Amateur writing? RoF is the highest-paying pure fantasy market out there right now. If I recall correctly, it's only behind Asimov's SF Magazine, SCIFiction, and maybe the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
It's NOT amateur writing. It tends to attract the best and the brightest, both because of the payrate and the prestige. If you don't recognize the names, it's likely because they're short story writers rather than novel writers.
Honesty Note: I was in Realms of Fantasy -- the February 1999 issue. But I'm not defending it for that reason. That was my first sale, and I WAS an amateur at that point. I'm defending it because it's really well respected in the SF/Fantasy fiction field.
It's also NOT swords and sorcery, usually. An average issue might have one or two fantasy stories that involve dragons or elves or something like that in a kingdom. It'll also have a couple of fantasy stories set in the modern day, or in some other era (like a fantasy set in the 1920s in Chicago, or the 1800's in Austria, or something like that. There'll probably be one or two short pieces that are pretty out there in terms of being really experimental and difficult to understand.
It doesn't do a ton of fight scenes, and it doesn't focus on action. If you're interested in checking out some new (or new to you) writers, it has some good stuff -- I usually LOVE one or two stories in each issue and only actively dislike one, if that.
If you'd rather look at a magazine whose fiction tends to be more action-oriented and D&D-esque (but not as D&D-esque as Dragon's fiction was), you could also try Black Gate.
