grounded game, but use other rules for that kind of game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It all depends. I’ve played in both- in multiple genres- and sometimes I want one, sometimes the other. Sometimes, something in the middle.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Somewhere in the middle. I do not want "pig-farming" realism, but I also don't want the excesses that you get in a high-powered Exalted-campaign.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

If I have to go to the extreme side, I pick gonzo. I have enough stuff grounded in reality in reality itself. I game for escapism.

 

[wingsandsword]

Eberron is a little TOO gonzo for me, but I like somewhere in between.

I like the average, everyday people to have average, everyday, grounded lives. For a typical fantasy village to be fairly similar to any village you might have found from 3rd to 16th centuries, except for a modest, small amount of magic in the form of a few low-powered clerics at local temples, and maybe fairly weak wizard functioning as a local alchemist.

. . .but the gonzo stuff is out there somewhere. Maybe only 1% of the population will ever really encounter it, but it exists. It's out there. Adventurers will see it. . .and then between adventures they'll be back living in the everyday, lower-magic, more mundane world.